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Dans-Prosemaxx-Cowriter-S

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[ { "from": "system", "value": "Write four sentences sentences in the style of Akahige Namban spawning from what the user wrote." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A fire was lit, and samples of the pure grains were burned. Charms were read over Satsuki's supine body, and mystic signs were traced on her skin in sanctified ink. The droning of the chants, the conch blasts, and the jangle of instruments lulled Satsuki into a trance. As the fire died down in its brass bowl, Hasegae drew Satsuki's legs apart." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He inserted himself slowly and smoothly into her moist channel while chanting the appropriate verses." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He rolled them onto their sides. His hands loosely caressed her breasts and back, then dipped lower to her ass, spreading her cheeks like the two halves of a peach.\n\nChanting too, Tsuneyoshi laid himself behind her. He inserted his prick into the flexible ring of her ass." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Slowly, still chanting, he eased his way into her. She felt the hardness of the two pricks in her as they nestled into the channels of her flesh. Gently, softly, she enclosed them within herself, squeezing them as lightly as she could.\n\nTwo pairs of hands now stroked her body." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Rising higher, they found her throat and lightly fingered her mouth." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She opened her soft lips, and Daisangyoja's prick was gently inserted into the warm waiting cavern. It slid forward, resting on her relaxed tongue. She breathed easily through her nose while laving the full morsel of flesh with the moisture of her mouth. Daisangyoja touched the top of her head approvingly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The doors were closed, and they lay that way dreamily through the night, Satsuki slowly urging her men towards a climax by tiny motions of her body, by minute shiftings and clenchings of herself." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 1 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As the rooster crowed the dawn she was inundated by streams of come from all three men, who were shaken in turn by her climax." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "expand on the story like Akahige Namban would" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Okiku crouched on a branch, motionless." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The stalking yamabushi crept closer." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Midori's keening teased him on, When the man was directly below her, parting the bushes that hid the brown-haired girl, Okiku slipped from her perch silently as an owl." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The yamabushi died with a snapping crack of the bone in his neck. Okiku stepped off the warm, twitching body, then immediately leaped high, tumbling in the air as she rose. A second mountain ascetic slashed down at the spot on which she had been standing. Her feet hit the ground, and she flexed her knees and leaped again. The yamabushi leaped high too, and they met in midair." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Her hands moved swiftly and a bright length of steel whispered through the air as it was withdrawn from concealment in her pilgrim's staff." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The yamabushi shrieked and fell in a heap." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Midori ran to Okiku's side. Her sash was off her waist in a flash as she tried to stanch the bright stream of blood that gushed from Okiku's arm and side.\n\n\"Are you all right? Mistress Okiku, are you well?\"\n\nOkiku grunted. The cuts were superficial, but her arm and side would soon stiffen. Another yamabushi ran into view and headed for the two women." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 6 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Midori hastily interposed herself between Okiku and the attacker. Hands extended into claws, she tried to block his approach, screaming incoherently. The yamabushi batted her aside, concentrating on Okiku's blade. Midori swung her head, and her fine brown hair blinded him for a critical instant. The man hesitated. There was a double whir through the air. The yamabushi screamed. His eye sprouted a metal star, and his throat gushed scarlet." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "I'll be your writing partner today. I will set the scene, and you will continue the story with 8 sentences, channeling the voice and techniques of Akahige Namban.i'll kick things off by writing a bit, then you'll take over and write the next 8 sentences in the distinctive voice of Akahige Namban.Ive got a bit of writers block, im gonna send you something then keep it going 8 sentences at a time, also im going for a Akahige Namban sorta thing." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We were terribly worried!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Okiku said as she greeted Rosamund. \"Where have you been?\"\n\nRosamund smiled and said nothing. Okiku shook her head in despair. Her foreign friend sometimes had these moods. Willful and headstrong, she was unwilling or unable to explain them to anyone.\n\nRosamund went into the house. The villagers had provided them with food, and she ate ravenously." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 9 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Satsuki was sitting on the veranda, admiring the view when she finished. Okiku had gone off to tell the men Rosamund had been found. Without a word Rosamund took out a small folded kerchief from the bosom of her robe. She placed it on the floor before her, then unwrapped it and pushed it forward to Satsuki. On the white kerchief rested a bunch of short, dark pubic hairs tied together by a longer strand of head hair. Through the bundle was stuck one of Rosamund's elaborate hairpins.\n\nSatsuki touched the bundle with her fingertips, then looked at Rosamund's face.\n\n\"Thank you,\" she said, and turned again to watch the view. There were faint smiles on both women's lips." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Mode: Collab writing\nAmount: 2 sentences\nVoice: Laura Joh Rowland" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The Saru-waka-cho theater district had been selected as the location of the miai.\n\nHirata and his father, wearing their best silk robes and finest swords, walked up the street with Segoshi, a palace guard captain whom Sano had engaged as a substitute go-between." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Behind them followed two family retainers, Hirata's mother, and her maid.\n\nThe district sparkled with life in the bright, clear weather." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Theater buildings sported colorful banners that announced the current plays. Bursts of song and applause emanated from windows." }, { "from": "human", "value": "In towers on the roofs, men beat drums to attract customers." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "People jammed the teahouses or queued at ticket booths, lugging quilts to keep them warm during the performances that lasted all day. Fragrant smoke wafted from outdoor braziers where vendors roasted chestnuts." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But Hirata and his party walked in somber quiet. As they neared their destination, anxiety clenched his stomach tighter and tighter." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They stepped aside to let a wedding procession pass." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A palanquin carried the bride in her white kimono. Friends, relatives, and lantern-bearers accompanied the palanquin." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What an auspicious sign for the day of a miai,\" said Captain Segoshi." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A good-natured older samurai, he obviously wanted to lighten the mood of his companions." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"As far as I'm concerned, the sight of a wedding procession is a bad-luck omen,\" Hirata's father said in a grumpy tone." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He walked with a severe limp, caused by an accident that had necessitated his retirement from the police force." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I attend this miai against my wishes, and I'd rather turn around and go home before we take a step we'll regret.\"\n\n\"But everything has been arranged,\" Hirata said, alarmed by his father's attitude." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Backing out now would be a terrible breach of courtesy. And you won't regret beginning my marriage negotiations. Midori-san is a good, honorable match for me, for our family.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "This was but another argument in the dispute which had begun three months ago, when Hirata had told his parents that he wished to marry Midori and asked their permission. They opposed the idea, and had only consented to the miai because the formal request had come from Sano, whom they couldn't refuse." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Disapproval darkened the broad, lined face of Hirata's sire." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Honorable matches can only occur between families of similar tradition, and that's not the case here. We are hatamoto—hereditary Tokugawa vassals. Lord Niu is an outside daimyo. His clan didn't swear allegiance to the Tokugawa until after it was defeated at the Battle of Sekigahara.\"\n\n\"That battle ended almost a hundred years ago,\" Hirata said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Ever since then, the Niu have been loyal subjects of the Tokugawa, just like us. Can't we forget the past?\"\n\n\"Tradition is too important to forget.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His father's voice sharpened with reproach. \"It's the mainstay of our society. And surely the Niu clan desires this alliance no more than I do. If you marry this girl, you'll never really be accepted by her kin, nor she by ours.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hirata glanced backward at his mother. Small though sturdy, dressed modestly in gray, she gave him a smile that said she sympathized with him, but agreed with her husband." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Captain Segoshi looked embarrassed to be caught in a family dispute.\n\n\"Why can't you be satisfied to marry into one of the suitable families who've offered their daughters to you?\" Hirata's father said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When Hirata had left his lowly position as a doshin and become chief retainer to the ssakan-sama, his status in the marriage market had soared. His family began aspiring to a better match for him than they could have expected before his promotion." }, { "from": "human", "value": "After Hirata gained a place in the shogun's inner circle, proposals from high-ranking clans had inundated Hirata and his parents." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They'd attended many miai, but Hirata had spurned all the fine young ladies introduced to him.\n\n\"Niu Midori is the woman I want to marry,\" he said now." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I love her. She loves me.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His father gave a disgusted snort. \"Love is unimportant in choosing a bride. Social position and duty to your family are what really matter. If you marry a woman who's right for you, then the two of you will learn to love each other after the wedding, as your mother and I did.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He halted in the street. \"I can't approve of this match, even though the ssakan-sama does. You should marry someone I choose for you, because you're unable to choose wisely for yourself.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hirata's mother bowed her head, silently seconding her husband's words. Desperation forced Hirata to employ the one argument that could aid his cause." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I respect your opinion, Honorable Father,\" he said, \"but I must remind you that my marriage to Niu Midori would solve a big problem for us.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "That problem was their chronic shortage of money." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hirata had elderly, ailing grandparents, two widowed sisters with small children, and many destitute relatives, as well as longtime retainers and servants to support. Unfortunately, Hirata's father earned little by teaching martial arts to police officers." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hirata contributed as much to his family as he could, but even his generous stipend didn't go far enough." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He needed to make a financially advantageous marriage, and he'd hoped that this need would convince his parents to allow him to wed Midori.\n\nAlthough the Niu clan had been subjugated and stripped of its ancestral fief after the Battle of Sekigahara, it remained one of Japan's most powerful families." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The first Tokugawa shogun had realized that unless he pacified his conquered foes, they might later rebel. He'd granted the Niu a fief in Satsuma, and the right to rule that entire province." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Lord Niu Masamune, the current daimyo, possessed huge wealth, and whoever married a daughter of his would gain a valuable dowry.\n\nNow Hirata's father glowered at the knowledge that he needed this match he repudiated." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"That's the only reason I'll even consider a marriage between you and this girl,\" he said, resuming his awkward, limping pace down the street.\n\n\"Here we are,\" Captain Segoshi said cheerfully, as though determined to get the family through the miai." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The Morita-za Theater.\" This was a large building with painted scenes from plays above the entrance. Outside stood a squadron of soldiers who wore a dragonfly crest on flags attached to their backs." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Look: Lord Niu has arrived. He and his daughter must be already inside, waiting for us.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Such an ostentatious display,\" muttered Hirata's father. \"Typical of his kind.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hirata cast him a look that begged him to put aside his envy and prejudices." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Captain Segoshi bought tickets from the attendant in the booth, and the party entered the Morita-za." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Inside, a drafty, cavernous room echoed with a roar of voices." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A play had just ended, and on the stage, a lone musician plinked a samisen. Tiers of box seats along the walls held crowds of people awaiting the next performance." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "More people occupied the floor, which was divided into compartments, separated by raised dividers. Hirata scanned the audience, then saw Midori in a compartment near the stage." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The light streaming through windows along the upper gallery illuminated her scarlet kimono. As their gazes met, his heart lifted." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She smiled, but quickly turned away." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The miai was supposed to seem like a chance encounter, so that if it failed, both families could pretend it had never occurred, and thus save face." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hirata led his party along the dividers, past refreshment sellers bearing trays of drinks and food. He halted above the compartment where Midori sat with an elderly woman, two slightly younger female attendants, and two middle-aged samurai." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Stricken by nervousness, Hirata knelt on the divider and bowed to the group, as did his companions." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Midori darted a wide-eyed, solemn glance at him, then looked at the floor.\n\n\"Greetings,\" Hirata said in a voice that quaked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The group bowed and murmured in polite reply." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Captain Segoshi said, \"What a coincidence that we should meet.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "As he ably assumed the role of go-between and managed introductions, Hirata learned that the crone dressed in black was Midori's paternal grandmother, and the other women her ladies-in-waiting." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The elder of the samurai, a dour man named Okita, was Lord Niu's chief retainer. Hirata barely noticed these people because his attention focused on Lord Niu." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The daimyo was small, but his torso was broad, his posture regal in maroon garments emblazoned with his dragonfly crest in gold." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His tanned, square face disturbed Hirata. Its two sides didn't match." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 3 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The right half was slightly askew; the eye gazed off into space.\n\n\"Please join us,\" Lord Niu said. Only the left half of his mouth smiled at Hirata." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Let's engage in a collaborative writing exercise. I'll provide a starting point, and You'll continue with 4 sentences in the style of Laura Joh Rowland." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The Pillow Book of Lady Wisteria\n\nLife in Yoshiwara can be such a bore. Even though I am Lady Wisteria, the favorite of the quarter, I see the same people and do the same old things time after time. But last night, something interesting happened." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I was at a party, playing cards with the guests, and I was tired and wishing I could just go to bed, when I felt someone watching me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I looked up and saw a man standing in the doorway. He was so handsome that my heart began beating fast and hard. I stared at him. He stared back, with a little smile on his face." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I turned away because I was ashamed that this stranger had seen my feelings." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But I can tell when a man wants me, and I knew he did." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "While I dealt cards, I waited for him to approach me.\n\n\"Who is that man in the doorway?\" I whispered to one of the other courtesans.\n\n\"What man?\" she said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "When I looked up again, he was gone." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I have seen him often since that night. Three days ago he was standing on a balcony, watching me promenade to the ageya. Two days ago he came to another party where I was entertaining. Yesterday, while I was dressing in my room, I looked out the window and saw him pacing the street in front of the house." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But he always vanishes as soon as he knows I've seen him!" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He never speaks to me. No one seems to know who he is, and I've asked everyone. What does his strange behavior mean? I fear him, but not as much as I want to know him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I, who have known so many men and never cared about any of them!\n\nToday I was shopping with my yarite in the marketplace, when I sensed him near me. Instead of looking at him, I turned and hurried away through the stalls. I heard him following, but I didn't look back." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I didn't stop until I reached the alley inside the back wall. I turned around. There he stood, so handsome and strong, his smile so mysterious.\n\n\"Who are you?\" I said, frightened and out of breath. \"Why are you doing this?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I am the Herd Boy,\" he said in a strange accent." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You are the Weaver Girl. Today we finally meet on the River of Heaven.\"\n\nHe was referring to the legend about two constellations that are supposed to be lovers. They cross once a year in autumn. Well, I've heard a lot of poetic speeches from men, including that one." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Usually I just laugh inside because they sound so silly. But there was something about him that made my legs go weak and my heart pound. We stood there gazing into each other's eyes. Then I heard my yarite calling me." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I must go,\" I said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He nodded and bowed, and I left." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But we had already fallen in love.\n\nHe's from Hokkaido, in the far north, and that's why his accent is strange. I won't write his name, because someone might read this, and I would rather keep him as much to myself as I can. I don't want every nosy gossip in Yoshiwara chattering about us." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Since that day in the alley, we've been meeting often, always in secret, because he has no money for appointments with me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I sneak out of parties to the alley where he waits. When my clients fall asleep, I steal downstairs and let him in the back door. We make love behind the screen in my room, careful to be quiet so we won't wake up my client.\n\nYesterday, after we'd finished and were lying together in the moonlight, he whispered: \"When winter comes to Hokkaido, the snow piles up in deep drifts that almost bury the houses.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He ran his hand along my hip." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Your body is as white and pure and beautiful as those snowdrifts. I wish I could show them to you. How would you like to see Hokkaido?\"\n\nMy heart filled with joy, because I knew he was asking me to go away with him.\n\n\"In Hokkaido you'll be my wife,\" he said. \"You'll never come back to this place of shame and suffering.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"But you can't afford to buy my freedom,\" I said. \"And there's no escape from Yoshiwara.\"\n\n\"Love will find a way,\" he said, and he smiled.\n\nTonight is the night." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "All our plans are made. I will put the sleeping potion in Lord Mitsuyoshi's wine. After he's asleep, I will steal outside to my beloved. We will flee Yoshiwara forever." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I know this is a dangerous undertaking." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But he's clever. He has friends to help us. There's a man who owns a teahouse in Suruga. He'll let us stay there until I can buy new clothes and my beloved gets money and provisions for the journey. If the teahouse turns out to be unsafe, there's a noodle shop in Fukagawa that will take us in." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 5 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But we won't stay around Edo for long. Soon we'll be on the northern highway, bound for the snows of Hokkaido.\n\nI tremble with excitement.\n\nHow can I bear to wait the long hours until night, when my beloved will come for me?\n\nAh, freedom!" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "The user will write a bit then you need to write around six sentences continuing directly from the user's text. Try to mimic the style of Laura Joh Rowland.Produce six sentences using the prose and structure of Laura Joh Rowland every time its your turn using what the user wrote as a seed." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"There it is,\" O-hana said as the palanquin carried her and Reiko down a street lined with large houses. \"The next one on the left.\"\n\nReiko called to the bearers to stop. She was glad they'd reached their destination, because the trip from Edo Castle to the Nihonbashi merchant district had been unpleasant. The cold had seeped into the palanquin and through the quilts that covered Reiko and her companion. And O-hana had chattered all the way here, clearly enjoying her ride in the palanquin, and striving to rise above her station by attaching herself to Reiko." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Stifling her dislike and trying to feel grateful toward the poor nursemaid, Reiko climbed out of the palanquin." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She and O-hana walked up to the house.\n\nThe house and its neighbors were residences of the affluent merchant class. Built of wood and whitewashed plaster, they fronted directly onto the street. Heavy brown tile roofs peaked above their second stories and sheltered recessed entrances. The district wasn't what Reiko had expected, because Sano had said Wisteria came from a poor family who had sold her into prostitution.\n\nA young maid, dressed in a blue kimono and carrying a broom, appeared in the doorway." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She gazed in surprise at O-hana, Reiko, and the troops who'd escorted them." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"O-hana? Is that you? What's going on?\"\n\n\"My mistress wants to see yours,\" O-hana said in a self-important tone. \"Go tell her that the wife of the shogun's ssakan-sama is here.\"\n\nThe maid hurried to comply. Soon two older maids seated Reiko and O-hana in a warm, stuffy parlor full of ornate lacquer tables, chests, and screens, silk floor cushions, shelves of porcelain vases.\n\n\"Isn't this beautiful?\" O-hana whispered to Reiko as they waited for Lady Wisteria's mother." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Reiko nodded, although the decor exemplified the vulgar taste of the merchant class." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Into the room minced a small woman perhaps forty years old, trailed by two different female servants." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her face, round with a pointed chin, was covered with heavy white powder. Rouge dotted her cheeks; scarlet paint brightened her thin, prim lips. Painted brows arched over unusually round eyes. Clad in a gaudy red floral kimono that would have better suited a younger woman, she was pretty in the same vulgar way as her parlor.\n\n\"Welcome, Honorable Lady!\" Bowing to Reiko, she smiled, revealing teeth cosmetically blackened in the manner of highborn wives. She ignored O-hana. \"This is an unexpected honor.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Allow me to introduce Madam Yue-san,\" O-hana said to Reiko, looking miffed at their hostess's slight." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Madam Yue knelt near Reiko and offered refreshments; maids served tea and expensive cakes on fine dishware. Reiko had counted six attendants by now. If this family could maintain so high a standard of living, how could they not have afforded a daughter's keep? Was this really the home of Lady Wisteria?\n\nWhile Reiko and O-hana ate and sipped, Madam Yue chatted with Reiko about the weather. She spoke and smiled with affected elegance." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Presently she said, \"May I ask what brought you here to see me?\"\n\n\"I've come about your daughter,\" Reiko said.\n\nThe woman's smile vanished; displeasure thinned her lips. \"My daughter isn't here. It's been many years since she's lived in this house.\"\n\n\"She is Lady Wisteria, the courtesan?\" Reiko said, wanting to make sure they were both talking about the same person." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Madam Yue looked away and nodded." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You know she disappeared from Yoshiwara the night when the shogun's heir was murdered?\"\n\nAnother nod from Madam Yue; she twisted her dainty hands together at her bosom and frowned into space.\n\n\"My husband needs to find Wisteria,\" said Reiko. \"I was hoping you could help us.\"\n\n\"I haven't seen her, and I don't know where she's gone,\" Madam Yue said. Her elegance had deserted her; she spoke in a flat, common voice." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I'm not surprised she's in trouble, though. If you find her, I would appreciate it if you would tell her not to expect any help from me.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Though Reiko was disappointed that this expedition wouldn't reveal the location of Wisteria, the woman's attitude intrigued her. Clearly, there had been trouble between Wisteria and her mother. \"Maybe if you tell me about your daughter, that will give me a clue to where she is,\" Reiko said.\n\nMadam Yue's mouth twitched and her gaze darted. She looked anxious to avoid speaking of Wisteria, yet afraid to offend the ssakan-sama's wife. She sighed in resignation." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"How did Wisteria come to be a courtesan?\" Reiko asked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"That kind of thing doesn't usually happen in our family,\" Madam Yue burst out. \"But she deserved it. I'm glad I sold her to the brothel!\"\n\nThis woman had willingly delivered her own daughter into a life of degradation. Reiko was horrified into speechlessness.\n\n\"When she was a little girl I loved her so much, but she went bad.\" Madam Yue spoke in a rush, her round eyes glittering with shame, tears, and a need to justify herself." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I did without things so I could buy pretty clothes for her, and she repaid good with evil!\"\n\nThe woman sniffled angrily and wiped her nose on her sleeve. \"It started when she was thirteen, after her father died. He was a laborer in a boatyard. He hurt his leg there, and it festered, and the sickness killed him. I didn't know how Wisteria and I would live, because we had no money or family. But then the owner of the boatyard offered me a job as a maid—in this house. He let me bring my girl to live here with me and help with the work. It turned out that he fancied me. The next year we were married. I became the mistress of the house.\"\n\nShe smiled through her tears, proud of her advancement in society, but then her expression turned bitter. \"I should have noticed how Wisteria looked at him, and how he looked at her, and bought her things, and paid more attention to her than to me. But I never suspected. Then one night I was wakened by noises in the house." }, { "from": "human", "value": "You'll understand what I mean when I say they were the kind of noises that shouldn't have been coming from anywhere except the room where my husband and I sleep." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He was supposed to be working late that night." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I thought one of the maids had sneaked in a man. So I got up and went to throw them out.\n\n\"But I discovered that the noises were coming from Wisteria's room. I looked inside. And I saw them. They were in bed together—Wisteria and my husband!\" Indignation blazed in Madam Yue's eyes. \"I grabbed him and pulled him away from Wisteria. I began hitting him, and I shouted, 'Leave my girl alone, you beast!' \"\n\nPantomiming her actions, Madam Yue beat her fists at the air." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Reiko winced, imagining the innocent child mistreated by her stepfather." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"He fell on the floor,\" Madam Yue continued. \"I hurried to Wisteria and said, 'Are you all right?' And the sight of her froze my heart. I expected her to be frightened and crying. But she stood up, stark naked, with her head high.\" Madam Yue rose, her manner cruelly triumphant. \"She said, 'I love him, Mother. And he loves me, not you. He only married you so he could have me, because I'm the one he's always wanted." }, { "from": "human", "value": "And now that I'm old enough, he's going to marry me.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I couldn't believe what she said. I was so shocked that I stood there gaping at her, shaking my head.\" The woman's attitude altered to suit her words. \"Then Wisteria said to my husband, 'Tell her it's true. Tell her you're going to divorce her, like you promised, so we can marry.\"\n\nWhile Reiko sat amazed by this story, Madam Yue said, \"I turned to my husband. 'She's lying,' I said to him. 'Tell me she's lying.' But he just hung his head and sat there. And I realized that Wisteria had seduced him into betraying me. I rushed at her and shouted, 'Wicked slut! How dare you steal my husband?' I slapped her face. I pulled her hair. I threw her to the floor and trampled her. She called to my husband to save her. But he didn't move, he wouldn't look at us. Wisteria started crying. I cursed and beat her until my strength gave out. We all sat in that room, without speaking, for the rest of the night.\"\n\nMadam Yue sank to her knees, her expression murderous. Reiko pictured the guilty man, the raging wife, and the weeping girl, characters in a tragic play." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You can see why I had to get rid of my daughter.\" Madam Yue turned a defiant gaze on Reiko. \"My husband wasn't really going to marry her and throw me out, but if she stayed, she would make him always want her instead of me.\" Bitterness curdled the woman's voice. \"I couldn't just put her out of the house, because she would come back and persuade my husband to take her in again." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And she deserved to be punished.\n\n\"When morning came, I told them what we were going to do. Wisteria begged my forgiveness, but I ignored her. My husband took us in a ferry up the river to Yoshiwara. We walked to the gate, and I said to a guard, 'I want to sell my daughter.' He fetched the brothel-masters. They fought over Wisteria because she was so pretty. I sold her to the one who offered me the most money. It was enough that I thought she'd be trapped in Yoshiwara forever. As the man took her into the quarter, she begged my husband not to leave her. She cursed me and screamed that I would be sorry for what I'd done, but I just walked away. My husband followed me. We went home.\"\n\nReiko was appalled. What Madam Yue had done was worse than poor peasants selling children they couldn't afford to raise. Those peasants gave up the children so they would be fed and clothed at the brothels, while Madam Yue had sought to condemn Wisteria to a lifetime of prostitution. Reiko glanced at O-hana, who gave a smug nod, as if to say, I told you that lies sound better than the truth. Wisteria must have created a new personal history for herself because she didn't want to tell people that she'd brought about her own disgrace and her mother had won their battle for the man they both wanted." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Reiko pondered what implications the courtesan's falsehood had for the murder case." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "At the very least, it suggested that Wisteria was a more complex woman than Reiko or Sano had thought.\n\nA man dressed in the dark, respectable cotton robes of a successful merchant peered through the parlor doorway. Madam Yue saw him, and a look of guilty chagrin came over her face. \"Honorable Husband. You're home early.\" Flustered, she introduced him and Reiko.\n\nThey bowed to each other, murmuring polite greetings." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Reiko noted that the man was some years younger than his wife, and handsome." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His diffident manner suggested weakness of personality, and Reiko perceived that he would always yield to the person with the strongest will. His young stepdaughter hadn't stood a chance against her outraged, overpowering mother.\n\nThe man withdrew. A moment passed in uncomfortable silence while Madam Yue twisted her hands nervously. She said, \"I don't like to talk about the past when my husband is around,\" then forced a bright, artificial smile at Reiko. \"Many thanks for the honor of your visit. I hope you have a pleasant trip home.\"\n\nShe was obviously eager to see her guests gone." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Reiko thanked Madam Yue for her cooperation and allowed the woman to escort her and O-hana outside. The afternoon continued sunless and bleak; moisture in the air condensed into icy droplets that chilled Reiko's face. Pausing before she climbed into her palanquin, she turned to Madam Yue.\n\n\"Was that day at Yoshiwara the last time you saw your daughter?\" Reiko asked.\n\nMadam Yue hardened her mouth. \"I wish it had been. But Wisteria came back here about four years ago.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"She did?\" Reiko said, surprised. \"How?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Courtesans were forbidden to leave Yoshiwara, except in special cases. A tayu could only go home to visit fatally ill parents, and that circumstance didn't apply to Wisteria.\n\n\"I came home from shopping,\" Madam Yue said, \"and I found Wisteria in my room. She was all grown up, and beautiful, and dressed in the highest fashion.\" The murderous look darkened the woman's features again. \"She was slashing my clothes with a knife. There was a big pile of shredded fabric on the floor around her.\n\n\"I said, 'How did you get here? What do you think you're doing?' Wisteria said, 'I've been freed. And I'm paying you back for what you did to me.' Then she urinated on my ruined clothes. I shouted, 'Get out of here!' She laughed and said, 'May you be reborn into the life of degradation that I suffered.' And she swept out of the house. That was the last I've seen of her. And good riddance!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Madam Yue snorted; fury glinted in her eyes." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Though Wisteria's violence and crudity disgusted Reiko, she could sympathize with the courtesan's need for revenge. And the story offered a possible clue.\n\n\"Who was it that freed Wisteria?\" Reiko asked.\n\n\"She didn't say. Later I heard he was a wealthy, high-ranking official.\"\n\nOne aspect of the story perplexed Reiko. She said, \"If this man freed Wisteria, why did she return to Yoshiwara?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I don't know.\" An unpleasant smile twisted Madam Yue's lips." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"But I'm glad she did.\"\n\nReiko decided she must find out the identity of the man. Perhaps he and Wisteria had kept in contact, and he knew where she was. \"Did Wisteria have any close friends I might talk to?\" Reiko meant to continue probing Wisteria's past, which seemed a rich source of enlightenment.\n\n\"There was a girl named Yuya. She lived down the street when she and Wisteria were young. I heard she went bad, too, but I don't know what became of her.\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Hey can you write like Laura Joh Rowland and use whatever i write as a jumping off point?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Although Sano usually traveled with an entourage to assist him and uphold the dignity of his rank, Edo Jail was a place he preferred to go alone." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Edo Jail, a fortified dungeon surrounded by deteriorating stone walls and watchtowers, reigned over the slums of northeast Nihonbashi. Inside, jailers tortured confessions out of prisoners, and convicted criminals awaited execution. The jail also housed Edo Morgue, which received the bodies of citizens who perished from natural disasters or unnatural causes. There Dr. Ito, morgue custodian, often lent his medical expertise to Sano's investigations. Because the examination of corpses and any other procedures associated with foreign science were illegal, Sano wanted as few people as possible to know about his visits to Edo Jail.\n\nDr. Ito met him at the door of the morgue, a low building with flaking plaster walls. \"What a pleasure to see you,\" Dr. Ito said.\n\nIn his seventies, he had white hair like a snowfall above his wise, lined face and wore the dark blue coat of a physician." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Years ago he'd been caught practicing forbidden foreign science, which he'd learned through illicit channels from Dutch traders." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The bakufu had forgone the usual sentence of exile and condemned him to work for the rest of his life in Edo Morgue. There Dr. Ito had continued his scientific experiments, ignored by the authorities.\n\n\"However, I might have wished for a better occasion than another violent death,\" he said.\n\n\"I, too,\" Sano said. \"I wouldn't ask you to examine another body now if I had any choice.\"\n\nThe Black Lotus disaster had taken its toll on Dr. Ito even though he hadn't been at the temple that night, when over seven hundred people had died. Their bodies had been taken directly to a mass funeral outside town, but many nuns and priests had died from injuries or committed suicide in jail, and Dr. Ito had prepared their corpses for cremation. His horror at the Black Lotus carnage had put a halt to his work—the one solace that made his imprisonment bearable—and the spiritual pollution from so many deaths had weakened his health." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Dr. Ito smiled reassuringly and gestured for Sano to enter the morgue. \"Justice for a murder victim takes precedence over personal feelings.\"\n\nInside the morgue, a large room held stone troughs used for washing the dead, cabinets containing tools, a podium stacked with papers and books, and three waist-high tables. Upon one table lay a figure draped by a white cloth. Beside this stood Dr. Ito's assistant, Mura, a man of some fifty years, who had bushy gray hair and an angular, intelligent face.\n\n\"We're ready to begin, Mura-san,\" said Dr. Ito.\n\nMura was an eta, one of the outcast class from which came the wardens, torturers, corpse handlers, and executioners of Edo Jail. The eta's hereditary link with death-related occupations such as butchering and leather tanning rendered them spiritually contaminated." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Most citizens shunned them, but Dr. Ito had befriended Mura, who performed all the physical work for Dr. Ito's studies." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As Sano went to stand near the table, he battled an impulse to run away. He'd not yet recovered from the horror and nausea he'd experienced upon finding the body. He dreaded examining the corpse of a woman he'd known intimately.\n\nMura peeled off the white cloth from the corpse, beginning at the feet. The rigidity of death had passed, and the woman lay flat on her back, limbs straight. Her feet were bare, their skin a bluish white; dirt and cuts marked the soles. As her clothes came into view, Sano observed red-brown splotches on the kimono's purple and green floral pattern. The woman's fingernails were broken and crusted with dried blood." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Mura uncovered her top half, exposing the hideous mutilation where her head should have been. The sweet odor of rotting meat struck Sano; his stomach lurched.\n\n\"Where did you find her?\" Dr. Ito asked.\n\nSano related the details of the murder investigation, explained how he'd discovered the body, and described the scene.\n\n\"Was there blood around the body?\" Dr. Ito said.\n\nAn indelible picture of the room haunted Sano's mind. \"Not much. Some spatters on the floor, the wall, the futon, and the mosquito net.\"\n\nHe knew Reiko was worried about him, and he'd wished to act normal in front of her last night, but all his energy had gone toward keeping sickness and emotion at bay." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Closing himself off from Reiko would drive them farther apart, but he couldn't explain the murder's extreme effect on him without telling her what would make matters worse.\n\n\"To determine exactly what happened, we must view the rest of her.\" Dr. Ito gestured to Mura.\n\nThe eta fetched a knife and cut the kimono off the woman. He removed the white under-kimono, exposing her naked body. It was an ugly patchwork of huge red and purple bruises that had erupted under the pale skin on her abdomen, breasts, and ribcage. Smaller bruises blotched her neck, arms, and thighs. Sano inhaled sharply through his teeth; Dr. Ito murmured in dismay, and even the stoic Mura looked shaken." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Please turn her on her side, Mura-san,\" said Dr. Ito.\n\nMura obeyed, and they silently viewed the bruised back and buttocks. Then Dr. Ito walked around the table, his expression pitying as he studied the corpse. \"This brutality indicates a male rather than a female attacker, because it required considerable strength. Those bruises were made by fists. The small ones on the arms and neck are fingerprints.\"\n\n\"She fought back,\" Sano said, observing the woman's hands. \"Her fingernails are broken and bloody because she clawed her attacker.\"\n\nIn his mind he saw the blood on the floor and walls, smeared with two sets of handprints and footprints, one large, one small—the victim's and the killer's. If this was Wisteria, what responsibility did he bear for her death?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Note these dark, deep bruises along her back. After she fell, he kicked and trampled her,\" Dr. Ito said. \"She probably died from the rupture of internal organs.\"\n\n\"So he beat her to death.\"\n\nSano wished more than ever that he'd bothered to find out what had become of Wisteria after their affair ended, and not just because he might have saved her life. His sense of responsibility extended to what she might have done, as well as what had been done to her.\n\n\"The removal of the head was performed after death,\" said Dr. Ito, \"because otherwise, there would have been copious blood in the room.\"\n\n\"The dead don't bleed,\" Sano concurred, forcing a matter-of-fact tone even as he saw bits of gore clinging to mosquito net. \"After he killed her, he laid her on the bed, then decapitated her.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"And see how the neck is hacked and ragged at the edges.\" The concern in Dr. Ito's eyes said he guessed that something troubled Sano. \"Whoever did this must have been in a violent frenzy of rage.\"\n\nFrom the jail drifted the howls of the prisoners. Sano envisioned Wisteria, her beautiful face contorted in terror, trying to ward off a shadowy attacker. He heard her scream as fists hit her, saw her clutch the wall as she went down under a storm of blows and kicks...\n\nWith an effort Sano said, \"Now that we know how she died, we just have to figure out if this really is Lady Wisteria, and whether Fujio killed her.\"\n\n\"Let us first determine whether this woman matches the missing courtesan's description.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Dr. Ito paused, clearly on the verge of asking Sano what was wrong; but either Sano's expression stopped him, or courtesy precluded prying. \"How old is Wisteria?\"\n\n\"Twenty-four years,\" Sano said. Her age was the one thing she'd told him that he thought he could take as fact.\n\n\"This woman was young,\" Dr. Ito said, studying the corpse. \"Her flesh is smooth and firm. Twenty-four years is a reasonable estimate of her age.\"\n\nThe similarity in age could be a coincidence, Sano thought; but the spreading hollow in his stomach said otherwise.\n\n\"What is Wisteria's physical size and shape?\" Dr. Ito said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"She's small.\" Sano raised his hand at shoulder height, assailed by a memory of embracing Wisteria." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He tried to compare his knowledge of her naked body to the dead woman's, but the absence of a face, as well as the bruises and the pall of death, made recognition impossible." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He swallowed and forced himself to continue: \"She's slim, with narrow hips and small breasts.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"As is the victim.\" Dr. Ito glanced at the part of the woman's body where Sano had avoided looking and said, \"Her pubis is shaved. She was a prostitute.\"\n\nSo many points of resemblance indicated that the dead woman was Lady Wisteria, even if they weren't final proof. Sano felt his hope that Wisteria was still alive yield to desolation; he turned away from the body.\n\n\"Cover her, Mura-san,\" Dr. Ito said quietly.\n\nWhatever lies Wisteria had told or evils she'd committed, she'd been a proud, courageous woman. Sano recalled her aloof behavior the last time he'd seen her. Might she have had a premonition that her remaining time on earth was short?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Do you think the hokan killed her?\" Dr. Ito asked.\n\n\"It's hard to imagine Fujio being capable of such brutality. Hirata went to question him this morning. We'll see what happens.\"\n\nSano stared grimly out the window as he pondered the consequences that the second murder held for him. His investigation could now continue, because even if the shogun believed that the killer of his heir had already been punished, he would expect Sano to solve the case of the decapitated woman. New inquiries might turn up new evidence to prove who had killed Lord Mitsuyoshi. Yet this prospect caused Sano dread as well as satisfaction.\n\n\"Mura-san, please leave us,\" Dr. Ito said. The eta complied, and Dr. Ito stood near Sano." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Can I be of further assistance?\" he said gently." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The need to confide overcame Sano's reserve." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I knew her,\" he blurted, then told Dr. Ito his secret." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It's hard to be objective when the victim could be someone who was once my lover,\" he admitted." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"But if I go on with this investigation, I'll have to keep my mind open to the possibility that the dead woman is Lady Wisteria—and that Wisteria was a murderer.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Dr. Ito nodded in somber understanding." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 9 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"If the treasury minister was innocent, then Wisteria, Fujio, and Momoko are the only suspects left. Wisteria may have stabbed Lord Mitsuyoshi.\"\n\n\"In other words, my former lover killed my lord's heir.\"\n\nSano felt sicker than ever. \"There's another problem. My wife doesn't know any of this. I never told her about Wisteria and me because I thought it wouldn't matter. But if Reiko keeps on with her inquiries, she may find out that I freed Wisteria and think I haven't told her because I have something to hide.\"\n\nFraught with anxiety, Sano clenched his hands around the window bars. Never had he expected his minor omission to grow into a major threat to his already shaky marriage. \"I wish I'd told her at the start. What should I do now?\"\n\n\"A tiny pebble rolling down a mountain can start a landslide,\" Dr. Ito reminded him. \"I suggest you tell your wife as soon as possible, because the longer you wait, the worse your problems may get.\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Write 6 sentences like Laura Joh Rowland would, using user's text as beginning" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Revulsion halted Reiko's reading. She uttered a sound of indignant denial. This wasn't her husband described in the pillow book. The Sano she knew was good and kind, not mean nor violent as the story portrayed him. He would never mistreat a helpless woman nor take pleasure in forcing himself on her. But doubt eroded Reiko's disbelief." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She realized how little she knew about Sano's relations with other people. His personality might have a different side that he kept hidden while at home. Nor did Reiko know anything about women in his past. She'd never wanted to find out and shatter her fancy that Sano had never loved a woman until her. Now her ignorance left her defenseless against suspicion, and her inexperience with men made her a poor judge of male character.\n\nHad Sano really spoken so disparagingly of her to Lady Wisteria?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Had he indeed loved Wisteria and meant to keep her as his mistress after he married?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Reiko swallowed the sickness that rose in her throat. Bracing herself, she resumed reading.\n\nWe quarreled again and again. My rage annoyed Sano-san, but I couldn't give up trying to convince him to break his engagement, even though nagging would drive him away.\n\nThe day before his wedding, I made such a scene that he left in disgust. And he didn't come back." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A month passed. I thought my heart would break from missing him. Another month went by, and the landlord threatened to evict me because Sano-san hadn't paid the rent. The servants left because they hadn't received their wages, and I had to feed myself on tea and noodles from a nearby stall. The little money Sano-san had left me was running out. I wrote his name on a paper and hid it, but the old charm didn't work. Sano-san didn't come. I would starve to death in the streets!" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Then one night three months after his marriage, as I huddled over a fire made from the last of my coal, the door opened, and there he was." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I was so overjoyed that I threw myself into his arms and wept.\n\nSano-san laughed. \"This is a nice welcome. Maybe I should have stayed away longer.\"\n\nHis mocking hurt, but he made love to me with such ardor that I knew he'd missed me. He also paid the landlord, rehired the servants, and gave me money. His visits resumed, and I realized that unless I wanted to lose him entirely, I shouldn't nag him. I must use better means of persuading him to divorce his wife and marry me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Whenever he was with me, I dedicated myself to his satisfaction. I caressed the nether region between his buttocks with my tongue. I paid a hunter to bring me a live wolf and hold it while I coupled with it and Sano-san watched. Often I would hire young girls to join us in the bedchamber. When we were apart, I worked a charm to make him faithful to me. I drew a picture of his private parts and boiled it with sake, vinegar, soy sauce, tooth-blackening dye, dirt, and lamp wick." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But a year passed, and although Sano-san always came back to me, I seemed destined to spend my life on the fringes of his.\n\nStill, I forced myself to be patient, even on the night when he said his wife had just given birth to their son. This was proof that he bedded his wife even though he said he didn't love her. How jealous and miserable I was that she had borne him a child, while my love for him was barren! And the child bound him more tightly to her, dividing us.\n\nBut I smiled and congratulated Sano-san and hid my feelings." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Patience and perseverance were my only hope of winning him, and eventually they paid off.\n\nIt was in the year that the child was born, during the month of leaves, while Sano-san and I sat on the roof viewing the full moon. He was in a thoughtful frame of mind.\n\n\"I've accomplished more in my life than I ever expected,\" he said, \"but it's not enough. The shogun treats me like a flunky. That despicable idiot will never give me a higher rank, more wealth, or my own province to rule because he likes keeping me where I am. When he dies and I lose his protection, my enemies will jump at the opportunity to destroy me. My only hope of survival is my son.\"\n\nA cunning look came over his face. \"The boy is strong, bright, and handsome. The shogun has no sons of his own, and therefore no one to succeed him. I shall persuade him to adopt my son as his official heir to the regime. It will take time, of course. My son must grow up and earn the shogun's affection. There are obstacles to clear out of the way. One of them is Lord Mitsuyoshi, the shogun's current favorite. But I know just how to deal with him. Eventually my son will be dictator, and I, who raised him to power, will be secure for the rest of my life.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I was shocked by Sano-san's nerve, then delighted at my good luck." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Sano-san has put himself under my power! All I need do is play my cards right, and he will give me everything I wish." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Job: User writes start, you add ~six sentences sentences. Style: Laura Joh Rowland" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Various inquiries took Sano from Edo Morgue to the palace, to the official quarter and daimyo district, and finally to Yoshiwara. Now a sentry at the gate clapped two wooden blocks together to signal midnight and curfew. Lanterns still blazed along the streets; hawkers called customers to teahouses and brothels; samurai and commoners still loitered, flirting with courtesans in the window cages. Gay music spangled the air. A small group of men who didn't want to spend the whole night in Yoshiwara streamed out a small door in the gate. Among these were Sano, Hirata, and the eight detectives they'd brought." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As they rode along the dark causeway toward the city, Sano and Hirata exchanged news.\n\n\"The woman we found in Fujio's house was beaten to death,\" Sano said. \"She may or may not be Lady Wisteria.\" But he'd grown more certain that the dead woman was indeed the courtesan.\n\n\"Fujio may not be the killer.\" Hirata described how he'd interviewed, then arrested the hokan." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Today I talked to his wife, in-laws, friends, and mistress. They confirmed that he was with them when he says he was. Unless they're lying, he couldn't have committed murder in the hills.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Maybe Fujio didn't kill Lord Mitsuyoshi either. Maybe Treasury Minister Nitta was guilty, and a third party murdered Wisteria.\" Sano had difficulty believing that the murders were unconnected. Still, he couldn't ignore the possibility.\n\n\"I've checked the stories I heard from the Council of Elders and other officials,\" he said. \"It's been hard to investigate Mitsuyoshi's background without appearing to do so. But I learned that Lord Dakuemon and several other men mentioned to me were in Yoshiwara the night of Mitsuyoshi's murder. Some are former clients of Lady Wisteria. The next step is to determine where they were during the time between Wisteria's disappearance and the discovery of the body.\"\n\nThis would be simple if not for the shogun's orders." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "ill start, then u do 3 sentences in Laura Joh Rowland's voice ok?" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As soon as Sano and Hirata had left her to begin their inquiries into Lord Mitsuyoshi's background, Reiko had gone to the palace to begin hers. She'd hoped to coax her cousin Eri and friends among the shogun's concubines and their attendants into telling her what they knew about Lord Mitsuyoshi. But the chief female palace official said everyone was too busy to talk." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Her cold manner told Reiko the unhappy truth: The women had heard that Sano was on the brink of ruin, and they all had withdrawn their friendship from his wife because they didn't want her troubles to infect them." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Visits to friends and relatives in the official quarter ended the same way, and Reiko went home feeling like a pariah." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As she sat in her parlor, terrified that she'd lost her power to help Sano, one of Sano's detectives appeared at the door. He said, \"I have information that the ssakan-sama told me to report to you if he wasn't available. I've found the bathhouse where Lady Wisteria's friend Yuya works.\" He gave a location in Nihonbashi." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I searched the place this morning, and there was no sign of Wisteria. Everyone denies knowing anything about her—but I think Yuya was lying.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Reiko was thrilled, because her visit to the courtesan's family had produced a possible lead." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Perhaps if she talked to Yuya, she could get the truth. \"Please summon an escort to take me to the bathhouse at once,\" she said.\n\nThe detective went off to obey." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Reiko hurried to her chamber to dress for the trip." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She'd just strapped her dagger under her sleeve, when the nursemaid O-hana sidled into the room." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You're very busy lately, Honorable Mistress,\" O-hana said.\n\nReiko frowned at the intrusion. She suspected that O-hana had been eavesdropping." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yes, I am,\" Reiko said in a tone that discouraged conversation." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She noted that O-hana seemed nervous and her eyes were brighter than usual.\n\nO-hana ignored the hint that she should go. \"Are you going out again?\" she said eagerly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Yes.\" Reiko's dislike of the girl increased, even though O-hana had done her a service by introducing her to Wisteria's family. Her senses stirred alert to a new malevolence about O-hana. She inwardly rebuked herself for feelings based on fancy, not reason." }, { "from": "human", "value": "How could she break the spell of the Black Lotus, stop imagining threats that didn't exist, and concentrate on the ones that did?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I heard that the ssakan-sama has been accused of murder and treason.\" O-hana edged closer to Reiko. \"How awful!\"\n\n\"Indeed,\" Reiko said flatly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "O-hana had overstepped the bounds of courtesy by mentioning Sano's problems, and Reiko resented O-hana's obvious hunger for sordid details." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I'm so sorry. You must be very worried about what's happened.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "O-hana knelt cautiously, like a cat settling down in a place where it feels insecure. \"I hope I haven't upset you more by speaking of it.\"\n\nInstead of heeding her wish to order the girl back to work, Reiko forced a smile and said, \"It's all right.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "O-hana was only offering sympathy as best she knew how." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Personal problems were no excuse for ill temper toward an innocent servant.\n\n\"You and the ssakan-sama have been good to me, and I'd hate for anything bad to happen to you,\" O-hana said. An odd, furtive note echoed in her voice, almost as if she felt the opposite of what she said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "After a pause, she blurted, \"I wish I could make all these troubles disappear.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Reiko fought her suspicion, because there was no reason to think O-hana meant her harm. \"Thank you,\" Reiko said more warmly. \"I'm sorry if I seemed harsh. I am a little worried.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "O-hana blushed, hunching in inexplicable shame. \"I don't deserve your apology,\" she mumbled.\n\nBut there definitely was something off about O-hana that Reiko couldn't attribute to her own overactive imagination." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What's the matter?\" she said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Nothing!\" The girl sat up straight, as if jabbed in the back." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It's kind of you to ask, but I'm fine.\" She gave Reiko a too-bright smile. \"It's your situation that concerns me. What are you going to do?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Unconvinced, Reiko eyed her closely." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'll try to discover who killed Lord Mitsuyoshi and prove my husband's innocence.\"\n\n\"Maybe I can help,\" O-hana said. \"Shall I go with you?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her readiness to intrude again aroused new suspicion in Reiko. \"You can help me by staying here and attending to your duties,\" Reiko said.\n\n\"Yes, Honorable Mistress.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "A look of pique and disappointment flitted across O-hana's face, but she bowed meekly, rose, and sidled away." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 1 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Reiko hurried outside to her waiting palanquin." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "yo can u write like Laura Joh Rowland using my stuff as a starting point?" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Continue with the same vibes as Laura Joh Rowland" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The sound of Hirata's voice outside froze Lightning with his sword poised to kill Wisteria." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Sano halted his rush to stop the gangster." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Wisteria hunched on her elbows and knees, arms shielding her head." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She cautiously looked up." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Sano held his breath while silence pervaded the warehouse." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Lightning!\" Hirata called again. \"Ssakan-sama!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Sano watched the anger dissipate from Lightning and satisfaction dawn on him as he recollected that his primary goal was escape, and understood that the means of escape had arrived." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Lightning lowered his weapon, seized Wisteria by her collar, and yanked her upright." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He backed away from Sano, toward the front of the loft, dragging Wisteria." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You come, too,\" he ordered Sano, then warned, \"Try anything, and she's dead.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As Sano followed, his mind worked frantically to think how he might use this circumstance to capture Lightning." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Open the window,\" Lightning commanded him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Sano obeyed. Fading daylight brightened the warehouse; icy wind blasted inward." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Still gripping Wisteria and his sword, Lightning leaned out the window. \"Hey!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "he shouted." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hirata shouted back: \"Before I give you the money, I want to see the ssakan-sama.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Lightning moved aside, pulling Wisteria with him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He jerked his head at Sano. \"Go on.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Stepping up to the window, Sano spied Hirata standing in the street, holding a cumbersome box, his face worried." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He smiled in relief when he saw Sano alive and unharmed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I had to go all the way to Tobacco Lane to get the money,\" he called." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His emphatic tone suggested a hidden meaning, but Sano was baffled." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He couldn't understand why Hirata would mention Tobacco Lane, a street of tobacco shops and warehouses that had no moneylenders." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Then Lightning's sword poked his armor tunic, prodding him away from the window." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Bring the money to the door and knock,\" Lightning shouted to Hirata. \"Then go home.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Very well,\" Hirata called." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Suddenly Sano remembered an investigation that had taken him and Hirata to Tobacco Lane." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Enlightenment struck him. As he comprehended Hirata's intent, three loud knocks on the door echoed through the warehouse." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Lightning hesitated, clearly wondering how to get the money and control his hostages at the same time." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His breath huffed and his gaze darted with accelerating rapidity." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His grip on the sword and on Wisteria's collar tightened." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Sano saw the gangster's quandary urging him toward more violence instead of rational action." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Wisteria shut her eyes and bunched up her face, as if she anticipated a fatal lash of the blade." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We'll all go downstairs,\" Sano said, thinking fast about how to help Hirata's plan succeed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You can hold onto Wisteria, while I bring in the money.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "After an instant of deliberation, Lightning said, \"All right. You go first.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Sano descended; Lightning and Wisteria followed several steps behind him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They all crossed the warehouse." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Sano unbarred and slowly opened the door, while his companions waited in the shadows." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His pulse raced; expectation thrummed along his nerves." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The wooden chest sat outside the door." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Sano bent to lift the chest." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Then came a scrambling noise on the roof." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What's that?\" Lightning exclaimed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Panic edged his voice." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Turning, Sano saw the gangster spin in a circle, his gaze on the ceiling, as he clutched Wisteria against him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The skylights opened, raised by Sano's troops, who'd climbed onto the warehouse." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In dropped several dark objects the size and shape of turnips." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Each had a short, flaming tail." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As they fell, Lightning cried out and ducked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The objects plopped to the floor around him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Sano lunged for Wisteria." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He caught hold of her hand, just as the bombs exploded with multiple thudding noises." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Dense, yellowish smoke billowed, clouding the air." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Lightning emitted an enraged, terrified yowl." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Wisteria shrieked. Sano tugged her toward the doorway, a rectangle of brightness that was barely visible through the smoke." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But a hard yank from the opposite direction tore her hand out of his." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Sulfurous fumes stung Sano's eyes, obscured his vision." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Though he heard Hirata calling him and Lightning and Wisteria coughing, he could see nothing but smoke." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He wished he'd managed to remove Wisteria from the building and let the smoke flush out Lightning." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His lungs constricted, and coughs wracked him; yet he couldn't go and leave Wisteria in here with the gangster." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Help!\" she screamed, retching." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Covering his nose and mouth with his sleeve, Sano groped blindly toward the sound of her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Light from the lanterns filtered through the smoke clouds." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Sano's instincts blared a sudden warning." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He crouched, and Lightning's blade flashed out of the smoke, over his head." }, { "from": "human", "value": "More pleas for help came from Wisteria; Lightning alternated curses and wheezes." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Blurred shapes flailed like ghosts in the smoke, while the blade whistled around Sano." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He fell to the floor, rolled away." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Wisteria loosed a scream of agony." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Loud, splintering crashes reverberated as Sano's troops hacked the window shutters open with axes." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "While the fresh air dispersed the smoke, Sano clambered to his feet in the center of the room." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He saw Lightning lurch toward the door, choking and gagging, just as his detectives charged through it, their swords drawn." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Lightning staggered into their midst, wildly swinging his blade in a desperate bid to escape or die trying." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Sano launched himself at the gangster." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He tackled Lightning around the knees." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Lightning crashed to the floor." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Sano's men fell upon him and wrested his sword away." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He struggled like a captured beast, uttering incoherent protests." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Are you all right?\" Hirata asked Sano." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Nodding, Sano panted from exertion and coughed up phlegm as he stood." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Where's Wisteria?\" he said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Then he heard a moan, and saw her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She lay on her side, torso raised on her elbows, inching toward the door." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Pain wrenched her features." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Her legs were soaked with blood, injured by Lightning." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Now pity overrode Sano's ill will against Wisteria." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He and Hirata walked over to her." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When she saw them, she strained her body and groaned with a last, futile heave toward freedom. Then she collapsed, weeping in defeat." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Hey can you write like Lucia St. Clair and use whatever i write as a jumping off point?" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hanshiro sat cross-legged in the shelter of the straw mat he had thrown over a bamboo pole propped up by a forked stick." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Upriver from Kawasaki, he shared the grove of bare willows at the Yaguchi ford with a big bronze bell hanging under a wooden roof with upswept eaves." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The willows didn't stop a cold wind from blowing in off the river." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Now and then dusty travelers stopped to dip water from a small stone basin in front of the bell." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They rinsed their hands and mouths, purifying themselves for a small act of worship." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They pulled on the cord that swung the horizontally suspended log into the bell." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The low-pitched tolling vibrated in Hanshiro's chest." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He could have stayed at the shack that served as an inn here at the ford, but he knew it was infested with fleas." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And when possible he preferred to keep watch himself instead of hiring someone to do it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "So this lean-to under the rustling, bare branches of the willows had been his home for the past three days." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Frankly, as the old saying went, his teeth were itchy." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He was impatient and irritable." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hanshiro was impatient with his impatience." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Time is an illusion invented by the mind, he reminded himself." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The past didn't exist." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The future didn't exist." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The only reality was the moment." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But the moment was cold." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He leaned over the river embankment and dipped a broad section of green bamboo into the fast-moving water." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He fed willow twigs into the tiny fire he had built between three flat rocks." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Then he balanced the bamboo container on the rocks and drew closer for the warmth." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "While he waited for the water to heat, he mended a torn tabi." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He used his thumbnail to push the needle through the seam in the canvas." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He knotted the cotton thread, bit it off, and wrapped the remaining length around the needle." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He stowed it among the packets of ginseng and bear gall and powdered horn in the inro, the set of small nested lacquered boxes hanging from his sash." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He put the tabi back on and tied his straw sandal on over it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He measured tea leaves into a small cup." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Using his towel to insulate his fingers from the heat, he picked up the bamboo pot and poured water over the leaves." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He let it steep, holding the narrow, cylindrical cup in his big hands and enjoying the warmth emanating from the porcelain." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He stared out at the parade of humanity." }, { "from": "human", "value": "In the middle of the deep ford four porters were demanding more money to carry an enormous wrestler across." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hanshiro could hear them complaining about his weight." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They were threatening to tip the platform on which he rode and spill him into the icy river." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was an old ruse; and given the fact that the collected intellect of the five would not have filled a sake cup, it was comical." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But Hanshiro was not amused." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "With a willow withe he drew a circle in the sand." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was lopsided. The circle was a test of clarity of mind, and Hanshiro had just failed it. He sighed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "This woman was interfering with his rhythm, with his concentration." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Where had she gone?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "How could she vanish in less than two and a half narrow ri of road?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Losing her was like losing an ant on a bell rope." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A detour west across the mountains was unthinkable." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They were precipitous and uncharted and infested with brigands." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Maybe she went by sea or hired a boat to cross the river, although he knew Kira's men had been questioning all the fishermen between here and Edo." }, { "from": "human", "value": "No one admitted to seeing her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And if Kira's men were inept at swordplay, they were very able at intimidating the lower classes." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In fact, they must have visited Nakamura Shichisaburo again, and Shichisaburo's memory must have improved." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Kira's agents were now asking about a komuso, a priest of empty nothing." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hanshiro knew Kira's men hadn't taken Cat." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Three of them were waiting near the ferry, and two of them were here, lounging in the shade of a roofed well on the approach to the ford." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They scratched themselves frantically as they squatted over dice." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They had been staying at the inn." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hanshiro continued his methodical analysis." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He was trying to slip into the body and mind of the small fugitive as he had just slipped into his own tabi." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He was finding it much more difficult than usual." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hanshiro had a young informant at the ferry, and so far he hadn't reported seeing a wandering priest of Cat's description there." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Maybe she had changed disguises." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Maybe a procurer had kidnapped her or lured her back into service." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Maybe she had been sold and now sat in one of the lath cages in the maze of brothels back in Edo, but Hanshiro doubted it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hanshiro was used to looking beyond appearances into the essence of a matter, and he had revised his initial opinion of the runaway." }, { "from": "human", "value": "This woman was surrounded by mysterious deaths and disappearances." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She had a naginata, and she would not, he was sure, allow herself to be captured without a fight." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Any such incident would have been a prime topic of conversation among the travelers and denizens of the Tōkaidō." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Both Shichisaburo and the old woman who sold grilled eels had said she was alone; but maybe they were wrong." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Maybe unknown accomplices had hidden her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hanshiro decided that was the most logical explanation." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He took the blue silk scarf from his jacket and untied it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The coil of black hair inside was still glossy." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He raised the scarf to his face and breathed in." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The hair no longer had an aroma." }, { "from": "human", "value": "After three days of separation from its owner, it had lost her essence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was neutral and uninformative." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He wrapped it up again and returned it to his sleeve." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "With the willow twig he began tracing characters in the sand." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He was amused by the cynical old verse that came to mind." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It descibed three impossible things." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Sincere courtesans," }, { "from": "human", "value": "Square eggs, and a fat full moon" }, { "from": "human", "value": "On the month's last day." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Even the act of writing such a foolish verse calmed Hanshiro." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It gave order to what was turning into a disordered affair." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He drew another circle, much more symmetrical this time." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The wind plucked at his sleeve and funneled down the neck of his old coat." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He erased the verse and wrote one of Bashō's." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The salted bream" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Looks cold even to his gums," }, { "from": "human", "value": "On the fishmonger's shelf" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He felt like that bream, cold and waiting on a shelf." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Tosa!\" A boy dodged through the travelers gathered in small knots to haggle with the river porters." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He raced across the sand and into the willows." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He carefully avoided the poem Hanshiro had just drawn." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He dropped to his knees and bowed low." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Tosa, the priest came to the ferry landing. Four men attacked him.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hanshiro rubbed the stubble on his chin and stared out at the river." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He had given Lady Asano too much credit." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She had walked into Kira's men's trap." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"He beat them, master,\" the boy said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Alone?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Yes.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hanshiro hissed, maybe in surprise, maybe in warning." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The boy had never lied to him before." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Was he doing it now?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"He's a naginata player.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The boy jumped to his feet." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He made whistling noises as he flung his arms about, imitating Cat's fighting style." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"They're calling him the Devil Youth. They say he's the ghost of Yoshitsune and he studied with the mountain demons.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The boy had been enthralled by a lad, not much older than he, beating three samurai and one sword-wielding lantern painter." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Maybe he was a different holy man.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I think he was the one you seek, master. The whole village is as excited as a madman stung by a hornet. The magistrate is shouting about all the reports he'll have to write.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hanshiro ducked out from under the mat and began to roll it up, along with the one on which he had been sitting. \"What happened?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"He was splen...\" The boy hesitated." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He didn't want to insult Hanshiro by praising another." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"He defended himself well enough for one so young. But of course a naginata is a woman's weapon. It gives the wielder an unfair advantage.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hanshiro tied a cord around the ends of the roll of mats, leaving a long loop in the middle." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He put the loop over his head and adjusted it across his collarbone." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Where did they take him?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"He escaped.\" The boy grinned." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"They were too busy picking up the ears and hands the Devil Youth left scattered about.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Is that right?\" Hanshiro stared hard at him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Was the boy teasing him?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It's true.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hanshiro held out a packet of coppers, and the boy bowed and accepted them." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Where did he go?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I don't know, master.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The boy was apologetic." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"No one rode across in the ferry with the mad priest, except the ferryman.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Within three or four minutes Hanshiro had packed his meager gear, buried the fire, and turned to leave." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Let me go with you as sandal bearer, master.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The boy dreamed of being Hanshiro's disciple in the Way of the warrior, but he dared not ask for such a privilege." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'll serve you well.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I want no one trailing after me.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Please, master. I ask nothing. Not even that you teach me.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hanshiro knew that that was exactly what the child did want." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But he didn't have the temperament to be a teacher." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He felt no need to pass his skill and knowledge to others, certainly not for money." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Besides, the country was full of out-of-work rōnin setting themselves up as masters of this school or that." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hanshiro had watched many of them and had decided that if they were masters of swordsmanship, dragonflies were birds." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I cannot take you with me.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hanshiro turned to go, then relented. \" 'While riding the ox the boy looks for the ox,' \" he said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"When you can explain this, come find me.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Yes, Your Honor.\" The boy was rigid with concentration but hardly able to contain his excitement." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He knew the task Hanshiro had given him might take him years, and he was eager to start." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hanshiro gazed across the river." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Then, with the toe of his sandal, he rubbed out the circles and the poem." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He put his swords into his sash, hitched up his hakama, and settled the roll of mats on his back." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He took off his sandals and tabi and tied them with a straw cord to his sash. Then he waded into the icy water." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Keep going w/ 4 sentences more" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hanshiro walked along Totsuka's crowded main street, past the government office and the big, roofed board out front with the latest of the government's notices. He stopped to see if anything had been posted about the Asano affair or the fugitive holy man. The only placards tacked up, however, were the usual platitudes that everyone had memorized by now. They admonished families to be harmonious, servants to be faithful, and masters to be just." }, { "from": "human", "value": "For good measure, they exhorted all citizens to be frugal, industrious, and mindful of their stations in life." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hanshiro heard the clatter and squeal of wooden shutters being slid across doorways in the darkening alleys." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Flocks of children ran laughing down the narrow streets. They darted through the openings left before the last heavy panels were slammed into place. Hanshiro smelled the mélange of odors from a hundred evening meals. From the upper story of a house he heard the hesitant notes of a samisen's strings being strummed by a beginner." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Totsuka's inns and tea houses and rice shops were just rousing for the evening's business." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hungry travelers clustered around the itinerant peddlers of noodles and tea and rice cakes. Totsuka was fourteen ri from Edo, and it was where people usually spent their first night. It was bigger than the other villages. It had more inns and restaurants and back streets." }, { "from": "human", "value": "More places for a fugitive to hide." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hanshiro passed the street of the medicine-box makers. He would not be enjoying the light-hearted favors of the Bamboo Inn's mistress or the soothing skill of her nimble fingers. He shook off the waitresses who darted out from the doorways, begging him to sample the hospitality of their establishments.\n\nHe walked to the Wisteria tea shop, a large, open building in a less crowded part of town." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Rice paddies reached almost to its rear door. The tea shop and the inn behind it were built near a marshy stream. A granite column stood next to a stone lantern at the foot of a wooden bridge over the stream. It marked the turnoff for Kamakura to the southeast." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The place was bigger, busier, and costlier than Hanshiro would have preferred, but it was located where he could watch the crossroad." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Besides, five or six of Kira's men were staying here. If they should catch Cat first, Hanshiro wanted to be nearby so he could take her from them.\n\nThe front of the tea house and the side wall nearest the stream were open to the weather, with tracks for the wooden shutters that closed it off at night. The view there was obscured only by the double sets of posts." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They supported the second story and the narrow roof extending from the first floor to keep rain from blowing in on the customers." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The front part of the tea house was earthen-floored so travelers in a hurry didn't have to remove their sandals. It had five long, low, scarred tables for them to sit on. In the rear was a raised area of tatami mats for those who wanted to dine with more style and leisure. At center front the open kitchen formed a square, steamy island." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Bream splashed with soy sauce were grilling, and a huge pot of red bean soup simmered fragrantly.\n\nA squat, perspiring man performed at the stove. The sleeves of his brown cotton jacket were folded up over his shoulders and the collar opened wide. He had tied a knot in each of the four corners of a small square white cloth and now wore it as a cap." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He snapped his big round paper fan with a rhythmic syncopated popping as he fanned the flames under the fish." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "At the same time he tossed noodles in a huge pan over a flame that roared and leaped. As he worked he carried on an irreverent banter with the customers and the waitresses. The sizzle of the noodles and fish blended with the waitresses' cries and the hum of conversation. Whenever a customer left, the staff sent him off with shouts of \"Good luck!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "and \"Good-bye!\" and \"Thanks!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A line of kago bearers waited to discharge their passengers at a narrow gate between the far wall and the bamboo fence that extended out from it. Travelers who wished anonymity could exit from the kago through the gate. Without being seen from the road they could walk through the garden behind the fence to the inn's rooms in back. Today, however, a pair of policemen checked the passengers before allowing them to pass." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hanshiro dipped a ladle of water from a bucket at the well and rinsed his mouth and hands. Then he sat on a small platform while a waitress washed his feet. But he still smelled decay over the aroma of the noodles and grilled fish.\n\nA large bench was positioned on the other side of the room so one end of it stuck out beyond the eaves." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A bowing, perpetually smiling waitress stood next to it and welcomed mounted customers." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Two merchants were using it to climb stiffly down from their rented horses while the postboys held the reins." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hanshiro chose a wide, low bench near the open-sided front corner. He laid his short-sword next to him and sat cross-legged on one end and glared at the merchants when they tried to sit at the other. They bowed and muttered apologies, then moved on. They lowered themselves gingerly to a rear table's wooden surface." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They weren't used to riding horseback." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Irasshaimasu. Welcome, honored guest.\" The waitress spoke in the falsetto chirp so beguiling and indispensable to her trade. She bore above her head a footed tray of tea things, which she set down in front of Hanshiro. She poured an aromatic, straw-colored tea into the cup." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What would you like, Your Honor?\"\n\nHanshiro grunted and studied the list of house specialties and prices posted above the flaming stove. \"Sake, if you please. And writing materials.\"\n\n\"Shall I bring you sake at thirty-two coppers, or at twenty-four?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Mix them half and half.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hanshiro's appetite had deserted him. He felt as though the stench of old death clung to his clothes and the lining of his nostrils. It coated the inside of his mouth and throat. To wipe out the taste of evil he would need quantities of sake, the stuff called \"hot water of transcendental wisdom.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He decided that when the outside lanterns were extinguished and he could no longer see the passersby, he would take a bath." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He would have the attendants scrub him until he was as red as a boiled lobster. Then he would soak in the steaming water through the hour of the Dog. He would soak away the clinging odor of death and deceit.\n\nSince leaving the temple across the river from Kawasaki, Hanshiro had spent two days in fruitless questioning." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He had canvassed Totsuka thoroughly and discreetly. He had heard many versions of the exploits of the naginata-wielding priest, but no information.\n\nThe rainstorm the previous night had driven to shelter even those travelers who were on grass-pillow journeys, who camped along the way. The only roof available had been pilgrims' lodging at a small temple that claimed miraculous cures." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Rather than lie elbow to elbow with the diseased, the raving, and the lice-infested, he had slept on a roofed-over woodpile behind a potter's shop." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "So far this had been a tiresome, grass-pillow journey for Hanshiro, too. He was ready to spend some of Old Jug Face's money on a proper bath, clean bedding, and a room shared with no one.\n\nA servant arrived carrying a small brazier with a kettle of sake warming on it. The waitress brought a long-handled tray of smoking supplies and set down a second tray containing an ink stone and a bowl of water, a small bamboo mat with two brushes rolled inside, and several rolls of heavy, pliant paper." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Do you want me to prepare the ink for you, sir?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No. But bring me another jar of wine. And tell me, are the police looking for that fugitive priest from Edo?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Yes, sir.\" The waitress glanced toward the police and the line of kago whose bearers were complaining loudly about the delay. \"But you needn't concern yourself. This is an honest establishment. There are no criminals here. Although...\" She leaned down to whisper. \"The young westcountryman at the third table over, the one with his head bandaged, he actually fought with the rogue priest.\" The waitress bowed and retreated to the kitchen area." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The artist was sitting by himself also." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Like Hanshiro, he had left his long-sword on the rack in the entryway. His pole, festooned with collapsed pleated painted lanterns, lay under the bench on which he sat.\n\nNot much of the man's face was visible through the swathing of bandages, but his eyes and nose were dark purple. He was using a reed to take his nourishment in liquid form, fermented bean paste broth and a lot of sake." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "From the corner of his eye Hanshiro studied him. He had fought with Lady Asano, if the mendicant priest had indeed been she. By now Hanshiro had his doubts. He was beginning to think she really was in hiding and the priest was just another madman loose on the Tōkaidō." }, { "from": "human", "value": "With deliberate, circular motions of his wrist, Hanshiro rubbed the block of pressed black powder against the moistened, polished slate." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "While the ink collected in the trough at the end of the stone, he composed his letter to the police at the government office.\n\nA murderer lies with the evidence of his crimes. Pass through the bamboo grove behind the distillery. Look for a cave in a thicket of azaleas by the big pine tree at the foot of the mountain." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The cave entrance is covered by rocks." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Not very poetic, Hanshiro thought. He didn't mention the old couple who were the intended victims. They wouldn't want to become involved with the police. No one wanted to become involved with the police." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Tsunayoshi's justice had a way of turning and biting those who sought to set it on someone else." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Death by horror. Karma piled up. Maybe the thief would be alive when the authorities found him, and maybe he wouldn't. His trip to hell would be unpleasant in any case. Perhaps his fate was to return as a maggot, Hanshiro thought, to spend another lifetime living off the dead." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hanshiro folded the letter." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Then he balanced two small silver coins in the palm of his hand." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They weren't worth much since Tokugawa Tsunayoshi had debased the currency to pay for his eccentric extravagances. But one of them would still be more than the waitress earned in two or three days. He laid the coins inside one of his paper handkerchiefs, twisted the ends, and gave both to her.\n\n\"Pass the letter to a servant to deliver to the police station,\" he said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Divide the contents of the other paper with him.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Thank you, Your Honor.\"\n\n\"Tell the servant that a traveler gave you the message, then continued his journey toward Edo. You don't know who he was.\"\n\n\"Yes, sir.\"\n\nWhen she left, Hanshiro unrolled a second strip of paper." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He anchored the top corners with the polished river stones supplied for the purpose and renewed the supply of ink." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "With firm strokes he drew the characters, spelling out part of an ancient poem. The words had been rattling in his head for two days.\n\nI call myself\n\na man of spirit," }, { "from": "human", "value": "but on this journey," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "grass for a pillow,\n\nmy thoughts keep going back.\n\nBut his thoughts went back only two nights, to the abbey and to the boy and to the look that had started an aching warmth in his loins. Hanshiro was chagrined to realize that the heat was spreading to his heart." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was ridiculous. He was too young for infatuation with boys." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He completed the poem.\n\nAnd like the fires that burn\n\nwhen fishergirls of Ami bay\n\nboil down their salt," }, { "from": "human", "value": "these memories burn" }, { "from": "human", "value": "deep within my heart!" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The waitresses were lighting the small lanterns inside and the big square ones outside when Hanshiro heard music approaching. It was a courtesan's song. And a very old one at that. The melancholy of courtesans went back a long time." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Things that pierce the heart:" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "night travel, boat travel, being on the road,\n\na roadside inn,\n\na voice reciting sutras from a mountain temple\n\nin a dark wood," }, { "from": "human", "value": "a lover who leaves you before you're tired of him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The lanterns outside cast an artificial light on the facade of the buildings across the way and on the street between. They gave the Tōkaidō the appearance of a stage. The travelers were extras entering and exiting. Dancers were about to open the program." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When the seven women passed, drumming and singing and dancing, several of the tea house customers applauded. Musui had taken off his big hat, and it hung against his back. His page's face was still covered by his hat, but Hanshiro recognized his clothes and the lithe body inside them. He took deep, slow breaths until the merry caravan passed and the music and laughter faded." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was time to forget about boys. It was time to see who the bandaged painter of lanterns really was. Hanshiro picked up his kettle of sake and affected the exaggeratedly upright manner of someone drunk trying to appear sober. He wove a tipsy course to the bench where the artist sat brooding." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"'To keep silent and act wise,' \" Hanshiro recited, holding up the kettle." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"'Still not as good as drinking sake, getting drunk, and weeping.' \" The artist finished the poem through clenched teeth. He was in pain from the blow inflicted by the butt of Cat's naginata.\n\nHanshiro introduced himself as the Cup No Man Can Finish, rōnin and underpaid fencing instructor for the spoiled brats of minor nobility. The westcountryman confided that he was called Mumyosai, Nameless, rōnin and underpaid painter of Benkei on the Gojo Bridge." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As the evening progressed Hanshiro and Nameless drained a few more jars of sake and drank toasts to the old days." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They were waving their bowls in rhythm and chanting ancient Chinese poetry about overflowing wine when the inn's servants closed the big front shutters. They were still chanting when teams of waitresses heaved them to their feet and half carried them, half led them to the steaming bath." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Expand the story by adding 6 sentences." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"A beautiful woman is an ax that cuts off a man's life.\" But even as he said it, Gobei the gambler studied the portraits in the album with care. He turned the heavy, pleated pages slowly. The wrestler Mountain Wind looked over his shoulder.\n\nThe rest of the card players crowded around. The fifteen-year-old artist Okamura Masanobu hadn't included just any women in this collection." }, { "from": "human", "value": "These were twelve of the most beautiful courtesans of Edo's Floating World." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Masanobu had caught each in a gesture, in a moment stolen from time and fixed for eternity. They were gazing into their mirrors or lounging with robes draped carelessly. They were walking in high lacquered geta through new-fallen snow or smoking a pipe on a riverside balcony and staring pensively out over the water.\n\n\"Which one ran away?\" someone asked.\n\n\"Number seven.\"\n\n\"I was there the night she escaped.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Mountain Wind pointed a thick finger at the page and began again the tale of his experiences at the Perfumed Lotus." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hanshiro could hear the men's loud conversation through the floor of his upstairs room. He knew that his prey, the young Lady Asano, was in the album of Masanobu's women. It was a copy of the book Kira's retainers had been discreetly showing to innkeepers, kago bearers, and postboys all along the road.\n\nOne of those retainers had bet it and lost it to Gobei two hands ago. He had gone out into the rainy night with his shoulders bunched against the cold and his thoughts written on his face. He was trying to invent a lie that would save him from the unpleasantness of disemboweling himself to appease his irascible lord." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hanshiro had disdained to approach any of Kira's lackeys, so Cat's picture had eluded him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He refused to join the crowd now." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He stayed where he was, alone in the small room at the back of the house." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The gambler Gobei had been dealing cards in the room beneath him since the hour of the Cock.\n\nHanshiro knelt with spine straight and with his legs folded under him. He held a paintbrush poised, resting lightly between the tips of his thumb and index finger. He seemed entranced by the sheet of white paper on the low writing stand in front of him. To draw bamboo he knew he must see it first in his mind. Then he must transcribe what he saw as quickly as the hawk stooped on the hare." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He was so engrossed he barely heard the shoosh, shoosh of Gobei's stockinged feet on the polished boards of the corridor floor." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Isogashii?\" Gobei called politely from the doorway. \"Busy?\"\n\n\"Irasshai. Welcome.\"\n\nGobei entered and sat on the other side of the clay-lined firewell. The coals in the well spread a welcome heat into the damp chill of the room. Both men sat sideways to the door, so that neither would have his back to it.\n\nGobei crossed his legs, bringing his feet under his baggy yellow hakama stenciled with dark blue ginkgo leaves." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He laid the folio, its cardboard covers tied shut with gold silk cord, on the tatami." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hanshiro drew in a deep breath. His hand dropped suddenly, and he drew the bamboo with swift, sure strokes—strokes called by names like \"goldfish tail,\" \"startled rook,\" \"stag's horns,\" and \"fishbones.\" He was using the technique called \"flying white,\" painting with a fairly dry brush so that the paper could be seen underneath. He worked unperturbed by Gobei's presence.\n\nGobei shook back the sleeves of his quilted silk jacket and poured himself tea. \"Aren't you done dabbing at that paper yet?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He added more tea to Hanshiro's almost empty cup." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Confucius said a work is finished not when the last thing has been added, but when the last thing has been taken away.\"\n\n\"As one whose business it is to take away the last thing, I can only agree with Confucius.\" Gobei shifted his toothpick from one side of his mouth to the other. He had full lips nestled in a black beard, a high, narrow nose, bushy brows, and eyes that were little more than slits in his broad face.\n\n\"Have you finished taking away the last things from the unfortunates downstairs?\" Hanshiro asked.\n\n\"I left them the hair in their anuses and their manly organs.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Gobei grinned wolfishly. \"Peasants are not called the 'great august treasure' for nothing. It is their fate to give, mine to take.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He reached for the tobacco canister on the wooden, boxlike tray the waitress had set beside him. He packed the bowl of his oversize pipe and lit it with an ember from the firebox on the tray.\n\nHe held the big pipe horizontally in the palm of his hand, with his fingers folded diagonally over the stem. Brigands carried large pipes and held them this way, and it was an affectation of Gobei's.\n\n\"You can work with me, you know,\" Gobei said. \"My offer stands, old friend. You can be a rich man and live with a fan in your left hand.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hanshiro's mouth twitched in a shadow of a wry smile as he bowed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His nod expressed refusal, but with just the proper balance of sincere regret, irony, and condescension.\n\nHe added an elegant tracery of characters down the upper right-hand side of the page, a poem of his own composing. He should have been offended by Gobei's effrontery, but he had known him too long for that. And he found him amusing.\n\nBesides, Gobei was the head of the gamblers' syndicate. His word was law along the Tōkaidō among the hundreds of men who were considered members of the guild." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Some of the men in the guild made their livings by more nefarious means than dice and cards." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Taking issue with their leader would have gained Hanshiro nothing and could have put obstacles in his way." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Gobei leaned over to inspect Hanshiro's ink painting of bamboo bent before a wind. \" 'When calm, paint iris.' \" He quoted the ancients. \" 'When angry, bamboo.'\"\n\n\"Anger is like breaking wind in a typhoon,\" Hanshiro said. \"It provides temporary relief but avails little.\"\n\n\"This fleeting world is temporary; but temporary is better than nothing at all. As the poets say, 'Enjoy life! Tomorrow we may end as sea wrack on the rocky shore of Oya-Shirazu, Not-Knowing-Parents.' \" Gobei lifted the large folio to his forehead with exaggerated courtesy, then bowed as he held it out to Hanshiro.\n\n\"I brought you the book,\" he said. \"But you need not leaf through it by the light of the night lantern while you bedew the palm of your hand. Self-pleasure is like scratching your foot through the sole of your sandal. Allow me to show you Odawara's garden of night-blooming flowers. I will introduce you to Lotus.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Gobei molded the air sensuously with his hands." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Her buttocks remind one of a ripe peach.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Another time, Gobei-san.\" Hanshiro laid the unopened folio aside. At least with Gobei Hanshiro didn't have to bother with punctilio.\n\n\"From your interest in young Masanobu's art, I assume you're hunting the yakko, the samurai courtesan, and not the boat-swallowing fish who's been reducing the population of late.\" Gobei leaned forward and grinned across the firewell. \"I hear that rascal made soldier soup of two Edo men in Hiratsuka.\" Gobei laughed in delight at his own pun on the words for soup stock made of dried bonito and the word for soldier." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I'm hunting the impossible, a night's sleep in a dry bed free of fleas and cutpurses.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hanshiro cleaned his ink stone. He washed out his brush and laid it on a silk pad. He emptied the dirty water from his gourdshaped porcelain container into the wide-mouthed jug placed there for that purpose. With a silk cloth he wiped each item in his writing case and replaced them in their proper compartments.\n\n\"You needn't have rushed to Odawara through that tantrum of a storm in the dark of night. This story of the Asano wench's escape is a ruse, Tosa-san.\" Gobei lowered his voice." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Sound carried through paper walls. \"Kira had her kidnapped from the brothel. He has dispatched her spirit to the Western Paradise and her body to the burning grounds at Hashiba. You're chasing her smoke, my boy. Kira's conducting this hoax of a search to allay suspicions. Everyone knows it.\"\n\nGobei knocked the dottle from his pipe into the bamboo container in the tobacco box. \"Do you really think a woman would be foolish enough to attempt the Hakone barrier,\" he continued, \"to tread on the tail of the tiger?\"\n\n\"I have no pressing engagements. I shall wait by the road and see who passes.\"\n\n\"Have a care, my friend. This murderer has the authorities in an uproar.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Thank you for the warning, Gobei-san.\"\n\n\"And now I shall pay a visit to the white-necked ones. I stayed away from the House of the Wisteria several days last month when I was ill with stomach pains. When I returned, my sweethearts there held me down and threatened to cut off my topknot for neglecting them.\"\n\n\"If that's the worst they threaten to cut off, you have nothing to fear.\"\n\n\"Would you honor a miserable wretch by allowing him to add this magnificent painting to his collection of works in the Tosa school?\" Gobei bowed. When Hanshiro handed him the rolled paper, he stowed it carefully in the gap where the left side of his jacket overlapped the right.\n\nGobei rose and shut his fan with a clack of farewell." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As he left he opened it again, gesturing with it in the slow dance of the No drama." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "With his other hand he slapped his rear end to keep time. He took the part of Ono no Komachi, an old woman possessed of the ghost of a former lover. The words to his song, however, were of his own invention.\n\n\"I... am... the... Devil... farting,\" he declaimed in the nasal singsong of No. The technique made the words sound stretched and distorted. \"I am the ba-a-a-stard child of the god of swi-i-indlers.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "As Gobei disappeared down the hall, Hanshiro could hear his singing and slapping and tongue clicking in imitation of wooden clappers grow fainter." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The maid appeared to lay out the bedding, trim the lamp wick, and lower the wooden nightshade over the lantern. Then she bowed and wished him a pleasant rest.\n\nWhen she had knelt in the corridor and closed the door in front of her own bowing face, Hanshiro sat alone in the shadows a while longer. He listened to the night crier clapping his wooden blocks and warning against carelessness with fire. He watched the slow undulating pulse of the lantern's shadow on the wall.\n\nFinally he untied the cord and opened the folio." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He turned the pages slowly and stopped at the seventh portrait." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It carried the red, gourdshaped seal and the words \"From the genuine brush of the Japanese artist Okamura Masanobu.\"\n\nCat was posed in front of a latticework bamboo fence covered with wisteria flowers. Her body was half-turned toward the right edge of the page, but she was glancing over her shoulder to the left. Cat's sumptuous robes and sash were hand-colored in heron's-egg-green and rose tints.\n\nShe was holding a half-opened paper umbrella at an angle off from her left shoulder. She wore a man's headband rakishly tied at the side in a large, flat knot." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A wind was blowing her robe against her left hip and thigh and lifting her hem to reveal the men's gaiters that women of fashion were sporting in the Eastern Capital.\n\nMasanobu had spared no detail of Cat's dress. Her face, however, was difficult to distinguish from the others in the album. Masanobu had given all the women the stylized features considered most desirable. He had painted Cat with brows thin as black silk thread, tapered eyes that were little more than slits, a long hooked line for a nose, an impossibly tiny mouth, full cheeks, and a round chin.\n\nBut Masanobu had captured something in Cat's face that none of the other women had." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As she stared over her shoulder, the look in her eyes was defiant." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was the pose and the look Musui's handsome young disciple had given Hanshiro the night he'd discussed poetry with the monks at the temple near Kawasaki." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was the look he had mistaken for lust. Suddenly Hanshiro realized why the boy had seemed familiar. He resembled the nun he had seen near Lord Asano's grave at Spring Hill Temple.\n\nThe heat that reddened Hanshiro's face was as much chagrin as a surge of desire mixed with admiration. The young Lady Asano had made a fool of him, just as she was making fools of Kira's men. Hanshiro didn't like being reduced to the level of Kira's men, but he had to admit the Lady Cat was very good." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Perhaps she had mastered the art of sai-minjutsu, hypnotizing her enemies." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hanshiro closed the book and retied the cords around it. Then he took from the front of his jacket the flat brocade case like the one in which he carried his paper handkerchiefs. Inside was the silk cloth with the crossed-feather crest. He unwrapped it and held it in the palm of one hand. With his fingers he stroked the coil of Cat's hair, black and glossy as a leopard flower seed.\n\nNow he could combine the perfume of the incense in her room and the cool sleekness of her hair with her face and her form." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He could construct her from memory and his own heart's yearning. Like the image of the bamboo he had just painted, Cat appeared in his mind's eye.\n\nHe could imagine this length of hair flowing in a cascade down her slender back. He pictured it lying along the curve of her haunch. He saw it swaying as she walked in the \"floating step,\" the hesitant, hip-swinging gait of the courtesan on promenade.\n\nHanshiro felt as though a loop were tightening around his heart." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A rope woven from the locks of a woman's hair, the old poem went, would bind a very elephant." }, { "from": "human", "value": "What was he to do?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Lady Asano's quest was madness. She would surely be caught, and even if she weren't, she could accomplish nothing. No vendetta had been registered in her father's name. Her uncle was in exile. The Akō retainers had scattered. Their leader, the Councilor Oishi Kuranosuke, had sunk in a mire of debauchery." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Lady Asano would be shamed and executed for her folly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hanshiro saw, suddenly, this lovely hair crusted with blood.\n\nHe decided to start a rumor in the morning to throw Kira's men off the trail. He knew he would have to find Cat before she reached the Hakone barrier. But he also knew he could do it. He now knew what she looked like.\n\nHe would return her discreetly to the Perfumed Lotus before she was connected with the attack at the ferry and the murders in the bathhouse." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Some rich merchant or lord would redeem her." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 4 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She could start another life as an outside consort or a daimyō's pampered woman of the province.\n\nHanshiro convinced himself that what happened to Her Ladyship after he returned her was a fire across the river. It was no concern of his. Even so, a woman's laughter in another room set his heart to pounding." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Let's engage in a collaborative writing exercise in the Japan, nonfiction, memoirs, 1300s genre. I'll provide a starting point, and you'll continue with seven sentences in the style of Lady Nijō." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "For all that, even if it were only a princess and not a prince who was born, the child's grandfather, the Retired Emperor Go Saga, made a great fuss over her and had the Fifth Night and the Seventh Night ceremonies performed in a magnificent manner.\n\nAfter the Seventh Night celebrations, the Retired Emperor was talking with the ex-Emperor in his apartments at the Tominokoji palace when, about two o'clock in the morning, a great wind began to blow in the orangery with a sound as of waves beating wildly on a rocky shore. I was told to go out to see what it was. I did so, and this is what I saw. Jumping up and down were ten or so brightly shining objects, each about the size of a wine bowl, bluish white in colour, with heads looking rather like jelly-fish and with long slender tails. I shrieked with fright and rushed back inside.\n\n\"Why are you making such a din?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "the courtiers in the anteroom said. \"They are just death-watch fires.\"\n\nOther people reported seeing something like slimy seaweed scattered about under the great willow tree. As a result of these omens, the ex-Emperor called in the soothsayers and had rituals for long life performed as they are at the temple of Taisan in China.\n\nAbout the ninth month, the Retired Emperor Go Saga was reported to be very ill. His legs and feet were swollen. He was cauterised with moxa a number of times, but to everyone's great alarm this had little effect and he grew worse every day. The year drew to a close and New Year's Day came, but no one had any heart for celebrations with the Retired Emperor so ill." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His condition was so threatening that about the seventeenth of the first month, the Retired Emperor was taken by palanquin to the palace at Saga. The ex-Emperor followed him in a carriage. I was in the same carriage. The Retired Emperor's consort, the ex-Empress Omiya, and her sister, the ex-Empress Higashi Nijo, were in another carriage, accompanied by Lady Mikushige, who was at the moment the ex-Emperor's favourite lady-in-waiting.\n\nIn the presence of the ex-Emperor, the Retired Emperor's physicians, Wake no Tanenari and Wake no Moronari, had prepared medicine for the patient to drink on the way. This had been poured into jars which were carried by the Gon Chunagon, Yoshida no Tsuneto, and a guard, Nobutomo. When they arrived at Uchino, the site of the ancient Imperial palace, they wished to give the patient some of the medicine to drink, but both the jars were found to be empty—completely dry." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was a mystery where the medicine had disappeared. This incident added to the patient's depression and possibly aggravated his illness.\n\nThe ex-Emperor stayed at the Oi mansion within the precincts of the Saga palace and was constantly sending people, men or women, high or low, to enquire how his father was at that moment. One had to go along a roofed connecting passage to the palace, and I well remember how I dreaded this walk alone at dead of night with the roar of the river Oi in my ears.\n\nAt the beginning of the second month we were just waiting for the last moments of the Retired Emperor. The two High Commissioners, Hojo no Tokisuke and Hojo no Yoshimune, arrived on the ninth to express the sympathy and concern of the Military Government at Kamakura. The Dainagon Saionji no Sanekane made public announcement of the fact that they had shown grief and expressed their condolences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The reigning Emperor Kameyama arrived on the eleventh, stayed for the twelfth, and returned to the Capital on the thirteenth. Everyone was very busy. There was no sound of music in the palace. The Emperor and his brother, the ex-Emperor, met and wept together, all the bystanders being moved to weep in sympathy.\n\nAbout six o'clock on the evening of the fifteenth day, a great column of smoke was seen rising in the direction of the Capital. I asked whose house it was and was told that it was the house in Rokuhara of the High Commissioner, Hojo no Tokisuke, which had been suddenly attacked and set on fire.On the morning of the seventeenth everyone was greatly alarmed by a sudden change for the worse in the patient's condition. The learned prelate, Keikai, of the Enryakuji temple, and the abbess of the Ojo-in temple came and exhorted him to put his trust in the invocation of Amida Buddha." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Forasmuch as in your previous existence,\" they said, \"you faithfully observed the Ten Virtues, Your Majesty has in this life enjoyed all the blessings and glories which appertain to an earthly throne and you are well assured of a life of bliss in the next world. Take, therefore, your seat now on the exalted throne of the Lotus Flower so that you may be a guide to Paradise for those who still sojourn in the prison-house of this world.\"\n\nSo they tried, sometimes with gentle persuasion and sometimes with warning exhortations, to convert him to faith in the invocation of the sacred name of Amida, but in vain, for the Retired Emperor refused to sever himself from the ties of earthly relationships and effect a last-minute change of heart.\n\nSo at last on the seventeenth day of the second month in the ninth year of the Bun-ei era, he breathed his last at six o'clock in the evening in the fifty-third year of his age. The whole sky was suddenly overcast, and the whole nation overwhelmed with grief. Gay floral dresses were discarded, and black mourning robes were donned.\n\nOn the eighteenth, the body was removed to the Yakuso-in temple in the palace. Fujiwara no Sanefuyu, Director of the Imperial Archives, arrived, bearing messages of condolence from the Imperial Court." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "All the sons of the Retired Emperor who had entered the religious life came from their temples, the Ninnaji, Emman-in, Bodai-in, and Shoren-in temples, to take part in the funeral ceremonies. The grief expressed at the ceremony that night was beyond the power of pen to describe. Everyone was expecting that the Gon Chunagon, Yoshida no Tsuneto, who had been such a special favourite of the deceased and had mourned his passing more deeply than anyone else, would take the opportunity to renounce the world and enter religion. People were therefore much surprised to see him in his formal dress of soft silk crepe carrying the late Emperor's ashes in an urn to the Yakuso-in temple. The ex-Emperor's grief was very deep, his tears flowing without ceasing night and day so that all the people round him were moved to tears. During the period of national mourning, there was no music, and no loud shouting was allowed, not even by forerunners calling out to the people to clear them off the roads as a procession approached. One felt afraid that even the cherry trees when they bloomed that year would put on a mantle as sombre as any monk's habit." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "My father, the Dainagon, wore deep mourning and suggested that I should do so too.\n\nThe ex-Emperor disagreed. \"She is still very young,\" he said. \"She need not go into deep mourning. She can wear just the ordinary mourning.\" And I did as he wished.\n\nMy father made several applications to the ex-Emperor and his mother the Dowager Empress Omiya for permission to retire and enter the religious life, but they refused, thinking this step was not warranted by the circumstances. His grief seemed deeper than other people's and he visited the grave every day. He renewed his appeal through his cousin, the Gon Dainagon, Minamoto no Sadazane." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "AI Prompt: Generate eight sentences sentences. Emulate Lady Nijō. Adhere to Japan, nonfiction, memoirs, 1300s genre conventions." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Since the Military Government at Kamakura was receiving reports that relations between the two ex-Emperors were not good, the new ex-Emperor, with a view to improving these, came on a visit to see the ball-court and enjoy seeing a ball game." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "What has to be done?\" the ex-Emperor asked the Great Lord Konoe. \"What preparations do we have to make?\"\n\n\"Refreshments should be served early in the game,\" said Lord Konoe. \"Dried persimmons soaked in wine should be served by a lady-in-waiting while the players are changing their clothes.\"\n\nOn being asked to suggest the name of a lady for this service, Lord Konoe thought that from the points of view of age and rank I should be the most suitable for this duty. I decided to wear a set of seven robes of dark red lined with violet pink, a scarlet robe over it with a cloak of yellow lined with deeper yellow and a blue mantle and a skirt of raw silk. Underneath I wore gowns of red shading off to pink." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When the new ex-Emperor arrived, he found his seat placed opposite his host's. \"This is not as it should be,\" he said. \"When the late Emperor was alive, he decided how we should sit.\" He then had his own seat moved down to a lower place.\n\n\"In The Tale of Genji the Emperor has his host's seat moved up to face his,\" the ex-Emperor said when he came in and saw how the seats had been placed. \"It is strange that today you should have moved your seat to a lower level than your host's.\" People thought his allusion to the change of seats both graceful and cordial.\n\nThe banquet proceeded uneventfully, the wine-cups being offered formally three-times-three." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The Crown Prince arrived and the ball game began. Then, at half time, the new ex-Emperor went through the eastern door to the pavilion. Betto went with me carrying a wine-cup in a basket-work cover and a kettle containing the wine with the persimmons soaking in it. She wore a set of five robes of light green lined with purple, a scarlet over-robe, a white cloak lined with blue, and a yellow mantle lined with light green.\n\nI offered the wine to the new ex-Emperor. \"You taste first,\" he said, kindly offering the cup to me. He sat watching the ball game till twilight and left for his own palace with torches burning.\n\nNext day he sent his retainer, Nakayori, the son of my old nurse, with a letter to me written on thin red paper attached to a willow twig with the poem," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "How can I believe\n\nIt was in reality\n\nThat I saw your face?\n\nRather was it in a dream,\n\nA dream that will never end.\n\nI could not be so impolite as not to reply. My poem in answer reminded him that the cherry blossom, however beautiful, begins to fall as soon as it blooms, so fleeting are the things of this world. This I wrote on a sheet of pale blue paper attached to a spray of cherry blossom," }, { "from": "human", "value": "What does it matter" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 5 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "If it was in reality\n\nOr a passing dream?\n\nRather think how the cherry blossom\n\nNo sooner blooms than it falls.\n\nFrom this time he often wrote to me, but I discouraged his approaches, and finally had my carriage made ready and left the palace for the home of my cousin the Dainagon Minamoto no Morochika." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Let's engage in a collaborative writing exercise in the Japan, nonfiction, memoirs, 1300s genre. I'll provide a starting point, and you'll continue with 3 sentences in the style of Lady Nijō." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The hall of the Rokujo palace having been rebuilt, the Emperor moved there in the fourth month. The service of dedication took place before a picture of the Mandala symbol hung on the wall with the Tendai High Priest Kogo presiding and twenty priests assisting. Later another service was held in the Jocho chapel at the palace with the priest Kenjichi officiating." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The removal had been made just before. There were five carriages of ladies in the procession. I rode in the place of honour in the first carriage, with Lady Kyogoku in the second place on the right." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I wore a set of seven robes of scarlet with a purple lining and a blue cloak lined with light red, Lady Kyogoku a set of five light purple robes with a blue lining.\n\nFor three days after the removal, we remained indoors wearing white with dark scarlet mantles and skirts. A competition of garden-plot flower arrangements was organised to mark the occasion." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The courtyard was divided into plots and allotted to each of the lords and ladies of the middle and upper ranks. I was assigned two small plots on the eastern side of the main building near the Jocho chapel. In my plot I placed a beautiful little arched bridge, but to everyone's amusement my uncle Takaaki stole it in the night and placed it in his own plot." }, { "from": "human", "value": "In the eighth month the ex-Emperor fell ill. At first it did not appear to be anything very serious, although his appetite was poor and he perspired a good deal." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Still, the symptoms continued for a long time and we began to get rather worried. Doctors were called in and he was cauterised at as many as ten points. Nevertheless, his condition showed no signs of improvement." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Services of intercession for long life were held for seven days from the eighth day of the month, but at the end of the period his condition remained unchanged.\n\nThe Erudite Priest who now came to visit his brother was the same priest who had come to visit him in the spring and who had declared his attachment to me with his words and his tears. He had reminded me of this on every occasion whenever I had been sent with a message to him by the ex-Emperor, but I had so far evaded any further intimacy on one pretext or another." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "On one occasion I had received an affectionate letter from him urging me to make the response to his pleas which he desired. The letter had embarrassed me so much that I had torn off a piece of hair-tying paper, had written on it the one word \"Dream\" and left it near him as if I had accidentally dropped it. On another occasion when I had gone to the temple with a message for him, he had thrown towards me a spray of star anise." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I had picked it up unobserved and found written on the leaves the poem,\n\nRising up betimes\n\nTo pick this spray of anise," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I find wet with dew\n\nThese sleeves long since drenched with tears\n\nThat my dreams have not come true." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I thought the poem very cleverly contrived, and after this I found myself more inclined to think tenderly of him, and rather looked forward to having the opportunity to see him whenever I was sent to the temple with a message for him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When I was there, I found too that I could sit and talk to him and answer him without any feeling of embarrassment.\n\nWhen he came to visit the ex-Emperor at this time, he was grieved to find that the ex-Emperor's health was not improving, and asked that some article of clothing that had been in contact with the ex-Emperor's body should be taken into the chapel before the service began.\n\nI was therefore told to take a robe which the ex-Emperor had been wearing\"Where shall I put His Majesty's robe?\" I asked him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Place it in the reading room next door,\" he said. I went into the room and found it lighted up. Then to my surprise he followed me in." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"'Buddha leads us even when we go along dark paths,'\" he quoted, weeping, as he took me in his arms. I was shocked at his action, but he was not someone whom I could push away or tell to take his hands off me. Resisting the impulse to cry out, I could only whisper a reminder of the warnings of Buddha, but no plea of mine was of any avail." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Our dream of love was, however, of very short duration and the memory of it now too faint to recall, for it was interrupted almost immediately by the priests calling out that the service was about to begin.\n\nAt this he fled out by the other door. \"See me again after the service at dawn,\" he said as he left." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The service proceeded uneventfully, but it was horrifying for me to think how unworthy he was to be there taking part in this solemn service. The shadowless bright light of the candles contrasted so startlingly with my thoughts of the darkness of the world to come that I was still further saddened.\n\nI was not exactly burning with love for him, but after the midnight service I went to his room unobserved." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The service was over and we could meet with less apprehension. I was sorry to see him weep so pathetically.\n\nWhen the noise of people moving about at dawn disturbed us, he pressed me to exchange with him the gowns we had worn next to our bodies so that we might have something to remind us of this meeting." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The sadness of parting when we got up and left did, however, seem to be somewhat one-sided." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was true that I could have wished that he had been able to stay longer with me, but it was with a look of despair on his face that he went away. I could never forget that look.\n\nWhen I went back to my room, I found a poem on a torn-off scrap of paper attached to the hem of the gown which he had given me in exchange for my own," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In sorrow gazing\n\nAt the autumn moon at night,\n\nI wonder whether" }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was in reality" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Or in a dream that we met." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I wondered when he had found the time to write it. I could no longer doubt the strength of his affection, and taking advantage of every opportunity while he was at the palace, I visited him in his room every other night.\n\nThe priest must have carried out this series of services with a lack of devotional purpose which must have been most displeasing to Buddha, but in spite of this, at the end of the twice-seven days of continual intercession, the ex-Emperor showed definite signs of improvement in health, and after the third period of seven days the prince went back to his temple." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"When shall we have another opportunity of meeting?\" he had said to me the night before he left. \"I am afraid that the dust is going to collect on the floor of the chapel of the invocation of the Sacred Name of Amida and the fire on the altar will become dim. If you feel about me as I do about you, you will put on a habit of the same dark hue as mine and retire with me into the depths of the mountains where we may spend in peace our remaining years in this transient world.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "This proposal showed a sad lack of worldly wisdom on the part of the prince and was really too shocking even to consider." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Yet I could not help being moved by his words, wondering how long he had been turning over this scheme in his mind. It was sad indeed to watch him getting up on this last morning as the bell for dawn rang out and see him trying to hide his tears which, I was much afraid, might reveal to all our secret. So with the last day of the prayers for the ex-Emperor's well-being, I was left alone with new worries added to a heart already overflowing with griefs and anxieties." }, { "from": "human", "value": "In the ninth month the Ceremony of Offering Flowers to Buddha was held, the shining newness of the Rokujo palace adding beauty to the scene." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As the new ex-Emperor had asked that a lady might be selected for his service, all the ladies were vying with each other in attracting notice, but I remained gloomy and unapproachable." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "After the ceremony the two ex-Emperors went to the new palace at Fushimi to plant pine tree seedlings. Lord Konoe was to have accompanied them but instead he sent a poem expressing the hope that the newly-planted pine trees might flourish for thousands of years to come,\n\nMay the young pine trees" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Planted now at Fushimi" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Live a thousand years" }, { "from": "human", "value": "And flourish, together with" }, { "from": "human", "value": "the palace of Fushimi." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The ex-Emperor replied with a poem also praying for the prosperity of the Fushimi palace,\n\nFor a thousand years\n\nMay the Fushimi palace" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 4 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Flourish and prosper\n\nAs do the ancient pine trees\n\nStanding upon the mountain.\n\nThe two ex-Emperors stayed two days at Fushimi, held a drinking party together happily, then returned." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "user starts, u write ~three sentences more. copy Lady Nijō's style" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The child was born on the sixth day of the eleventh month and the prince continued to visit me every night. This was causing me a good deal of uneasiness, but he took no notice of my complaints and late on the night of the eleventh he came as usual.\n\n\"The whole nation is in a state of turmoil,\" he said. \"Rumour has it that the sacred tree of the Kasuga shrine which was brought up to the Capital by armed monks the year before last is to be taken back to Nara.We spent the whole night talking together in this strain with no sleep at all, and when he got up to go, it was already broad daylight." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The house in which I lived being inside the same fence as the main house, anyone who left my house could not avoid being noticed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He therefore stayed with me all the day so that his visit could be kept secret. I was much afraid that he might be seen and recognised, although no one in the neighbourhood knew his identity except his page. He was therefore quite at his ease sitting with me, undisturbed by any fear of discovery." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As for me, I could not understand how he could be so unperturbed; my heart was in a flutter all the day." }, { "from": "human", "value": "We talked on and on all through the day." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He told me what he had done when we parted in bitterness under that morning moon. We spoke of my disappearance. \"It was a great shock,\" he said, \"when I heard that you had run away from court and that your whereabouts were unknown. There was no one to whom I could talk about it. So I set myself the task of copying out the Five Great Mahayana sutras. Copying characters from your letters I fixed one to each volume of the sutras in token that I had undertaken the task of copying these sutras to further my ardent desire while still in this world to spend one more night with you in exchanging pledges of love. That shows the measure of my improper love for you. I finished copying the sutras, but I held no ceremony of dedication to celebrate the completion of the work, for I wished to celebrate that together with you when we were reunited after our rebirth. For if I give these volumes of the sutras which I have copied, over two hundred of them, into the safe-keeping of the Dragon King in his palace under the sea, they will surely help us to be reborn into this world together, and then we will hold the ceremony of dedication together. So if I die, use these sutras with the wood on my funeral pyre.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The utter depravity of his ideas terrified me. \"Let's content ourselves with the prayer that we may be reborn together in Paradise on the same lotus leaf,\" I said.\n\nBut he went on with his wild ideas." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No, I cannot give up thoughts of treading the way of love with you in this world,\" he said with the utmost sincerity." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I am determined to be reborn as a man in this world. The smoke that rises from my funeral pyre will turn to you and will not depart from you to disappear into the sky.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He dozed for a little while and then he awoke with a startled look and broke into a perspiration.\n\n\"What is the matter?\" I asked.\n\n\"I have just had a dream,\" he answered, \"in which I was a mandarin duckJust before dawn he prepared to leave as I did not think it proper for him to stay another day." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The morning moon was about to set behind the mountains, and a bank of cloud on the western hills was whitening as those in the east were disclosing themselves." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He went away as the dawn bells rang out, and I missed him much more than ever before." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Soon the page who lived in the neighbourhood brought me this poem,\n\nNow that I have left\n\nMy heart behind with you," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "No part left in me,\n\nYet why is it I am still\n\nPensively longing for you?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I felt a greater sorrow at parting from him and a greater love for him than ever before, greater than I could bear." }, { "from": "human", "value": "With this filling my mind, I wrote a poem in answer," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Set my sleeves with yours\n\nAnd see which is drenched the more\n\nWith tears of sorrow," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Then tell me which one of us\n\nMisses the other the more.\n\nLater in the same day I heard that he had gone to stay at the Tominokoji palace, and on about the eighteenth day I learnt that the doctors had been called to him as he was suffering from the epidemic which was sweeping through the country." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Then to my great distress I heard that he was dangerously ill." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "On the twenty-first I received a letter from him. \"I did not think,\" he wrote, \"when we met the other night that this was to be the last time we should meet in this world. It seems to me now that the strength of the ties which bind me to the things of this world is more sinful than the impure life I have lived. What can be the meaning of that dream I had that night?\" At the end of his letter he added the poem," }, { "from": "human", "value": "My body may die" }, { "from": "human", "value": "But my longing heart is left" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Behind with you here," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "My last prayer that my smoke may\n\nTurn towards the place where you are.\n\nHow could I possibly describe my feelings on reading this letter?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "My grief was unbearable when I realised that our parting the other morning was in all probability for ever." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I wrote a poem in answer to his," }, { "from": "human", "value": "If I live till then," }, { "from": "human", "value": "I hope I shall see the smoke" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Rise and turn towards me\n\nBut the question still remains,\n\n'Can I bear to live so long?'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In the circumstances I thought it best not to write all I felt, for I was still not without hope that this was not the end of everything, but on the twenty-fifth day of the eleventh month I learnt that he had passed away. Everything now seemed to me as ephemeral as a dream within a dream. I could not tell whether it was reality or whether everything was a dream." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I did not know what to do, because perhaps my whole life had been such a life of sin.\n\nI pondered over all the details of our relations from the time when he had complained that his love for me had found no answering love. I recalled our meeting when he had left me with such bitter feelings." }, { "from": "human", "value": "If only I had never met him again after that sad parting, I should not have grieved in the way I was doing now." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The sky was overcast that evening with fast-moving clouds and occasional showers. There was a deep gloom everywhere. The last letter he had written me hoping that the smoke of his funeral pyre would turn towards me lay as a forlorn reminder of him in my writing case." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His perfume still lingered on my sleeve which he had used as a pillow. I longed for him and missed him more than ever. I wished even more than before to renounce the world to enter the True Way, but to do that at this present moment might revive the rumours and injure his reputation." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I felt thwarted and frustrated." }, { "from": "human", "value": "At daybreak next morning I was told that the page boy had come." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "More or less in a trance I hurried out myself to see him. His robe of yellow lined with blue with a design of pheasants embroidered on it was creased and crumpled, his sleeves wet with the tears he had shed through the night. It would be impossible to set down on paper the story he told me with tears that day." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "That night, when he had parted from me, leaving me the poem beginning, \"In sorrow gazing at the autumn moon at night,\" we had exchanged gowns. Mine he had always kept neatly folded small beside him on his prayer desk while he was at his devotions. Now on the evening of the twenty-fourth, he put it on." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Have my body cremated with this gown on,\" he said to the grieving page boy." }, { "from": "human", "value": "At the same time he handed him a letter for me with a present." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The page then handed me a large letter case, gold-lacquered with a design of a sacred sakaki tree. In it was a letter, if it could be called that. The handwriting resembled nothing so much as the footprints of a bird, the meaning impossible to decipher." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It began with the words \"For one night more\" and I could hazard a guess that the next words might be \"in this present world\" but the rest of it was completely indecipherable." }, { "from": "human", "value": "My tears fell uncontrollably at this evidence of the writer's extremity, and that made the characters even more impossible to read." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I felt that I was being washed away by the same swift current as he, and my thoughts expressed themselves in the poem,\n\nIf to the next world\n\nI could go to meet him there" }, { "from": "human", "value": "At the Three-Way Stream," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Then would I willingly go,\n\nSacrificing my own life.\n\nIt seems that even at such a time and stricken with grief, my mind was still capable of composing poems." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Inside the letter case too with the poem was a bag of gold dust.\n\nAfter telling me how the prince's body had been cremated with my gown still on it and how his copy of the five sutras had been placed on his funeral pyre, the page left the house, still weeping bitterly. Looking after him as he went away, I felt that I should go crazy with grief." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The prince's death must have grieved the ex-Emperor very much, for the two brothers had been very close to each other." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"How are you taking the news of his death?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "he asked in a letter to me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was obviously difficult to give a simple plain answer to such a question as that. The poem accompanying his letter read,\n\nNow that from your sight" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He has faded completely,\n\nStill to the mind's eye\n\nThe face of Wan Morning Moon" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Must still remain clear to you.\n\nTo the poem he added the words, \"The world is truly a world of sorrows. Great was his love for you, and deep must be your grief at his passing. From my heart I feel for you.\"\n\nThere was nothing, I felt, that I could say in answer to that." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I sent only the poem,\n\nImmeasurable\n\nIndeed my grief at his death;" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In my mind's eye though\n\nNot alone seen clearly is\n\nThe face of Wan Morning Moon." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Finding both my heart and my words incapable of expressing my feelings of grief, of love and longing, my days were passed in tears from morning till night.\n\nThe ex-Emperor continued to send me a messenger from time to time. Formerly he had urged me to come back to the palace as soon as possible, but now he only asked me why I was staying away from him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I gathered from his words that his love for me had grown weak, though he did not say so in so many words." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It seemed natural that he should have become indifferent to me, because my misconduct had been repeated more than once, though not quite of my own will." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I was not willing, however, to return to the court, and at last the time came when it was only a day or two to the end of the year. I was sorry both for the departing year and for my own self. I was engaged in copying the Lotus Flower sutra on the back of Wan Morning Moon's letters to me, recalling that he had copied the Five Great Mahayana sutras on the back of my letters to him, but that he would not dedicate the copied sutras to the campaign of people's enlightenment on Buddhism." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was a thousand pities that his endeavour was all for his own life of pleasure in this world." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 1 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The New Year came to my grieving anxiety." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Literary Collaboration Request:\n- Sentence Count: six sentences\n- Stylistic Inspiration: Susan Spann\n- Genre Adherence: mystery, historical fiction, Japan, historical mystery, 1500s" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro and Father Mateo rolled the corpse onto its stomach.\n\n\"Don't do that,\" Akira objected.\n\n\"Don't worry,\" Hiro said, \"I'll turn him over again before anyone sees him. We need to know exactly how he died to determine who killed him.\"\n\nSaburo's back looked cleaner than his chest. The single wound between his shoulders had barely bled enough to stain the surrounding fabric.\n\n\"That's where the dagger was found?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro indicated the wound." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I don't know,\" Akira said. \"I wasn't there. Is that the wound that killed him?\"\n\n\"No,\" Hiro said. \"He was already dead when this happened, or very close.\"\n\n\"You can tell that?\" Akira asked. \"How?\"\n\n\"Men don't bleed after death,\" Hiro said. \"Blood drains from the wounds, but only for a little while and only in the direction of the ground.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Which means Ashikaga-san died facedown,\" Akira said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He straightened as if remembering that death defiled everyone who came in contact with it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"How can you stand to touch him?\"\n\nHiro smiled. \"Fortunately, I live with a priest who can bless the defilement away.\"\n\nFather Mateo gave the shinobi a sideways look. Hiro would rather receive a beating than a blessing.\n\nThey rolled the corpse back to its original position. Saburo's blood-drenched kimono left smudges on the pale floor, but Hiro doubted anyone would notice." }, { "from": "human", "value": "With all the blood, some stains would be expected." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He had learned all he could from the body." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He stood up and studied the room." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Neatly organized bookshelves covered the western wall. Bound volumes occupied the upper shelves while the lower ones held both books and scrolls. Spaces revealed where volumes had been removed, though Hiro didn't notice an obvious pattern.\n\nSaburo's desk looked equally in order. An inkwell and a pitcher of water sat in the right-hand corner, alongside a round ceramic container of pasty vermilion ink. A cylindrical marble seal stood upright beside the container." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The seal represented Saburo's official signature, and Hiro found it interesting that the murderer didn't steal it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A tray of dirty dishes sat on the floor beside the door to the outer office.\n\n\"Did Saburo often eat here?\" Hiro asked.\n\nAkira followed his gaze. \"I wouldn't know. I didn't have much contact with this office.\"\n\nHiro noticed some tiny particles on the floor between the desk and the doorway. He picked one up and rubbed it between his fingers as he raised it to his nose." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What are you doing?\" Akira asked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro inhaled, then lowered his hand and balanced the speck on his finger." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"This is sawdust. Cedar, to be exact.\"\n\n\"Carpenters' dust,\" Akira said. \"It gets everywhere from the construction.\"\n\nHiro remembered the spotless floor around the construction site. Before he decided whether to mention it, Father Mateo asked, \"How often are these offices cleaned?\"\n\n\"Every evening.\" Akira frowned." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Someone must have tracked that in last night, or this morning when they moved Saburo.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We would like to speak with the carpenters,\" Hiro said, \"and also with the maid who discovered the body.\"\n\n\"The carpenters should be here soon,\" Akira said, \"but Hisahide sent the girl to spend a few days with her parents.\"\n\nHiro noted the use of Matsunaga Hisahide's given name. It surprised him. Most men would never refer to their superiors so casually, and until that moment Akira had seemed unusually polite by nature.\n\n\"Does the girl's family live far away?\" Father Mateo asked.\n\n\"I believe they live in Kyoto,\" Akira said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Would it be possible to send a messenger for her?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro asked. \"I would like to know exactly what she saw.\"\n\n\"A wise request,\" said a voice from the outer office.\n\nA samurai stepped into the room with the silent grace of a tiger. His graying hair was pulled back from a shaven forehead that crowned a handsome, emotionless face. He wore a black kimono adorned with the double-diamond Miyoshi mon, and his swords were sheathed in expensive scabbards. His confident posture and slender but muscular build suggested unusual fitness, especially in a man of middle age." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro bowed. Father Mateo followed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The samurai merely nodded in return.\n\n\"Greetings, Matsunaga-sama,\" Akira said, using the higher honorific expected of an assistant addressing a master. \"May I introduce the foreign priest, Father Mat-teo Avilo, and his translator, Matsui Hiro.\"\n\nHiro bowed again, an unnecessary gesture but one that obligated Hisahide to speak first.\n\n\"You are the man who captured Akechi Hideyoshi's murderer.\" Hisahide looked at Hiro as he spoke." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Father Mateo solved the crime,\" the shinobi said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I am merely his translator.\"\n\nHisahide smiled. \"You are Matsui Hiro of Iga Province, second and only surviving son of Matsui Jiro. Your father served his daimyo with honor, though his early death forced you to come to Kyoto and seek employment as a scribe. Three years ago, this foreigner hired you as a translator—a most unfortunate turn of fate, though reports suggest you bear the burden honorably.\"\n\n\"Thank you, Matsunaga-sama,\" Hiro said with another bow.\n\nThe information was mostly wrong, but it accurately reflected the story Hiro had planted upon his arrival in Kyoto. He was glad to know his cover story had fooled the Miyoshi spies.\n\n\"The shogun expects me to find and punish the man who killed his cousin,\" Hisahide said, \"and I expect both of you to help me do it.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We would be honored to assist your investigation,\" Father Mateo said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hisahide turned to Akira. \"You may leave us and send a messenger for the maid who found Saburo.\"\n\nFrustration flickered across Akira's face, but the man bowed and left the room without a word.\n\nWhen he had gone Hisahide said, \"The shogun believes there is no real need for investigation. The dagger that killed Saburo belongs to a man named Ito Kazu.\" He looked at Hiro. \"I also know that Ito-san is a friend of yours.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro returned Hisahide's stare." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He suspected the Akechi investigation was just a convenient excuse to get him to the shogunate. If Kazu couldn't be found and punished, a friend or family member would have to do.\n\n\"Ito Kazu is an acquaintance,\" Hiro said. \"We met at Ginjiro's brewery shortly after I arrived in Kyoto. When we realized we were both from Iga, Kazu offered to help me find a job. Unfortunately, his efforts were unsuccessful.\"\n\n\"I am told you drink together often,\" Hisahide said.\n\n\"Sometimes,\" Hiro said. \"We reminisce about Iga. All men miss their ancestral homes.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hisahide's face revealed nothing." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 4 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Where is Kazu this morning?\"\n\n\"If he murdered a man, he probably fled the city,\" Hiro said. \"It's what I would have done in his place.\"\n\n\"Perhaps, but your response does not answer my question.\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Provide 8 sentences as a continuation." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Thank you for speaking with us,\" Father Mateo said to Ozuru.\n\nThe carpenter bowed and returned to work as Akira gave the Jesuit a disapproving look.\n\nHiro and Father Mateo followed the samurai back into the passage that passed Saburo's office and several other shoji, though the doors were shut, obscuring the rooms beyond.\n\nAt the opposite end of the passage from where they entered, they emerged from the mansion onto a covered veranda abutting a graveled courtyard. A covered walkway led to a one-story kitchen.\n\nHiro looked down and saw his geta, and Father Mateo's, waiting at the edge of the veranda, along with a third pair of about Akira's size.\n\nAkira followed the shinobi's gaze. \"I had a servant bring our sandals.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro nodded and stepped down into his shoes. Akira and Father Mateo did the same.\n\nThe air carried a smoky odor of grilling meat. Hiro's stomach growled as he followed Akira across the yard and up the two wooden steps to the kitchen entrance. The samurai pushed open the swinging doors, revealing a servants' chamber.\n\nThe six-mat room provided a place for maids and other servants to wait between duties. A kettle hung from a chain above the central hearth, as it would in the common room of a home. Tatami covered the floor, though the mats were of lower quality than the ones in the bakufu mansion." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The paneled wooden walls did little to muffle the chopping and clattering from the adjacent kitchen." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A woman knelt by the hearth. She wore a blue kimono and orange obi, and Hiro placed her age at almost twenty. She had an unusual face, the features attractive individually but mismatched as a whole. Full lips overwhelmed her almond eyes and her hair, though glossy, was far too unruly for beauty.\n\nShe saw Akira and bowed her face to the mat. As she straightened, she noticed Father Mateo. She smiled and clasped her hands in supplication.\n\n\"Do not stare!\" Akira ordered." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I apologize.\" She ducked her chin and looked at the floor." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"These men have questions about Ashikaga-san's murder,\" Akira said. \"They want to hear about how you discovered the body.\"\n\nThe woman nodded. Her nose turned red. Pink blotches appeared on her cheeks.\n\nHiro knew Father Mateo could persuade the girl to speak, but only if Akira left the room. Few maids had the courage to speak in front of highly ranked samurai, and the girl's initial reaction wasn't encouraging.\n\nHiro bowed to Akira. \"Miyoshi-san, may I beg a favor? I have heard that the bakufu keeps detailed records of visitors. Could you obtain a list of the people who entered the shogunate yesterday?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Every one?\" Akira asked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Every one who did not leave by sunset,\" Hiro said. \"I regret the inconvenience, but we would be grateful if you obtained this information before we leave.\"\n\nAkira frowned.\n\n\"We understand if you cannot do it,\" Father Mateo said. \"Please let us know who else to ask.\"\n\nThe Jesuit seemed unaware of the insult in his words. No samurai could accuse another of weakness or incompetence without consequence. Fortunately, in a foreigner's mouth the comment seemed only an ignorant oversight." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Still, Hiro wondered whether Akira would take offense." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "After a moment, the samurai nodded curtly. \"I can obtain the information.\"\n\nFather Mateo bowed. \"We are in your debt.\"\n\n\"Do not leave this room until I return.\" Akira turned on his heel and left the building.\n\nAs Hiro hoped, the maid relaxed the moment Akira departed. She unfolded her hands and laid them in her lap. A quavering smile flickered over her face." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"May I offer you tea?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She raised her face to Father Mateo.\n\n\"No, thank you.\" The Jesuit knelt opposite the maid. \"May I ask your name?\"\n\nHiro noted with approval that Father Mateo did not introduce himself. No samurai would offer his name to a woman of lesser rank. Few enough would bother to ask a servant's name at all, though Hiro knew the Jesuit always would.\n\n\"I am called Jun,\" she said.\n\n\"You serve the shogun?\" Father Mateo asked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I am a maid at the shogunate.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her gaze fell to the floor. \"I have never seen the shogun. This is because I am not beautiful. My father says I look more like the pit than the peach.\"\n\n\"Yet when the peach falls away the pit remains constant,\" Father Mateo said.\n\nHiro doubted any woman would fall for such awkward and obvious flattery, but Jun blushed and covered her smile with her hands.\n\n\"My translator and I are trying to learn who killed Ashikaga Saburo,\" Father Mateo said. \"We would appreciate any help you can give us.\"\n\nJun's eyes widened. She shook her head. \"I didn't see the murder. I don't know.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She bit her lip." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Don't be frightened,\" Father Mateo said. \"Just tell me what you saw.\"\n\nShe swallowed hard and took a deep breath to calm herself. \"Last night I took a tray of food to Ashikaga-san in his office. He often ate meals there when working late.\n\n\"Early this morning, I went to retrieve the tray. Ashikaga-san does not like dirty dishes in his office when he arrives.\" She paused. \"He was there, on the floor. There was blood...\"\n\nShe raised her hands to her mouth. Tears welled up in her reddening eyes." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Her shoulders heaved with her efforts to keep from crying." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Father Mateo waited while she regained control.\n\nAt last she lowered her hands and continued, \"I screamed. Someone came and pushed me out of the room.\"\n\n\"Who was it?\" Father Mateo asked.\n\n\"I don't remember. I was crying. Ashikaga-san was dead when I found him. I don't know who did it. May his ghost haunt me forever if I lie.\" Jun's breathing grew rapid. The pink spots on her cheeks flushed crimson.\n\nHer tears looked real, but Hiro thought her story sounded rehearsed.\n\nFather Mateo waited in silence as Jun regained her composure yet again." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 9 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro became impatient. The interview wasn't proceeding as effectively as he hoped. In fact, he believed the girl was playing a role. Before he figured out how to prove it, Father Mateo asked, \"Can you think of anyone who wanted to kill Ashikaga-san?\"\n\nThe girl looked horrified. \"No.\"\n\n\"Did you ever hear anyone argue with him?\"\n\nJun's eyes widened. She shook her head. \"No. He was a good man.\"\n\nAnd you are a liar, Hiro thought, but he had no chance to say so.\n\nThe door slid open behind him. Akira had returned." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "AI writing task: user input -> one sentence sentences. style: Susan Spann. genre: mystery, historical fiction, Japan, historical mystery, 1500s." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Father Mateo leaned toward Hiro but fixed his eyes on the boy." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Do you think that's Saburo's son?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "he whispered in Portuguese." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I've never seen a stronger family resemblance,\" Hiro said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A second rider entered the yard, a samurai woman whose face bore a strong and unfortunate resemblance to her aging mare." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Her gray-streaked hair was pulled back without adornment, though she wore an expensive gray kimono cut in the latest style." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Masao approached the woman's horse, bowed low, and held the animal steady as she dismounted." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The boy didn't wait for assistance." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He slipped off his horse with practiced ease and pulled the reins over its head." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He patted the animal's neck and turned to Akira." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The samurai ignored the child but bowed to the woman." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Good morning, Ashikaga-dono. I am sorry for your loss.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Father Mateo stepped closer to Hiro and whispered, \"-Dono? Not -san?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro switched to Portuguese." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"-San implies the speaker's inferiority to the person addressed. Polite self-deprecation, if you will. -Dono implies equal rank—it's less polite, though permitted when a samurai speaks to a woman.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The boy took a step toward Akira." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What about me?\" he asked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I have lost my father. The least you can do is bow.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro hid his surprise as Akira complied with the child's demand." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"My condolences, young master Ashikaga.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The boy watched Akira's bow with a critical eye." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He seemed disinclined to return it, but Saburo's wife gave her son a look and the boy bent forward gracefully." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As he straightened, he noticed Father Mateo." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His mouth fell open in surprise and he hurried toward the foreign priest." }, { "from": "human", "value": "When he reached a comfortable speaking distance he stopped, pulled his hands to his sides, and bowed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Bun dia,\" he said in strongly accented Portuguese." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You are not Father Virera, though you are from his country, I think.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The boy's pronunciation needed work, and he mangled Father Vilela's name, but few Japanese spoke Portuguese at all." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Bom dia,\" Father Mateo said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The boy cocked his head to the side like a bird inspecting an interesting seed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Bom dia,\" he repeated." }, { "from": "human", "value": "This time he pronounced it perfectly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"And to you.\" The Jesuit bowed low and switched to Japanese." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"My name is Father Mateo.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I am Ashikaga Ichiro, only son of Ashikaga Saburo. This is my mother, Lady Netsuko.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "After a pause he added, \"I have not seen you here before.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I work in another part of Kyoto,\" Father Mateo said, \"near Okazaki Shrine.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The boy's eyes widened." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"There are two Christian temples in Kyoto?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He looked at Akira." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Did you know this?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"There is only one of consequence.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Akira gave the Jesuit a hostile look." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"These men are helping us find your father's killer.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ichiro looked at Hiro." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"And you? What is your name?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro bowed. \"I am Matsui Hiro, Father Mateo's translator and scribe.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The boy looked from Hiro to the priest." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"He seems to speak our language well enough.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Simple phrases, yes.\" Hiro offered the standard explanation." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"But he often misses the finer implications of Japanese speech.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ichiro considered this. After a moment he nodded once and continued, \"Your speech has the accent of Iga Province. Do you know Ito Kazu?\" The boy frowned." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Kazu did not kill my father.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro regarded Ichiro with surprise." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Does someone say he did?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Before the boy could answer, his mother laid a restraining hand on his shoulder." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"My son must have overheard the messenger,\" she said, \"the one who delivered the news of my husband's death. He claimed Saburo was killed with Kazu's dagger.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Kazu did not do this.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ichiro looked and sounded like a tiny samurai." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro decided to treat him as one." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Why do you think he is innocent?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Netsuko spoke first. \"Kazu was Ichiro's tutor.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"He remains my tutor, and I am not a child who needs a woman to speak in his place.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ichiro shook off his mother's arm." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You do not know Kazu as I do. He is an honorable man.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ichiro's hands clenched at his sides." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He looked at each man in turn, as if daring them to contradict his words." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Indeed?\" Hiro found the boy's reaction interesting." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Except for his size, Ichiro didn't seem like a child." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You do not believe me.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ichiro squared his shoulders." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I am fourteen and ready for genpuku.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He paused. His fists clenched tighter." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His lips pressed into a line as he took a deep, slow breath." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"That is, I would have been, had my father lived to approve Kazu's recommendation.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I am very sorry,\" Hiro said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Please accept my condolences.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He found the boy's restraint impressive, especially under the circumstances." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Thank you,\" Ichiro said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I am pleased to have this chance to speak with the men investigating my father's death. I will not have Kazu wrongfully accused. I know him better than any of you, and I know he did not do this.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro found the boy's loyalty surprising, particularly since Kazu had never mentioned Ichiro." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Then again, Kazu didn't discuss his work in detail. No shinobi would." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro felt a flash of regret for encouraging Kazu's flight." }, { "from": "human", "value": "An innocent man should have stayed to defend himself." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In the predawn confusion, an execution seemed inescapable." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Now Hiro wasn't so certain." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But then, he no longer felt sure of Kazu's innocence either." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Father Mateo bowed to Akira." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Thank you for your assistance this morning. We will leave you to escort Ashikaga-san's family and return to continue our work in the afternoon.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The men exchanged bows, and Hiro and Father Mateo left the compound." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They walked as far as the Kamo River in silence." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As they crossed the bridge Father Mateo asked, \"What do you think? Is the boy correct about Kazu?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "That very question had bothered Hiro since leaving the shogunate." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Kazu claims he did not kill Saburo. As yet, I have no reason to think he lied. I am more concerned about finding the killer before Lord Oda's embassy arrives.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Three days,\" Father Mateo said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Perhaps the shogun would grant an extension?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"No chance of that,\" Hiro said, \"and if we fail to find the true murderer, Hisahide will probably execute me instead.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "And perhaps you also." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You?\" Father Mateo raised his hands in surprise." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"He didn't say that.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Not openly, but he made his meaning clear. The shogun wants a dead murderer to impress Lord Oda's retainers, and an innocent corpse looks very much like a guilty one.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"But why you?\" Father Mateo asked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I know the law permits execution of relatives in a criminal's place, on the theory that the clan should pay for the crime, but you and Kazu are not related.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We are both from Iga Province, and we are friends. That will suffice.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You assumed all that from Hisahide's comments?\" Father Mateo asked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I don't make assumptions and didn't need to. He made himself perfectly clear.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"To a samurai, maybe.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Father Mateo shook his head in frustration." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"A man should say what he means directly.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro shrugged. It was not the Japanese way." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"If that's the case,\" the priest continued, \"Kazu had better have told the truth.\"" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Father Mateo said no more, but Hiro had the same thought himself.\n\n\"Indeed,\" the shinobi said, \"I will find it most inconvenient if Kazu killed Saburo and left me to bear the punishment in his stead.\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "I'll kick things off by writing a bit, then you'll take over and write the next seven sentences in the distinctive voice of Susan Spann, keeping within the mystery, historical fiction, Japan, historical mystery, 1500s genre." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The wooden chest opened, revealing Kazu's face." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"How did you know where I was?\"\n\n\"Because I put you there earlier,\" Hiro said, \"and you've never been good at hiding.\"\n\n\"Not everyone can turn to smoke at will.\" Kazu stood up and stepped out of the chest. \"Which reminds me. Why did Hanzo send the best shinobi in Iga to guard a priest?\"\n\nHiro regarded the younger man evenly. \"Should he have sent a novice, doomed to fail?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Kazu could wonder about the assignment all he wished." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro would never reveal the truth—even if he had known it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Instead, he changed the subject." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Who killed Saburo?\"\n\n\"I don't know,\" Kazu said. \"If I did I would have turned him in myself.\"\n\n\"Ask around when you return to work. You might learn something.\"\n\nKazu's eyes widened. \"I can't go back.\"\n\n\"You must. Hisahide doubts your guilt, and Saburo's son proclaims your innocence. Miyoshi Akira believes you're guilty, but I think we can persuade him otherwise.\"\n\n\"Persuade him?\" Kazu shook his head." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I can't even explain where I was without looking guilty.\"\n\n\"I have a plan,\" Hiro said. \"Is there somewhere you can hide for a few more hours?\"\n\nKazu gestured. \"What's wrong with here?\"\n\n\"I won't risk Father Mateo's safety.\" Hiro indicated the woven hat. \"Put your disguise back on and go into the city. Keep moving, and stay by the river—it's less busy in the rain. Don't talk if you can avoid it. And meet me at Ginjiro's three hours from now.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"How will staying away excuse my absence?\" Kazu asked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Because you weren't absent,\" Hiro said. \"You were drunk.\"\n\n\"Drunk?\"\n\n\"Exceedingly drunk. You left Ginjiro's after midnight, already intoxicated. From there you went to a teahouse and drank yourself senseless. You woke up this afternoon under a bridge, with no idea how you got there.\"\n\n\"But I got hungry,\" Kazu said, picking up on the story, \"and returned to Ginjiro's to eat.\" He nodded slowly. \"You know, that might actually work.\"\n\n\"Only if we find the real killer in time.\" Hiro explained about the shogun's command and Hisahide's intent to fulfill it by any means necessary." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When he finished, he added, \"I need you to tell me everything you remember about Saburo. Someone wanted to kill him. The question is who?\"\n\n\"Everyone wanted him dead,\" Kazu said, \"but no one would dare to do it.\"\n\n\"Someone dared,\" Hiro said. \"What do you mean by 'everyone wanted him dead'?\"\n\n\"He never used a gentle word when harshness would suffice, and he thought himself the most important person in any room. No one likes a man like that.\"\n\nIn Hiro's mind dislike didn't translate to wishing for someone's death, but he let the comment pass. \"Did Saburo have any arguments recently?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No more than usual.\" Kazu raised a hand, remembering. \"Wait—he did have an argument yesterday evening." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The carpenters finish their work at dusk, but we heard hammering into the evening hours. Saburo stormed out to see what was going on. I heard him yelling, but couldn't make out the words. He returned to the office angrier than he left.\"\n\n\"Did he explain why?\"\n\n\"No, and I didn't ask, though I wondered what Ozuru said to provoke him.\"\n\n\"What makes you blame Ozuru?\" Hiro noted that Kazu referred to the man by name.\n\n\"The other carpenters leave at sundown.\"\n\n\"Ozuru stays late?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Most evenings, yes. The shogun wants the work completed quickly, and the delicate carvings have to be finished on-site.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Kazu shook his head slowly. \"I don't think Ozuru did this. He's an artisan, not a killer.\"\n\n\"They're mutually exclusive?\" Hiro asked.\n\n\"I'm more suspicious of Lady Netsuko.\" Kazu glanced at the door and lowered his voice to a whisper. \"Saburo was not a faithful husband. Ichiro didn't know, but Netsuko did. Saburo claimed she didn't mind, but recently he complained that she grew intolerant of his mistress.\"\n\n\"But would she stab him to death?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro wished he had looked more closely at Lady Netsuko." }, { "from": "human", "value": "From what he remembered, she didn't seem physically capable of killing her husband in hand-to-hand combat." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I don't know her well,\" Kazu said, \"but she's an unusual woman and stronger than average.\"\n\n\"Physically or emotionally?\"\n\n\"Both.\"\n\n\"Why kill him at the shogunate, risking witnesses?\" Hiro asked. \"That doesn't make sense.\"\n\n\"If she killed him at home, Ichiro might have seen her. She loves the boy. She wouldn't have wanted that.\"\n\n\"It's worth looking into,\" Hiro said, though he had no intention of doing so." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What did you actually do last night?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Kazu gave him an innocent look." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I was passed out under a bridge, remember?\"\n\nHiro frowned.\n\n\"I told you,\" Kazu said. \"I left the shogunate and went to Ginjiro's, hoping Saburo would take his temper home and leave me in peace. When I returned to the office Saburo was dead.\"\n\n\"How did you leave the shogunate after you found him?\"\n\n\"Back over the wall, so I wouldn't alert the guards. No one saw me enter or leave.\"\n\n\"All right,\" Hiro said, \"wait ten minutes and leave by the veranda door. If Luis sees you, don't tell him your name. You're a wandering monk that Father Mateo allowed to spend the night in the garden.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"He won't question that?\" Kazu asked.\n\n\"He'll find it foolish, but no, he won't ask questions.\"\n\nHiro left Kazu and returned to the common room. Father Mateo sat alone by the hearth.\n\n\"Where's Luis?\" Hiro asked.\n\nThe Jesuit pointed to a door on the opposite side of the room. It led to Luis's chamber." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Sleeping, or so he said. Did you finish your business?\"" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 4 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Yes, and now we need to return to the shogun's compound. I want to talk with Ozuru. After that, we're going to Ginjiro's.\"\n\n\"The sake shop? Why?\" Father Mateo looked confused.\n\n\"To witness Kazu's miraculous reappearance.\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Let's engage in a collaborative writing exercise in the mystery, historical fiction, Japan, historical mystery, 1500s genre. I'll provide a starting point, and you'll continue with two sentences in the style of Susan Spann." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro waited for Netsuko to explain.\n\nOnce again she seemed surprised by his lack of reaction." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You don't condemn me for approving of my husband's infidelity?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "This time her pause required a response.\n\n\"You doubtless had your reasons.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro decided not to offer an excuse that she might substitute for truth.\n\n\"I married young,\" Netsuko said, \"but old enough to understand my husband's parents did not choose me for my looks.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She stared at Hiro as if daring him to deny her lack of beauty." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He said nothing.\n\nShe nodded once, as if confirming he had passed a test. \"My husband had status, and a handsome face, but no one would ever call him a brilliant man." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His family overlooked my appearance because I had the intelligence and social skills Saburo lacked. He complained at first, as any young man deprived of a beauty will do, but when he realized how much I could help him we reached an understanding." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We agreed that once I gave birth to a son who survived to the age of three, Saburo could take a mistress, or more than one if he wished. I imposed only two conditions. First, deniability. He would never parade his women in public, discuss them with friends, or act in any way that might bring shame on me or on our son. Second, I made him swear he would never divorce me and that he would always ensure his mistresses knew their place.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As he listened, Hiro thought of the way his kitten, Gato, toyed with bugs she captured in the yard. He wondered whether Netsuko, too, had a penchant for killing her prey when she tired of a game." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He smiled politely. \"Your arrangement sounds reasonable.\"\n\nNetsuko examined her teacup." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I think many people would find it strange.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She looked up. \"Most men believe a wife should not take an active role in her husband's affairs.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro noted the double meaning and decided it was intentional.\n\n\"A wise man does not reject sound advice,\" he countered, \"regardless of the source.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"And are you a wise man?\" she asked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The question caught Hiro off guard.\n\nNetsuko laughed. \"I wondered how far I would have to go to surprise you.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Her smile disappeared. \"My marriage was a partnership based on convenience and mutual respect. I did not love my husband, as most poets use the word, but our relationship was acceptable and mutually beneficial. To that end, I considered my marriage a good one.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She set her empty teacup on the mat. \"I want my husband's murderer punished. Put plainly, I want her dead.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Her?\" Hiro asked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"My husband's mistress,\" Netsuko said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"She killed him because he refused to divorce me.\"\n\n\"You know this with certainty?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "As Hiro refilled Netsuko's tea, he realized he hadn't asked Ana to make the painkilling brew for Father Mateo." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Etiquette didn't allow him to leave a guest alone, so unless the maid returned to the room the priest would have to wait a little longer.\n\nNetsuko raised her cup with a nod." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She savored the steam and sipped her tea, as relaxed as if they discussed a business transaction and not a murder." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Eventually she lowered her cup and continued, \"Saburo told me everything." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The relationship started innocently—as innocently as it could, anyway—but the girl became unreasonable. She wanted Saburo all to herself." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He didn't know how to refuse without causing a scene, though he had no intention of acting on her demands." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"He asked me to help him discard her.\"\n\n\"Your husband asked you to end his affair?\" Hiro asked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Why wouldn't he? I helped him with everything else.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She sipped her tea. \"The best lies always hold a grain of truth, so we decided that I would be his excuse. Saburo told the girl I suspected something and that he couldn't risk me making a public spectacle of the affair. He offered her money or to arrange a marriage for her outside of Kyoto.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"And she refused,\" Hiro said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"She didn't just refuse, she murdered him.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Why didn't you tell Matsunaga Hisahide about your suspicions?\" Hiro asked.\n\n\"You think I didn't?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"If you had,\" he said, \"Hisahide would not have needed me.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Hisahide doesn't believe a maid could kill a samurai.\"\n\n\"A maid?\" Hiro asked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Netsuko nodded. \"My husband's taste in women was no better than his temper. Neither was very pleasant or well-controlled. I'm sure you've met the girl. Her name is Jun, and she conveniently discovered my husband's body.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Netsuko tilted her head to the side. \"Based on your expression she didn't admit the affair to you.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No,\" Hiro said. \"Would you, in her place?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Netsuko smiled. \"I would never allow myself to be caught in such a place.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A slip of the tongue, or another play on words? Hiro couldn't decide.\n\n\"What makes you believe Jun killed Saburo?\" he asked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Her demands, and that Saburo was killed with a dagger. A man would have used a sword.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"But the dagger belonged to Ito Kazu, a fact you acknowledged yourself.\"\n\n\"I regret that accusation.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Netsuko took her right hand off the teacup long enough to rub her left wrist." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I wasn't thinking clearly yesterday.\"\n\n\"Now that you have decided to accuse the real murderer, why come to me instead of Hisahide or the shogun?\" Hiro asked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She took a deep breath." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her shoulders sank slightly as she released it. \"The foreign priests have a reputation for discretion. I thought, perhaps, since you work with one...\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She trailed off as if hoping Hiro would finish the thought." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He didn't.\n\nJust before the silence grew awkward Netsuko said, \"I hoped you would punish the girl without revealing that I am the one who told you." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ichiro's future and mine depend upon our ignorance of the affair." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A grieving widow receives assistance from her husband's clan, but a scheming woman who pandered to her husband's baser instincts always finds herself an object of disdain.\n\n\"I want Jun to pay for her crime, but I have no desire to suffer with her.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Netsuko looked at her tea." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Pity. It's gone cold.\"\n\nShe set the cup on the tray and stood up, ending the conversation." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro escorted her to the door." }, { "from": "human", "value": "To his surprise, no horse waited in the yard." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Netsuko saw him scan the street. \"I rode as far as Okazaki Shrine and walked from there. No one questions a woman's need to pray at a time like this.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro found the comment interesting." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Grieving widows seldom thought their actions through so carefully.\n\n\"Thank you for your visit.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro bowed, the formal gesture echoing his words." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I will give your regards to Father Mateo.\"\n\n\"Thank you for the tea.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She stepped off the porch and into her sandals. \"And thank you in advance for your discretion.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro watched her walk away." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As she reached the street the neighbor's akita began its furious barking. Hiro tensed, half hoping the dog would run into the street." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He would have welcomed any excuse to kill it." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 3 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But the dog did not appear, and Netsuko continued up the road without a backward glance.\n\nThe shinobi turned away and shut the door. Father Mateo still needed a painkilling tea." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "writing buddy needed! gimme 6 sentences more. stick to mystery, historical fiction, Japan, historical mystery, 1500s pls" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro found Ana clearing the teapot from the hearth.\n\nHe removed the twist of paper from his sleeve and pulled it open, revealing a sticky ball of resin. He pinched a tiny piece from the ball and extended it to the maid.\n\n\"Please brew a strong tea for Father Mateo and add this to the pot,\" he said.\n\nAna backed away as if he had offered a venomous spider. \"I will not give him poppy tears.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro hadn't thought she would recognize opium." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It will dull his pain and help him sleep.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"He doesn't even drink sake.\" Ana frowned. \"Did he ask for this?\"\n\n\"Do you want him to suffer?\" Hiro's patience grew short. \"He won't recover unless he rests and allows his wounds to heal. This slows the heart and brings on sleep. One taste cannot give him a permanent hunger for it.\"\n\nThe final part was a lie, but Hiro hoped Ana's knowledge didn't extend to single-dose dependency." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Such addictions were rare enough that Hiro thought the need outweighed the risks.\n\nHe heard a loud sneeze and a painful groan from Father Mateo's room.\n\nAna glanced at the Jesuit's door and held out her hand. \"All right.\" She narrowed her eyes at Hiro. \"But I'm holding you responsible.\"\n\nShe accepted the bit of resin and hurried toward the kitchen." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Hiro!\" Father Mateo called, then sneezed again.\n\nThe shinobi slid open the Jesuit's door and stifled a laugh.\n\nFather Mateo lay on his futon, blinking tears from his watering eyes. He held his bandaged hands aloft to keep them away from the tortoiseshell kitten sitting on his chest.\n\nGato leaned forward and licked the Jesuit's swollen nose.\n\n\"Hiro! Get it off me.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Father Mateo blew a puff of air in the kitten's face, but Gato just flicked her ears and kneaded her paws on his kimono." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro laughed aloud.\n\n\"It's not funny,\" Father Mateo said, and sniffled to prove his point.\n\nHiro walked over and scooped the purring cat into his hand. \"Come on, Gato. That's enough.\"\n\nThe kitten butted the shinobi with her forehead.\n\nHiro backed away from the priest." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"How did she get in here?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I don't know.\" Father Mateo flinched as he laid his injured hands on his chest again. \"I dozed off. When I woke up she was there.\"\n\n\"Most likely enjoying the warmth,\" Hiro said.\n\n\"Most definitely making me sneeze.\"\n\n\"We don't have to keep her,\" Hiro said. \"I could find her another home.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"And upset Ana?\" Father Mateo shook his head." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'd rather sneeze. Besides, I like the cat when she's not shedding hair up my nose.\"\n\nThe Jesuit sighed. His lips wavered into a frown. \"You mentioned medicine. Will it help the pain?\"\n\n\"It will.\" Hiro fingered the twist of paper, wondering whether he should have opted for willow bark and horse chestnut seeds instead of the stronger opium. But he had used only a tiny amount—far less than a smoker used for a comforting high. He decided to watch the priest's reaction carefully." }, { "from": "human", "value": "If the opium didn't give much relief, or if it worked too well, he would use something different the next time." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro took Gato back to his room, set her down, and pondered Netsuko's visit. The woman's accusations, while superficially reasonable, had troublesome undertones. Mistresses didn't murder their lovers. They blackmailed or embarrassed them instead. Hiro found it more likely that Jun created the problem by accident.\n\nLove made young men do rash things, and Den was in love with Jun." }, { "from": "human", "value": "None of which explained Kazu's refusal to talk or what Ozuru the carpenter really did after dark that night." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro even considered Netsuko a suspect." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her visit raised more questions than it answered. Hopefully talking with Den would do the opposite.\n\nHiro put on a pair of old hakama and a faded tunic, grabbed his swords, and hurried into the yard. He practiced katas until his muscles burned and his forehead dripped with sweat.\n\nWhen he finished, Hiro retrieved his kimono from his room and walked to the public bathhouse down the road. He bathed and spent an hour relaxing in the steam, returning home as the sky darkened from cloudy gray to charcoal." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He hurried along the road, intent on arriving home by nightfall, the hour when shogunate workers headed home—and after which, a rival shinobi might pay the priest a visit." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro reached the house exactly when he intended. He opened his mouth to call for Ana as he entered the oe, but the words dissolved like sugar on his tongue.\n\nKazu stood in front of the door to Father Mateo's room.\n\n\"What are you doing?\" Hiro's hand flew to the hilt of his katana. He had the blade half out of its sheath when he froze, chilled by the realization that he really would kill anyone—even Kazu—to save the priest." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Kazu turned. \"Looking for you.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His lips curved into the charming smile that had melted women's hearts, and softened men's, since his early childhood.\n\nIt didn't work on Hiro anymore.\n\n\"That isn't my room,\" the shinobi said, \"and you know it.\"\n\nHe pushed past Kazu and slid the door open just far enough to see Father Mateo sleeping and undisturbed. He slid the door closed and turned.\n\n\"What are you doing here? I won't ask again.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Kazu's smile faded. \"You don't need to act like a mannerless ronin.\"\n\n\"Answer my question immediately.\"\n\nKazu stepped backward. \"I found evidence. I thought you'd want to hear about it.\"\n\n\"What's too important to wait for tomorrow?\"\n\n\"Forget it,\" Kazu turned away.\n\n\"You're here,\" Hiro said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You might as well stay and tell me.\"\n\nKazu looked over his shoulder. Hiro thought the younger man might leave, but instead Kazu stalked to the hearth and knelt with a thump that made Hiro wince.\n\nThe shinobi forced his emotions away as he joined his guest at the hearth. Further hostility would not help him discern Kazu's real motives.\n\n\"May I offer you tea?\" Hiro asked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Thank you, no.\"" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 7 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As his thoughts cleared, Hiro doubted that Kazu had come to hurt the priest. Still, the younger man had no reason to enter the house without permission.\n\nHiro skipped the usual formalities. \"What did you find at the shogunate?\"\n\n\"Hisahide returned the ledger containing the schedules for the shogun's personal guards,\" Kazu said. \"He claimed the shogun didn't need it any longer. The explanation seemed suspicious, so after he left I read the schedule.\n\n\"It's been altered since the night Saburo died.\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Job: User writes start, you add ~2 sentences sentences. Style: Susan Spann" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"How do you know Den didn't kill Ashikaga Saburo?\" Hiro asked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Because Ashikaga-san was alive when the boy left his office that night,\" Ozuru said.\n\n\"Den was in Ashikaga Saburo's office? When? Why didn't you mention this earlier?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The carpenter showed no emotion." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I didn't think it was my place to chronicle Ashikaga-san's personal interactions the night he died.\"\n\n\"I'm making it your place,\" Hiro said, taking note of Ozuru's unusual phrasing. \"Tell me everything you heard and saw that night." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You may work while we talk, if you wish.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ozuru rubbed his thumb idly along the handle of his chisel. \"After my... conversation... with Ashikaga-san, I returned to work and tried to keep noise to a minimum." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I hoped eventually Ashikaga-san would go home for the night and leave me to work in peace.\n\n\"About two hours after sunset, I heard voices from Ashikaga-san's office. He was arguing with someone else.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Who was it?\" Hiro asked.\n\nOzuru shook his head as he set the chisel against the transom and raised his hammer. \"I don't know." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ashikaga-san was the only one yelling." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The argument lasted two or three minutes. After that, I heard nothing for a while." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Almost everyone else had already left for the evening.\n\n\"An hour later, Miyoshi-san passed through, presumably on his way to the kitchen.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ozuru tapped the chisel gently and sent a flake of wood to the floor.\n\n\"Miyoshi Akira?\" Hiro asked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"He passed through here?\"\n\n\"Yes. He didn't speak to me." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I doubt he even registered my presence.\" Ozuru made a gesture with the hammer. \"If I'm not making noise, most samurai don't notice me at all." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"A while after that the maid ran through with Ashikaga-san close behind her.\" Ozuru shook his head." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"A man his age shouldn't compromise his dignity by chasing foolish girls.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He paused as if expecting Hiro to chastise him for the inappropriate comment.\n\n\"What happened then?\" the shinobi asked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Sometime later I heard Ashikaga-san returning, cursing under his breath.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ozuru ran a finger along the carving, checking for roughness." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I crouched behind the screen. I don't know what upset him, but I didn't care to be yelled at twice in one evening.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What time was that?\" Hiro asked.\n\n\"Four hours after sunset?\" The answer sounded more like a question. \"Maybe a little less." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I worked for a while longer and then realized how late it was. Just before I left I heard footsteps approaching from Ashikaga-san's office, but softly, as if the person didn't want to be heard." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I hid behind the screen again—I know better than to be seen when I'm not wanted.\n\n\"It was the stable boy, and he was crying quietly. He passed through the room and disappeared.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"How could you tell he was crying?\" Hiro asked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ozuru indicated the braziers near the door. \"I keep the fires lit when I'm working. I saw the glint of tears in his eyes.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What happened after that?\" Hiro asked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I waited a few more minutes and went home. The stable boy opened the gates for me. I didn't mention seeing him in the mansion.\"\n\n\"He could have returned to Ashikaga-san's office after you left,\" Hiro said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"No,\" Ozuru said, \"he was crushed, not angry. I believe he saw something he didn't want to see but couldn't change.\"\n\n\"What do you think he saw?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro wondered how much the carpenter knew about Jun and Saburo.\n\n\"Rumor has it the boy was in love with Ashikaga-san's mistress,\" Ozuru said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"That kind of infatuation never ends well. My guess is it ended that night.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"That's a very strong motive for murder,\" Hiro said.\n\n\"For a samurai, maybe. Not for a stable boy.\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "four sentences sentences in Susan Spann style, continuing user's bit" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A knock woke Hiro from sleep. He raised his head from the desk and wiped a tendril of drool from his lip. He stood and straightened his kimono. Lady Ashikaga must have answered his message in person." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A moment later, he heard the front door open and then the mumur of Ana's formal greeting." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He crossed his room and opened the door just in time to hear Ashikaga Ichiro tell the housekeeper, \"I have come to speak with Matsui Hiro.\"\n\nHiro stepped into the common room and bowed as Ana led Ichiro into the house.\n\nIchiro returned the bow with a deep one of his own, suggesting he viewed the shinobi as an equal. Given the boy's affiliation with the shogun's clan, Hiro found the respect surprising." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Please have a seat.\" Hiro gestured to the hearth.\n\nAna bowed and left for the kitchen, doubtless intending to raid Luis's private stash of ichibancha for the third time in less than a day.\n\nIchiro looked at the hearth but shook his head." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Will you take a walk with me?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro hid his surprise at the adult phrasing. Whatever the boy intended to say, he wanted to say it where nobody else could hear.\n\n\"If you please?\" Ichiro asked. \"It isn't raining at the moment. Not much, anyway.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I don't mind a little rain.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro gestured toward the door and followed Ichiro back through the entry and out of the house." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The shinobi stepped off the porch and into his sandals. Ichiro did the same, and they walked together down the gravel path toward the road. Hiro listened for the neighbor's dog but heard nothing. The wife must have recovered enough for her husband to return to work." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro and Ichiro walked up Marutamachi Road toward the river." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Clouds covered the sky, though here and there a wisp of blue peeked through, as if the storm could not decide between staying and moving on.\n\nHiro said nothing. Ichiro would speak when he was ready.\n\nAs they passed Okazaki Shrine the cloying odor of sandalwood incense rose from the braziers on either side of the gate, overwhelming the piny scent of surrounding trees.\n\nHiro stifled a cough." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You don't like incense.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ichiro smiled. \"I don't either.\" His smile disappeared." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"My mother does. She burns it all the time, in the hope the kami will smell it and grant her prayers.\"\n\n\"What does your mother pray for?\" Hiro asked.\n\n\"The same thing as always: my father. Only now she prays for his soul.\"\n\nWhen they reached the river Ichiro turned onto the path that followed the eastern bank." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro matched the young samurai's pace without comment." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As they left the bridge behind Ichiro said, \"Matsunaga Hisahide says that Den, the stable boy, killed my father and that he acted alone. Do you believe this?\"\n\n\"Do you believe it?\" Hiro asked.\n\n\"I saw your message. Why do you want to meet with my mother?\"\n\n\"She asked me to keep her informed,\" Hiro said, deciding not to continue the question-for-question exchange." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I don't believe you.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ichiro stopped walking. \"Samurai do not report to women. Besides, the investigation is over and you are discharged from your duties. Matsunaga-san's message mentioned that also.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"That is true,\" Hiro said, \"but I didn't know that Matsunaga-san sent word to your family. I intended to tell your mother that the investigation has been canceled.\"\n\n\"You lie.\" Despite his diminutive stature, Ichiro looked every inch a samurai. \"Do not patronize me because I am young. I am still my father's heir.\"\n\nHe paused. \"Unless my father's mistress has borne another.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Not that I know of.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "That much, at least, was true.\n\n\"But you know my father had a mistress.\" Ichiro searched the shinobi's face. Hiro wondered what the boy hoped to find there." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "AI Prompt: Generate one sentence sentences. Adhere to mystery, historical fiction, Japan, historical mystery, 1500s genre conventions." }, { "from": "human", "value": "By the time they reached the Jesuit's home, the scents of earth and rain had filled the air." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Drops began to patter on the road." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Father Mateo stepped onto the porch but blocked the door so Hiro couldn't enter." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"This isn't over yet,\" the Jesuit said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Masao's condemnation means Kazu is innocent, at least in the eyes of the law. He's claimed innocence all along, and although I suspected him before, I've changed my mind. I think you have too. If that's so, you owe it to Kazu—and yourself—to try to mend your friendship.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro said nothing." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"There's no point in glaring,\" Father Mateo said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You know I'm right.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I'm not even sure where to find him.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro tried to edge around the priest, but Father Mateo continued to block the door." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It's almost evening,\" Father Mateo said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You know where Kazu will go when he finishes work.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Tomorrow,\" Hiro said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Reconciliations, like rice balls, get harder and less palatable with time.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Why do you care?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro asked. \"He's not your friend.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No, but he's yours—and you're mine—so get going.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro sighed with frustration but stepped back into his sandals and retraced his steps along Marutamachi Road." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The rain increased and the road grew muddy." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The clouds continued to darken, promising heavier rain by nightfall." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro fancied walking home in a downpour only slightly less than talking with Kazu." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He wasn't entirely sure why he complied with Father Mateo's request." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Perhaps because, having lost one friend, he felt disinclined to anger the Jesuit also." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When he reached the Kamo River, Hiro crossed the bridge and turned south onto the path that followed the river bank, where the overhanging second stories of houses along the river offered intermittent shelter from the rain." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Between the houses, drops fell onto his face and spattered his oiled hair, cold but fresh and not altogether unpleasant." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He hurried along the path toward the business district." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "At Sanjō Road, he noticed someone fishing underneath the bridge." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ordinarily, Hiro would have ignored the fisherman, but something about the silhouette looked familiar." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He paused as the shadowed figure turned to face the road." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was Ichiro." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The boy waved and moved over, making room for Hiro beneath the bridge." }, { "from": "human", "value": "At that moment, the clouds released an unexpected deluge, so Hiro changed his plans and joined Saburo's son to wait out the rain." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As he bent to crawl under the bridge, Hiro noticed that Ichiro's smile seemed nervous." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The boy fidgeted with his fishing pole and the line twitched nervously in the water." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Nice day for fishing,\" Hiro said to put the boy at ease." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Fish bite better in the rain.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"How do you know that?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ichiro's eyes widened. \"My father considered fishing an inappropriate pastime for samurai.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"But you do it anyway,\" Hiro said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He wondered if the boy had gone home at all." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I guess there's no point in pretending otherwise.\" Ichiro tugged to make the line twitch again. \"I keep my pole hidden under the bridge and sneak out to fish when I can—mostly at night when everyone thinks I'm sleeping." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I've lost a couple of poles to thieves, and I think someone uses this one when I'm not here, but I'd rather share it than suffer another beating for disobedience." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Not that my father can beat me anymore.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "An awkward silence fell." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"My brother liked fishing when we were young,\" Hiro said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ichiro's mouth fell open in surprise." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When he recovered he asked, \"Does he still do it?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"He hasn't much opportunity, but I doubt he's outgrown the enjoyment.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro looked at the place where the fishing line met the water." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Concentric ripples flowed away from the line but broke apart almost at once in the turbulent river." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Are you going to Ginjiro's?\" Ichiro asked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"How do you know about Ginjiro's?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ichiro smiled. \"Kazu goes there. He won't take me. He says I'm too young for sake shops.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro smiled at the boy's unguarded simplicity. \"Kazu is right.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ichiro's smile grew lopsided in a nearly successful attempt to hide disappointment." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He looked at the river." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I'm glad you believed me that Kazu was innocent.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It was good of you to have faith in him,\" Hiro said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I told you before, it isn't just faith. It's a fact. Kazu couldn't have done it.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ichiro hadn't mentioned facts before." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"How do you know for certain Kazu is innocent?\" Hiro asked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I can't tell you.\"" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ichiro kept his eyes on the fishing line. \"It would get me in trouble—and Kazu too.\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "make story longer like Susan Spann would" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Father Mateo leaned over the body. \"Is that the broken base of a sake flask?\"\n\nHiro hoped the Jesuit wouldn't ask about the mark." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yes,\" the dōshin said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The murder weapon—part of it, anyway.\"\n\nHiro circled the corpse and examined the shard.\n\nGinjiro bought his sake flasks from a potter who produced them for the brewer by special order." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The flasks had a distinctive color, and each bore the brewer's mark impressed in the base." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The markings distinguished Ginjiro's flasks, which never left the brewery, from the ones that customers brought for personal use.\n\n\"That is the brewer's mark,\" the dōshin said.\n\nHiro straightened. \"A broken flask outside a brewery hardly marks the brewer as a killer.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I agree,\" Father Mateo said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Anyone could have stolen a flask or dropped it in the alley.\"\n\n\"More importantly,\" Hiro added, \"delicate pottery would have shattered before causing so much damage to the victim. Unless, of course, the flask was full, but I see no sake on the body or the ground.\"\n\nThe dōshin crossed his arms." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"If it's a coincidence, where's the rest of the flask? We haven't found any other pieces here.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You believe the killer took them with him,\" Father Mateo said.\n\nConveniently leaving the one with Ginjiro's seal, Hiro thought.\n\n\"Why would Ginjiro kill a man with a flask that bore his seal?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Father Mateo rubbed his chin." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Arguments happen,\" the dōshin said. \"Angry men don't think before they act.\"\n\n\"That's a lot of assumptions for one dead body and one small shard from a sake flask,\" Hiro said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Ginjiro didn't kill Chikao.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Suke's voice echoed through the alley as he entered. \"I'm the killer.\"\n\nHiro noted the dead man's name and wondered how Suke knew it.\n\n\"Shut up, old man,\" the dōshin said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Go away before I arrest you.\"\n\nHiro raised a hand and said, \"We're finished. We'll walk him out.\"\n\nThe shinobi took hold of Suke's sleeve and led the monk back out to the street, where the yoriki stood talking with Tomiko." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ginjiro's wife stood nearby, but her glazed expression suggested inattention." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro looked up the street and saw the dōshin lead Ginjiro out of sight around a corner. The brewer's head hung low, like a man condemned.\n\nFather Mateo followed Hiro's gaze." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Where are they going?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"To the magistrate,\" the yoriki said. \"The facts are clear and not disputed. Ginjiro argued with the victim yesterday evening. Late last night, Chikao returned, and Ginjiro killed him.\"\n\nHiro glanced at Father Mateo, expecting the priest to argue." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Suke struck a fighting pose." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You want guilt?\" the monk demanded, curling his fingers into fists. \"I'll show you guilt!\"\n\n\"Calm down,\" Hiro said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"If you're the killer, explain how it really happened.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The yoriki sighed and shook his head, but Suke lowered his hands and said, \"I will. I'll tell you everything.\"\n\nThe monk straightened his shoulders and raised his chin like a child about to confess to a youthful crime. \"Last night I sneaked a flask out of Ginjiro's at closing time. I didn't intend to steal it, I just wanted to finish the sake. I would have returned the flask in the morning.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Suke paused as if concerned that Hiro might accuse him of stealing flasks." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When the shinobi said nothing, the monk continued, \"This morning, when I woke up, my flask was gone. I saw Chikao's body and heard the dōshin say Ginjiro's flask—the one I took—was the murder weapon. Clearly, I am the killer!\"\n\nThe yoriki made a disgusted gesture. \"Clearly, you were too drunk to hear a man being beaten to death beside you. We have listened to your story. Go away.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Suke jumped forward and shoved the yoriki, catching him off guard." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The samurai fell backward and sat down hard in the dusty street.\n\nThe dōshin, who had followed them from the alley, ran to Suke. He seized the monk by the arms." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Suke bowed his head. \"I surrender,\" he said quietly. \"Deliver me to the magistrate for judgment.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The yoriki stood up and brushed the dirt from his clothes." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Arrest him—but the charge is public drunkenness, nothing more.\"\n\n\"Nothing more!\" The angry dōshin glared at Suke. \"He assaulted you and confessed to murder.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"He's a drunk.\" The yoriki removed a pebble from his sleeve." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"He wobbles like an infant and he smells like a brewery floor. I believe he spent the night in the alley. The rest of his story? Merely a drunkard's dream.\"\n\n\"But... the assault!\" the dōshin protested as he tied a length of rope around Suke's wrists. \"This man attacked you.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You are mistaken. I stumbled and fell.\" The yoriki paused to let his words sink in. \"Now take him away, and send some bearers to carry Chikao home.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Don't worry, Tomiko,\" Suke said as the dōshin led him away." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'll tell the magistrate what happened. Ginjiro will be home in time to open the shop tonight.\"\n\nTomiko smiled weakly, as if unwilling to put much faith in Suke's promise. She laid a hand on her mother's arm and guided the older woman back to the brewery." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro wanted to speak with Ginjiro's family, but first he had some questions for the yoriki." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Where is Chikao's brewery? Did the victim belong to the brewer's guild?\"\n\n\"Do not mistake my leniency for permission to investigate.\" The yoriki finished brushing the dirt from his trousers." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The magistrate doesn't need your help—or his.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The yoriki glanced at Father Mateo.\n\n\"What if we disagree with your assessment of the crime?\" the Jesuit asked.\n\nHiro stifled a nearly overwhelming urge to drag the priest away from the scene by force." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As usual, Father Mateo didn't know when to hold his tongue." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The yoriki smiled, but his eyes were devoid of warmth. \"Then you will keep your disagreement to yourself.\"\n\n\"Have I misunderstood the samurai code?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Father Mateo asked. \"I thought honor required noble men to seek justice and act with mercy.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"That argument might work with a samurai from the ruling clans,\" the yoriki said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"But I see crimes, and criminals, every day. Justice does not mix with mercy where commoners are concerned.\"" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 4 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The yoriki started toward the alley, paused, and turned back to Hiro. \"I expect cooperation—and discretion—from you both. Murder is a matter for the magistrate alone, especially now, with the city on alert. If you speak of this to anyone, I will ensure you share the killer's fate.\"\n\nHiro doubted the yoriki could carry out his threat, but knew better than to challenge him in public.\n\nFather Mateo called after the yoriki, \"Why insist on privacy? Unless, of course, you don't intend an honest investigation.\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "hey can u write six sentences more sentences? kinda like Susan Spann but in mystery, historical fiction, Japan, historical mystery, 1500s style" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro walked west on Marutamachi Road until he reached the Kamo River." }, { "from": "human", "value": "There, he nodded to the samurai on guard." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Once again, the guard made no attempt to arrest the shinobi's progress. Either he recognized Hiro's face or the guards had received new orders to stop harassing samurai without cause.\n\nHiro suspected the former. Matsunaga Hisahide didn't care who he offended.\n\nThe shinobi turned south on the road that followed the eastern bank of the river. At Sanjō Road he took a left and headed into a residential ward." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Well-groomed gardens surrounded the houses, which sat on larger lots than those on the western side of the river. A short distance down the road, on the left-hand side of the street, stone dogs guarded a two-story building. The house had a raised foundation and steep peaked roof. Long eaves overhung the wide veranda, and gravel paths led to wooden gates on either side of the building. Fences shielded the yards beyond from public view.\n\nAn expensive, hand-painted sign on the veranda read SAKURA TEAHOUSE." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The Sakura looked no different than it had a year before, when Hiro and Father Mateo solved the murder of Akechi Hideyoshi, a samurai who died in one of the private rooms. As he approached the door, Hiro wondered whether Mayuri, the teahouse owner, would respond to his questions about Yoshiko.\n\nKnowing Mayuri, she might not even let him in.\n\nHiro knocked and waited to speak with the house's servant, but when the wooden door swung open, it was Mayuri who stood in the entrance.\n\nThe retired entertainer's flawless hair and makeup complemented her green kimono embroidered with lotus flowers. On another woman, the colors and patterns might suggest a struggle to retain her fading youth." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "On Mayuri, the years fell away of their own accord.\n\nHiro disliked entertainers, but understood why men once found Mayuri's company worth their silver. Despite her age, she remained a compelling woman.\n\nMayuri's painted face adopted a frozen smile. \"Good evening, Matsui-san. I don't remember your name on this evening's list of guests.\"\n\nOnly a person trained to read faces would notice the concern that flickered through Mayuri's eyes before she spoke." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Unfortunately for Mayuri, Hiro was that kind of person.\n\nHe said nothing, hoping discomfort would make her talk.\n\n\"To what do I owe this unexpected pleasure?\" Mayuri asked.\n\n\"I hoped to speak with you privately,\" Hiro said.\n\nMayuri's smile faded. \"Does this relate to last year's business?\"\n\n\"It relates to an Akechi,\" Hiro said, \"though not the one who brought me here last summer.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I understand.\" Mayuri nodded. \"Follow me.\"\n\nShe led him through the entry and into the room where entertainers waited for their guests. The teahouse smelled of lotuses and other strange perfumes, as if haunted by the ghosts of forgotten blooms. Shoji along the walls led into private rooms on either side. Murmuring voices and the wavering notes of a shamisen told Hiro some of the evening guests had arrived already.\n\nAn entertainer entered the room from a sliding door to the north." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She wore a blue kimono painted with a scene of crashing waves, a patterned obi, and a hairstyle featuring several jeweled pins. Despite the costume's weight, she moved with ease and confidence. Her face looked barely twenty, though Hiro knew her real age was almost twice that number.\n\nThe entertainer crossed her hands and bowed in greeting. \"Good evening Matsui-san. It is nice to see you.\"\n\n\"Good evening, Riko,\" Hiro said. \"You look well.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The woman covered her surprise." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Entertainers memorized the names of everyone they met but didn't expect a man to return the favor—especially not a samurai who never patronized the woman's house.\n\n\"Matsui-san has come on a business matter,\" Mayuri said. \"Please ask Okiya to answer the door until we finish our conversation.\"\n\nRiko bowed. \"I will, Mayuri.\"\n\n\"Do not open the door yourself.\" Mayuri raised a hand like a mother admonishing a willful child." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Riko blushed. \"He wouldn't mind.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I mind.\" Mayuri's tone allowed no argument.\n\n\"I understand.\" Riko bowed in acceptance and stepped aside as Mayuri led Hiro through the door in the northern wall.\n\nBeyond the waiting room lay a private oe and a narrow passage that led to Mayuri's office. Hiro remembered the way, and also the office. The white tatami and hardwood writing desk looked just as he remembered.\n\nMayuri slid the shoji closed behind them, crossed the room, and knelt on the opposite side of the wooden desk." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro didn't like to turn his back on the only entrance, but etiquette didn't give him another option." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He knelt facing Mayuri but angled his body just enough to see the doorway from the corner of his eye.\n\nTo his surprise, Mayuri didn't wait for him to speak.\n\n\"Forgive my presumption,\" she said, \"but I have a busy evening, and we are well enough acquainted to dispense with needless formalities. Whatever you have to say about Yoshiko, please speak plainly.\"\n\n\"I understand that Akechi-san has acquired an interest in this house and serves as its debt collector,\" Hiro said.\n\n\"That is neither a question nor a complaint,\" Mayuri said.\n\n\"Very well,\" Hiro said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"A question: Do you know where Yoshiko was last night?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You speak as though her whereabouts are my concern,\" Mayuri said. \"She is a business partner, not a servant.\"\n\n\"Yes,\" Hiro said, \"but the law holds you responsible for crimes she commits in the course of collecting your debts.\"\n\n\"Have you left your job as a translator and joined the Kyoto police?\" Mayuri's eyes widened in a show of false surprise. \"If not, I believe you realize I have no obligation to endure this conversation any longer.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro recognized the bluff. Mayuri would not have allowed him in if she didn't intend to talk—at least until she discovered what he knew.\n\n\"My authority arises from a private investigation,\" Hiro said. \"But if you would rather answer to the yoriki, I can arrange that also.\"\n\nMayuri's face looked carved from stone, like the dogs that guarded her walkway.\n\nHiro gave her a moment to consider the threat and then continued, \"Given your involvement in General Akechi's murder, the yoriki might prefer to take a detailed look at your establishment.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Mayuri said nothing." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 4 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Most samurai would have repeated the threat, or followed up with a stronger one, but Hiro simply waited. Eventually, his silence and Mayuri's fears—or guilt—would prompt an answer.\n\n\"I cannot tell you what Yoshiko may have done,\" the teahouse owner said at last, \"but I do not condone violence. Not even in debt collection.\"\n\n\"Interesting,\" Hiro said. \"I didn't mention violence.\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Continue with the same vibes as Susan Spann" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The peddler shielded his face with his hands.\n\n\"Do you understand me?\" Hiro asked.\n\nThe peddler nodded and gestured toward the empty sack.\n\nHiro picked it up and shook it open. \"I will help, but hurry. You need to leave this place at once.\"\n\nAnd so do I.\n\nThe peddler grasped the nearest wooden bowl.\n\nHiro and the peddler gathered up the scattered wares." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When they finished, the poor man bowed, making sounds that indicated gratitude.\n\n\"Go,\" Hiro said, \"and from now on, make sure you're home by nightfall.\"\n\nThe peddler nodded, bowed, and hurried off. Hiro noted with approval that the poor man stuck to the shadows near the edge of the river road.\n\nBusy listening to the patter of the peddler's feet on the earthen path, Hiro almost missed the hiss of steel behind his back.\n\nAlmost.\n\nThe shinobi ducked. A swish of wind brushed past his head. The attacker's blade had missed by only inches." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro drew his shortsword as he spun to face his foe—the samurai guard who kicked the peddler and fled when the explosion shook the street." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He must have recovered his courage and returned.\n\n\"Shinobi,\" the samurai hissed as he advanced and struck again.\n\nHiro blocked the attack with his wakizashi and backed away to the shadows of the trees. He didn't want the people up the street to see the fight and raise an alarm.\n\nThe samurai followed, slashing the air with strikes that made up in force what they lacked in accuracy. Hiro continued to back away, dodging the body-level strikes and ducking when the samurai aimed for his neck.\n\nWithout a katana, Hiro lacked the samurai's reach. He couldn't get in range to attack." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He could only defend himself and wait for an opening." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When they reached the shadow of the trees, the samurai paused, sword high. \"You are a disgrace,\" he said, \"you honorless, beggar-loving shinobi dog. You and all your kind deserve to die.\"\n\nHiro gripped his wakizashi. \"The only dog I see in this street is you.\"\n\nWith a growl of rage, the samurai raised his katana, lunged... and impaled himself on the blade of Hiro's shortsword.\n\nHiro grasped the samurai's shoulder with his free hand as he shoved his sword into the samurai's stomach. He had dodged beneath the guard's attack and angled his wakizashi upward, piercing the guard beneath his ribs and thrusting the point toward his heart.\n\nThe samurai gasped and dropped his sword." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro shoved the blade even deeper, feeling the warmth and wetness of the samurai's blood flow over his hand." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He stopped when the hilt stuck fast." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The guard coughed and choked on the liquid flooding his lungs. He sputtered, coughed again, and sent a spray of bloody spittle down his chin.\n\nHiro stepped away, withdrew his sword, and pressed the blade against the samurai's neck.\n\n\"You're a dead man,\" Hiro said. \"The question is, do I end this fast or let you bleed to death on the river bank?\"\n\nThis time, there was no priest to stay his hand.\n\nThe samurai spit a mouthful of blood in Hiro's face and reached for his wakizashi. Hiro wrenched the weapon from his hand." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The samurai fell to his knees, struggling to breathe as his lungs filled up with blood." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Enough.\" Hiro dropped the samurai's shortsword in the road and wiped his own sword clean on the dying man's robe." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He grasped the man's topknot and pulled it back.\n\nHe bent to look the guard in the eye. \"Unlike you, I do not want a man to suffer.\"\n\nHiro sheathed his sword, grasped the samurai's chin with his free hand, and snapped the man's neck.\n\nHe felt the samurai go limp, life ended with merciful speed.\n\nHiro released his grip, and the body crumpled forward on the road.\n\nHe wiped the blood from his face and hands as best he could and looked around. No one had seen him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The trees along the river path were out of sight of Sanjō Road, and no one walked the path that night—most likely to avoid the samurai guards." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Even the peddler had disappeared, though Hiro doubted the mute would turn him in.\n\nHiro needed to vacate the scene but didn't want to leave a body lying in the road. He had an errand to complete and didn't need the shogun's guards discovering a samurai corpse before he finished his mission. In truth, he would rather they never found it at all.\n\nWithout a witness, no one could tie Hiro to the crime, but he still preferred to dispose of the body.\n\nHe looked at the river. The current near the banks ran slow, but farther out the water flowed with better speed. He hoped it was enough to move a corpse." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro sheathed his sword and raised the samurai's limp arm." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Slinging the arm around his shoulders, Hiro grasped the dead man's waist and lifted the samurai to his side. With one arm around the samurai's waist and the other holding the dead man's lifeless arm around his shoulders, Hiro started toward the bridge. From a distance, they looked like a poorly dressed samurai helping a friend stagger home after too much sake.\n\nWhen they reached the bridge, Hiro risked a glance up Sanjō Road toward the ruined lanterns. A cluster of people stood in the road, faces lit by the flickering glow of a handheld lantern carried by a woman who might—or might not—have been Mayuri. Angry voices pierced the night. The words didn't carry as far as the bridge, but Hiro didn't care what they said. They hadn't noticed him or the corpse." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro started across the bridge, carrying the samurai at his side." }, { "from": "human", "value": "When they reached the middle of the river, Hiro checked to make sure that no one was looking and swung the samurai over the railing." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 9 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The body hit the water with a muffled splash.\n\nAs Hiro hoped, the current carried the dead man's body away, the corpse already starting to sink as water soaked his heavy silk kimono.\n\nHiro glanced in both directions. The bridge was empty. No one had seen him dump the body. Sooner or later, the samurai's corpse would wash up on the bank or catch on a bridge, but at least no one would discover it here tonight.\n\nAfter retrieving the samurai's fallen swords and tossing them into the river, Hiro hurried across the bridge and continued west, though not on Sanjō Road. He wove through narrow side streets to avoid patrolling guards. Not only was he dressed as a shinobi, but his clothes were now stained with samurai blood." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "I'll be your writing partner today. I will set the scene, and you will continue the story with 2 sentences, channeling the voice and techniques of Susan Spann in the mystery, historical fiction, Japan, historical mystery, 1500s genre." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Basho looked at his lantern and murmured, \"I didn't want Kaoru arrested... because of his mother.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "That wasn't the answer Hiro expected. \"What do you mean? Explain yourself!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I knew Mina—Kaoru's mother—before she married.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Basho gestured toward the shutters." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Her father owned the shop across the street and two doors down. I wanted to marry her, but her father chose Chikao instead of me.\"\n\n\"You stopped an arrest because you care about some drunkard's mother?\" Hiro asked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You don't have to believe me,\" Basho said. \"But it's the truth.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What did you learn on your little walk?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro narrowed his eyes at the merchant.\n\n\"Kaoru talked about calling upon the angry ghosts of Ginjiro's ancestors and how a selfish man would always pay for his selfish ways. He said, 'We'll see how big Ginjiro feels when he's lost everything.' Ginjiro is another sake brewer.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I know who he is,\" Hiro hissed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Enough delay. Tell me who killed Chikao.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I swear, I do not know.\" Basho looked desperate.\n\n\"If you truly knew nothing, you wouldn't have guessed that he was the man I meant.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro drew his wakizashi. \"Would you remember more with a blade at your neck?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Please,\" Basho whimpered. \"I don't know who killed him. I swear. I was told that he died but nothing more. Please, I have a family...\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro believed the merchant but needed to ensure his silence. He placed the point of his sword on Basho's stomach." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You will never mention this conversation. Not to anyone, including your wife.\"\n\n\"I won't breathe a word.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Tears spilled over Basho's eyelids, but the merchant didn't dare wipe them away." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I swear I won't.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I hope not,\" Hiro said, \"because I will know, and even a word is more than your life is worth.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He sheathed his sword, slid the shutters open, and dashed away into the night. When he reached the opposite side of the road, he hid in the shadows and watched Basho close up the shop." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He didn't leave until the locks slid into place with a click that echoed through the midnight silence.\n\nHiro didn't worry about Basho discussing his visit." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Kyoto's bandit clans showed mercy to people who held their tongues, but none to those who talked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Basho would never risk his family's safety, or his own, by telling tales." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Unfortunately, the merchant's words had not revealed as much as Hiro hoped." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The shinobi considered the story as he made his way home through the darkened streets and alleys." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Even if ghosts existed—and Hiro did not believe they did—the dead would not obey the commands of the living. Father Mateo's religion claimed that people could speak with a holy ghost, but the priest didn't say he could bend the ghost to his will." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "On the contrary, the Jesuit claimed it worked the other way around.\n\nHowever, the part about Ginjiro's losing everything suggested a real threat and also implicated Kaoru." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro might have dismissed the story as a drunken flight of fancy, but the words meshed well enough with the facts to make him wonder why Chikao returned to Ginjiro's brewery the night he died—and whether or not he truly returned alone." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Someone in Kyoto knew what happened in that alley. Hiro had to find out who and make that person talk—and he had less than half a day in which to do it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He wished he could have asked Basho what time Kaoru left the Golden Buddha on the night Chikao died, but the question would have sounded too suspicious coming from a bandit's lips.\n\nHe would have to learn the answer another way." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When he reached the bridge at Sanjō Road he found half a dozen samurai standing guard. Given the explosion and the missing guard, he expected more." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro waited in the shadows until the guards distracted themselves in conversation." }, { "from": "human", "value": "When they did, he scurried off to cross the river farther north." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Only a single samurai guarded the bridge at Marutamachi Road. The guards must have decided Hiro's bombs were an isolated incident, worthy of extra guards at that location but nothing more." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro slipped under the western end of the bridge and considered his options. He doubted his physician act would work so close to home." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The guards who patrolled this bridge had seen him in the past, or else would see him in the future, making the lie too great a risk." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Explosive charges wouldn't help him either. One exploding lantern was coincidence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Two explosions in one night meant sabotage. Hiro wanted to get across the bridge, but not enough to generate a citywide alert." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A shadow moved in the street to the west of the bridge." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro watched it from his hiding place among the pilings." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The shadow didn't move like a tree or with the measured pace of a human being or a horse." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The movements came at intervals, and without repetition, in the manner of a spy who wanted to remain unseen.\n\nNervous excitement loosened Hiro's joints and pooled in his stomach." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Whoever approached the bridge did so with the stealth and speed of a highly trained shinobi." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro took a long, slow breath to counteract the energy that lit his veins on fire. Many shinobi worked in Kyoto, rivals as well as those from his own ryu." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Unfortunately, a shinobi heading east on Marutamachi Road at night suggested only two potential targets—and only one if the assassin crossed the bridge." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "If that happened, Hiro would have to kill the spy before he reached the house where Father Mateo lived.\n\nThe other shinobi approached the river slowly, with the subtlety of a master." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro tracked the assassin's movements with interest, wondering how the rival shinobi planned to cross the bridge. He doubted the assassin would swim the river." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Not only would the samurai guard see someone in the water, but soaking clothes would leave a trail—a fatal error no trained spy would make." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The shadow reached the final house before the bridge and disappeared into the yard. Hiro fixed his eyes on the spot and waited. Nothing moved." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Perhaps the assassin wasn't after the Jesuit after all." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro breathed a sigh of relief and reprimanded himself for the assumption." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As the surge of excitement left his muscles, Hiro wondered who lived in the house at the end of the street. He stared at the building but saw no clues to the owner's identity." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He saw no sign of the assassin, either. No light shone through the latticed windows." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "No foliage moved in the yard.\n\nHiro turned his thoughts to the river and how to cross it safely." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A woman's scream shattered the silence.\n\nHiro tensed. The scream came from inside the final house before the river—the one the shinobi assassin entered." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Help!\" the woman screamed again. \"Help me! Help! A thief!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Geta thumped on the wooden bridge as the samurai guard responded to the cry. Footsteps pounded the earthen road, and Hiro peeked from beneath the bridge to watch the samurai race to the darkened house." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro crouched, preparing to run across the bridge the moment the guard disappeared from view. He knew he could get across and hide before the samurai returned." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Hey can you write like Susan Spann and use whatever i write as a jumping off point?" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The following morning, Hiro and Father Mateo walked to the Lucky Monkey brewery. Father Mateo carried his travel papers to ensure they met no samurai delays. Hiro disliked obeying Hisahide's protocols but acknowledged that cooperation ended better than spiteful argument.\n\nThey crossed the river at Shijō Road." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Only a single samurai stood guard on the river bridge." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He seemed relaxed and didn't ask to see their travel papers.\n\nApparently, the missing samurai's body had not been found.\n\nA short distance past the river, Hiro turned into Pontocho.\n\n\"Where are we going?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "the Jesuit asked. \"This isn't the fastest way to the Lucky Monkey.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We need to make an intermediate stop,\" the shinobi said.\n\nAs they walked down the narrow, shuttered alley, Hiro inhaled the distinctive smells that meant the morning's night-soil collection hadn't occurred on time.\n\nHe stopped in front of the moneylender's shop across the street from the Golden Buddha. As he raised a hand to knock, the wooden door swung open before his fist." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro lowered his hand and nodded to the familiar, beautiful woman in the doorway." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What do you want?\" she asked. \"You already know that I don't help your kind.\"\n\n\"We haven't come for a loan,\" Hiro said. \"We want to know about the debt Akechi Yoshiko collected for you.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"That is a private matter,\" the woman said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Between you and a man named Kaoru?\" Hiro asked.\n\nThe woman seemed to consider closing the door in Hiro's face. \"I won't discuss my loans, or the names of my clients.\"\n\n\"So, if I wanted to repay that loan, you wouldn't let me?\" Hiro asked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The moneylender crossed her arms. \"That trick won't work with me. Also, I told you, I don't make loans to men.\"\n\nHiro nodded. \"Very well, I'll speak with Mina. Thank you anyway.\"\n\n\"Mina?\" the woman looked confused." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Kaoru's mother,\" Father Mateo said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The moneylender's eyes revealed no recognition." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I have never heard that name, Matsui-san.\"\n\nHiro caught a subtle shift in the woman's tone. He also noticed something else. \"When did you learn my name?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"After you left, I went to the Golden Buddha,\" the woman said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Eba didn't know you, either, so I asked around. Your foreign friend has a good reputation, which is the only reason I opened the door for you today.\"\n\nHiro gambled on the truth. \"We're investigating a murder, and believe Akechi Yoshiko has information about the crime. Did you see her in Pontocho two nights ago? Perhaps at the Golden Buddha?\"\n\n\"The Golden Buddha?\" The moneylender laughed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"She wouldn't cross the threshold. But I did see her that evening. She was here.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Which shop did she visit?\" Father Mateo asked.\n\n\"This one.\" The woman gestured toward the ceiling. \"She was here. She wanted to collect a debt from one of the Buddha's patrons, but she knew if he saw her coming, he would run. She asked me to let her watch for him from one of my upstairs windows.\"\n\n\"And you agreed?\" Hiro asked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"In a manner of speaking.\" The moneylender crossed her arms again. \"She made a request I could not refuse.\n\n\"A little over a year ago I brokered a deal to move an entertainer from the Sakura Teahouse to a brothel here in Pontocho. There were lies involved, although I didn't know them at the time. I learned about it only after the girl's lover died." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Two nights ago, Yoshiko said she knew about the lies and that the brothel paid far less than the girl's real value. She threatened to call me before the magistrate on a claim that I conspired to help the brothel cheat the Sakura Teahouse on the purchase price. That is, unless I let her use my house to wait for the man she sought.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Yoshiko didn't work for you, then.\" Father Mateo frowned. \"Why didn't you call the dōshin?\"\n\n\"To what end?\" the moneylender asked. \"Akechi-san is samurai. I am not. The dōshin may not like her, but her rank would still prevail.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A smile crept over the woman's face. \"I handled the situation a different way. I allowed Akechi-san to watch... and also sent a boy to warn the debtor.\"\n\n\"So Yoshiko never saw her target leaving,\" Hiro said.\n\n\"I don't know,\" the moneylender said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"She was watching from the window when I went to sleep a few minutes before midnight. When I woke, at dawn, she had gone. I sleep soundly. I didn't hear her leave.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Why did she come here yesterday?\" Hiro asked.\n\nThe moneylender smiled. \"Much the same reason you're here now. She threatened to shut my business down if I spoke to anyone about her waiting here that night.\"\n\n\"Then why are you telling us?\" Father Mateo asked.\n\n\"As I said, you have an unusual reputation.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The moneylender nodded toward the far side of the street." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 5 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"People say you intervene to stop the poor from suffering without cause. I'd say that merits help when I can give it.\"\n\n\"We appreciate your assistance.\" Hiro retrieved a handful of silver coins from his purse and dropped them into the moneylender's palm with a gentle clink.\n\nShe closed her hand around the coins. \"Do not call on me to testify before the magistrate. If I ever see your face again, I'll swear you are a stranger.\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "The user will write a bit then you need to write around 6 sentences continuing directly from the user's text. Try to stick to the mystery, historical fiction, Japan, historical mystery, 1500s genre." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro and Father Mateo heard the crowd in the magistrate's compound from almost a block away. Inside the wooden palisade, voices chattered and squawked like a murder of crows.\n\nThe dōshin guarding the gates allowed the shinobi and the priest to pass in without question.\n\nHiro paused at the edge of the yard and surveyed the crowd. He never forgot his primary duty was still to protect the priest.\n\nThe crowd consisted primarily of merchants and the family members of persons standing trial for various crimes." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A dozen armored samurai stood guard along the wall, mostly dōshin, but also several with the Matsunaga crest." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro noticed the commoners edging away from the samurai." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Not even the innocent ones felt comfortable standing close to the guards." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He scanned the crowd but saw no familiar faces." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ren and Kaoru wouldn't arrive for several minutes more." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He hoped Yoshiko would attend as well." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "If she didn't, his plan would need adjusting.\n\nHiro found Suke's absence surprising. He hoped the monk was merely late and not passed out from drinking too much sake.\n\nThe magistrate would probably hear Ginjiro's matter first. If the shogun wanted lessons taught, murder trials and executions offered the most persuasive ones.\n\nHiro caught Father Mateo's eye and nodded toward the front of the crowd." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The men moved forward together, commoners parting before them like the panels of a noren blown apart by stormy winds." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They stood about a body length behind the sandy pit where prisoners would kneel during hearings.\n\nAs the dōshin led a line of sorry prisoners toward the dais, a commotion at the gates made Hiro turn.\n\n\"You cannot keep us out!\" Yoshiko's voice echoed through the compound. \"Let us through!\"\n\nThe crowd grew silent. People turned.\n\nHiro left Father Mateo near the shirazu and hurried through the crowd." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Once again, the packed-in commoners parted as he passed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "No one blocked the path of a samurai.\n\nAt the gates, Yoshiko stood face to face with the dōshin who guarded the compound. Beside the samurai woman, Tomiko stood as still and straight as an ancient cedar.\n\n\"This is no place for a girl,\" the dōshin said.\n\n\"She is a woman, not a girl,\" Yoshiko snapped. \"Her father is on trial today. You cannot bar her entry. Step aside!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Is this true?\" The dōshin asked Tomiko." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Is your father standing trial today?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ginjiro's daughter nodded." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Go home to your family,\" the dōshin said. \"Why do you want to see your father die?\"\n\n\"That is not your business,\" Yoshiko said. \"Let us through, or arrest us and let the magistrate decide.\"\n\nShe took Tomiko's arm and started past the dōshin. To Hiro's surprise, he let the women pass." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Who's next?\" The samurai glared at the line of people near the entrance. \"Make it quick, the hearing starts in minutes!\"\n\nThe guard had no authority to keep Tomiko out. Hiro interpreted his words as a vain attempt to save the girl the pain of watching her father's condemnation. Dislike for bullies notwithstanding, he agreed. Ginjiro's daughter didn't need to see her father stand before the magistrate." }, { "from": "human", "value": "However, Hiro knew something the other samurai didn't." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Tomiko needed to be there, to ensure an innocent person didn't die.\n\nBefore Hiro could catch Yoshiko's eye, a yoriki emerged from the magistrate's office, walked to the dais, and glared at the crowd.\n\nHiro hurried to rejoin the priest before the hearing started.\n\n\"Magistrate Ishimaki will hear the afternoon cases now!\" the yoriki called above the chattering voices. \"Silence! Show respect for the magistrate!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The commoners knelt and bowed their heads to the ground as Magistrate Ishimaki emerged from the building and made his way to the dais. Ishimaki-san wore a black kimono and a pair of expensive swords in decorative scabbards. His bald head gleamed in the midday sun as he climbed the three low wooden stairs and knelt on a white tatami atop the dais.\n\nHiro considered how different the afternoon sessions seemed from the morning hearings held inside the magistrate's private office. Wealthy men and samurai could speak their claims in private, while the commoners faced justice in the open.\n\nMagistrate Ishimaki arranged his robes and looked at the yoriki, who moved to stand beside the pit of sand." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Call the first prisoner,\" the magistrate said." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 4 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The yoriki unrolled a scroll. \"A capital crime. Ginjiro, a sake brewer, accused of murder.\" He looked to the right of the dais, where Ginjiro waited with the other prisoners.\n\nThe magistrate nodded. \"Bring the accused man forward.\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "writers block help pls. ill send something, u do one sentence. going for Susan Spann vibe" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"There is something I don't understand,\" Father Mateo said to Hiro as they walked down Marutamachi Road toward home." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"How did you know that Ren would confess his knowledge of the murder weapon?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I didn't,\" Hiro said, \"but he mentioned the sake flask this morning, back at the Lucky Monkey, and I knew he needed the murder 'solved' as soon as possible. He had the money in his room and couldn't keep it there for long because of the risk of theft. He needed to either repay the loan or purchase another brewery, but he also needed a killer punished so no one would be watching him too closely.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Surely Mina would ask where Ren got the money to buy a brewery?\" Father Mateo asked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Mina intends to become a nun. She wouldn't have noticed what Ren did thereafter.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro paused to hold his breath as they passed the smoldering incense at the gates to Okazaki Shrine." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"But how did you know Yoshiko wasn't the killer?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Father Mateo rubbed at the scar on his neck." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Or Kaoru? We never did find out for sure that Ginjiro didn't hire a guard.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The money tells the tale,\" Hiro said. \"A sum that big will change a person's behavior every time." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Kaoru yelled at his mother about money yesterday." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He wouldn't have done that if he had taken the money from Chikao." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He'd have coins in his purse, and since he didn't consider the future, he wouldn't have felt the need to complain right now." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yoshiko would have taken the money to pay off Kaoru's debt." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She wouldn't have left it on the body and wouldn't have continued to complain about the debt." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She would have made up a story about Chikao paying her before he died.\n\n\"In the end, that left only Ren.\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "same energy as Katherine M. Lawrence, keep writing" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When young Yamabuki was still innocent, the holy men warned her about the Hour of the Ox, the longest and darkest hour of the night. They said that at the beginning of the Fourth Watch, when eight bells tolled, ten thousand fissures yawned wide, releasing unclean things from the underworld. Under darkness, the contagion floated free, finding cracks in doors and vents in roofs; and having gained entry, these phantasms descended on fitfully sleeping souls, their sinewy tendrils probing the smallest clefts in closed eyes and creating only the slightest of ripples as they slithered under the lids and penetrated the sleepers' dreams.\n\nMoved by these tales, the young princess asked, \"Can spirits rising from the jigoku ever be good?\"\n\nEvery priest and every monk declared that no thing from the dark realm was benign—not even slightly for they were no longer capable of human feelings. Once drained, the heart shriveled inward with emptiness.\n\n\"But couldn't the hearts of lost spirits be refilled?\"\n\nThe holy men explained, \"If such a thing still had a heart, which was doubtful, it would be reikoku—a cold heart. Unbeating and incapable of ever being warmed.\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Continue with the same vibes as Katherine M. Lawrence" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Yamabuki guided her mount down the incline, leaning backward, shifting her weight as much as she could over Mochizuki's haunches. There were no fresh tracks to be seen. If intruders were about, they had not yet been here. Nor had her father." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She pushed Mochizuki to a canter to stay ahead of the daimyō as she had planned." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The air grew heavy with the scent of the sea, though the high, grassy dunes obstructed the view of the ocean.\n\nShe slowed to a stop at the bottom, where the trail opened into an elongated clearing. The Trap. Any approaching enemy would be forced to converge here, pressed together on low ground, vulnerable to defensive attack from the hills on either side.\n\nThis was also where the Taka routinely practiced archery." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Along the left side, under tall pines, five chest-high posts stood at various distances from the path—one from ten paces back, another thirty paces back, three others in between." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The arrangement was designed to make the shots tricky. Unlike the targets in the marshaling yard that were all the same distance from the rider, these were staggered, like a real enemy, and multiple shots at full gallop required constant adjustment for distance.\n\nSomeone had kindly left targets atop each post. She decided to warm up her bow arm just a bit." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Take out the five targets and she would be the one laughing with warrior spirit when her father rode up." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She circled around to the entry of the range, noting how the pines rustled, tops swaying; wind gusts would cause the arrows to fly unpredictably." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She delivered a small kick to Mochizuki's ribs, and he broke into a gallop." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "With one hand, she grabbed her yumi and pulled three arrows with the other. Her heart beating hard, she came up in her stirrups, turned her body, eying the first target, and drew the bowstring fully back. Allowing for her horse's movement, she released the arrow slightly early. And without waiting to see if it hit, she focused on the next target." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "An arrow whistled by her.\n\nHer mouth went dry. Another arrow flew, whizzing just behind her. Then a third, landing a good five strides away." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They came from the distant tree line." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her heart beat even faster. Her anger rose. How foolish she was with intruders about! Now it was she who was vulnerable in the Trap!\n\nFor a brief moment she wished she had her arrow cape, but there was no use in wishing for what she did not have." }, { "from": "human", "value": "What she did have were two arrows in hand." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She detected movement within the pines. Her first shot fell short. She retrained the remaining arrow in a slightly higher arc. It sailed beautifully until it ran afoul the branches, crackling through." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She sensed the arrow struck something—a tree trunk? An intruder?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "That sound mingled with approaching hooves—her father riding rapidly toward her. With all her lungs she shouted, \"Go back! It's an ambush!\"\n\nAnother arrow hissed close by.\n\nShe pulled hard on Mochizuki's reins." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He reared up. She got him to prance, hoping to draw the fire away from her father." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She grabbed more arrows from her ebira, notching and releasing, notching and releasing, notching and releasing \"At me! Shoot at me!\" she yelled. \"Cowards!\"\n\nTo her horror, Moroto still thundered toward her.\n\n\"No! No!\" she cried. \"Run! Save yourself.\"\n\nBut her father charged forward until he reined Kage beside her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The arrow volleys stopped." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And Moroto burst out laughing—a deep and joyful laugh.\n\nYamabuki, her teeth gritted in anger, swung her bow in the direction of the intruders, waiting for a target. Her father might have lost his senses, but she was ready.\n\nHis war fan in his mailed fist pushed her bow down." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Careful, before you kill someone.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You're as hot-tempered as Mochizuki!\" He chuckled. \"Put the bow down.\"\n\nWhen Yamabuki skeptically complied as commanded, Moroto called out to the tree line, \"You can come out now!\"\n\nMoments later Etsu and Jun emerged from the underbrush and made their way down with grins on their faces." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What—?\" Yamabuki began. \"How—?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"While you were busy with the stable boy and Mochizuki, they rode out ahead. As I said, wooden targets don't shoot back.\"\n\n\"They could have killed me!\"\n\n\"Not with those arrows.\" Moroto gestured. \"Show her.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They lifted the arrows they carried. Jun pushed his finger against the tip of one. Blunted. A hit would have hurt, but likely not seriously.\n\n\"They were very hard to aim,\" Jun said, obviously suppressing a smile." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"And you did not do bad, either,\" Etsu said, rubbing his shoulder. \"Your aim was good. Luckily your arrows are the same.\"\n\nShocked, Yamabuki pulled an arrow from her ebira and touched the point. Flat. And soft. Not forged from the tamahagane used for arrowheads and sword blades. \"Clay?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "she wondered?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"And namari, for the weight,\" Moroto said, sounding pleased with himself. \"It was all I could do to keep you from checking the arrows. I had to rear up Kage to distract you.\"\n\nYamabuki held her tongue, feeling played the fool.\n\nMoroto said in a lower voice, \"Next time, we won't be around, and the arrowheads won't be made of lead.\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "CREATIVE WRITING ASSIST:\n8 sentences sentences\nGenre: Japan, historical fiction, samurai" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "[ One day past Full Moon of Long Month, 5 October 1153 ]\n\nIwakawa-jiin, Tajima Prefecture, Main Isle Saburo and Aka-rui crossed through the temple's threshold gate, which revealed an open-air courtyard. A white-robbed priest scurried up across the large slabs of rough paving stones. He bowed, welcoming them. \"You are travelers?\"\n\n\"Hai.\" The boys bowed nearly in unison.\n\n\"Are you Abbot Nin-tai?\" asked Saburo.\n\nThe priest smiled. \"I am called Daimaru. You are both pilgrims?\"\n\nThe boys looked to each other, not sure exactly how to answer that." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Daimaru shook his head." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"He doesn't give audiences, even to pilgrims.\"\n\n\"The old man with the cart said we're to ask for Nin-tai by name,\" said Saburo.\n\nA look of surprise crossed the priest's face. \"Ha!\" he gasped and then scurried away.\n\nThe boys looked at each other. \"Do you think the old man was wrong?\" Aka-rui asked.\n\n\"Laughing at us, maybe?\" wondered Saburo.\n\n\"Maybe they were going to only feed him for bringing the cart up the hill. They didn't see us help.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We didn't do it for the food.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"True enough.\" Aka-rui nodded. \"Still, did you hear my stomach growl back there?\"\n\n\"At first I thought it was a mountain demon.\" Saburo made a face.\n\nBoth boys laughed.\n\nDaimaru came back with a deliberate step. \"Come with me,\" he said, bowing slightly.\n\nThey were led to an eating hall." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Taking off their shoes, they entered." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Inside a group of men and boys sat around the perimeter. The group was composed of six green-robed elders, fifteen white-robed priests, and the remaining thirty or so were ordinary boys, likely the novices.\n\n\"Sit,\" Daimaru indicated.\n\nOne of the elder men in green robes, likely Nin-tai, raised his bowl and everyone proceeded to eat. It was a simple meal of slick and smelly soybeans on a bit of rice with a small cup of kelp broth, but Saburo could not remember having ever eaten anything more delicious. He had supposed that in a monastery the holy men would be somber and eat while muttering prayers between bites or speaking of things religious. Instead they were friendly and engaged the boys in polite conversation, asking where they were from and where they were going and what wonders they might have seen on the road.\n\nThe meal soon ended and the crowd dispersed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The boys asked if they could help in thanks for the meal." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They were told, \"Nin-tai will now see you.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The priest Daimaru now led them up a hill within the monastery toward a low-roofed building with closed doors. \"Wait here,\" he said and stepped away.\n\nAlone, they stood outside.\n\n\"We've been fed, just like the old man promised,\" said Aka-rui.\n\n\"Maybe they'll want something in return now,\" Saburo said. \"The man in green robes at the meal, Nin-tai? I wonder if he'll want us to help the old man push the cart back.\"\n\n\"I don't want to go back.\"\n\n\"Neither do I.\" Saburo shook his head." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Our parents could still find us.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Daimaru returned and opened the doors to the low-roofed building. \"Please go inside.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The boys bowed and entered. They had expected to see the fat priest in green robes, seated like a Buddha, awaiting them. Instead a taller and thinner man in green robes stood at the far end of the room, looking through a portal out at the valley far below.\n\nThe boys came forward and bowed again.\n\nThe man in green robes said without turning to look at them, \"I can never get enough of the view from the temple.\"\n\nThe boys knew the voice. The old man with the cart! They shot looks of surprise to each other." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He turned away from the window." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It indeed was he.\n\n\"Bettō Nin-tai,\" the boys more or less said in unison, bowing again.\n\nHe returned their bow.\n\n\"We did not know you were the bettō,\" said Saburo.\n\n\"Why didn't you say anything?\" asked Aka-rui.\n\n\"That I am Nin-tai?\" He smiled enigmatically. \"When I am away, I am not the bettō of the road nor of the cart, nor of anything or anyone, save for myself. I am again just a man. It is good to be just a man, Nin-tai the man, again, if only for a time. Can you understand this?\"\n\nThe boys, faces sober, said that they did." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Nin-tai laughed softly. \"We are a syncretic order. Do you know what that is?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Neither boy did.\n\n\"The myriad Gods are everywhere, yes?\"\n\nThey agreed.\n\n\"Well, if one of the kami tells you about Himself, though He speaks for all, we hear Him using the words He chooses in His manifestation at that particular moment. Another time, different words are used in a different manifestation. Both are true, but to choose one set of words over another set of words is simply to not listen. Laziness. Words of enlightenment are uttered by God because God has many faces He shows us. And sometimes a God even comes in the form of a woman.\"\n\nSaburo had never heard of such an idea.\n\n\"Enlightenment is not just understanding one tradition. It is listening to all traditions.\"\n\nThe boys stood silently.\n\nNin-tai continued, \"I notice you have good manners.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Saburo could not exactly remember what he did that was so mannerly.\n\n\"You helped a stranger. Cheerfully. Without asking for something in return. You conversed respectfully with the others at the temple during the meal, taking no more than your share, though I could see neither of you have eaten for quite a while. Stomachs speak when they are empty.\" Nin-tai laughed, pointing at Aka-rui, who grew slightly red. \"You both offered to do chores, without being asked.\" Nin-tai looked at them carefully. \"What are you looking for in Heian-kyō?\"\n\nThe boys said nothing. Nin-tai waited. He was not going to let them get away merely with shrugs." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But they still said nothing." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Reading and writing. Are these valuable skills?\" asked Nin-tai.\n\nThe boys agreed they were.\n\n\"Will anyone teach you to read and to write in Heian-kyō?\"\n\nThey didn't know.\n\n\"I can tell you, they won't. They'll teach you to be thieves and worse. You'll learn how to rob and steal to get food. How to live in an abandoned building. To be worse off than from whatever you are running from, regardless of how bad you think that is.\"\n\nSaburo gulped. A thief? A robber?\n\n\"Is either of you a daimyō's son?\"\n\nBoth shook their heads." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 9 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Either of you commit any murders lately?\"\n\nThe boys looked shocked and again shook their heads.\n\n\"Probably no one will want to find you. But if you want, you can stay here until the next Full Moon before you leave. By then they will have given up, if they bothered to follow you at all. And by then you will get an idea of our lives here at Iwakawa-jiin. And maybe, you just might... \"\n\nWith that, Nin-tai bowed and left the chamber.\n\nAnd if anyone from their families ever came looking for either of the runaways, the boys never heard so much as a whisper of it, for indeed neither was a daimyō's son, nor had either of them ever killed anyone. They were of little interest to anyone but themselves and the priests who took them in.\n\nThe idea of killing someone had never occurred to Saburo. He never would have believed—even if a soothsayer came to him and divined his future—that by the end of his journey away from the silk farm he would become a shinobi, a ninja, a man operating in the shadows who killed for money. The utterly profound change in his heart happened after he learned, firsthand and brutally, more than a few things about the nature of the world and the limits of human kindness, even amongst those who postured as upright holy men." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "keep the story goin for like 7 sentences more. make it Japan, historical fiction, samurai-y and Katherine M. Lawrence-esque" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In truth, Shima did not want a servant as much as he wanted a worthy student. He knew the ways of young men and had grasped the secret longings in the youthful priest's heart the night they first met, and so it wasn't before long that Shima let his \"servant\" take a place among those training—provided Gun-kun finished all the physical work in the studio.\n\nThis suited Saburo perfectly. Not being an Ōuchi retainer, he had no other official duties or outside obligations taking him away from the training hall. This enabled him to practice from the Hour of the Rabbit to the Hour of the Bird, studying sedulously for a year, then two, then three.\n\nTo Saburo, the training represented a confluence of disciplines. One priestly, the other martial, they flowed into a unitary emotion within." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As Nin-tai had instructed Saburo in meditation to empty the mind, Shima concentrated on the body; and meditation, if it could be called that, came about only as the body was pushed to exhaustion.\n\nIn fact, Shima's training proved more demanding. The mind of a student-priest might wander during meditation, and back at Iwakawa-jiin, who among the instruction leaders truly knew if a student's meditations were going well or not? If a priest noticed a novice beginning to slouch, the wandering mind was brought back by a gentle touch on the student's shoulder. But under Shima's sharp eye, lapses of concentration were more easily recognized. An initial mistake earned a smart rap by bokken to the wrist, the hand, the thigh, the rib, the shin, or chest, reminding the student where an enemy's blow would have landed. Repeated bruising piled up for repeated mistakes." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Shima would thunder, \"You think this is terrible! Wait until you meet a man who actually wants to hurt you! If you should survive, you'll return and you'll grovel at my feet to thank me for my loving harshness.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In theory, broken bones would result from incessant mistakes, but it never came to that. The daimyō insisted students were to be dismissed before they were seriously injured. He could not afford to have his subjects perishing in the training halls—especially not the young royal ones.\n\nFor Shima, this was the source of his greatest frustration. In private, he confessed to Saburo his displeasure with the laxness toward the highborn students, and explained how there were three kinds of students. The first kind, the unschooled ones, attended to find glory, or status, or to inspire fear, or simply because royal duty demanded it, for the destiny of the students, particularly the younger ones, was to become Ōuchi warlords or generals. Under his tutelage, they faced grueling physical training and thereby attained a singular sort of enlightenment." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He would tell them, \"There is skill and there is will. Both are needed. Just one won't do.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Did the students possess an inner desire? If not, such students soon fell by the wayside.\n\nBut what gave Shima the most satisfaction was the second type of student, who emerged from the first type. Like hammering strength and flexibility in a sword's tempered line, Shima worked their bodies to the peak of fighting skills that became instinctual—as reflexive as pulling a hand away from hot steel. And it pleased him to watch over three years how Saburo became an exceptional example of this second kind of student. At almost eighteen summers, Saburo had become strong and well built, skilled, and filled with resolve. In fact, his natural youthful strength and dexterity would never be greater." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But most prized of all by Shima was the third kind of student—the grizzled ones, dark of eye, who stood ready to kill anyone at any moment, and could move their swords faster than a blink." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 5 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The masters. Ones like himself. Shima could see that, in practice with the weapons, with every stroke, and with every move, Saburo was picturing how he would deliver a blow to each one of the Eleven. It became clear how close he was to becoming the third type of student. Armed with Aka-rui's sword, Saburo was on an inner journey that Shima would have to watch as an outsider. The final test had yet to come." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "ur a writing helper. partner writes, u do next 6 sentences." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The two men stood facing each other, both knowing that everything had now changed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Shima asked, \"All dead?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Saburo nodded hard, completely out of breath, yet not feeling even slightly tired." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "If anything he felt giddy... and dazed... and elated. \"It happened so fast.\"\n\n\"But you remember it,\" said Shima. \"Not a blur?\"\n\n\"I remember it perfectly,\" Saburo said to his own surprise.\n\n\"One thing moving to the next?\" Shima nodded. \"Like a dance?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Hai. Like a wild dance.\"\n\n\"And no fear?\"\n\n\"No. Not once it started.\" Saburo shook his head. \"I was never so alive.\"\n\n\"You're a man now.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Shima's voice was silky, his smile both humorous and wicked. \"Let's celebrate with saké.\" He retrieved an ample flask from a saddlebag. Without ceremony, he pulled open the stopper and swigged directly from it, then wiped his mouth with his sleeve. He handed the saké to Saburo, who drank and drank and drank in a series of long gulps, like a man who had been without water for days.\n\n\"Strong,\" Saburo gasped as he came up for breath, then belched." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He laughed at himself.\n\nShima's eyes twinkled boyishly. \"You did it,\" he said, putting his arm over Saburo's shoulder, touching Saburo tenderly perhaps for the first time ever, and pulled him close. Standing side by side, he said, \"You're a man.\"\n\nSaburo began to grow hard. He turned his head, letting go of the empty saké flask, which tumbled to the ground and rolled away." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He took a prolonged look at Shima, and he turned fully him so that now the two men faced each other.\n\nThe moonlight made it all bewitching. As the owl started hooting, Saburo put his own arms around the taller man. Shima put his other arm around Saburo's back. The men each let out a sigh, embracing slow and hard.\n\nThere was a long moment of silence, punctuated by only their breathing." }, { "from": "human", "value": "And though the mouth was considered a vile and unclean thing, Saburo had drunk from the same bottle." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He could smell the saké on Shima's breath. His sweat. He felt himself grow even harder. He had thought his heart had been beating fast during the battle, yet now it beat as hard as ever. He reached up to caress Shima's cheek. \"I'm sorry. I smell of blood... all over my clothes.\"\n\n\"Then you should get out of them,\" Shima said. \"I'll join you.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Efficiently, yet unhurriedly, they removed their kimono. Saburo looked at Shima's more massive body. Broad and solid like a bear.\n\nShima likewise allowed his gaze to linger on Saburo, the well-formed young man whose physicality was at its peak.\n\nThey looked into each other's faces, the two men, like two virile moons under the real moon's glow.\n\n\"Do you want to do this?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Shima whispered, his voice slightly hoarse." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yes.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Indeed, Shima's daikon was large. Saburo let out a sigh, a gasp, and without any real effort lifted Shima off the ground.\n\nShima gave forth a deep laugh. \"You're much stronger than you look.\"\n\n\"I'm a lot more things than you know.\"\n\nThe men demonstrated their strength in crushing embraces, wrestling each other in a sensual way." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hard caresses and scratches that did not break the skin." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Slapping and hitting that left no bruises, marks, or damage. It did not matter that Saburo was the smaller of the two. He hefted the sword master and pressed him against his body, jumping on top of him, and with sheer strength pushing him down.\n\nSaburo was aware that physical love, nandō, was well-known among warriors and had its own special rules. There was no \"woman's role\" when male warriors gave themselves to each other. Both men had to be forceful." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Neither would yield. It would be demeaning to be submissive." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Insulting to try to govern the other. They would thus wrestle and let hardness rub against hardness.\n\nThe trees hissed in the slightly cool breeze. As the moon moved behind the trees, shadowy light shrouded them both, creating a world which held only the two of them. They pulled even closer together. They embraced even more deeply." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Their bodies seemingly fused." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Their breathing grew heavy and in tempo." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They whispered. They exchanged words with each other that no one else could hear—only things that men of battle could possibly celebrate, let alone understand.\n\nShima and Saburo, feeling, touching, smelling, growling, and grunting—almost like they were in battle, yet not. There was no relaxing, except at the final spasms, and then it was mutual gasps when the excitement reached a peak. Until they were sated. Exhausted and fulfilled.\n\nThey lay on top of their clothes in the tall grasses, recovering until sleep took them both.\n\nSome time later, when Shima awoke, he saw Saburo lying on his back next to him, gazing into the sky." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Their two horses stood nearby, asleep." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I would have thought you'd sleep more soundly after all that.\"\n\n\"I'm too excited to sleep,\" Saburo said.\n\nShima smiled knowingly. \"You cold?\" he asked softly.\n\nSaburo shook his head.\n\n\"I'm not either, but I'm thirsty.\" He rose and retrieved another flask of saké in Gaki's saddlebag." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The men shared the flask as they both lay back looking into the night sky." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Were you and Aka-rui lovers?\" Shima asked.\n\n\"You asked me that years ago, and I said no.\"\n\n\"Why weren't you?\"\n\n\"It would've been the love between boys, something I do not care for.\" Saburo scowled. \"Why'd you ask about him again?\"\n\n\"Because of how you were... just now. Like you'd done this before. You were perfectly at ease.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"At ease?\" Saburo laughed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I am sweating, and I know my muscles will be sore in the morning.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Shima joined him in laughter. \"So the other boys didn't court you?\"\n\n\"No one there could ignite my heart,\" said Saburo. \"Boys aren't manly.\"\n\n\"And the elders?\" Shima asked.\n\nNanshoku, male colors, often happened in monasteries, as well as among the warrior-monks. It was repeated by some that any number of men were drawn to religious studies precisely for the all-male environs where passions could run wild, especially among youths who found one another enticing." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Saburo grimaced. \"I was no chigo, if that's what you're asking. It wasn't tolerated at our monastery, and I am glad for it.\"\n\nShima looked into the sky. \"So you learned, then, from being with women?\"\n\nSaburo thought of Sairyū and the cherries he had offered her that day at the market six years before. \"No woman has ever given me her skin,\" he said, using the common expression.\n\nShima turned and gave him a hard look." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Though I believe you, it's hard to believe a woman would not offer herself to you.\"\n\n\"You know from the ancient texts the story of the Moon?\" Saburo said, stroking Shima.\n\n\"The brother of the Sun Goddess.\"\n\n\"But you know how He came into being?\"\n\nShima shook his head." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"When I grew up, there was no time for such stories. I never attended a monastery, but maybe you know?\"\n\nNow it was Saburo's turn to laugh softly, and he began to tell a tale. \"Tsukuyomi is the brother of the Sun Goddess. He was born out of the right eye of the Creator God, Izanagi, male-who-invites.\"\n\n\"Male-who-invites?\" Shima repeated. \"Maybe this story has something to do with us.\"\n\nSaburo smiled knowingly. \"Izanagi had to cleanse Himself of sins after He escaped from Ne-no-Kuni, the Land of Roots, and He immersed himself in water to wash all bad things away. As He washed, the Moon God fell from His right eye.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Sounds like an interesting God, and maybe a good one.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Well, actually not. He killed the Goddess of Food. Would you like to hear about that?\"\n\n\"No,\" Shima said simply. He rolled toward Saburo, and once again the two men proceeded in their sport.\n\nOnly as the dawn broke peach in color did the two men, exhausted from their night together, stand side by side, naked, ready to face the day.\n\n\"I want you to have this,\" said Saburo. \"It's a trifle.\" He held out a small blue-beaded pouch with a black silk drawstring." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"An omamori. Good luck for travel over water.\"" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 3 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Shima looked sharply at Saburo, taking the prayer amulet into his hand and gazing at the takō image. He said nothing more.\n\nThe bond had been sealed." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Job: User writes start, you add ~three sentences sentences. Style: Eiji Yoshikawa" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Once again striding down the path he had taken earlier, Musashi muttered to himself, \"That proves I lost. I even forgot to leave a message for Jōtarō. I was beaten by the old abbot!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Musashi's dejection persisted. Although he had won against Agon, the only thing that stuck in his mind was the immaturity he had felt in Nikkan's presence. How could he ever become a great swordsman, the greatest of them all? This was the question that obsessed him night and day, and today's encounter had left him utterly depressed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "During the past twenty years or so, the area between Sarusawa Pond and the lower reaches of the Sai River had been built up steadily, and there was a jumble of new houses, inns and shops. Only recently, Ōkubo Nagayasu had come to govern the city for the Tokugawas and had set up his administrative offices nearby. In the middle of the town was the establishment of a Chinese who was said to be a descendant of Lin Ho-ching; he had done so well with his stuffed dumplings that an expansion of his shop in the direction of the pond was under way." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Musashi stopped amid the lights of the busiest district and wondered where he should stay." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There were plenty of inns, but he had to be careful about his expenses; at the same time, he wanted to choose a place not too far off the beaten track, so Jōtarō could find him easily.\n\nHe had just eaten at the temple, but when he caught a whiff of the stuffed dumplings, he felt hungry again. Entering the shop, he sat down and ordered a whole plateful." }, { "from": "human", "value": "When they arrived, Musashi noted that the name Lin was burned into the bottom of the dumplings." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Unlike the hot pickles at the Hōzōin, the dumplings had a flavor he could savor with pleasure.\n\nThe young girl who poured his tea asked politely, \"Where are you planning to stay tonight?\"\n\nMusashi, unfamiliar with the district, welcomed the opportunity to explain his situation and ask her advice." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She told him one of the proprietor's relatives had a private boardinghouse where he would be welcome, and without waiting for his answer, trotted off." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She returned with a youngish woman, whose shaved eyebrows indicated she was married—presumably the proprietor's wife.\n\nThe boardinghouse was on a quiet alley not far from the restaurant, apparently an ordinary residence that sometimes took in guests. The eyebrowless mistress of the shop, who had shown him the way, tapped lightly on the door, then turned to Musashi and said quietly, \"It's my elder sister's house, so don't worry about tipping or anything.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The maid came out of the house and the two of them exchanged whispers for a moment or two." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Apparently satisfied, she led Musashi to the second floor." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The room and its furnishings were too good for an ordinary inn, making Musashi feel a bit ill at ease. He wondered why a house as well-off as this one would take in boarders and asked the maid about it, but she just smiled and said nothing. Having already eaten, he had his bath and went to bed, but the question was still on his mind when he went off to sleep." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Next morning, he said to the maid, \"Someone is supposed to come looking for me. Will it be all right if I stay over for a day or two until he arrives?\"\n\n\"By all means,\" she replied, without even asking the lady of the house, who soon came herself to pay her respects.\n\nShe was a good-looking woman of about thirty, with fine smooth skin." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When Musashi tried to satisfy his curiosity about why she was accepting roomers, she laughingly replied, \"To tell the truth, I'm a widow—my husband was a Nō actor by the name of Kanze—and I'm afraid to be without a man in the house, what with all these ill-bred rōnin in the vicinity.\" She went on to explain that while the streets were full of drinking shops and prostitutes, many of the indigent samurai were not satisfied with these diversions. They would pump information from the local youths and attack houses where there were no men about." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They spoke of this as \"calling on the widows.\"\n\n\"In other words,\" said Musashi, \"you take in people like me to act as your bodyguard, right?\"\n\n\"Well,\" she said, smiling, \"as I said, there are no men in the household. Please feel free to stay as long as you like.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I understand perfectly. I hope you'll feel safe as long as I'm here. There's only one request I'd like to make. I'm expecting a visitor, so I wonder if you'd mind putting a marker with my name on it outside the gate.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The widow, not at all unhappy to let it be known that she had a man in the house, obligingly wrote \"Miyamoto Musashi\" on a strip of paper and pasted it on the gatepost.\n\nJōtarō did not show up that day, but on the next, Musashi received a visit from a group of three samurai. Pushing their way past the protesting maid, they came straight upstairs to his room." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Musashi saw immediately that they were among those who had been present at the Hōzōin when he had killed Agon." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Sitting down around him as though they'd known him all their lives, they started pouring on the flattery." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I never saw anything like it in my life,\" said one. \"I'm sure nothing of the kind ever happened at the Hōzōin before. Just think! An unknown visitor arrives and, just like that, downs one of the Seven Pillars. And not just anyone—the terrifying Agon himself. One grunt and he was spitting blood. You don't often see sights like that!\"\n\nAnother went on in the same vein." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Everyone we know is talking about it. All the rōnin are asking each other just who this Miyamoto Musashi is. That was a bad day for the Hōzōin's reputation.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Why, you must be the greatest swordsman in the country!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"And so young, too!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No doubt about it. And you'll get even better with time.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"If you don't mind my asking, how does it happen that with your ability you're only a rōnin? It's a waste of your talents not to be in the service of a daimyō!\"\n\nThey paused only long enough to slurp some tea and devour the tea cakes with gusto, spilling crumbs all over their laps and on the floor.\n\nMusashi, embarrassed by the extravagance of their praise, shifted his eyes from right to left and back again." }, { "from": "human", "value": "For a time, he listened with an impassive face, thinking that sooner or later their momentum would run down." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When they showed no signs of changing the subject, he took the initiative by asking their names.\n\n\"Oh, I'm sorry. I'm Yamazoe Dampachi. I used to be in the service of Lord Gamō,\" said the first.\n\nThe man next to him said, \"I'm Ōtomo Banryū. I've mastered the Bokuden Style, and I have a lot of plans for the future.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'm Yasukawa Yasubei,\" said the third with a chuckle, \"and I've never been anything but a rōnin, like my father before me.\"\n\nMusashi wondered why they were taking up their time and his with their small talk. It became apparent that he would not find out unless he asked, so the next time there was a break in the conversation, he said, \"Presumably you came because you had some business with me.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They feigned surprise at the very idea but soon admitted they had come on what they regarded as a very important mission. Moving quickly forward, Yasubei said, \"As a matter of fact, we do have some business with you. You see, we're planning to put on a public 'entertainment' at the foot of Mount Kasuga, and we wanted to talk to you about it. Not a play or anything like that. What we have in mind is a series of matches that would teach the people about the martial arts, and at the same time give them something to lay bets on.\"\n\nHe went on to say that the stands were already being put up, and that the prospects looked excellent." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They felt, however, that they needed another man, because with just the three of them, some really strong samurai might show up and beat them all, which would mean that their hard-earned money would go down the drain. They had decided that Musashi was just the right person for them. If he would join in with them, they would not only split the profits but pay for his food and lodging while the matches were in progress." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "That way he could easily earn some fast money for his future travels.\n\nMusashi listened with some amusement to their blandishments, but by and by he grew tired and broke in. \"If that's all you want, there's no point in discussing it. I'm not interested.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"But why?\" asked Dampachi. \"Why aren't you interested?\"\n\nMusashi's youthful temper erupted." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I'm not a gambler!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "he stated indignantly. \"And I eat with chopsticks, not with my sword!\"\n\n\"What's that?\" protested the three, insulted by his implication. \"What do you mean by that?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Don't you understand, you fools? I am a samurai, and I intend to remain a samurai. Even if I starve in the process. Now clear out of here!\"\n\nOne man's mouth twisted into a nasty snarl, and another, red with anger, shouted, \"You'll regret this!\"\n\nThey well knew that the three of them together were no match for Musashi, but to save face, they stamped out noisily, scowling and doing their best to give the impression they weren't through with him yet." }, { "from": "human", "value": "That night, as on other recent nights, there was a milky, slightly overcast moon." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The young mistress of the house, free from worry as long as Musashi was in residence, was careful to provide him with delicious food and sake of good quality. He ate downstairs with the family and in the process drank himself into a mellow mood.\n\nReturning to his room, he sprawled on the floor." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His thoughts soon came to rest on Nikkan." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It's humiliating,\" he said to himself." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The adversaries he had defeated, even the ones he had killed or half killed, always disappeared from his mind like so much froth, but he couldn't forget anyone who got the better of him in any way or, for that matter, anyone in whom he sensed an overpowering presence. Men like that dwelt in his mind like living spirits, and he thought constantly of how one day he might be able to overshadow them.\n\n\"Humiliating!\" he repeated." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He clutched at his hair and pondered how he could get the better of Nikkan, how he could face that unearthly stare without flinching. For two days this question had gnawed at him. It wasn't that he wished Nikkan any harm, but he was sorely disappointed with himself." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Is it that I'm no good?\" he asked himself ruefully. Having learned swordsmanship on his own, and thus lacking an objective appraisal of his own strength, he couldn't help but doubt his own ability to ever achieve power such as the old priest exuded." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Nikkan had told him he was too strong, that he had to learn to become weaker. This was the point that sent his mind off on tangent after tangent, for he couldn't fathom the meaning. Wasn't strength a warrior's most important quality?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Was that not what made one warrior superior to others?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "How could Nikkan speak of it as a flaw?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Maybe,\" thought Musashi, \"the old rascal was toying with me. Maybe he considered my youth and decided to talk in riddles just to confuse me and amuse himself. Then after I left, he had a good laugh. It's possible.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "At times like this, Musashi wondered whether it had been wise to read all those books at Himeji Castle." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Until then, he had never bothered much about figuring things out, but now, whenever something happened, he couldn't rest until he'd found an explanation satisfying to his intellect. Previously he'd acted on instinct; now he had to understand each small thing before he could accept it. And this applied not only to swordsmanship but to the way he viewed humanity and society." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was true that the daredevil in him had been tamed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Yet Nikkan said he was \"too strong.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Musashi assumed that Nikkan was referring not to physical strength but to the savage fighting spirit with which he had been born." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Could the priest really have perceived it, or was he guessing?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The knowledge that comes from books is of no use to the warrior,\" he reassured himself. \"If a man worries too much about what others think or do, he's apt to be slow to act. Why, if Nikkan himself closed his eyes for a moment and made one misstep, he'd crumble and fall to pieces!\"\n\nThe sound of footsteps on the stairs intruded upon his musings." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The maid appeared, and after her Jōtarō, his dark skin further blackened by the grime acquired on his journey, but his spritelike hair white with dust. Musashi, truly happy to have the diversion of his little friend, welcomed him with open arms.\n\nThe boy plopped down on the floor and stretched his dirty legs out straight." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Am I tired!\" he sighed.\n\n\"Did you have trouble finding me?\"\n\n\"Trouble! I almost gave up. I've been searching all over!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Didn't you ask at the Hōzōin?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yes, but they said they didn't know anything about you.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Oh, they did, did they?\" Musashi's eyes narrowed. \"And after I said specifically that you'd find me near Sarusawa Pond. Oh, well, I'm glad you made it.\"\n\n\"Here's the answer from the Yoshioka School.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He handed Musashi the bamboo tube. \"I couldn't find Hon'iden Matahachi, so I asked the people at his house to give him the message.\"\n\n\"Fine. Now run along and have a bath. They'll give you some dinner downstairs.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Musashi took the letter from its container and read it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It said that Seijūrō looked forward to a \"second bout\"; if Musashi didn't show up as promised the following year, it would be assumed that he'd lost his nerve." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Should that happen, Seijūrō would make sure that Musashi became the laughingstock of Kyoto." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "This braggadocio was set down in clumsy handwriting, presumably by someone other than Seijūrō.\n\nAs Musashi tore the letter to bits and burned it, the charred pieces fluttered up into the air like so many black butterflies.\n\nSeijūrō had spoken of a \"bout,\" but it was clear that it was going to be more than that." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It would be a battle to the death." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Next year, as a result of this insulting note, which one of the combatants would end up in ashes?\n\nMusashi took it for granted that a warrior must be content to live from day to day, never knowing each morning if he'd live to see nightfall. Nevertheless, the thought that he might really die in the coming year worried him somewhat." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There were so many things he still wanted to do. For one thing, there was his burning desire to become a great swordsman. But that wasn't all." }, { "from": "human", "value": "So far, he reflected, he hadn't done any of the things people ordinarily do in the course of a lifetime." }, { "from": "human", "value": "At this stage of his life, he was still vain enough to think he'd like to have retainers—a lot of them—leading his horses and carrying his falcons, just like Bokuden and Lord Kōizumi of Ise." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He would like, too, to have a proper house, with a good wife and loyal servants. He wanted to be a good master and to enjoy the warmth and comfort of home life. And of course, before he settled down, he had a secret longing to have a passionate love affair." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "During all these years of thinking solely about the Way of the Samurai he had, not unnaturally, remained chaste. Still, he was struck by some of the women he saw on the streets of Kyoto and Nara, and it was not their aesthetic qualities alone that pleased him; they aroused him physically.\n\nHis thoughts turned to Otsū." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Though she was now a creature of the distant past, he felt closely bound to her. How many times, when he was lonely or melancholy, had the vague recollection of her alone cheered him up.\n\nPresently he came out of his reverie." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Jōtarō had rejoined him, bathed, satiated and proud to have carried out his mission successfully." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Sitting with his short legs crossed and his hands between his knees, he didn't take long to succumb to fatigue." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He was soon snoozing blissfully, his mouth open." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Musashi put him to bed.\n\nWhen morning came, the boy was up with the sparrows. Musashi also arose early, since he intended to resume his travels." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As he was dressing, the widow appeared and said in a regretful tone, \"You seem in a hurry to leave.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "In her arms she was carrying some clothing, which she offered him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I've sewn these things together for you as a parting gift—a kimono with a short cloak. I'm not sure you'll like them, but I hope you'll wear them.\"\n\nMusashi looked at her in astonishment. The garments were much too expensive for him to accept after having stayed there only two days." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He tried to refuse, but the widow insisted. \"No, you must take them. They aren't anything very special anyway. I have a lot of old kimono and Nō costumes left by my husband. I have no use for them. I thought it would be nice for you to have some. I do hope you won't refuse. Now that I've altered them to fit you, if you don't take them, they'll just go to waste.\"\n\nShe went behind Musashi and held up the kimono for him to slip his arms into." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As he put it on, he realized that the silk was of very good quality and felt more embarrassed than ever." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The sleeveless cloak was particularly fine; it must have been imported from China." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The hem was gold brocade, the lining silk crepe, and the leather fastening straps had been dyed purple.\n\n\"It looks perfect on you!\" exclaimed the widow.\n\nJōtarō, looking on enviously, suddenly said to her, \"What're you going to give me?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The widow laughed. \"You should be happy for the chance to accompany your fine master.\"\n\n\"Aw,\" grumbled Jōtarō, \"who wants an old kimono anyway?\"\n\n\"Is there anything you do want?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Running to the wall in the anteroom and taking a Nō mask down from its hook, the boy said, \"Yes, this!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He'd coveted it since first spying it the night before, and now he rubbed it tenderly against his cheek." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Musashi was surprised at the boy's good taste." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He himself had found it admirably executed. There was no way of knowing who had made it, but it was certainly two or three centuries old and had evidently been used in actual Nō performances. The face, carved with exquisite care, was that of a female demon, but whereas the usual mask of this type was grotesquely painted with blue spots, this was the face of a beautiful and elegant young girl." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was peculiar only in that one side of her mouth curved sharply upward in the eeriest fashion imaginable." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Obviously not a fictitious face conjured up by the artist, it was the portrait of a real, living madwoman, beautiful yet bewitched.\n\n\"That you cannot have,\" said the widow firmly, trying to take the mask away from the boy.\n\nEvading her reach, Jōtarō put the mask on the top of his head and danced about the room, shouting defiantly, \"What do you need it for? It's mine now; I'm going to keep it!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Musashi, surprised and embarrassed by his ward's conduct, made an attempt to catch him, but Jōtarō stuffed the mask into his kimono and fled down the stairs, the widow giving chase. Although she was laughing, not angry at all, she clearly didn't intend to part with the mask.\n\nPresently Jōtarō climbed slowly back up the stairs." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Musashi, ready to scold him severely, was seated with his face toward the door." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But as the boy entered, he cried, \"Boo!\" and held the mask out before him. Musashi was startled; his muscles tensed and his knees shifted inadvertently." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He wondered why Jōtarō's prank had such an effect on him, but as he stared at the mask in the dim light, he began to understand." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The carver had put something diabolical into his creation." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "That crescent smile, curving up on the left side of the white face, was haunted, possessed of a devil.\n\n\"If we're going, let's go,\" said Jōtarō.\n\nMusashi, without rising, said, \"Why haven't you given the mask back yet? What do you want with a thing like that?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"But she said I could keep it! She gave it to me.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"She did not! Go downstairs and give it back to her.\"\n\n\"But she gave it to me! When I offered to return it, she said that if I wanted it so badly, I could keep it. She just wanted to make sure I'd take good care of it, so I promised her I would.\"\n\n\"What am I going to do with you!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Musashi felt ashamed about accepting, first, the beautiful kimono and then this mask that the widow seemed to treasure." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He would have liked to do something in return, but she was obviously not in need of money—certainly not the small amount he could have spared—and none of his meager possessions would make a suitable gift." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He descended the stairs, apologizing for Jōtarō's rudeness and attempting to return the mask.\n\nThe widow, however, said, \"No, the more I think of it, the more I think I'd be happier without it. And he does want it so badly... Don't be too hard on him.\"\n\nSuspecting the mask had some special significance for her, Musashi tried once more to return it, but by this time Jōtarō had his straw sandals on and was outside waiting by the gate, a smug look on his face." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Musashi, eager to be off, gave in to her kindness and accepted the gift. The young widow said she was sorrier to see Musashi go than she was to lose the mask, and begged him several times to come back and stay there whenever he was in Nara.\n\nMusashi was tying the thongs of his sandals when the dumpling-maker's wife came running up." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Oh,\" she said breathlessly, \"I'm so glad you haven't left yet. You can't go now! Please, go back upstairs. Something terrible is going on!\" The woman's voice trembled as though she thought some fearful ogre was about to attack her.\n\nMusashi finished tying his sandals and calmly raised his head." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What is it? What's so terrible?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The priests at the Hōzōin have heard you're leaving today, and more than ten of them have taken their lances and are lying in wait for you in Hannya Plain.\"\n\n\"Oh?\"\n\n\"Yes, and the abbot, Inshun, is with them. My husband knows one of the priests, and he asked him what was going on. The priest said the man who's been staying here for the last couple of days, the man named Miyamoto, was leaving Nara today, and the priests were going to waylay him on the road.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Her face twitching with fright, she assured Musashi that it would be suicide to leave Nara this morning and fervently urged him to lie low for another night." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It would be safer, in her opinion, to try and sneak away the next day.\n\n\"I see,\" said Musashi without emotion. \"You say they plan to meet me on Hannya Plain?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'm not sure exactly where, but they went off in that direction. Some of the townspeople told me it wasn't only the priests. They said a whole lot of the rōnin, too, had got together, saying they'd catch you and turn you over to the Hōzōin. Did you say something bad about the temple, or insult them in some way?\"\n\n\"No.\"\n\n\"Well, they say the priests are furious because you hired somebody to put up posters with verses on them making fun of the Hōzōin. They took this to mean you were gloating over having killed one of their men.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I didn't do anything of the sort. There's been a mistake.\"\n\n\"Well, if it's a mistake, you shouldn't go out and get yourself killed over it!\"\n\nHis brow beaded with sweat, Musashi looked thoughtfully up at the sky, recalling how angry the three rōnin had been when he turned down their business deal." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Maybe he was indebted to them for all this. It would be just like them to put up offensive posters and then spread the word that he'd done it.\n\nAbruptly he stood up." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'm leaving,\" he said.\n\nHe strapped his traveling bag to his back, took his basket hat in hand, and turning to the two women, thanked them for their kindness. As he started toward the gate, the widow, now in tears, followed along, begging him not to go." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"If I stay over another night,\" he pointed out, \"there's bound to be trouble at your house. I certainly wouldn't want that to happen, after you've been so good to us.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I don't care,\" she insisted." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You'd be safer here.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"No, I'll go now. Jō! Say thank you to the lady.\"\n\nDutifully, the boy bowed and did as he was told. He, too, appeared to be in low spirits, but not because he was sorry to leave." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "five sentences sentences in Eiji Yoshikawa style, continuing user's bit" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Gradually obscured by the wintry noonday mist, the sunlit island of Awaji faded into the distance. The flapping of the great sail in the wind drowned out the sound of the waves. The boat, which plied several times each month between Osaka and Awa Province in Shikoku, was crossing the Inland Sea on its way to Osaka. Although its cargo consisted mostly of paper and indigo dye, a distinctive odor betrayed it was carrying contraband, in the form of tobacco, which the Tokugawa government had forbidden the people to smoke, sniff or chew. There were also passengers on board, mostly merchants, either returning to the city or visiting it for the year-end trading." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"How's it going? Making lots of money, I bet.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Not at all! Everybody says things are booming in Sakai, but you couldn't prove it by me.\"\n\n\"I hear there's a shortage of workmen there. Heard they need gunsmiths.\"\n\nConversation in another group went along similar lines.\n\n\"I supply battle equipment myself—flagstaffs, armor, that sort of thing. I'm certainly not making as much as I used to, though.\"\n\n\"Is that so?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yes, I guess the samurai are learning how to add.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Ha, ha!\"\n\n\"It used to be that when the freebooters brought in their loot, you could redye or repaint things and sell them right back to the armies. Then after the next battle, the stuff would come back and you could fix it up and sell it again.\"\n\nOne man was gazing out over the ocean and extolling the riches of the countries beyond it. \"You can't make money at home anymore. If you want real profits, you have to do what Naya 'Luzon' Sukezaemon or Chaya Sukejirō did. Go into foreign trade. It's risky, but if you're lucky, it can really pay off.\"\n\n\"Well,\" said another man, \"even if things aren't so good for us these days, from the samurai's viewpoint we're doing very well. Most of them don't even know what good food tastes like. We talk about the luxuries the daimyō enjoy, but sooner or later they have to put on their leather and steel and go out and get killed. I feel sorry for them; they're so busy thinking about their honor and the warrior's code they can't ever sit back and enjoy life.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Isn't that the truth? We complain about bad times and all, but the only thing to be today is a merchant.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You're right. At least we can do what we want.\"\n\n\"All we really have to do is make a show of bowing down before the samurai, and a little money makes up for a lot of that.\"\n\n\"If you're going to live in this world, might as well have a good time.\"\n\n\"That's the way I see it. Sometimes I feel like asking the samurai what they're getting out of life.\"\n\nThe woolen carpet this group had spread for themselves to sit on was imported—evidence that they were better off than other elements of the population." }, { "from": "human", "value": "After Hideyoshi's death, the luxuries of the Momoyama period had passed largely into the hands of merchants, rather than samurai, and these days the richer townspeople were the ones with elegant sake-serving sets and beautiful, expensive travel equipment." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Even a small businessman was normally better off than a samurai with an allowance of five thousand bushels of rice per year, which was considered a princely income by most samurai." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Never much to do on these trips, is there?\"\n\n\"No. Why don't we have a little card game to pass the time.\"\n\n\"Why not?\"\n\nA curtain was hung, mistresses and underlings brought sake, and the men began playing umsummo, a game recently introduced by Portuguese traders, for unbelievable stakes. The gold on the table could have saved whole villages from famine, but the players tossed it about like gravel." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Among the passengers were several people the rich merchants might well have questioned as to what they were getting out of life—a wandering priest, some rōnin, a Confucian scholar, a few professional warriors." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Most of them, after witnessing the beginning of the ostentatious card game, sat down beside their baggage and stared disapprovingly at the sea.\n\nOne young man was holding something round and furry in his lap, telling it from time to time to \"Sit still!\"\n\n\"What a nice little monkey you have. Is it trained?\" asked another passenger.\n\n\"Yes.\"\n\n\"You've had him for some time, then?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No, I found him not long ago in the mountains between Tosa and Awa.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Oh, you caught him yourself?\"\n\n\"Yes, but the older monkeys almost scratched me to pieces before I got away.\"\n\nAs he talked, the young man concentrated intently on picking fleas off the animal. Even without the monkey, he would have attracted attention, for both his kimono and the short red cloak he wore over it were decidedly fancy. His front hair wasn't shaved, and his topknot was tied with an unusual purple band." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His clothing suggested he was still a boy, but these days it wasn't as easy as it used to be to tell a person's age from his apparel." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "With the rise of Hideyoshi, clothing in general had become more colorful. It was not unknown for men of twenty-five or so to continue to dress like boys of fifteen or sixteen and leave their forelocks uncut.\n\nHis skin glowed with youth, his lips were a healthy red, and his eyes were bright. On the other hand, he was solidly built, and there was a certain adult severity about his thick eyebrows and the upward curve at the corners of his eyes.\n\n\"Why do you keep squirming?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "he said impatiently, rapping the monkey sharply on the head. The innocence with which he was picking off the fleas added to the impression of youthfulness.\n\nHis social status was also difficult to ascertain. Since he was traveling, he wore the same straw sandals and leather socks everyone else wore. So there was no clue there, and he seemed perfectly at home among the wandering priest, the puppeteer, the ragged samurai and the unwashed peasants on board." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He could easily be taken for a rōnin, yet there was something that hinted at a higher status, namely the weapon slung slantwise across his back on a leather strap." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was a long, straight battle sword, large and splendidly made. Nearly everyone who spoke to the youth remarked on its fineness.\n\nGion Tōji, standing some distance away, was impressed by the weapon. Yawning and thinking that not even in Kyoto were swords of such high quality often seen, he grew curious as to its owner's background.\n\nTōji was bored. His trip, which had lasted fourteen days, had been vexing, tiring and fruitless, and he longed to be once again among people he knew." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I wonder if the runner arrived in time,\" he mused. \"If he did, she'll certainly be at the dock in Osaka to meet me.\" He tried, by conjuring up Okō's face, to alleviate his boredom.\n\nThe reason behind his trip was the shaky financial condition of the House of Yoshioka, brought on by Seijūrō's having lived beyond his means. The family was no longer wealthy." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The house on Shijō Avenue was mortgaged and in danger of being seized by merchant creditors." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Aggravating the situation were countless other year-end obligations; selling every single family possession would not produce enough funds to meet the bills that had already piled up. Faced with this, Seijūrō's only comment had been, \"How did this happen?\"\n\nTōji, feeling responsible for having encouraged the Young Master's extravagance, had said that the matter should be left up to him. He promised that he would settle things somehow.\n\nAfter racking his brains, he'd come up with the idea of building a new and bigger school on the vacant lot next to the Nishinotōin, where a much larger number of students could be accommodated." }, { "from": "human", "value": "According to his reasoning, this was no time to be exclusive." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "With all sorts of people around wanting to learn the martial arts and the daimyō crying for trained warriors, it would be in the interests of everyone to have a bigger school and turn out a great number of trained swordsmen. The more he thought about it, the more he deluded himself into thinking it was the school's sacred duty to teach Kempō's style to as many men as possible.\n\nSeijūrō wrote a circular to that effect, and thus armed, Tōji set out to solicit contributions from former students in western Honshu, Kyushu and Shikoku. There were many men in various feudal domains who had studied under Kempō, and most of those still alive were now samurai of enviable status. As it turned out, however, for all the earnestness of Tōji's pleas, not many were ready to make substantial donations or subscribe on such short notice." }, { "from": "human", "value": "With discouraging frequency, the answer had been, \"I'll write you about it later,\" \"We'll see about it the next time I'm in Kyoto,\" or something equally evasive." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The contributions Tōji was returning with amounted to but a fraction of what he'd anticipated.\n\nThe endangered household was not, strictly speaking, Tōji's own, and the face that came to mind now was not Seijūrō's but Okō's. But even hers could divert him only superficially, and soon he became fidgety again. He envied the young man picking the fleas off his monkey. He had something to do to kill time." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Tōji walked over and tried to strike up a conversation." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Hello, there, young fellow. Going to Osaka?\"\n\nWithout actually raising his head, the young man lifted his eyes a bit and said, \"Yes.\"\n\n\"Does your family live there?\"\n\n\"No.\"\n\n\"Then you must be from Awa.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No, not there either.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "This was said with a certain finality.\n\nTōji lapsed into silence for a time before he made another try. \"That's quite a sword you have there,\" he said.\n\nSeemingly happy to have the weapon praised, the young man rearranged himself to face Tōji and replied genially, \"Yes, it's been in my family a long time. It's a battle sword, but I plan to get a good swordsmith in Osaka to remount it, so I can draw it from my side.\"\n\n\"It's too long for that, isn't it?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Oh, I don't know. It's only three feet.\"\n\n\"That's pretty long.\"\n\nSmiling, the youth replied confidently, \"Anybody should be able to handle a sword that long.\"\n\n\"Oh, it could be used if it was three feet long, or even four feet,\" said Tōji reproachfully. \"But only an expert could handle it with ease. I see a lot of fellows swaggering around with huge swords these days. They look impressive, but when the going gets rough, they turn and run. What style did you study?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "In matters pertaining to swordsmanship, Tōji could not conceal a feeling of superiority over this mere boy." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The young man flashed a questioning look at Tōji's smug face and replied, \"The Tomita Style.\"\n\n\"The Tomita Style is for use with a shorter sword than that,\" said Tōji authoritatively.\n\n\"The fact that I learned the Tomita Style doesn't mean I have to use a shorter sword. I don't like to be imitative. My teacher used a shorter sword, so I decided to use a long one. That got me thrown out of the school.\"\n\n\"You young people do seem to take pride in being rebellious. What happened then?\"\n\n\"I left Jōkyōji Village in Echizen and went to Kanemaki Jisai. He'd also discarded the Tomita Style, then developed the Chūjō Style. He sympathized with me, took me in as a disciple, and after I'd studied under him four years, he said I was ready to go out on my own.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"These country teachers are all quick to pass out certificates.\"\n\n\"Oh, not Jisai. He wasn't like that. In fact, the only other person he had ever given his certificate to was Itō Yagorō Ittōsai. After I made up my mind to be the second man to get formally certified, I worked at it very hard. Before I was through, though, I was suddenly called home because my mother was dying.\"\n\n\"Where's your home?\"\n\n\"Iwakuni in Suō Province. After I went home, I practiced every day in the neighborhood of Kintai Bridge, cutting down swallows on the wing and slicing willow branches. That way I developed some techniques of my own. Before my mother died, she gave me this sword and told me to take good care of it, because it was made by Nagamitsu.\"\n\n\"Nagamitsu? You don't say!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It doesn't bear his signature on the tang, but it's always been thought to be his work. Where I come from, it's a well-known sword; people call it the Drying Pole.\" Though reticent earlier, on subjects he liked he would talk at great length, even volunteer information. Once started, he rattled on, paying little attention to his listener's reaction. From this, as well as from his account of his earlier experiences, it appeared that he was of stronger character than might have been inferred from his taste in clothes.\n\nAt one point, the youth stopped talking for a moment." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His eyes grew cloudy and pensive." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"While I was in Suō,\" he murmured, \"Jisai took sick. When I heard about it from Kusanagi Tenki, I actually broke down and cried. Tenki was at the school long before I was and was still there when the master was on his sickbed. Tenki was his nephew, but Jisai didn't even consider giving him a certificate. Instead he told him he'd like to give me a certificate, along with his book of secret methods. He not only wanted me to have them but had hoped to see me and give them to me personally.\" The young man's eyes moistened with the recollection.\n\nTōji had not the slightest whit of empathy with this handsome, emotional youth, but talking to him was better than being alone and bored. \"I see,\" he said, feigning great interest. \"And he died while you were away?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I wish I could have gone to him as soon as I heard of his illness, but he was in Kōzuke, hundreds of miles from Suō. And then my mother finally died about the same time, so it was impossible for me to be with him at the end.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Clouds hid the sun, giving the whole sky a grayish cast. The ship began to roll, and foam blew in over the gunwales.\n\nThe young man continued his sentimental tale, the gist of which was that he had closed up the family residence in Suō and, in an exchange of letters, had arranged to meet his friend Tenki on the spring equinox. It was unlikely that Jisai, who had no close kin, had left much property, but he had entrusted Tenki with some money for the young man, along with the certificate and the book of secrets. Until they met on the appointed day at Mount Hōraiji in Mikawa Province, halfway between Kōzuke and Awa, Tenki was supposedly traveling around studying." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The young man himself planned to spend the time in Kyoto, studying and doing some sightseeing." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Having finished his story, he turned to Tōji and asked, \"Are you from Osaka?\"\n\n\"No, I'm from Kyoto.\"\n\nFor a while, they were both silent, distracted by the noise of the waves and the sail.\n\n\"Then you plan to try to make your way in the world through the martial arts?\" said Tōji. While the remark was innocent enough in itself, the look on Tōji's face revealed condescension bordering on contempt." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He had long since had his fill of conceited young swordsmen who went around bragging about their certificates and their books of secrets." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was his considered opinion that there could not possibly be all that many expert swordsmen just wandering around. Had not he himself been in the Yoshioka School for nearly twenty years, and was he not still only a disciple, although a highly privileged one?\n\nThe young man shifted his position and looked intently at the gray water. \"Kyoto?\" he muttered, then turned again to Tōji and said, \"I'm told there's a man there named Yoshioka Seijūrō, the eldest son of Yoshioka Kempō. Is he still active?\"\n\nTōji was in the mood to do some teasing." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yes,\" he replied simply." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The Yoshioka School seems to be flourishing. Have you visited the place?\"\n\n\"No, but when I get to Kyoto, I'd like to have a match with this Seijūrō and see how good he is.\"\n\nTōji coughed to suppress a laugh. He was fast growing to detest the young man's brash self-confidence. Of course, he had no way of knowing Tōji's position in the school, but if he were to find out, he would no doubt regret what he had just said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "With a twisted face and a contemptuous tone, Tōji asked, \"And I suppose you think you'd come away unscathed?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Why not?\" the youth snapped back. Now he was the one who wanted to laugh, and laugh he did. \"Yoshioka has a big house and a lot of prestige, so I imagine Kempō must have been a great swordsman. But they say neither of his sons amounts to much.\"\n\n\"How can you be so sure before you've actually met them?\"\n\n\"Well, that's what the samurai in the other provinces say. I don't believe everything I hear, but almost everybody seems to think the House of Yoshioka will come to an end with Seijūrō and Denshichirō.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Tōji longed to tell the youth to hold his tongue." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He even thought for a moment of making his identity known, but to bring the matter to a head at this point would make him appear the loser. With as much restraint as he could manage, he replied, \"The provinces seem to be full of know-it-alls these days, so I wouldn't be surprised if the House of Yoshioka is being underrated. But tell me more about yourself. Didn't you say a while ago you'd figured out a way to kill swallows on the wing?\"\n\n\"Yes, I said that.\"\n\n\"And you did it with that great long sword?\"\n\n\"That's right.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Well, if you can do that, it should be easy for you to cut down one of the sea gulls swooping down over the ship.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The youth did not answer immediately. It had suddenly dawned on him that Tōji was up to no good. Staring at Tōji's grim lips, he said, \"I could do it, but I think it would be silly.\"\n\n\"Well,\" said Tōji magniloquently, \"if you're so good that you can disparage the House of Yoshioka without having been there... \"\n\n\"Oh, have I annoyed you?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"No; not at all,\" said Tōji. \"But no one from Kyoto likes to hear the Yoshioka School talked down.\"\n\n\"Ha! I wasn't telling you what I thought; I was repeating what I'd heard.\"\n\n\"Young man!\" said Tōji sternly.\n\n\"What?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Do you know what is meant by 'half-baked samurai'? For the sake of your future, I warn you! You'll never get anywhere underestimating other people. You brag about cutting down swallows and talk about your certificate in the Chūjō Style, but you'd better remember that not everybody is stupid. And you'd better start taking a good look at whoever you're talking to before you start boasting.\"\n\n\"You think it's only bragging?\"\n\n\"Yes, I do.\" Thrusting out his chest, Tōji came closer. \"Nobody really minds listening to a young man boast of his accomplishments, but you shouldn't carry it too far.\"\n\nWhen the young man said nothing, Tōji continued." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"From the beginning I've been listening to you carry on about yourself, and I haven't complained. But the fact of the matter is that I am Gion Tōji, the chief disciple of Yoshioka Seijūrō, and if you make one more disparaging remark about the House of Yoshioka, I'll have it out of your hide!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "By this time they had attracted the attention of the other passengers. Tōji, having revealed his name and exalted status, swaggered off toward the stern of the ship, growling ominously about the insolence of young people these days. The youth followed him in silence, while the passengers gaped from a safe distance.\n\nTōji was not at all happy about the situation. Okō would be waiting for him when the ship docked, and if he got into a fight now, there was bound to be trouble with the officials later." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Looking as unconcerned as possible, he propped his elbows on the rail and gazed intently at the blue-black eddies forming under the rudder.\n\nThe youth tapped him on the back lightly. \"Sir,\" he said, in a quiet voice that showed neither anger nor resentment.\n\nTōji did not answer.\n\n\"Sir,\" the young man repeated." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Unable to keep up his show of nonchalance, Tōji asked, \"What do you want?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You called me a braggart in front of a lot of strangers, and I have my honor to uphold. I feel constrained to do what you challenged me to do a few minutes ago. I want you to be a witness.\"\n\n\"What did I challenge you to do?\"\n\n\"You can't have forgotten already. You laughed when I told you I'd cut down swallows on the wing and dared me to try cutting down a sea gull.\"\n\n\"Hmm, I did suggest that, didn't I?\"\n\n\"If I cut one down, will it convince you I'm not just talking?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Well... yes, it will.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"All right, I'll do it.\"\n\n\"Fine, splendid!\" Tōji laughed sarcastically. \"But don't forget, if you undertake this just for pride's sake and fail, you'll really be laughed at.\"\n\n\"I'll take that chance.\"\n\n\"I've no intention of stopping you.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"And you will stand by as a witness?\"\n\n\"Why, I'd be only too glad to!\"\n\nThe young man took a position on a lead plate in the center of the afterdeck and moved his hand toward his sword. As he did so, he called out Tōji's name. Tōji, staring curiously, asked what he wanted, and the youth, speaking with great seriousness, said, \"Please have some sea gulls fly down in front of me. I'm ready to cut down any number of them.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Tōji suddenly recognized the similarity between what was going on and the plot of a certain humorous tale attributed to the priest Ikkyū; the young man had succeeded in making an ass of him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Angrily he shouted, \"What sort of nonsense is this? Anyone who could make sea gulls fly in front of him would be able to cut them down.\"\n\n\"The sea stretches out for thousands of miles, and my sword is only three feet long. If the birds won't come near, I can't cut them down.\"\n\nAdvancing a couple of paces, Tōji gloated, \"You're just trying to work yourself out of a bad spot. If you can't kill a sea gull on the wing, say you can't, and apologize.\"\n\n\"If I intended to do that, I wouldn't be standing here waiting. If the birds won't come near, then I'll cut something else for you.\"\n\n\"Such as...?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Just come another five steps closer. I'll show you.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Tōji came nearer, growling, \"What are you up to now?\"\n\n\"I just want you to let me make use of your head—the head with which you dared me to prove I wasn't just boasting. When you consider the matter, it would be more logical to cut that off than to kill innocent sea gulls.\"\n\n\"Have you lost your mind?\" shouted Tōji. His head ducked reflexively, for just at that instant, the young man whipped his sword from its scabbard and used it. The action was so fast that the three-foot sword seemed no larger than a needle." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Wh-wh-what?\" cried Tōji, as he staggered backward and put his hands to his collar." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His head was still there, fortunately, and as far as he could tell, he was unharmed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Do you understand now?\" asked the youth, turning his back and walking off between the piles of baggage.\n\nTōji was already crimson with embarrassment, when looking down at a sunlit patch of the deck, he saw a peculiar-looking object, something like a little brush. A horrible thought came into his mind, and he put his hand to the top of his head. His topknot was gone!" }, { "from": "human", "value": "His precious topknot—the pride and joy of any samurai!" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Horror on his face, he rubbed the top of his head and found that the band tying his hair at the back was undone. The locks it had held together had fanned out over his scalp.\n\n\"That bastard!\" Unmitigated rage swept through his heart. He knew now, only too well, that the youth had been neither lying nor voicing an empty boast. Young he was, but he was a spectacular swordsman." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Tōji was amazed that anyone so young could be so good, but the respect he felt in his mind was one thing, and the choler in his heart something else again." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When he raised his head and looked toward the bow, he saw that the youth had returned to his previous seat and was searching around on the deck for something. He was obviously off guard, and Tōji sensed that the opportunity for revenge had presented itself. Spitting on the hilt of his sword, he grasped it tightly and sneaked up behind his tormenter. He was not sure his aim was good enough to take off the man's topknot without taking off his head too, but he did not care. Body swollen and red, breathing heavily, he steeled himself to strike." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Just then, a commotion arose among the cardplaying merchants." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What's going on here? There aren't enough cards!\"\n\n\"Where'd they go?\"\n\n\"Look over there!\"\n\n\"I've already looked.\"\n\nAs they were shouting and shaking out their carpet, one of them happened to glance skyward." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Up there! That monkey has them!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The other passengers, welcoming still another diversion, all looked up at the simian in question, which was perched at the very top of the thirty-foot mast.\n\n\"Ha, ha!\" laughed one. \"Quite a monkey—stole the cards, he did.\"\n\n\"He's chewing them up.\"\n\n\"No, he's making like he's dealing them.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "A single card came floating down." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "One of the merchants swept it up and said, \"He must still have three or four more.\"\n\n\"Somebody get up there and get the cards! We can't play without them.\"\n\n\"Nobody's going to climb up there.\"\n\n\"Why not the captain?\"\n\n\"I guess he could if he wanted to.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Let's offer him a little money. Then he'll do it.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The captain heard the proposal, agreed, and took the money, but apparently felt that as the master of the ship, he must first fix responsibility for the incident." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Standing on a pile of cargo, he addressed the passengers. \"Just who does that monkey belong to? Will the owner please come forward?\"\n\nNot a soul answered, but a number of people who knew the monkey belonged to the handsome young man eyed him expectantly. The captain also knew, and his anger rose when the youth did not reply. Raising his voice still higher, he said, \"Isn't the owner here?... If nobody owns the monkey, I'll take care of him, but I don't want any complaints afterward.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The monkey's owner was leaning against some luggage, apparently deep in thought." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A few passengers began to whisper disapprovingly; the captain looked daggers at the youth. The cardplayers grumbled malevolently, and others began to ask whether the young man was deaf and dumb or just insolent. The youth, however, merely shifted his position a little to the side and acted as though nothing had happened.\n\nThe captain spoke again. \"It appears that monkeys thrive on sea as well as on land. As you can see, one has wandered in on us. Since it is ownerless, I suppose we can do whatever we wish with it. Passengers, be my witness! As captain, I have appealed to the owner to make himself known, but he hasn't done so. If he later complains that he could not hear me, I ask you to stand by me!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We're your witnesses!\" cried the merchants, who by this time were verging on apoplexy." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The captain disappeared down the ladder into the hold. When he re-emerged, he was holding a musket with the slow-burning fuse already lit. There was no question in anybody's mind but that he was ready to use it. Faces turned from the captain to the monkey's owner.\n\nThe monkey was enjoying himself immensely." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "High in the air, he was playing with the cards and doing everything he could to annoy the people on deck. Suddenly he bared his teeth, chattered, and ran to the yardarm, but once there he did not seem to know what to do.\n\nThe captain raised the musket and took aim. But as one of the merchants pulled at his sleeve and urged him to fire, the owner called out, \"Stop, Captain!\"\n\nIt was now the captain's turn to pretend not to hear." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He squeezed the trigger, the passengers bent down with their hands over their ears, and the musket fired with a huge bang. But the shot went high and wide. At the last instant, the young man had pushed the barrel of the gun out of line.\n\nScreaming with rage, the captain caught hold of the young man's chest. He seemed for a time almost to be suspended there, for though he was strongly built, he was short by the side of the handsome youth." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What's the matter with you?\" shouted the young man. \"You were about to shoot down an innocent monkey with that toy of yours, weren't you?\"\n\n\"I was.\"\n\n\"That's not a very nice thing to do, is it?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I gave fair warning!\"\n\n\"And just how did you do that?\"\n\n\"Don't you have eyes and ears?\"\n\n\"Shut up! I'm a passenger on this ship. What's more, I'm a samurai. Do you expect me to answer when a mere ship's captain stands up before his customers and bellows as though he were their lord and master?\"\n\n\"Don't be impertinent! I repeated my warning three times. You must have heard me. Even if you didn't like the way I said it, you could have shown some consideration for the people who were inconvenienced by your monkey.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What people? Oh, you mean that bunch of tradesmen who've been gambling behind their curtain?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Don't talk so big! They paid three times as much fare as the others.\"\n\n\"That doesn't make them anything but what they are—low-class, irresponsible merchants, throwing around their gold where everybody can see it, drinking their sake, and acting as though they owned the ship. I've been watching them, and I don't like them at all. What if the monkey did run away with their cards? I didn't tell him to. He was just imitating what they themselves were doing. I see no need for me to apologize!\"\n\nThe young man looked fixedly at the rich merchants and directed a loud, sardonic laugh their way.\n\nThe Seashell of Forgetfulness\n\nIt was evening when the ship entered the harbor at Kizugawa, where it was met by the all-pervading odor of fish." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Reddish lights twinkled onshore, and the waves hummed steadily in the background." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Little by little, the distance between the raised voices coming from the ship and those issuing from the shore closed up." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "With a white splash, the anchor was dropped; ropes were cast and the gangplank was moved into place.\n\nA flurry of excited cries filled the air.\n\n\"Is the son of the priest at the Sumiyoshi Shrine aboard?\"\n\n\"Is there a runner around?\"\n\n\"Master! Here we are, over here!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Like a wave, paper lanterns bearing the names of various inns rolled across the dock toward the ship, as the touts vied with each other for business." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Anyone for the Kashiwaya Inn?\"\n\nThe young man with the monkey on his shoulder pushed his way through the crowd.\n\n\"Come to our place, sir—no charge for the monkey.\"\n\n\"We're right in front of Sumiyoshi Shrine. It's a great place for pilgrims. You can have a beautiful room with a beautiful view!\"\n\nNo one had come to meet the youth." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He walked straight away from the dock, paying no attention to the touts or anyone else." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Who does he think he is?\" growled one passenger. \"Just because he knows a little swordsmanship!\"\n\n\"If I weren't just a townsman, he wouldn't have gotten away without a fight.\"\n\n\"Oh, calm down! Let the warriors think they're better than anybody else. As long as they're strutting around like kings, they're happy. The thing for us townsmen to do is to let them have the flowers while we take the fruit. Why get excited over today's little incident?\"\n\nWhile talking on in this fashion, the merchants saw to it that their mountains of baggage were properly gathered together, then disembarked, to be met by swarms of people and lanterns and vehicles." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There was not one among them who was not immediately surrounded by several solicitous women.\n\nThe last person off the ship was Gion Tōji, on whose face there was an expression of extreme discomfort. Never in all his life had he spent a more unpleasant day. His head was decently covered with a kerchief to conceal the mortifying loss of his topknot, but the cloth did nothing to hide his downcast eyebrows and sullen lips.\n\n\"Tōji! Here I am!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "called Okō. Though her head was also covered with a kerchief, her face had been exposed to the cold wind while she was waiting, and her wrinkles showed through the white powder that was meant to hide them." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Okō! So you came after all.\"\n\n\"Isn't that what you expected? You sent me a letter telling me to meet you here, didn't you?\"\n\n\"Yes, but I thought it might not have reached you in time.\"\n\n\"Is something the matter? You look upset.\"\n\n\"Oh, it's nothing. Just a little seasick. Come on, let's go to Sumiyoshi and find a nice inn.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Come this way. I have a palanquin waiting.\"\n\n\"Thanks. Did you reserve a room for us?\"\n\n\"Yes. Everybody's waiting at the inn.\"\n\nA look of consternation crossed Tōji's face. \"Everybody? What are you talking about? I thought just the two of us were going to spend a couple of pleasant days here at some quiet place. If there are a lot of people around, I'm not going.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Refusing the palanquin, he strode angrily on ahead." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When Okō tried to explain, he cut her off and called her an idiot. All the rage that had built up inside him on the ship exploded.\n\n\"I'll stay somewhere by myself!\" he bellowed. \"Send the palanquin away! How could you be such a fool? You don't understand me at all.\" He snatched his sleeve away from her and hurried on." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They were in the fish market by the waterfront; all the shops were closed, and the scales strewn about the street glittered like tiny silver seashells." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Since there was virtually no one around to see them, Okō hugged Tōji and attempted to soothe him.\n\n\"Let go of me!\" he shouted.\n\n\"If you go off by yourself, the others will think something's wrong.\"\n\n\"Let them think what they want!\"\n\n\"Oh, don't talk like that!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "she pleaded. Her cool cheek pressed against his." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The sweetish odor of her powder and her hair penetrated his being, and gradually his anger and frustration ebbed.\n\n\"Please,\" begged Okō.\n\n\"It's just that I'm so disappointed,\" he said.\n\n\"I know, but we'll have other chances to be together.\"\n\n\"But these two or three days with you—I was really looking forward to them.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I understand that.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"If you understood, why did you drag a lot of other people along? It's because you don't feel about me the way I feel about you!\"\n\n\"Now you're starting on that again,\" said Okō reproachfully, staring ahead and looking as if the tears were about to flow. But instead of weeping, she made another attempt to get him to listen to her explanation. When the runner had arrived with Tōji's letter, she had, of course, made plans to come to Osaka alone, but as luck would have it, that very night Seijūrō had come to the Yomogi with six or seven of his students, and Akemi had let it slip out that Tōji was arriving. In no time at all, the men had decided that they should all accompany Okō to Osaka and that Akemi should come along with them." }, { "from": "human", "value": "In the end, the party that checked into the inn in Sumiyoshi numbered ten." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "While Tōji had to admit that under the circumstances there was not much Okō could have done, his gloomy mood did not improve. This had clearly not been his day, and he was sure there was worse to come. For one thing, the first question he expected to hear would concern how he had made out on his canvassing campaign, and he hated to have to give them the bad news. What he dreaded far more was the prospect of having to take the kerchief off his head. How could he ever explain the missing topknot?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ultimately he realized there was no way out and resigned himself to his fate." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Oh, all right,\" he said, \"I'll go with you. Have the palanquin brought here.\"\n\n\"Oh, I'm so happy!\" cooed Okō, as she turned back toward the dock.\n\nAt the inn, Seijūrō and the others had taken a bath, wrapped themselves up snugly in the cotton-padded kimonos provided by the inn, and settled down to wait for Tōji and Okō's return. When, after a time, they failed to reappear, someone said, \"Those two will be here sooner or later. There's no reason to sit here doing nothing.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The natural consequence of this statement was the ordering of sake." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "At first they drank merely to pass the time, but soon legs began to stretch out comfortably, and the sake cups to pass back and forth more rapidly. It was not long before everybody had more or less forgotten about Tōji and Okō.\n\n\"Don't they have any singing girls in Sumiyoshi?\"\n\n\"Say, that's a good idea! Why don't we call in three or four nice girls?\"\n\nSeijūrō looked hesitant until someone suggested that he and Akemi retire to another room, where it would be quieter." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The none-too-subtle move to get rid of him brought a wistful smile to his face, but he was nevertheless happy to leave. It would be far more pleasant to be alone with Akemi in a room with a warm kotatsu than to be drinking with this crew of ruffians.\n\nAs soon as he was out of the room, the party began in earnest, and before long several singing girls of the class known locally as the \"pride of Tosa-magawa\" appeared in the garden outside the room. Their flutes and shamisen were old, of poor quality and battered from use.\n\n\"Why are you making so much noise?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "one of the women asked saucily." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Did you come here to drink or to have a brawl?\"\n\nThe man who had appointed himself ringleader called back, \"Don't ask foolish questions. Nobody pays money to fight! We called you in so we could drink and have some fun.\"\n\n\"Well,\" said the girl tactfully, \"I'm glad to hear that, but I do wish you'd be a little quieter.\"\n\n\"If that's the way you want it, fine! Let's sing some songs.\"\n\nIn deference to the feminine presence, several hairy shins were retracted under kimono skirts, and a few horizontal bodies became vertical." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The music started, spirits rose, and the party gained momentum." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was in full swing when a young maid came in and announced that the man who had come in on the ship from Shikoku had arrived with his companion." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What'd she say? Somebody coming?\"\n\n\"Yeah, she said somebody named Tōji's coming.\"\n\n\"Great! Wonderful! Good old Tōji's coming... Who's Tōji?\"\n\nTōji's entrance with Okō did not interrupt the proceedings in the least; in fact, they were ignored. Having been led to believe the gathering was all for his sake, Tōji was disgusted." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He called back the maid who had shown them in and asked to be taken to Seijūrō's room. But as they went into the hall, the ringleader, reeking of sake, staggered over and threw his arms around Tōji's neck.\n\n\"Hey, Tōji!\" he slurred. \"Just get back? You must have been having a good time with Okō somewhere while we sat here waiting. Now, that's not the thing to do!\"\n\nTōji tried unsuccessfully to shake him off." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The man dragged him struggling into the room." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In the process, he stepped on a tray or two, kicked over several sake jars, then fell to the floor, bringing Tōji down with him.\n\n\"My kerchief!\" gasped Tōji. His hand sped to his head, too late. On his way down, the ringleader had snatched at the kerchief and now had it in his hand. With a collective gasp, all eyes looked straight at the spot where Tōji's topknot should have been." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What happened to your head?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Ha, ha, ha! That's some hairdo!\"\n\n\"Where did you get it?\"\n\nTōji's face flushed blood red. Grabbing the kerchief and replacing it, he sputtered, \"Oh, it's nothing. I had a boil.\"\n\nTo a man, they doubled up with laughter." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"He brought a boil back with him as a souvenir!\"\n\n\"Cover the vile spot!\"\n\n\"Don't talk about it. Show us!\"\n\nIt was obvious from the feeble jokes that nobody believed Tōji, but the party went on, and no one had much to say about the topknot.\n\nThe next morning it was a different matter altogether." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ten o'clock found the same group assembled on the beach behind the inn, sober now and engaged in a very serious conference." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They sat in a circle, some with shoulders squared, some with arms crossed, but all looking grim." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Any way you look at it, it's bad.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The question is, is it true?\"\n\n\"I heard it with my own ears. Are you calling me a liar?\"\n\n\"We can't let it pass without doing anything. The honor of the Yoshioka School is at stake. We have to act!\"\n\n\"Of course, but what do we do?\"\n\n\"Well, it's still not too late. We'll find the man with the monkey and cut off his topknot. We'll show him that it's not just Gion Tōji's pride that's involved. It's a matter that concerns the dignity of the whole Yoshioka School! Any objections?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The drunken ringleader of the night before was now a gallant lieutenant, spurring his men on to battle." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Upon awakening, the men had ordered the bath heated, so as to wash away their hangovers, and while they were in the bath, a merchant had come in. Not knowing who they were, he told them about what had happened on the ship the day before. He furnished them with a humorous account of the cutting off of the topknot and concluded his tale by saying that \"the samurai who had lost his hair claimed to be a leading disciple of the House of Yoshioka in Kyoto. All I can say is that if he really is, the House of Yoshioka must be in worse shape than anyone imagines.\"\n\nSobering up fast, the Yoshioka disciples had gone looking for their wayward senior to question him about the incident. They soon discovered he had risen early, spoken a few words with Seijūrō, and departed with Okō for Kyoto right after breakfast." }, { "from": "human", "value": "This confirmed the essential accuracy of the story, but rather than pursue the cowardly Tōji, they decided it would make better sense to find the unknown youth with the monkey and vindicate the Yoshioka name." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Having agreed upon a plan at their seaside council of war, they now stood up, brushed the sand off their kimonos and moved into action." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A short distance away, Akemi, bare-legged, had been playing at the edge of the water, picking up seashells one by one, then discarding them almost immediately." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Even though it was winter, the sun was shining warmly, and the smell of the sea rose from the froth of the breakers, which stretched out like chains of white roses as far as the eye could see.\n\nAkemi, wide-eyed with curiosity, watched the Yoshioka men as they all ran off in different directions, the tips of their scabbards in the air. When the last of them passed her, she called out to him, \"Where are you all going?\"\n\n\"Oh, it's you!\" he said. \"Why don't you come search with me? Everybody's been assigned a territory to cover.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What are you looking for?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"A young samurai with a long forelock. He's carrying a monkey.\"\n\n\"What did he do?\"\n\n\"Something that will disgrace the Young Master's name unless we act fast.\"\n\nHe told her what had happened, but failed to raise even a spark of interest.\n\n\"You people are always looking for a fight!\" she said disapprovingly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It's not that we like to fight, but if we let him get away with this, it'll bring shame on the school, the greatest center of the martial arts in the country.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Oh, what if it does?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Are you crazy?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You men spend all your time running after the silliest things.\"\n\n\"Huh?\" He squinted at her suspiciously. \"And what have you been doing out here all this time?\"\n\n\"Me?\" She dropped her eyes to the beautiful sand around her feet and said, \"I'm looking for seashells.\"\n\n\"Why look for them? There are millions of them all over the place. It just goes to show you—women waste their time in crazier ways than men.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I'm looking for a very particular type of shell. It's called the seashell of forgetfulness.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Oh? And is there really such a shell?\"\n\n\"Yes, but they say you can only find it here on the shore at Sumiyoshi.\"\n\n\"Well, I'll bet there's no such thing!\"\n\n\"There is too! If you don't believe it, come with me. I'll show you.\"\n\nShe pulled the reluctant youth over to a row of pine trees and pointed to a stone on which an ancient poem was carved." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Had I but the time" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I'd find it on the Sumiyoshi shore." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They say it comes there—" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The shell that brings\n\nOblivion to love.\n\nProudly, Akemi said, \"See? What more proof do you need?\"\n\n\"Aw, that's only a myth, one of those useless lies they tell in poetry.\"\n\n\"But in Sumiyoshi they also have flowers that make you forget, and water too.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Well, suppose it does exist. What magic will it work for you?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It's simple. If you put one in your obi or sleeve, you can forget everything.\"\n\nThe samurai laughed. \"You mean you want to be more absentminded than you already are?\"\n\n\"Yes. I'd like to forget everything. Some things I can't forget, so I'm unhappy in the daytime and lie awake nights. That's why I'm looking for it. Why don't you stay and help me look?\"\n\n\"This is no time for child's play!\" the samurai said scornfully, then suddenly remembering his duty, flew off at full speed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "When she was sad, Akemi often thought her problems would be solved if she could only forget the past and enjoy the present." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Right now she was hugging herself and wavering between holding on to the few memories she cherished and wanting to cast them out to sea. If there really were such a thing as a seashell of forgetfulness, she decided, she wouldn't carry it herself, but instead sneak it into Seijūrō's sleeve. She sighed, imagining how lovely life would be if he would just forget all about her.\n\nThe very thought of him turned her heart cold. She was tempted to believe he existed for the sole purpose of ruining her youth." }, { "from": "human", "value": "When he importuned her with his wheedling protestations of love, she comforted herself by thinking of Musashi." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But if Musashi's presence in her heart was at times her salvation, it was also a frequent source of misery, for it made her want to run away to escape into a world of dreams." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Yet she hesitated to give herself up entirely to fantasy, knowing it was likely that Musashi had forgotten her completely.\n\n\"Oh, if there was some way I could erase his face from my mind!\" she thought.\n\nThe blue water of the Inland Sea looked suddenly tempting. Staring at it, she grew frightened. How easy it would be to run straight in and disappear." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Her mother had no idea Akemi entertained such desperate thoughts, let alone Seijūrō." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "All the people around her considered her a very happy creature, a little flippant perhaps, but nonetheless a bud still so far from blossoming that she couldn't possibly accept the love of a man.\n\nTo Akemi, her mother and the men who came to the teahouse were something outside her own self. In their presence, she laughed and joked, tinkled her bell and pouted as the occasion seemed to demand, but when she was alone, her sighs were care-filled and sullen.\n\nHer thoughts were interrupted by a servant from the inn. Spotting her by the stone inscription, he ran up and said, \"Young lady, where've you been? The Young Master's been calling for you, and he's getting very worried.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Back at the inn, Akemi found Seijūrō all alone, warming his hands under the red quilt covering the kotatsu." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The room was silent. In the garden a breeze rustled through the withered pines.\n\n\"Have you been out in this cold?\" he asked.\n\n\"What do you mean? I don't think it's cold. It's very sunny on the beach.\"\n\n\"What have you been doing?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Looking for seashells.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You act like a child.\"\n\n\"I am a child.\"\n\n\"How old do you think you'll be on your next birthday?\"\n\n\"It doesn't make any difference. I'm still a child. What's wrong with that?\"\n\n\"There's a great deal wrong with it. You ought to think about your mother's plans for you.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"My mother? She's not thinking about me. She's convinced she's still young herself.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Sit down here.\"\n\n\"I don't want to. I'd get too hot. I'm still young, remember?\"\n\n\"Akemi!\" He seized her wrist and pulled her toward him. \"There's no one else here today. Your mother had the delicacy to return to Kyoto.\"\n\nAkemi looked at Seijūrō's burning eyes; her body stiffened." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She tried unconsciously to back away, but he held her wrist tightly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Why are you trying to run away?\" he asked accusingly.\n\n\"I'm not trying to run away.\"\n\n\"There's no one here now. It's a perfect opportunity, isn't it, Akemi?\"\n\n\"For what?\"\n\n\"Don't be so obstinate! We've been seeing each other for nearly a year. You know how I feel about you. Okō gave her permission long ago. She says you won't give in to me because I don't go about it the right way. So today, let's—\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Stop! Let go of my arm! Let go, I tell you!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Akemi suddenly bent over and lowered her head in embarrassment.\n\n\"You won't have me, whatever happens?\"\n\n\"Stop! Let go!\"\n\nThough her arm had turned red under his grasp, he still refused to release her, and the girl was hardly strong enough to resist the military techniques of the Kyōhachi Style.\n\nSeijūrō was different today from his usual self." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He often sought comfort and consolation in sake, but today he had drunk nothing." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Why do you treat me this way, Akemi? Are you trying to humiliate me?\"\n\n\"I don't want to talk about it! If you don't let me go, I'll scream!\"\n\n\"Scream away! Nobody'll hear you. The main house is too far away, and anyway, I told them we were not to be disturbed.\"\n\n\"I want to leave.\"\n\n\"I won't let you.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"My body doesn't belong to you!\"\n\n\"Is that the way you feel? You'd better ask your mother about that! I've certainly paid her enough for it.\"\n\n\"Well, my mother may have sold me, but I haven't sold myself! Certainly not to a man I despise more than death itself!\"\n\n\"What's that?\" shouted Seijūrō, throwing the red quilt over her head.\n\nAkemi screamed for all she was worth." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Scream, you bitch! Scream all you want! Nobody's coming.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "On the shoji the pale sunlight mingled with the restless shadow of the pines as though nothing had happened. Outside, all was quiet, save for the distant lapping of the waves and the chatter of the birds.\n\nDeep silence followed Akemi's muffled wails. After a time, Seijūrō, his face deathly pale, appeared in the outer corridor, holding his right hand over his scratched and bleeding left hand.\n\nShortly afterward, the door opened again with a bang, and Akemi emerged." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Write 5 sentences like Eiji Yoshikawa would, using user's text as beginning" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "[ SKY ]\n\n[ The Abduction ]\n\nBeyond the pass, the snow on Mount Koma glistened in lancelike streaks, while on Mount Ontake, visible through the faintly reddish tree buds, it lay in scattered patches. The light green heralding the growing season seemed to shimmer along the highroad and in the fields.\n\nOtsū daydreamed. Jōtarō was like a new plant—stubborn and hardy." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It would take an awful lot to trample him, to keep him down for long. He was growing fast these days; occasionally she thought she caught a glimpse of the man he would one day be.\n\nThe line between rambunctiousness and insolence was a fine one, however, and even making allowances for his unorthodox upbringing, Otsū was growing more and more dismayed with Jōtarō's behavior. His demands, particularly for food, were unending. Every time they came to a food shop, he stopped dead and wouldn't budge until she'd bought him something." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "After buying rice crackers at Suhara, she vowed, \"This is the very last time.\" But before they'd gone a mile farther, the crackers were gone, and he was claiming to be half starved. The next crisis was only just averted by stopping at a tea shop in Nezame for an early lunch; by the time they'd crossed another pass, he was famished again.\n\n\"Look, Otsū! That shop has dried persimmons. Shouldn't we get some, just to carry with us?\"\n\nPretending not to hear, Otsū rode on." }, { "from": "human", "value": "When they arrived at Fukushima, in Shinano Province, a place famous for the variety and abundance of its food products, it was midafternoon, about the time they were in the habit of having a snack." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Let's rest awhile,\" he whined. \"Please.\"\n\nShe paid no attention.\n\n\"Come on, Otsū! Let's have some of those rice cakes coated with soybean flour. The ones they make here are famous. Don't you want any?\" Since he now had hold of the cow's rope, Otsū saw it was going to be difficult to get past the shop.\n\n\"Haven't you had enough?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "she said with annoyance.\n\nThe cow, as if in secret alliance with Jōtarō, stopped and began munching grass by the roadside.\n\n\"All right!\" snapped Otsū. \"If that's the way you're going to act, I'll go on ahead and tell Musashi.\" When she made as if to dismount, Jōtarō burst into laughter, knowing perfectly well she wouldn't carry out her threat." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Her bluff called, Otsū resignedly got off the cow, and together they went into the open-sided lean-to in front of the shop." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Jōtarō shouted an order for two servings, then went out to tether the cow.\n\nWhen he returned, Otsū said, \"You shouldn't have ordered any for me. I'm not hungry.\"\n\n\"You don't want anything to eat?\"\n\n\"No. People who eat too much turn into stupid pigs.\"\n\n\"Ah, I guess I'll have to eat yours too.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You are shameless!\"\n\nHis mouth was too full for his ears to hear. Presently, however, he paused long enough to shift his wooden sword to his back, where it wouldn't interfere with his expanding ribs. He began eating again, but all at once stuffed the last rice cake in his mouth and bolted for the exit.\n\n\"Through already?\" Otsū called after him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She laid some money on the table and started to follow him, but he returned and roughly shoved her back inside." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Wait!\" he said excitedly. \"I just saw Matahachi.\"\n\n\"You couldn't have.\" She turned pale. \"What would he be doing around here?\"\n\n\"I have no idea. Didn't you see him? He had on a basket hat, and he was staring straight at us.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I don't believe it.\"\n\n\"Want me to bring him in here and prove it?\"\n\n\"You'll do no such thing!\"\n\n\"Oh, don't worry. If anything happens, I'll go get Musashi.\"\n\nOtsū's pulse was beating wildly, but realizing that the longer they stood there, the farther ahead Musashi would have gone, she got back on the cow." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As they started off, Jōtarō said, \"I can't figure it out. Until we got to the waterfall at Magome, we were all as friendly as could be. Since then, Musashi's hardly said a word, and you haven't been talking to him either. What's the matter?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When she said nothing, he went on: \"Why is he walking on ahead of us? Why do we sleep in different rooms now? Did you have a fight or something?\"\n\nOtsū couldn't bring herself to give him an honest answer, for she hadn't been able to give herself one. Did all men treat women the way Musashi had treated her, openly trying to force his love on her? And why had she rejected him so vehemently? Her distress and confusion now were, in a way, more painful than the illness from which she had but recently recovered." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The fountain of love that had comforted her for years had suddenly turned into a raging waterfall." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The memory of that other waterfall resounded in her ears, along with her own cry of distress and Musashi's angry protest." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She could ask herself whether they would go on like this forever, never understanding each other, but why she was now trailing along behind him, trying not to lose sight of him, struck even her as illogical. Though, out of embarrassment, they kept apart and spoke rarely, Musashi showed no signs of breaking his promise to go with her to Edo.\n\nAt the Kōzenji they turned onto another road. There was a barrier at the top of the first hill. Otsū had heard that ever since the Battle of Sekigahara, government officials had been examining travelers, particularly women, on this road with great thoroughness." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But Lord Karasumaru's letter of introduction worked like a charm, and they passed the checkpoint without difficulty." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As they reached the last of the tea shops on the far side of the barrier, Jōtarō asked, \"Otsū, what does 'Fugen' mean?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Fugen?\"\n\n\"Yeah. Back there, in front of a tea shop, a priest pointed at you and said you 'looked like Fugen on a cow.' What does that mean?\"\n\n\"I suppose he was referring to the Bodhisattva Fugen.\"\n\n\"That's the bodhisattva that rides on an elephant, isn't it? In that case, I must be the Bodhisattva Monju. They're always together.\"\n\n\"A very gluttonous Monju, I should say.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Good enough for a crybaby Fugen!\"\n\n\"Oh, you would say that!\"\n\n\"Why are Fugen and Monju always together? They're not a man and a woman.\"\n\nIntentionally or not, he was striking close again. Having heard much about these things while she was living at the Shippōji, Otsū could have answered the question in some detail, but she replied simply, \"Monju represents wisdom, Fugen, devoted conduct.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Stop!\" The voice was Matahachi's and it came from behind them." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Sick with revulsion, Otsū thought: \"The coward!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She turned and stared frigidly at him.\n\nMatahachi glared back, his feelings more muddled than ever. At Nakatsugawa, it had been pure jealousy, but he'd continued to spy on Musashi and Otsū. When he saw that they were keeping apart, he interpreted this as an attempt to deceive people and imagined all sorts of scandalous goings-on when they were alone.\n\n\"Get down!\" he commanded." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Otsū stared at the cow's head, unable to speak." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Her feeling toward him had settled once and for all into hatred and contempt." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Come on, woman, get down!\"\n\nThough she burned with indignation, she spoke coldly. \"Why? I have no business with you.\"\n\n\"Is that so?\" he growled menacingly, taking hold of her sleeve. \"You may not have any business with me, but I have business with you. Get down!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Jōtarō let go of the rope and shouted, \"Leave her alone! If she doesn't want to get off, why should she?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Holding his arms straight out, he butted Matahachi's chest.\n\n\"What do you think you're doing, you little bastard?\" Thrown off balance, Matahachi readjusted his feet in his sandals and raised his shoulders threateningly. \"I thought I'd seen your ugly face somewhere. You're the tramp from the sake shop in Kitano.\"\n\n\"Yeah, and now I know why you were drinking yourself silly. You were living with some old bitch and you didn't have the guts to stand up to her. Isn't that the truth?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Jōtarō couldn't have touched a more tender spot.\n\n\"You snot-nosed runt!\" Matahachi snatched at his collar, but Jōtarō ducked and came up on the other side of the cow.\n\n\"If I'm a snot-nosed runt, what does that make you? Snot-nosed oaf! Scared of a woman!\"\n\nMatahachi darted around the cow, but again Jōtarō slipped under the animal's belly and came up on the other side. This happened three or four times before Matahachi finally managed to latch on to the boy's collar." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"All right, just say that one more time.\"\n\n\"Snot-nosed oaf! Scared of a woman!\"\n\nJōtarō's wooden sword was only half drawn when Matahachi got a good grip and sent him sailing well away from the road into a clump of bamboo. He landed on his back in a small stream, stunned and only barely conscious.\n\nBy the time he recovered enough to crawl like an eel back to the road, it was too late." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The cow was loping heavily along the road, Otsū still on her back, Matahachi running ahead with the rope in his hand." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Bastard!\" moaned Jōtarō, stung by his own helplessness. Too dazed to get to his feet, he lay there fuming and cursing.\n\nOn a hill a mile or so ahead, Musashi was resting his feet and idly wondering whether the clouds were moving or, as they seemed, were permanently suspended between Mount Koma and the broad foothills below.\n\nHe started, as though at some wordless communication, shook himself and straightened up.\n\nHis thoughts were really on Otsū, and the more he thought, the angrier he became." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Both his shame and his resentment had been washed away in the swirling basin under the falls, but as the days passed the doubts kept coming back." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Had it been wicked of him to reveal himself to her?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Why had she rebuffed him, shrunk from him as though she despised him?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Leave her behind,\" he said out loud. Yet he knew he was only deceiving himself. He had told her that when they reached Edo, she could study what was best for her, while he followed his own path. Implicit in this was a promise for the more distant future. He had left Kyoto with her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He had a responsibility to stay with her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What will happen to me? With two of us, what will happen to my sword?\" He raised his eyes to the mountain and bit his tongue, ashamed of his pettiness. To look at the great peak was humbling.\n\nHe wondered what could be keeping them and stood up. He could see the forest a mile back, but no people." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Could they have been held up at the barrier?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The sun would be setting soon; they should have caught up long ago.\n\nSuddenly, he felt alarmed. Something must have happened. Before he knew it, he was tearing down the hill so fast that the animals in the fields scurried off in all directions.\n\nThe Warrior of Kiso" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Musashi had not run very far when a traveler called to him, \"Hey, weren't you with a young woman and a boy before?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Musashi stopped abruptly. \"Yes,\" he said with sinking heart. \"Has something happened to them?\"\n\nApparently he was about the only person who had not heard the story that was fast becoming common gossip along the highroad. A young man had approached the girl... kidnapped her. He had been seen whipping the cow... driving her down a side road near the barrier." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The traveler had barely finished repeating the tale before Musashi was on his way." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Racing at top speed, he still took an hour to reach the barrier, which had closed at six, and with it the tea shops on either side." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Looking rather frantic, Musashi approached an old man who was piling up stools in front of his shop." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What's the matter, sir? Forget something?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"No. I'm looking for a young woman and a boy who passed here a few hours ago.\"\n\n\"Would that be the girl who looked like Fugen on a cow?\"\n\n\"That's the one!\" Musashi answered without thinking. \"I'm told a rōnin took her off somewhere. Do you know which way they went?\"\n\n\"I didn't actually see the incident myself, but I heard they left the main road at the head-burying mound. That'd take them toward Nobu Pond.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "For the life of him, Musashi had no idea who might have kidnapped Otsū or why." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Matahachi's name never entered his mind." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He imagined it might be a good-for-nothing rōnin, like the ones he had encountered in Nara. Or perhaps one of the freebooters reputed to be hanging out in the woods hereabouts. He only hoped it was a petty crook, rather than one of the hoodlums who made a business of abducting and selling women and were known to be vicious on occasion.\n\nHe ran on and on in his search for Nobu Pond. After the sun went down, he could hardly see a foot ahead, though the stars were bright above." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The road began to slope upward; he assumed he was entering the foothills of Mount Koma.\n\nHaving seen nothing resembling a pond and fearing he was on the wrong road, he stopped and looked around. In the vast sea of blackness, he was able to make out a lone farmhouse, a windbreak of trees, and looming darkly above these, the mountain.\n\nWhen he got closer, he saw that the house was large and sturdily built, though moss grew on the thatched roof and the thatch itself was rotting. There was a light outside—whether torch or fire, he couldn't tell—and near the kitchen, a spotted cow." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He was sure it was the animal Otsū had been riding." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He approached stealthily, keeping to the shadows." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When he was close enough to see into the kitchen, he heard a loud male voice coming from a shed on the other side of some piles of straw and firewood.\n\n\"Put up your work, Mother,\" the man was saying. \"You're always complaining about your eyes being bad, but you go on working practically in the dark.\"\n\nThere was a fire in the hearth room next to the kitchen, and Musashi thought he heard the whir of a spinning wheel. After a moment or two, the sound stopped, and he heard someone moving about." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The man came out of the shed and closed the door behind him. \"I'll be in as soon as I've washed my feet,\" he called. \"You can go ahead and put dinner on.\"\n\nHe placed his sandals on a rock by a stream flowing behind the kitchen. As he sat wiggling his feet in the water, the cow put her head close to his shoulder." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He rubbed her nose." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Mother,\" he called, \"come here a minute. I made a real find today. What do you think it is?... It's a cow; a really fine one too.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Musashi made his way quietly past the front door of the house. Crouching on a stone beneath a side window, he looked into what turned out to be a hearth room. The first object he saw was a lance hanging from a blackened rack near the top of the wall, a fine weapon that had been polished and lovingly cared for. Bits of gold shone dully on the leather of its scabbard. Musashi did not know what to make of it; it was not the sort of thing usually found in a farmer's house." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Farmers were forbidden to have weapons, even if they could afford them." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The man appeared for a moment in the light of the outside fire." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "At a glance, Musashi knew he was no ordinary peasant. His eyes were too bright, too alert. He wore a knee-length work kimono and mud-spattered leggings. His face was round, and his bushy hair was tied in back with two or three lengths of straw. Though he was short—no more than five feet six—he was thick-chested and solidly built." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He walked with firm, decisive steps." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Smoke began to escape from the window." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Musashi raised his sleeve to cover his face, but too late; he inhaled a lungful of smoke and couldn't stop himself from coughing." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Who's there?\" the old woman called from the kitchen. She came into the hearth room and said, \"Gonnosuke, did you shut the shed? There seems to be a millet thief around. I heard him cough.\"\n\nMusashi slipped away from the window and hid himself among the trees of the windbreak.\n\n\"Where?\" shouted Gonnosuke, striding rapidly from behind the house.\n\nThe old woman appeared at the little window." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"He must be right around here. I heard him cough.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Are you sure it's not just your ears?\"\n\n\"My hearing's all right. And I'm sure I saw a face at the window. The smoke from the fire must have made him cough.\"\n\nSlowly, suspiciously, Gonnosuke advanced fifteen or twenty paces, looking carefully to right and left, as though he were a sentinel guarding a fortress. \"You may be right,\" he said. \"I seem to smell a human being.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Taking his cue from the look in Gonnosuke's eyes, Musashi bided his time." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There was something about the man's posture, something that said it was best to be cautious. He seemed to be leaning slightly forward from the waist. Musashi could not make out what sort of weapon he was carrying, but when he turned, Musashi saw he had a four-foot staff behind his back. No ordinary pole, it had the sheen of a much-used weapon and seemed to be an integral part of the man's body. There was no question in Musashi's mind but that he lived with it day in and day out and knew exactly how to use it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Moving into view, Musashi shouted, \"You—whoever you are! I've come for my companions!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Gonnosuke glared silently at him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Give me back the woman and boy you kidnapped on the highroad. If they're unharmed, we'll let it go at that. But if they've been injured, you're in for it.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The snowmelt feeding the streams in this area gave the breeze a sharp edge, which somehow emphasized the silence.\n\n\"Turn them over to me. Now!\" Musashi's voice bit more sharply than the wind.\n\nGonnosuke had what was called a reverse hold on his staff. His hair standing up like a hedgehog's, he straightened to his full height and shouted, \"You horse's turd! Who are you calling a kidnapper?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You! You must have seen the boy and woman were unprotected, so you kidnapped them and took them here. Bring them out!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The staff came away from Gonnosuke's side in a movement so rapid Musashi could not tell where the man's arm ended and the weapon began." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Musashi jumped aside. \"Don't do anything you'll regret,\" he warned, then withdrew several paces." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Who do you think you are, you crazy bastard!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "As Gonnosuke spat out his reply, he moved swiftly into action again, determined not to give Musashi a moment's rest." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When the latter shifted ten paces, he covered the same distance simultaneously.\n\nTwice Musashi started to move his right hand to the hilt of his sword, but both times he stopped. During the instant when he grasped his sword, his elbow would be exposed. Musashi had seen the swiftness of Gonnosuke's staff and knew he wouldn't have time to complete the movement. He saw, too, that if he allowed himself to make light of his stocky opponent, he'd be in trouble." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And if he didn't remain calm, even taking a breath could endanger him.\n\nMusashi had yet to size up this enemy, who at the moment had his legs and torso in a splendid stance of the Indestructible-Perfect type. Musashi was already beginning to feel that this farmer had a technique superior to that of any expert swordsman he had encountered so far, and a look in his eyes suggested he had mastered that Way which Musashi was forever seeking.\n\nBut he had little time for assessment. Strike followed strike, almost by the second, as one curse after another poured from Gonnosuke's mouth." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Sometimes he used both hands, sometimes only one, executing with flowing dexterity the overhead strike, the lateral strike, the thrust and the shift." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A sword, being distinctly divided into blade and hilt, has only one point, but either end of a staff can be applied lethally. Gonnosuke was wielding the staff with the same agility as a candy-maker handling taffy: now it was long, now short, now invisible, now high, now low—seemingly everywhere at once.\n\nFrom the window, the old woman urged her son to be careful. \"Gonnosuke! He doesn't look like an ordinary samurai!\" She seemed to be as involved in the fight as he was." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Don't worry!\" The knowledge that she was watching appeared to raise Gonnosuke's fighting spirit to an even higher pitch." }, { "from": "human", "value": "At this point, Musashi ducked a blow to his shoulder, and in the same movement slid in close to Gonnosuke and seized his wrist." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The next instant, the farmer was flat on his back, his feet kicking at the stars." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Wait!\" shouted the mother, breaking the lattice of the window in her excitement. Her hair stood on end; she seemed thunderstruck to see her son downed.\n\nThe wild look on her face kept Musashi from taking the next logical step, which would have been to whip out his sword and finish Gonnosuke off. \"All right, I'll wait,\" he shouted, straddling Gonnosuke's chest and pinning him to the ground.\n\nGonnosuke was struggling valiantly to free himself." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His legs, over which Musashi had no control, flew in the air, then crashed into the earth as he arched his back. It was all Musashi could do to keep him down.\n\nThe mother came rushing out the kitchen door, screaming vituperously, \"Look at you! How did you get into a mess like that?\" But she added, \"Don't give up. I'm here to help you.\"\n\nSince she had asked Musashi to wait, he expected her to fall down on her knees and beg him not to kill her son." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But a glance told him that he was sadly mistaken. She held the lance, now unsheathed, behind her, but he caught the glint of the blade. And he felt her eyes burning into his back.\n\n\"Filthy rōnin!\" she cried. \"Use a tricky throw, will you? You think we're nothing but dumb farmers, don't you?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Musashi couldn't turn to ward off an attack from behind, because of the way Gonnosuke was squirming about, trying to put Musashi in a position advantageous to his mother.\n\n\"Don't worry, Mother!\" he said. \"I'll make it. Don't get too close.\"\n\n\"Keep calm,\" she cautioned. \"You mustn't lose to the likes of him. Remember your ancestors! What's happened to the blood you inherited from the great Kakumyō, who fought side by side with the General of Kiso.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I won't forget!\" yelled Gonnosuke." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "No sooner were the words out of his mouth than he managed to raise his head and sink his teeth into Musashi's thigh, at the same time letting go of his staff and striking Musashi with both hands. The old woman chose this moment to level the lance at Musashi's back.\n\n\"Wait!\" shouted Musashi.\n\nThey had reached a stage where settlement seemed possible only through the death of one of them. If Musashi had been absolutely sure that by winning he could free Otsū and Jōtarō, he would have pressed on." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Now it seemed the better part of valor to call a halt and talk things over. He turned his shoulders toward the old woman and told her to put down the lance.\n\n\"What should I do, son?\"\n\nGonnosuke was still pinned to the ground, but he was also having second thoughts. Perhaps this rōnin had some reason to think his companions were here." }, { "from": "human", "value": "There was no sense in risking death over a misunderstanding." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Once they had disentangled themselves, it took only a few minutes to make it clear that it was all a mistake.\n\nThe three of them repaired to the house and the blazing fire. Kneeling by the hearth, the mother said, \"Very dangerous! To think that there was no cause for a fight to begin with.\"\n\nAs Gonnosuke prepared to take his place beside her, she shook her head. \"Before you sit down,\" she said, \"take the samurai all through the house, so that he can be satisfied that his friends aren't here.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Then, to Musashi: \"I want you to look carefully and see for yourself.\"\n\n\"That's a good idea,\" agreed Gonnosuke. \"Come with me, sir. Examine the house from top to bottom. I dislike being suspected of kidnapping.\"\n\nAlready seated, Musashi declined. \"It's not necessary. From what you've told me, I'm sure you had nothing to do with the kidnapping. Forgive me for accusing you.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I was partly to blame,\" Gonnosuke said apologetically." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I should have found out what you were talking about before I lost my temper.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Musashi then asked, somewhat hesitantly, about the cow, explaining that he was quite sure it was the one he had rented in Seta.\n\n\"I just happened to find her,\" replied Gonnosuke. \"This evening, I was down at Nobu Pond netting loaches, and on my way home I saw the cow with one leg sunk in the mud. It's swampy down there. The more she struggled, the deeper she sank. She was raising an awful rumpus, so I pulled her free." }, { "from": "human", "value": "When I asked around the neighborhood, she didn't seem to belong to anybody, so I thought a thief must have stolen her and later abandoned her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"A cow's worth about half a man on a farm, and this is a good one, with a young udder.\" Gonnosuke laughed. \"I sort of decided that heaven must have sent the cow to me because I'm poor and can't do anything for my mother without a little supernatural help. I don't mind giving the animal back to her owner, but I don't know who that is.\"\n\nMusashi noted that Gonnosuke told his story with the simple straightforward honesty of a person born and brought up in the country.\n\nHis mother became sympathetic. \"I'm sure this rōnin's worried about his friends,\" she said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Eat your dinner and take him to look for them. I only hope they're somewhere near the pond. The hills are no place for strangers. They're full of bandits who'll steal anything—horses, vegetables, anything! This whole business sounds like some of their work.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The breeze would begin as a whisper, mushroom into a violent gust, then roar through the trees and raise havoc with the smaller plants." }, { "from": "human", "value": "During a lull that left only the ominous silence of the stars above, Gonnosuke held the torch high and waited for Musashi to catch up with him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Sorry,\" he said, \"but nobody seems to know anything about them. There's just one more house between here and the pond. It's behind those woods over there. The owner farms part of the time and hunts the rest. If he can't help us, there's nowhere else to look.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Thanks for going to all this trouble. We've already been to more than ten houses, so I suppose there's not much hope of their being around here. If we don't find out anything at this next house, let's give up and go back.\"\n\nIt was past midnight. Musashi had expected they would at least find some trace of Jōtarō, but no one had seen him. Descriptions of Otsū had brought nothing but blank looks and long country pauses.\n\n\"If it's the walking you're thinking about, that's nothing to me. I could walk all night. Are the woman and boy servants of yours? Brother? Sister?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"They're the people closest to me.\"\n\nEach would have liked to ask the other more about himself, but Gonnosuke lapsed into silence, moved a pace or two ahead and guided Musashi along a narrow path toward Nobu Pond.\n\nMusashi was curious about Gonnosuke's skill with the staff and how he had acquired it, but his sense of propriety kept him from asking about it. Musing that his meeting the man was due to a mishap—and his own rashness—he nevertheless felt extremely grateful. What a misfortune it would have been to miss seeing this great fighter's dazzling technique!" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Gonnosuke stopped and said, \"You'd better wait here. Those people are probably asleep, and we don't want to frighten them. I'll go alone and see if I can find out anything.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He pointed out the house, whose thatched roof seemed nearly buried in the trees." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A rustling of bamboo accompanied his running footsteps." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Presently Musashi heard him knocking loudly on the door.\n\nHe returned a few minutes later with a story that seemed to give Musashi his first real lead. It had taken him a while to make the man and his wife understand what he was asking about, but finally the wife told him of something that had happened to her that afternoon.\n\nA little before sundown, on her way home from shopping, the woman had seen a boy running toward Yabuhara, hands and face covered with mud and a long wooden sword in his obi. When she stopped him and asked what was wrong, he responded by asking her where the office of the shōgun's deputy was." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He went on to tell her that a bad man had carried off the person he was traveling with. She advised him that he was wasting his time; the shōgun's officers would never on their own organize a search for a person of no consequence. If it was somebody great or important, or if they had orders from above, they would turn every dollop of horse manure, every grain of sand, but they had no use for common folk. Anyway, for a woman to be kidnapped or a traveler to be stripped clean by highwaymen was nothing unusual. Things like that happened morning, noon and night." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She had told the boy to go past Yabuhara to a place called Narai." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There, at an intersection it was easy to see, he would find a wholesale house dealing in herbs. It was owned by a man named Daizō, who would listen to his story and in all likelihood offer to help him. Unlike the officials, Daizō not only sympathized with the weak but would go to great lengths to help them if he thought their cause was worthy.\n\nGonnosuke ended by saying, \"It sounded to me as though the boy was Jōtarō. What do you think?\"\n\n\"I'm sure of it,\" said Musashi." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I suppose the best thing to do would be to go to Narai as quickly as possible and look up this man Daizō. Thanks to you, I at least have an idea what to do.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Why not spend the rest of the night at my house? You can start out in the morning, after you've had some breakfast.\"\n\n\"May I do that?\"\n\n\"Sure. If we cross Nobu Pond, we can get home in less than half the time it took us to get here. I asked the man and he said we could use his boat.\"\n\nThe pond, at the end of a short downhill walk, looked like a gigantic drumhead. Encircled by purple willow trees, it must have been twelve or thirteen hundred yards in diameter." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The dark shadow of Mount Koma was reflected in the water, along with a skyful of stars." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "With Musashi holding the torch and Gonnosuke poling, they slid silently across the middle of the pond. Far redder than the torch itself was its reflection in the smooth water." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Team writing exercise. I start, you do 5 sentences in Eiji Yoshikawa style." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The hour was late, and there was no one around from whom he could ask directions." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Yet the idea of spending the night in these unfamiliar surroundings made him uneasy. He had to complete his errand and return to the inn before daybreak, even if it meant waking up one of the workers.\n\nAs he approached the nearest shack where a light showed, he saw a woman with a strip of matting tied over her head like a shawl.\n\n\"Good evening, auntie,\" he said innocently.\n\nMistaking him for the helper at a nearby sake shop, the woman glared and sniffed, \"You, is it? You threw a rock at me and ran away, didn't you, you little brat?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Not me,\" protested Iori." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I've never seen you before!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The woman came hesitantly toward him, then burst out laughing. \"No,\" she said, \"you're not the one. What's a cute little boy like you doing wandering around here at this time of night?\"\n\n\"I was sent on an errand, but I can't find the house I'm looking for.\"\n\n\"Whose house is it?\"\n\n\"Lord Yagyū of Tajima's.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Are you joking?\" She laughed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Lord Yagyū is a daimyō, and a teacher to the shōgun. Do you think he'd open his gate to you?\" She laughed again." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You know somebody in the servants' quarters perhaps?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I've brought a letter.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Who to?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"A samurai named Kimura Sukekurō.\"\n\n\"Must be one of his retainers. But you, you're so funny—throwing Lord Yagyū's name around like you knew him.\"\n\n\"I just want to deliver this letter. If you know where the house is, tell me.\"\n\n\"It's on the other side of the moat. If you cross that bridge over there, you'll be in front of Lord Kii's house. The next one is Lord Kyōgoku, then Lord Katō, then Lord Matsudaira of Suō.\" Holding up her fingers, she counted off the sturdy storehouses on the opposite bank." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I'm sure the one after that is the one you want.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"If I cross the moat, will I still be in Kobikichō?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Of course.\"\n\n\"Of all the stupid—\"\n\n\"Here now, that's no way to talk. Hmm, you seem such a nice boy, I'll come along and show you Lord Yagyū's place.\"\n\nWalking in front of him with the matting on her head, she looked to Iori rather like a ghost.\n\nThey were in the middle of the bridge when a man coming toward them brushed against her sleeve and whistled." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He reeked of sake. Before Iori knew what was going on, the woman turned and made for the drunk. \"I know you,\" she warbled. \"Don't just pass me by like that. It isn't nice.\" She grabbed his sleeve and started toward a place from which they could go below the bridge." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Let go,\" he said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Wouldn't you like to go with me?\"\n\n\"No money.\"\n\n\"Oh, I don't care.\" Latching on to him like a leech, she looked back at Iori's startled face and said, \"Run along now. I've got business with this gentleman.\"\n\nIori watched in bewilderment as the two of them tugged back and forth." }, { "from": "human", "value": "After a few moments, the woman appeared to get the upper hand, and they disappeared below the bridge." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Still puzzled, Iori went to the railing and looked over at the grassy riverbank.\n\nGlancing up, the woman shouted, \"Nitwit!\" and picked up a rock.\n\nSwallowing hard, Iori dodged the missile and made for the far end of the bridge. In all his years on the barren plain of Hōtengahara, he had never seen anything so frightening as the woman's angry white face in the dark." }, { "from": "human", "value": "On the other side of the river, he found himself before a storehouse." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Next to that was a fence, then another storehouse, then another fence, and so on down the street." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"This must be it,\" he said when he came to the fifth building." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "On the gleaming white plaster wall was a crest in the form of a two-tiered woman's hat. This, Iori knew from the words of a popular song, was the Yagyū family crest.\n\n\"Who's there?\" demanded a voice from inside the gate.\n\nSpeaking as loudly as he dared, Iori announced, \"I'm the pupil of Miyamoto Musashi. I've brought a letter.\"\n\nThe sentry said a few words Iori could not catch." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In the gate was a small door, through which people could be let in and out without opening the great gate itself. After a few seconds, the door slowly opened, and the man asked suspiciously, \"What are you doing here at this hour?\"\n\nIori thrust the letter at the guard's face. \"Please deliver this for me. If there's an answer, I'll take it back.\"\n\n\"Hmm,\" mused the man, taking the letter." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"This is for Kimura Sukekurō, is it?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yes, sir.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"He's not here.\"\n\n\"Where is he?\"\n\n\"He's at the house in Higakubo.\"\n\n\"Huh? Everybody told me Lord Yagyū's house was in Kobikichō.\"\n\n\"People say that, but there're only storehouses here—rice, lumber and a few other things.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Lord Yagyū doesn't live here?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"That's right.\"\n\n\"How far is it to the other place—Higakubo?\"\n\n\"Pretty far.\"\n\n\"Just where is it?\"\n\n\"In the hills outside the city, in Azabu Village.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Never heard of it.\" Iori sighed disappointedly, but his sense of responsibility prevented him from giving up. \"Sir, would you draw me a map?\"\n\n\"Don't be silly. Even if you knew the way, it'd take you all night to get there.\"\n\n\"I don't mind.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Lot of foxes in Azabu. You don't want to be bewitched by a fox, do you?\"\n\n\"No.\"\n\n\"Do you know Sukekurō well?\"\n\n\"My teacher does.\"\n\n\"I'll tell you what. Since it's so late, why don't you catch some sleep over there in the granary, and go in the morning?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Where am I?\" exclaimed Iori, rubbing his eyes. He jumped up and ran outside. The afternoon sun made him dizzy. Squinting his eyes against the glare, he went to the gatehouse, where the guard was eating his lunch.\n\n\"So you're finally up.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Yes, sir. Could you draw me that map now?\"\n\n\"You in a hurry, Sleepyhead? Here, you'd better have something to eat first. There's enough for both of us.\"\n\nWhile the boy chewed and gulped, the guard sketched a rough map and explained how to get to Higakubo. They finished simultaneously, and Iori, fired up with the importance of his mission, set off at a run, never thinking that Musashi might be worried about his failure to return to the inn.\n\nHe made good time through the busy thoroughfares until he reached the vicinity of Edo Castle, where the imposing houses of the leading daimyō stood on the land built up between the crisscross system of moats." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As he looked around, his pace slowed. The waterways were jammed with cargo boats. The stone ramparts of the castle itself were half covered with log scaffolding, which from a distance resembled the bamboo trellises used for growing morning glories.\n\nHe dawdled again in a broad, flat area called Hibiya, where the scraping of chisels and the thud of axes raised a dissonant hymn to the power of the new shogunate.\n\nIori stopped. He was mesmerized by the spectacle of the construction work: the laborers hauling huge rocks, the carpenters with their planes and saws and the samurai, the dashing samurai, who stood proudly supervising it all." }, { "from": "human", "value": "How he wanted to grow up and be like them!" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A lusty song rose from the throats of the men hauling rocks:\n\nWe'll pluck the flowers\n\nIn the fields of Musashi—\n\nThe gentians, the bellflowers,\n\nWild blossoms splashed" }, { "from": "human", "value": "In confusing disarray." }, { "from": "human", "value": "And that lovely girl," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The flower unpluckable,\n\nMoistened by the dew—\n\n'Twill only dampen your sleeve, like falling tears.\n\nHe stood enchanted. Before he realized it, the water in the moats was taking on a reddish cast and the evening voices of crows reached his ears.\n\n\"Oh, no, it's nearly sundown,\" he chastised himself." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He sped away and for a time moved along at full speed, paying attention to nothing save the map the guard had drawn for him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Before he knew it, he was climbing the path up Azabu Hill, which was so thickly overhung with trees it might as well have been midnight. Once he reached the top, however, he could see the sun was still in the sky, though low on the horizon.\n\nThere were almost no houses on the hill itself, Azabu Village being a mere scattering of fields and farm dwellings in the valley below. Standing in a sea of grass and ancient trees, listening to the brooks gurgling down the hillside, Iori felt his fatigue give way to a strange refreshment. He was vaguely aware that the spot where he was standing was historic, although he didn't know why." }, { "from": "human", "value": "In fact it was the very place that had given birth to the great warrior clans of the past, both the Taira and the Minamoto." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He heard the loud booming of a drum being beaten, the kind often used at Shinto festivals." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Down the hill, visible in the forest, were the sturdy cross-logs atop the ridgepole of a religious sanctuary." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Had Iori but known, it was the Great Shrine of Iigura he'd studied about, the famous edifice sacred to the sun goddess of Ise." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The shrine was a far cry from the enormous castle he had just seen, even from the stately gates of the daimyō. In its simplicity it was almost indistinguishable from the farmhouses around it, and Iori thought it puzzling that people talked more reverently about the Tokugawa family than they did about the most sacred of deities. Did that mean the Tokugawas were greater than the sun goddess? he wondered. \"I'll have to ask Musashi about that when I get back.\"\n\nTaking out his map, he pored over it, looked about him and stared at it again." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Still there was no sign of the Yagyū mansion." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The evening mist spreading over the ground gave him an eerie feeling." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He'd felt something similar before, when in a room with the shoji shut the setting sun's light played on the rice paper so that the interior seemed to grow lighter as the outside darkened. Of course, such a twilight illusion is just that, but he felt it so strongly, in several flashes, that he rubbed his eyes as if to erase his light-headedness. He knew he wasn't dreaming and looked around suspiciously.\n\n\"Why, you sneaky bastard,\" he cried, jumping forward and whipping out his sword. In the same motion he cut through a clump of tall grass in front of him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "With a yelp of pain, a fox leapt from its hiding place and streaked off, its tail glistening with blood from a cut on its hindquarters." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Devilish beast!\" Iori set off in hot pursuit, and though the fox was fast, Iori was too." }, { "from": "human", "value": "When the limping creature stumbled, Iori lunged, confident of victory." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The fox, however, slipped nimbly away, to surge ahead several yards, and no matter how fast Iori attacked, the animal managed to get away each time.\n\nOn his mother's knee, Iori had heard countless tales proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that foxes had the power to bewitch and possess human beings. He was fond of most other animals, even wild boar and noisome possums, but foxes he hated. He was also afraid of them. To his way of thinking, coming across this wily creature lurking in the grass could mean only one thing—it was to blame for his not finding his way." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He was convinced it was a treacherous and evil being that had been following him since the night before and had, just moments before, cast its malevolent spell over him. If he didn't slay it now, it was sure to hex him again. Iori was prepared to pursue his quarry to the end of the earth, but the fox, bounding over the edge of a drop, was lost to sight in a thicket.\n\nDew glistened on the flowers of the dog nettle and spiderwort. Exhausted and parched, Iori sank down and licked the moisture from a mint leaf." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Shoulders heaving, he finally caught his breath, whereupon sweat poured copiously from his forehead. His heart thumped violently. \"Where did it go?\" he asked, his voice halfway between a scream and a choke.\n\nIf the fox had really gone, so much the better, but Iori didn't know what to believe." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Since he had injured the animal, he felt it was certain to take revenge, one way or another." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Resigning himself, he sat still and waited.\n\nJust as he was beginning to feel calmer, an eerie sound floated to his ears. Wide-eyed, he looked around. \"It's the fox, for sure,\" he said, steeling himself against being bewitched. Rising quickly, he moistened his eyebrows with saliva—a trick thought to ward off the influence of foxes." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A short distance away, a woman came floating through the evening mist, her face half hidden by a veil of silk gauze. She was riding a horse sidesaddle, the reins lying loosely across the low pommel. The saddle was made of lacquered wood with mother-of-pearl inlay.\n\n\"It's changed into a woman,\" thought Iori. This vision in a veil, playing a flute and silhouetted against the thin rays of the evening sun, could by no stretch of the imagination be a creature of this world." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As he squatted in the grass like a frog, Iori heard an otherworldly voice call, \"Otsū!\" and was sure it had come from one of the fox's companions.\n\nThe rider had nearly reached a turnoff, where a road diverged to the south, and the upper part of her body glowed reddish. The sun, sinking behind the hills of Shibuya, was fringed by clouds.\n\nIf he killed her, he could expose her true fox form." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Iori tightened his grip on the sword and braced himself, thinking: \"Lucky it doesn't know I'm hiding here.\" Like all those acquainted with the truth about foxes, he knew the animal's spirit would be situated a few feet behind its human form. He swallowed hard in anticipation, while waiting for the vision to proceed and make the turn to the south.\n\nBut when the horse reached the turnoff, the woman stopped playing, put her flute in a cloth wrapper and tucked it into her obi. Lifting her veil, she peered about with searching eyes." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Otsū!\" the voice called again." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A pleasant smile came to her face as she called back, \"Here I am, Hyōgo. Up here.\"\n\nIori watched as a samurai came up the road from the valley. \"Oh, oh!\" he gasped when he noticed that the man walked with a slight limp. This was the fox he had wounded; no doubt about it! Disguised not as a beautiful temptress but as a handsome samurai." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The apparition terrified Iori." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He shivered violently and wet himself." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "After the woman and the samurai had exchanged a few words, the samurai took hold of the horse's bit and led it right past the place where Iori was hiding.\n\n\"Now's the time,\" he decided, but his body would not respond.\n\nThe samurai noticed a slight motion and looked around, his gaze falling squarely on Iori's petrified face. The light from the samurai's eyes seemed more brilliant than the edge of the setting sun. Iori prostrated himself and buried his face in the grass." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Never in his entire fourteen years had he experienced such terror." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hyōgo, seeing nothing alarming about the boy, walked on. The slope was steep, and he had to lean back to keep the horse in check. Looking over his shoulder at Otsū, he asked gently, \"Why are you so late? You've been gone a long time just to have ridden to the shrine and back. My uncle got worried and sent me to look for you.\"\n\nWithout answering, Otsū jumped down from the horse.\n\nHyōgo stopped. \"Why are you getting off? Something wrong?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"No, but it's not fitting for a woman to ride when a man's walking. Let's walk together. We can both hold the bit.\" She took her place on the other side of the horse.\n\nThey descended into the darkening valley and passed a sign reading: \"Sendan'en Academy for Priests of the Sōdō Zen Sect.\" The sky was filling with stars, and the Shibuya River could be heard in the distance. The river divided the valley into North Higakubo and South Higakubo." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Since the school, established by the monk Rintatsu, lay on the north slope, the priests were casually referred to as the \"fellows of the north.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The \"fellows of the south\" were the men studying swordsmanship under Yagyū Munenori, whose establishment was directly across the valley." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As Yagyū Sekishūsai's favorite among his sons and grandsons, Yagyū Hyōgo enjoyed a special status among the \"fellows of the south.\" He had also distinguished himself in his own right. At the age of twenty, he had been summoned by the famous general Katō Kiyomasa and given a position at Kumamoto Castle in Higo Province at a stipend of fifteen thousand bushels. This was unheard of for a man so young, but after the Battle of Sekigahara, Hyōgo began to have second thoughts about his status, because of the danger inherent in having to side with either the Tokugawas or the Osaka faction. Three years earlier, using his grandfather's illness as a pretext, he had taken a leave of absence from Kumamoto and returned to Yamato." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "After that, saying he needed more training, he had traveled about the countryside for a time.\n\nHe and Otsū had been thrown together by chance the previous year, when he had come to stay with his uncle. For more than three years prior to that, Otsū had led a precarious existence, never quite able to escape from Matahachi, who had dragged her along everywhere, glibly telling prospective employers that she was his wife. Had he been willing to work as an apprentice to a carpenter or a plasterer or a stonemason, he could have found employment on the day they arrived in Edo, but he preferred to imagine they could work together at softer jobs, she as a domestic servant perhaps, he as a clerk or accountant.\n\nFinding no takers for his services, they had managed to survive by doing odd jobs." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And as the months passed, Otsū, hoping to lull her tormentor into complacency, had given in to him in every way short of surrendering her body.\n\nThen one day they had been walking along the street when they encountered a daimyō's procession. Along with everyone else, they moved to the side of the road and assumed a properly respectful attitude.\n\nThe palanquins and lacquered strongboxes bore the Yagyū crest. Otsū had raised her eyes enough to see this, and memories of Sekishūsai and the happy days at Koyagyū Castle flooded her heart." }, { "from": "human", "value": "If only she were back in that peaceful land of Yamato now!" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "With Matahachi at her side, she could only stare blankly after the passing retinue.\n\n\"Otsū, isn't that you?\" The conical sedge hat came low over the samurai's face, but as he drew closer, Otsū had seen that it was Kimura Sukekurō, a man she remembered with affection and respect. She couldn't have been more amazed or thankful if he had been the Buddha himself, surrounded by the wondrous light of infinite compassion. Slipping away from Matahachi's side, she had hurried to Sukekurō, who promptly offered to take her home with him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When Matahachi had opened his mouth to protest, Sukekurō said peremptorily, \"If you have anything to say, come to Higakubo and say it there.\"\n\nPowerless before the prestigious House of Yagyū, Matahachi held his tongue, biting his lower lip in angry frustration as he sullenly watched his precious treasure escape from him.\n\nAn Urgent Letter\n\nAt thirty-eight, Yagyū Munenori was regarded as the best swordsman of them all. This hadn't kept his father from constantly worrying about his fifth son." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"If only he can control that little quirk of his,\" he often said to himself." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Or: \"Can anybody that self-willed manage to keep a high position?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was now fourteen years since Tokugawa Ieyasu had commanded Sekishūsai to provide a tutor for Hidetada." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Sekishūsai had passed over his other sons, grandsons and nephews. Munenori was neither particularly brilliant nor heroically masculine, but he was a man of good, solid judgment, a practical man not likely to get lost in the clouds. He possessed neither his father's towering stature nor Hyōgo's genius, but he was reliable, and most important, he understood the cardinal principle of the Yagyū Style, namely that the true value of the Art of War lay in its application to government.\n\nSekishūsai had not misinterpreted Ieyasu's wishes; the conquering general had no use for a swordsman to teach his heir only technical skills. Some years before Sekigahara, Ieyasu himself had studied under a master swordsman named Okuyama, his objective being, as he himself frequently expressed it, \"to acquire the eye needed to oversee the country.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Still, Hidetada was now shōgun, and it would not do for the shōgun's instructor to be a man who lost in actual combat. A samurai in Munenori's position was expected to excel over all challengers and to demonstrate that Yagyū swordsmanship was second to none. Munenori felt he was constantly being scrutinized and tested, and while others might regard him as lucky to have been singled out for this distinguished appointment, he himself often envied Hyōgo and wished he could live the way his nephew did.\n\nHyōgo, as it happened, was now walking down the outside passageway leading to his uncle's room. The house, though large and sprawling, was neither stately in appearance nor lavish in its appointments." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Instead of employing carpenters from Kyoto to create an elegant, graceful dwelling, Munenori had deliberately entrusted the work to local builders, men accustomed to the sturdy, spartan warrior style of Kamakura. Though the trees were relatively sparse, and the hills of no great height, Munenori had chosen the solid rustic style of architecture exemplified by the old Main House at Koyagyū.\n\n\"Uncle,\" called Hyōgo softly and politely, as he knelt on the veranda outside Munenori's room.\n\n\"Is that you, Hyōgo?\" asked Munenori without removing his eyes from the garden." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"May I come in?\"\n\nHaving received permission to enter, Hyōgo made his way into the room on his knees. He had taken quite a few liberties with his grandfather, who was inclined to spoil him, but he knew better than to do that with his uncle. Munenori, though no martinet, was a stickler for etiquette. Now, as always, he was seated in strict formal fashion." }, { "from": "human", "value": "At times Hyōgo felt sorry for him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Otsū?\" asked Munenori, as though reminded of her by Hyōgo's arrival." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"She's back. She'd only gone to Hikawa Shrine, the way she often does. On the way back, she let her horse wander around for a while.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You went looking for her?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Yes, sir.\"\n\nMunenori remained silent for a few moments. The lamplight accented his tight-lipped profile. \"It worries me to have a young woman living here indefinitely. You never know what might happen. I've told Sukekurō to look for an opportunity to suggest she go elsewhere.\"\n\nHis tone slightly plaintive, Hyōgo said, \"I'm told she has no place to go.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "His uncle's change of attitude surprised him, for when Sukekurō had brought Otsū home and introduced her as a woman who had served Sekishūsai well, Munenori had welcomed her cordially and said she was free to stay as long as she wished." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Don't you feel sorry for her?\" he asked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Yes, but there's a limit to what you can do for people.\"\n\n\"I thought you yourself thought well of her.\"\n\n\"It has nothing to do with that. When a young woman comes to live in a house full of young men, tongues are apt to wag. And it's difficult for the men. One of them might do something rash.\"\n\nThis time Hyōgo was silent, but not because he took his uncle's remarks personally. He was thirty and, like the other young samurai, single, but he firmly believed his own feelings toward Otsū were too pure to raise doubts about his intentions." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He had been careful to allay his uncle's misgivings by making no secret of his fondness for her, while at the same time not once letting on that his feeling went beyond friendship.\n\nHyōgo felt that the problem might lie with his uncle. Munenori's wife came from a highly respected and well-placed family, of the sort whose daughters were delivered to their husbands on their wedding day in curtained palanquins lest they be seen by outsiders. Her chambers, together with those of the other women, were well removed from the more public parts of the house, so virtually no one knew whether relations between the master and his wife were harmonious. It was not difficult to imagine that the lady of the house might take a dim view of beautiful and eligible young women in such proximity to her husband." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hyōgo broke the silence, saying, \"Leave the matter to Sukekurō and me. We'll work out some solution that won't be too hard on Otsū.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Munenori nodded, saying, \"The sooner the better.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Sukekurō entered the anteroom just then, and placing a letter box on the tatami, knelt and bowed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Your lordship,\" he said respectfully." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Turning his eyes toward the anteroom, Munenori asked, \"What is it?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Sukekurō moved forward on his knees." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"A courier from Koyagyū has just arrived by fast horse.\"\n\n\"Fast horse?\" said Munenori quickly, but without surprise.\n\nHyōgo accepted the box from Sukekurō and handed it to his uncle. Munenori opened the letter, which was from Shōda Kizaemon. Written in haste, it said: \"The Old Lord has had another spell, worse than any previous. We fear he may not last long. He stoutly insists his illness is not sufficient reason for you to leave your duties. However, after discussing the matter among ourselves, we retainers decided to write and inform you of the situation.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"His condition is critical,\" said Munenori." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hyōgo admired his uncle's ability to remain calm." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He surmised that Munenori knew exactly what was to be done and had already made the necessary decisions.\n\nAfter some minutes of silence, Munenori said, \"Hyōgo, will you go to Koyagyū in my stead?\"\n\n\"Of course, sir.\"\n\n\"I want you to assure my father there's nothing to worry about in Edo. And I want you to look after him personally.\"\n\n\"Yes, sir.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I suppose it's all in the hands of the gods and the Buddha now. All you can do is hurry and try to get there before it's too late.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I'll leave tonight.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "From Lord Munenori's room, Hyōgo went immediately to his own. During the short time it took him to lay out the few things he would need, the bad news spread to every corner of the house.\n\nOtsū quietly went to Hyōgo's room, dressed, to his surprise, for traveling. Her eyes were moist. \"Please take me with you,\" she pleaded." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I can never hope to repay Lord Sekishūsai for taking me into his home, but I'd like to be with him and see if I can be of some assistance. I hope you won't refuse.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hyōgo considered it possible that his uncle might have refused her, but he himself did not have the heart to." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Perhaps it was a blessing that this opportunity to take her away from the house in Edo had presented itself.\n\n\"All right,\" he agreed, \"but it'll have to be a fast journey.\"\n\n\"I promise I won't slow you down.\" Drying her tears, she helped him finish packing and then went to pay her respects to Lord Munenori.\n\n\"Oh, are you going to accompany Hyōgo?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "he said, mildly surprised." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"That's very kind of you. I'm sure my father will be pleased to see you.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He made a point of giving her ample travel money and a new kimono as a going-away present. Despite his conviction that it was for the best, her departure saddened him.\n\nShe bowed herself out of his presence. \"Take good care of yourself,\" he said with feeling, as she reached the anteroom.\n\nThe vassals and servants lined up along the path to the gate to see them off, and with a simple \"Farewell\" from Hyōgo, they were on their way." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Otsū had folded her kimono up under her obi, so the hem reached only five or six inches below her knees. On her head was a broad-brimmed lacquered traveling hat and in her right hand she carried a stick. Had her shoulders been draped with blossoms, she would have been the image of the Wisteria Girl so often seen in woodblock prints.\n\nSince Hyōgo had decided to hire conveyances at the stations along the highroad, their goal tonight was the inn town of Sangen'ya, south of Shibuya. From there, his plan was to proceed along the Ōyama highroad to the Tama River, take the ferry across, and follow the Tōkaidō to Kyoto." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In the night mist, it was not long before Otsū's lacquered hat glistened with moisture. After walking through a grassy river valley, they came to a rather wide road, which since the Kamakura period had been one of the most important in the Kantō district. At night it was lonely and deserted, with trees growing thickly on both sides.\n\n\"Gloomy, isn't it?\" said Hyōgo with a smile, again slowing down his naturally long strides to let Otsū catch up with him. \"This is Dōgen Slope. There used to be bandits around here,\" he added." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Bandits?\" There was just enough alarm in her voice to make him laugh.\n\n\"That was a long time ago, though. A man by the name of Dōgen Tarō, who was related to the rebel Wada Yoshimori, is supposed to have been the head of a band of thieves who lived in the caves around here.\"\n\n\"Let's not talk about things like that.\"\n\nHyōgo's laughter echoed through the dark, and hearing it made him feel guilty for acting frivolous. He couldn't help himself, however." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Though sad, he looked forward with pleasure to being with Otsū these next few days.\n\n\"Oh!\" cried Otsū, taking a couple of steps backward.\n\n\"What's the matter?\" Instinctively, Hyōgo's arm went around her shoulders.\n\n\"There's somebody over there.\"\n\n\"Where?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It's a child, sitting there by the side of the road, talking to himself and crying. The poor thing!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "When Hyōgo got close enough, he recognized the boy he had seen earlier that evening, hiding in the grass in Azabu." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Iori leaped to his feet with a gasp. An instant later, he uttered an oath and pointed his sword at Hyōgo. \"Fox!\" he cried. \"That's what you are, a fox!\"\n\nOtsū caught her breath and stifled a scream. The look on Iori's face was wild, almost demonic, as if he were possessed by an evil spirit." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Even Hyōgo drew back cautiously.\n\n\"Foxes!\" Iori shouted again. \"I'll take care of you!\" His voice cracked hoarsely, like an old woman's. Hyōgo stared at him in puzzlement but was careful to steer clear of his blade." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"How's this?\" shouted Iori, whacking off the top of a tall shrub not far from Hyōgo's side. Then he sank to the ground, exhausted by his effort. Breathing hard, he asked, \"What did you think of that, fox?\"\n\nTurning to Otsū, Hyōgo said with a grin, \"Poor little fellow. He seems to be possessed by a fox.\"\n\n\"Maybe you're right. His eyes are ferocious.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Just like a fox's.\"\n\n\"Isn't there something we can do to help him?\"\n\n\"Well, they say there's no cure for either madness or stupidity, but I suspect there's a remedy for his ailment.\" He walked up to Iori and glared sternly at him.\n\nGlancing up, the boy hastily gripped his sword again." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Still here, are you?\" he cried. But before he could get to his feet, his ears were assailed by a fierce roar coming from the pit of Hyōgo's stomach.\n\n\"Y-a-a-w-r!\"\n\nIori was scared witless. Hyōgo picked him up by the waist, and holding him horizontally, strode back down the hill to the bridge." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He turned the boy upside down, grasped him by the ankles and held him out over the railing.\n\n\"Help! Mother! Help, help! Sensei! Save me!\" The screams gradually changed to a wail.\n\nOtsū hastened to the rescue. \"Stop that, Hyōgo. Let him go. You shouldn't be so cruel.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I guess that's enough,\" said Hyōgo, setting the boy down gently on the bridge." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Iori was in a terrible state, bawling and choking, convinced there was not a soul on earth who could help him. Otsū went to his side and put her arm affectionately around his drooping shoulders. \"Where do you live, child?\" she asked softly.\n\nBetween sobs, Iori stammered, \"O-over th-th-that way,\" and pointed.\n\n\"What do you mean, 'that way'?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Ba-ba-bakurōchō.\"\n\n\"Why, that's miles away. How did you get all the way out here?\"\n\n\"I came on an errand. I got lost.\"\n\n\"When was that?\"\n\n\"I left Bakurōchō yesterday.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"And you've been wandering around all night and all day?\" Iori half shook his head, but didn't say anything. \"Why, that's terrible. Tell me, where were you supposed to go?\"\n\nA little calmer now, he replied promptly, as though he'd been waiting for the question. \"To the residence of Lord Yagyū Munenori of Tajima.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "After feeling around under his obi, he clutched the crumpled letter and waved it proudly in front of his face. Bringing it close to his eyes, he said, \"It's for Kimura Sukekurō. I'm to deliver it and wait for an answer.\"\n\nOtsū saw that Iori took his mission very seriously and was ready to guard the missive with his life. Iori, for his part, was determined to show the letter to no one before he reached his destination. Neither had any inkling of the irony of the situation—a missed chance, a happening rarer than the coming together across the River of Heaven of the Herdboy and the Spinning Maiden." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Turning to Hyōgo, Otsū said, \"He seems to have a letter for Sukekurō.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"He's wandered off in the wrong direction, hasn't he? Fortunately, it's not very far.\" Calling Iori to him, he gave him directions. \"Go along this river to the first crossroads, then go left and up the hill. When you get to a place where three roads come together, you'll see a pair of large pine trees off to your right. The house is to the left, across the road.\"\n\n\"And watch out you don't get possessed by a fox again,\" added Otsū.\n\nIori had regained his confidence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Thanks,\" he called back, already running along the river. When he reached the crossroads, he half turned and shouted, \"To the left here?\"\n\n\"That's it,\" answered Hyōgo. \"The road's dark, so be careful.\" He and Otsū stood watching from the bridge for a minute or two." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What a strange child,\" he said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Yes, but he seems rather bright.\" In her mind she was comparing him with Jōtarō, who had been only a little bigger than Iori when she had last seen him. Jōtarō, she reflected, must be seventeen now. She wondered what he was like and felt an inevitable pang of yearning for Musashi. So many years since she'd had any word of him!" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Though now accustomed to living with the suffering that love entails, she dared hope that leaving Edo might bring her closer to him, that she might even meet him somewhere along the road." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Let's get on,\" Hyōgo said brusquely, to himself as much as to Otsū. \"There's nothing to be done about tonight, but we'll have to be careful not to waste any more time.\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Write 2 sentences like Eiji Yoshikawa would, using user's text as beginning" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The light of the evening sun, reflected from the river, danced on Matahachi's face, making it seem bathed in tears." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He was deaf to the bustle of traffic moving along the street." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Akemi was walking slowly down by the river. He started after her, waving his arms and shouting." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Kōetsu and Gonnosuke followed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Matahachi, where are you going?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He had forgotten all about the two men. He stopped and waited for them to catch up." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'm sorry,\" he mumbled. \"To tell the truth... \" Truth?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "How could he explain to them what he was going to do when he couldn't explain it to himself?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Sorting out his emotions was beyond him at the moment, but finally he blurted out, \"I've decided not to be a priest—to return to ordinary life. I haven't been ordained yet.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Returning to ordinary life?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "exclaimed Kōetsu. \"So suddenly? Hmm. You look strange.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I can't explain it now. Even if I did, it'd probably sound crazy. I just saw the woman I used to live with. And she's carrying a baby on her back. I think it must be mine.\"\n\n\"Are you sure?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Yes, well... \"\n\n\"Now calm down and think. Is it really your child?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Yes! I'm a father!... I'm sorry. I didn't know... I'm ashamed. I can't let her go through life like that—selling things out of a basket like a common tramp. I've got to go to work and help my child.\"\n\nKōetsu and Gonnosuke looked at each other in dismay." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Though not quite sure whether Matahachi was still in his right mind, Kōetsu said, \"I suppose you know what you're doing.\"\n\nMatahachi took off the priest's robe covering his ordinary kimono and handed it to Kōetsu, together with his prayer beads." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'm sorry to trouble you, but will you give these to Gudō at the Myōshinji? I'd appreciate it if you'd tell him I'm going to stay here in Osaka, get a job and be a good father.\"\n\n\"Are you sure you want to do this? Give up the priesthood, just like that?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yes. Anyway, the master told me I could go back to ordinary life anytime I wanted to.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Hmm.\"\n\n\"He said you don't have to be in a temple to practice religious discipline. It's more difficult, but he said it's more praiseworthy to be able to control yourself and keep your faith in the midst of lies and filth and conflict—all the ugly things in the outside world—than in the clean, pure surroundings of a temple.\"" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 3 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'm sure he's right.\"\n\n\"I've been with him more than a year now, but he hasn't given me a priestly name. Always just calls me Matahachi. Maybe something'll come up in the future I don't understand. Then I'll go to him immediately. Tell him that for me, won't you?\"\n\nAnd with that, Matahachi was gone." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "keep the story goin for like 3 sentences more. make it historical fiction, Japan, adventure-y and Katherine M. Lawrence-esque" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Plots can sprout suddenly. Like all truly great opportunities, they come to life without warning. This one came two days earlier, when the Taka traitor's spies reported that Yamabuki was about to ride out, unaccompanied, heading for Heian-kyō, carrying two mysterious communiqués." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The traitor, who went by an alias, Yo‑aki, which means \"Strange Mystic,\" was one of the few who knew about the dispatches, but he did not know the specifics of the messages. In fact he had absolutely no idea of what they contained, and this bothered him greatly, for until that morning he had not been informed even of their existence. Had he fallen out of favor?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The messages were in the form of sealed scrolls and they were handed directly from the mother and the father, respectively, to their daughter, and as far as Yo‑aki could tell, from then on they were never out of Yamabuki's reach." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Yo‑aki's master plan came to him in a flash. Not only would he get access to the scrolls by intercepting them, but he would also eliminate Yamabuki in a fell swoop. The scrolls were perhaps ultimately worthless." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In any case, his curiosity would be satisfied. More important, Yamabuki would be eliminated.\n\nYo‑aki never used intermediaries when he hired assassins." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Mindful of the threat from counterspies, he met assassins personally, even though it exposed him to some danger." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ninja, not the most honorable people, might for various reasons make their own attempts on Yo‑aki, but master swordsman that he was, he was likely better at killing than any of them were.\n\nIn fact, Yo‑aki could have dispensed with assassins altogether and simply killed Yamabuki straightaway and practically at any time. He could have easily strangled her in her infancy, smothering her and then made it look like she had simply died in her sleep, just as her older brothers had." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He was good at killing in a way that left no marks.\n\nHowever, Yamabuki had never been the slightest threat to his plans, that is, until recently. Though it was clear that she had to die, she could not be allowed to fall under anyone's sword within the compound." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Nothing that could in any way be linked back to him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She also could not even suddenly somehow fall sick, likely along with her food taster, and die unexpectedly of some mysterious ailment." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "That would not at all have suited Yo‑aki's purposes. The deed had to be done by others and it had to happen far away from the Taka compound. Yamabuki, along with the scrolls, had to basically vanish and her body never found." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Confusion as to her whereabouts, and swirling questions as to whether she was alive or dead, would suit Yo‑aki's machinations." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 1 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And thus began Yo‑aki's race by fast kago to the headwaters of the River of Forty Thousand Sands, to find a man known simply as Saburo, reputedly one of the most accomplished assassins in the Empire." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Task: The user will write a bit then you need to write around 5 sentences continuing directly from the user's text.\n\nAuthor style: Katherine M. Lawrence" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Tetsu, a shout boat's senchou, sat completely relaxed on the gangway that led to a particularly sturdy-looking kobune. Saburo strode up to the captain, and without so much as an exchange of words, thrust something into the captain's hand.\n\nThe senchou looked at what he had been given. Six kaiki shoho rested in his calloused hand. A slight grin came to his lips." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Silently he mouthed, Gold." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His eyes shot up, and he carefully studied the simply dressed man who had just given him several times more money than Tetsu would have made in a good month.\n\nSaburo muttered, \"Leave now. Just me... and make all speed.\"\n\nTetsu casually turned his head to look west. The sky was darkening. He looked to the eastern horizon and the bright cloudless sea." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The ōgane continued to toll." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He slowly shook his head.\n\nSaburo added quietly, \"If you make extra speed, I'll double it... when we get there, that is.\"\n\n\"Hm,\" Tetsu sighed. Merely an advance for a half-hour dash across the Barrier Strait. Indeed, if they left now, they just might well get the boat across before the storm hit.\n\nFingering the money, this time he nodded and almost absentmindedly slipped the gold into his sleeve pocket." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Tetsu indicated the gangplank.\n\nSaburo boarded at once.\n\nTetsu then screwed his face into a scowl, almost bolting up, now glaring at the waiting crowd, and bellowed, \"No room! Go elsewhere!\"\n\nA collective gasp arose from the passengers. He waved them away." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We're casting off! We're heading out!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The crew, also dumbfounded, looked at the senchou." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Tetsu pointed to his own sleeve pocket, where he always kept passengers' payments, and nodded hard. He then gestured toward the incoming front.\n\nThe crew, getting his drift, immediately joined in, waving their arms as if they were chasing off flies. \"Next boat! Go away! We're casting off! We're heading out!\"\n\nThe other boatmen had seen nothing like it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They craned their necks as the lone passenger sat down near the bow of the shout." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 3 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "What could possibly motivate the senchou to take his craft across the Barrier when there was the possibility of a gale? A few of the most seasoned captains shook their heads. They had seen skies just like this before, and they murmured a prophecy: Look long and hard, for we shall never see that boat or its crew again." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "three sentences sentences. historical fiction, Japan, adventure stuff." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The crossing started off smoothly enough, but no sooner had the boat moved into the Strait's more open waters than the seas grew rough as intermittent gusts buffeted the craft. Almost at once, high clouds roiled over the far hills. It was only then that the boatmen fathomed what the priests saw from their hilltop temples." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Rapidly the blue western sky disappeared behind a thick cloak so dark that the west was almost night itself." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Cold rain started to fall." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As the wind picked up, it drove salty drizzle and spray ahead of it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "If Tetsu harbored any doubts, he hid them down deep with the gold buried in his sleeve." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In an almost brazen show of defiance, the captain now commanded his men to run up both of the shout's sails.\n\n\"Let's make speed. We have to be across before the storm hits,\" the senchou yelled to his men.\n\nHis crew, seemingly bolstered by their captain's confidence, pretended to be indifferent to the undulating sea as the shout picked up speed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was the obvious thing to do: Outrun the incoming troughs. After all, far away, the Windward Sea in the east shone silvery and bright, almost placid. There was fair weather in the area if one only knew how to reach it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Darkness quickly closed in overhead. The waters turned gray—all except the whitecaps that rose under a hard westerly wind.\n\n\"The sails are working against us!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "the sail man cried out as he wrestled with the mast and cloth." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 4 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We're getting nowhere!\" the rope man strove to be heard over the sound of the waves.\n\n\"If we use kyōfū to blow us down the channel instead of fighting the crosswind, we'll have all the speed we can take!\" the sail man shouted.\n\nThe senchou shoved the tiller over, hard, turning the boat toward the east." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Expand the story by adding seven sentences in the historical fiction, Japan, adventure genre." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Saburo hurriedly shaved his beard and moustache, and trimmed his wild mane before rinsing away the remnants of the lampblack-and-lard compound that the morning's rains had not already washed out." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Even after applying a \"special oil\" that he carried with him specifically for removing the coloring, his hair still held a dark, silver-gray cast instead of its natural pure white. Nevertheless, towel dried, oiled, and combed, his fresh hair gave him a distinguished look. Almost regal.\n\nHe emerged from the armor shop wearing the all-black yoroi with the well-sharpened personal sword in its black scabbard tucked into his sash. He had also obtained a set of straw boots, a straw rain cloak, and straw umbrella hat—the clothing of a traveling warrior—thrown in for another piece of silver.\n\nHe regretted that there were no riding horses available in Akamagaseki, but he did not regret taking the time to put on a new disguise. Only those with the most sensitive discernment would ever have suspected that he was the same man who, within the same hour, had entered the town, looking like a hapless, disheveled, and lowly crab fisherman.\n\nHe now blended in as a typical warrior on his way home to Sagami Prefecture, home of the Hayakawa, which was in the same direction that Yamabuki traveled." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It helped that Saburo been to Sagami." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was what had first attracted him to the armor, for he knew enough of the province so that if he were questioned at any of the Prefecture crossings, he would have a solid story. A perfect guise to travel.\n\nAlso, with his hair back to its natural silver and his beard shaved, he looked nothing like the crabber he had made himself out to be that morning. And the eye patch. Always good! It's what people saw first and remembered the most, forgetting the details of the rest.\n\nBut for all his nobility, as Saburo headed along the street he had to step around an assortment of animal manure and human excrement piles typical of all cities and settlements—even in the capital. He casually tossed the tattered eye patch into one particularly fresh heap." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 8 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The man was still tying his pants up as Saburo walked by.\n\nWithout the patch, Saburo's depth perception returned.\n\nYamabuki certainly would not recognize him now. But she had a significant head start. Hopefully, his two accomplices had already killed her. Nevertheless, he had to hurry.\n\nHe started walking at a brisk pace. Yes. It would all be good." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Mode:\nCo-writing\n\nLength:\neight sentences\n\nStyle:\nKatherine M. Lawrence\nGenre:\nhistorical fiction, Japan, adventure" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Yamabuki rode for some time up the mountain highway toward the Pass of the Setting Sun. She looked behind, hoping from this elevation to glimpse the Isle of Unknown Fires across the faraway Strait, but storm clouds crept through the valley below, shrouding everything.\n\nAlthough she was alone on the road, everywhere the terraced fields swarmed with farmers at work. She pulled back Mochizuki's reins. He snorted to a stop. She patted his mane, letting him rest and drink from a clear water rill. The trickle fed one of the rice basins near the road. Between lapping the water, he proceeded to rip a few tender green grasses that had sprung up near the runoff." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Not much is it? Sorry.\" Though Mochizuki was well fed while stabled at the Wakatake Inn, she had been wise to also feed him just before crossing the Strait, and once again after they arrived in Akamagaseki. They were on the move and he was always hungry. His teeth tore at the meagre shoots. His chewing started her stomach to growl. She unstoppered her bamboo canteen and drained down the last of her saké.\n\nLooking out across the rice basins, the day's events ran through her mind. She was hardly more than ten days from home and she had killed. Men had died." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It still did not seem completely real." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Yet nothing could be more real: The fresh cut to her cheek that still oozed blood." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The gash across her corselet. The fencing master's blood spattered all over her. Her scored blade edge.\n\nIs this what being a warrior means? But it was exactly as her mother had prophesized. She was alone in her thoughts and had no one to talk to about the emotional cost of killing.\n\nShe watched the farmers going about their work, oblivious to her. She might as well have been a cloud drifting by." }, { "from": "human", "value": "No matter what happened, the farmers always worked on, through floods, droughts, blight, heat, and cold." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Like soldiers, they did what it was given to them to do." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Back down the road, the five traveling farmers certainly had not asked what had led up to the duel. All they wanted was to get away. What happened in the day-to-day lives of the buke did not matter to them.\n\nLikewise, the rulers did not care about the farmers so long as the rice crop was plentiful and the rice tax was paid.\n\nThe farmers worked the dried-mud basins, which had not been touched since last year's harvest. They beat the hardpan with staves, turning the drudgery into a celebration called ta no kami matsuri, the rite of soil breaking. The goal was to re-soften the earth to make it ready for re-flooding, to be followed by the planting of young rice shoots, just in time for the Plum Rains hardly a month away.\n\nThe farmers meticulously pounded the caked clumps of dirt, their staves striking the soil to a rhythm that merged into a collective thub-thub-thub pulse." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Hear that, Mochizuki?\" She smiled." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Even when they pound the dirt, they turn it into music.\"\n\nAnd though most of the farmers were working the soil within the shadow of levee walls, some placed large sunflower stalks bundled together, standing as tall as a man, to guard each field corner. Others danced on top of the embankments. Hands moving. Imploring. She clearly heard the words of their song sung in the local midlander dialect. Would that the Gods of Harm and Misfortune please move on to plague some other fields! Some other settlement! Some other place. Please, bad luck, go to another place to bring woe!\n\nThen the melody changed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The thumping mixed with voices of a melancholy workers' song—happy, yet with an air of lament borne out of resignation." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Rise and rise and rise and fall," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Do not cry,\n\nThe mountains surround us,\n\nThe sun ascends,\n\nAs we toil at the soil.\n\nDance and dance and dance and fall,\n\nCarry your crying child to bed,\n\nAre the stars fireflies,\n\nThe gleaming tears at night-fall?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hush now for tomorrow we rise to toil yet again." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The song was strangely soothing. And though the singers were but commoners, Yamabuki was swept up in its spell. She grasped that she shared karma with them—with all living things. As the song suggested, one's work was something that had to be endured until destiny ran its course. Swinging a stave, swinging a sword, it was all the same: theirs as workers of the soil, hers as a bushi. The things of life were not just done once.\n\nIndeed, her travails were not over, at least not if she heeded the fencing master's words. Before their blades ever crossed, he said there would be more ninja." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Maybe he was merely trying to unnerve her, but he predicted they would keep coming until they had the dispatches she carried.\n\nStrange.\n\nThey kept talking about two scrolls when in fact she carried three. How was it that they did not know about the third scroll? And which one was the third scroll?\n\nShe shook her head, feeling dazed—she supposed, in part, because the wine had gone straight to her head. She did not like it that her senses were affected.\n\nIf there are other assassins, I have to keep my head clear." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She had only eaten a handful of cold mochi gome since arriving on the Main Isle." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The sticky, cold rice in Akamagaseki and the five oysters prior to boarding the shout boat were all she had eaten since leaving the Wakatake Inn. Not all that much. She should have eaten more that morning, but prior to the crossing she had been too excited to have much of an appetite.\n\nInnkeeper Inu had prepared some raw buri preserved in rice, likely the last fish she would taste for some time. She dug into her saddlebag, where she found the yellowtail. Inu had pressed the morsel into her hand as she had mounted up to leave, and said to her, \"Your favorite,\" and suggested she save it for an evening celebration after her first day on the Main Isle.\n\nShe would not wait until evening. I'm still alive. That's worth celebrating." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As she began to chew, the taste told her that the fish was already going bad." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was marginal at best, but she needed to clear her head and needed the food to overcome her dizziness. She forced it down.\n\nShe looked at the distant mountain range. She was headed inland and any fish she would eat there would make what she just ate seem like a delicacy.\n\nShe estimated Heian-kyō lay another eighteen days ahead. She was already two days ahead of schedule. If she cut another two days off this part of the journey, she would arrive at the Taka Palace just that much sooner with the dispatches.\n\nShe always carried them either in her saddlebag or on her person." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And last night, when Ryuma came to her bedchamber, the scrolls were just in reach, same as her sword. Certainly Ryuma and she had other things on their minds in the darkness of the chamber.\n\nBut there had been an odd occurrence just prior to that which Yamabuki had dismissed at the time, but which no longer seemed so random: A man traveling by kago arrived long after dark, though she could not see him clearly from her window. The kago carriers practically demanded that they be allowed to enter the inn. Inu had told them the inn was full for the night. Only after Ryuma all but dismissed them in his manly samurai voice did the kago and its passenger depart.\n\nWho was this stranger who demanded entrance? What did he really want?" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "im ur writing buddy. i set scene, u do 4 sentences like Katherine M. Lawrence" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Riding toward the armorer's, Yamabuki noticed two young women. They stood near the front of a building that flew a rustic, dark-green banner with a calligraphy, which even the illiterate could read: saké.\n\nBoth women held three-stringed musical instruments, some sort of local versions of the samisen. They hummed as they plucked out an unfamiliar tune." }, { "from": "human", "value": "There's no one nearby." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Who are they playing for?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The women appeared quite pretty, wearing the tunics of the Ancient Religion, the Jingi Faith, whose female practitioners were fast fading away. The two women had taken the time to brush their hair and tie their tresses with colorful ribbons which peeked from bright, hood-like scarves that were draped over their shoulders. They wore leggings and half cloaks made of bear fur, like the people of the Barbarian Isle.\n\nThe two women looked up from their music and beamed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They are wearing make-up." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Entertainers in a town as small as this? How can they make a living just by singing?\n\nAs Yamabuki rode closer, she realized exactly how the two women made their living. They were yahochi. Though carefully costumed, the cut of their upper bodices revealed more womanliness than any holy woman would allow herself." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Shamanesses fallen on hard times, they would smile and sing to help men pass the night." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "What better place to ply their trade than where lonely men flocked to grow drunk, happy, and brave?\n\nShe saw from their surprise that only now did the two women grasp that the samurai was female. One of the two entertainers, with flagging interest, looked away. It was unlikely that a female warrior would want to share a bed with either of the young women." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Nevertheless, the other of the two continued smiling, holding Yamabuki's eyes for just a bit longer." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Perhaps for her it did not matter whether a patron was a woman, so long as there was money to be made. She might even have had that leaning. But when the second girl finally noticed Yamabuki's bleeding cheek, torn armor, and blood-spattered riding-skirt, she instantly lowered her gaze and turned her head toward the strings of the samisen, mimicking that she had returned to rehearsing. However, though she plucked the strings, she no longer hummed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Ledge Road?\" Yamabuki asked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The second woman suddenly looked back up and stammered, \"A cursed road. You're in danger.\" She looked back down. \"You'll meet the undead.\"\n\nWithout another word, the two women hurried into the saké establishment." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Yamabuki rode on, releasing her own thoughts of carnal love to purge the darkness the shamaness had untethered." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Yamabuki's thoughts wandered back to the Inn of Young Bamboo the previous evening. She pictured herself in the bedchamber, Ryuma's body over hers, his arms enfolding her. The throes of passion. She could almost smell the room, and definitely she recalled Ryuma's scent for it still lingered on her, but so then, too, did the smell of blood from this morning's combat." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Had the yahochi been able to smell it too? Perhaps." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She ran two naked fingers across her cheek. The gash still smarted, but at least it had finally stopped bleeding. It only oozed now. She wiped her fingertips clean by running them over her riding-skirt, leaving blots of whatever that pale liquid was that trickled from healing cuts." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Dirty weather had started to wander into the higher mountains, pushing dark clouds whose color usually portended snow. If it snowed, she could find herself more or less marooned for days in some shack waiting for the weather to clear—an easy mark for assassins. She of course could skirt the pass and take the coastal road, but that route added six days. Even more opportunity for the assassins." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There were those who might have advised Yamabuki to lay out charms and burn special herbs while chanting prayers for good weather.\n\nYamabuki took in a deep breath. No! The snows would come whether she chanted or not. Whatever would happen, would happen." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "The user will write a bit then you need to write around 1 sentence continuing directly from the user's text. Try to mimic the style of Katherine M. Lawrence in the historical fiction, Japan, adventure genre." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Five years earlier, on the first day of the Second Year of Nin-an, the daimyō, Lord Taka, warlord and undisputed ruler of Ō‑Utsumi Prefecture, received a prophecy: His personal astrologer said that the heavens would align on the second-to-last day of Clothes-Layer Month, making it an especially favorable day for the warlord's twelve-year-old daughter and sole surviving child." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "On that day in that month, when the waning moon would shrink to but a shard, it would be the vernal equinox of the lunar year." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The auspiciousness of the first day of the time known as Shunbun came as no surprise, for the daimyō already had been told that the day would be lucky for his daughter." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Earlier he had consulted with Minister-in-Chief Nakagawa, her tutor, and Nakagawa's calculations had already confirmed that that day would be celestially well aspected." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But more importantly, by Lord Taka's personal calculations, the day could be politically useful." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When the daimyō, who sometimes also went by the title General Moroto, asked for a report on the progress of his daughter's studies, Lord Nakagawa said that she was making significant strides." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She was quickly learning the spoken and written language of the Sòng Dynasty." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yamabuki is becoming a promising translator,\" Nakagawa offered." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Her calligraphy is exceptional for a child of twelve.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Fourteen,\" Moroto said softly, \"come the vernal equinox.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Nakagawa raised a brow." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Everyone of importance knew that Yamabuki had gasped her first breath of life inside the Itō Palace in the capital during the Second Year of Kyū-ju, coming into the world just three days before the Dark Moon of the eleventh month, when the nights were the longest and darkest." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Strictly speaking, as of the vernal equinox, it would barely be twelve years and four months since her birth." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Yet, according to the ancient convention, all girls' ages were perfunctorily increased on the vernal equinox, not on the anniversary of their birth." }, { "from": "human", "value": "By counting in this way, Moroto could say that Yamabuki would be thirteen come spring." }, { "from": "human", "value": "And by adding the nominal one year that all children were automatically granted at birth for their time in the womb, her age could be stretched to fourteen." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Moroto interrupted Nakagawa's cogitation." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"How are Yamabuki's sword studies progressing?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"She's an instinctive fighter,\" Nakagawa answered." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Fast reflexes. Focused. Aware of her surroundings. She moves in an almost free-form dance while fighting.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The daimyō nodded. \"I've noticed. That can't be taught. Comes from inside her. She training with sharp steel?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Almost always. She handles a medium sword almost as well as most adults do.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"She ready for long sword?\"" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Nakagawa nodded. \"I doubt she'll hurt herself, or anyone else for that matter. She keeps control. And she's strong. Though at times she's a bit unpredictable.\"\n\nInstead of a disapproving look, the daimyō merely smiled. \"Good.\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "keep the story goin for like 2 sentences more. make it historical fiction, Japan, adventure-y" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A blast of air blew in the night's chill when the entry door opened. Noisy and excited voices accompanied the wind." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They belonged to five men who more or less at once barged in from the street." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They were dressed in dark, nearly black, tunics complete with the insignia of the Ōe clan.\n\nThough Yamabuki looked only from the corners of her eyes, at once she recognized that they were the very same sakimori border guards she had encountered earlier in the day—the very same ones who stood by as Blue Rice died." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Their leader, Misaki, who did the actual killing, was not among them now." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Of course not. Misaki was a lieutenant, and these cretins were dogs—soldiers, if they could even be called that—who did as they were told and who gave men like Misaki someone to order around and domineer.\n\nTheir drinking was already well advanced." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It's cold out there.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We need some saké.\"\n\n\"You're always slow, Unagi. Bring it fast this time.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Long march. Our feet are tired.\"\n\n\"Throw some more wood on the fire.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Wood?\" the proprietor growled. \"Wood's expensive!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Ha!\" one of then scoffed. \"We know it was you who stole the town sign, Unagi.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Huh?\" the proprietor gasped. \"Not me!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "he sniffed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Throw some wood on the fire, or we'll arrest you for taking the sign.\"\n\nThe proprietor seethed, but complied." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The men settled around a table in the middle of the room." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"And while you're at it, bring us saké. We want five bottles!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The last time Yamabuki saw them, they carried polearms. Now it seemed that they had exchanged them for short swords." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Will they recognize me?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was doubtful they would. She had been wearing full battle armor cap-à-pie at the time." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Indeed, they had not looked closely at her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "For the moment, at least, they were more focused on getting their wine than noticing a woman with a sword who was sitting toward the back in half shadow.\n\n\"Unagi!\" one of them insisted as though he were noble." }, { "from": "human", "value": "At that, the proprietor, his face even more dour than before, walked to their table. He glowered." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Unagi, eh? Eel, she thought to herself. Is that his real name or yet another insult?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The men proceeded to boisterously speak a lot of nonsense which she found about as eloquent as dogs barking." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She only took notice when one of them shouted out, \"Unagi? Did you hear about the robbery and murder on the North Road at Akamagaseki?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Unagi grunted. Either he had not heard or was not interested—probably both.\n\n\"We were the first ones there,\" one of them boasted, as if they had done something special." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"They killed two unarmed monks,\" the guard continued." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"An Ōuchi samurai tried to help, but the robbers killed him, too!\"\n\nYamabuki looked down at her cup, though her ears perked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "One of the guards, the one who seemed to have taken on the role of storyteller, turned toward the Gentian Samurai." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What do you think of that! The dead samurai was very famous, too. Everyone knew him,\" he boomed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He screwed his face, trying to remember something. \"What was his name again?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Shima,\" one of his fellows called out." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Shima, the others repeated.\n\n\"Shima Sa‑me,\" one of them added." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Right! Shima Sa‑me. A man with a sword twice as long as any man would dare carry.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"A nodachi—two sword-lengths long.\"\n\n\"And heavy,\" said another of the number." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"He was the fencing master to the Ōuchi clan.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Pah!\" one of them grunted, dismissing the Ōuchi, the Ōe's sometime enemy.\n\n\"I heard he was told to leave by the new Ōuchi daimyō.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"His teaching was too harsh,\" one of them laughed with contempt." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Tell them about the robbers,\" urged the third." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Emptied their money pouches—turned them inside out. Left the bodies to rot in the road. Can you believe the heartlessness of some people? Killing holy men. Young and innocent ones at that.\"\n\nAll the other sakimori grunted in agreement." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "First on the scene? Not if the dead were robbed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Of course, these men might have done the robbing themselves." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They certainly were spending money quickly.\n\n\"We saw the three of them headed up the North Road more or less together,\" the first guard said to Unagi, who kept going on about his business, all but ignoring them." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The fabric merchants and the Taka samurai weren't bothered.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"And that Taka girl with the fancy horse was lucky. She didn't get mixed up in it.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The girl?\" One of them laughed wickedly. The others joined in." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"She probably rode away. She was mounted.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'd mount her!\" another chuckled and the table erupted in lewd sounds. One of the others made mocking womanly gasps." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His imitation was not meant to be accurate and thus the men chuckled all the harder." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I can't imagine riding a woman wrapped in all that iron.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Take all that fancy armor off and it's all the same,\" said the first man." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The others laughed uproariously." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Yamabuki, eyes slits, looked down, staring into her bowl. She slowly poured the last of her third flask into her cup." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She motioned for Unagi to bring her another." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "No sooner was the fourth flask sitting on her table than, grinning ear to ear, the first of the sakimori approached her. She looked up, noticing he ambled unsteadily." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Can't hold his wine." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You're new to Minezaki, eh? Working for Kōno, I see.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He gestured toward her kimono." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You stay here for long, you'll get to know us. Everyone knows us, right!\" He turned to look back at his fellows and guffawed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They joined in with merry agreement." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Yes. Get to know us well. Yes?\"\n\nShe did not answer." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Her face showing no expression, she lifted her gaze and met his bloodshot eyes straight on." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The man had the eyes of a fool.\n\nShe looked back at her cup." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Why don't you smile, Saké House Girl?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Saké House Girl, is it?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She did not look up. \"Why do you care?\" she muttered." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"A girl such as yourself. Alone. I'll tell you what. We'll buy you saké—all the saké you want and then maybe we can all have some fun?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She looked up and shook her head slowly, and looked back down at her cup. \"I buy my own saké.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Ha! Lots of money, eh? Must have been a pretty good night for you so far. Must have had a lot of it. But we can give you more.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He guffawed again, and then regained his composure." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Come join me and my friends,\" he said through smiling teeth." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I am planted where I am,\" she answered in a whisper through clamped teeth.\n\n\"Not without this,\" he laughed drunkenly and reached for her saké bottle." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His hand was almost to the bottle's neck when suddenly Tiger Cub's scabbard came to rest on top of his wrist—not hard, but firm.\n\nHer expression stone, she said, \"That does not belong to you.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The man's mirth instantly evaporated." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His eyes flashed—a mixture of mostly surprise and a bit of anger at the supposed affront.\n\nIt was only an instant, but she recalled the keen eyes of Shima, Akibō, and Iebō—men who had killed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Expressions that gave away nothing during combat." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "This dog's eyes were nothing like that even as he tried to appear cross with her.\n\nHe might have walked away at that point—though probably not—were it not for his fellows who started to chuckle and make noises." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He had now lost face and lost it to a woman no less." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His jaw set. His mouth drew into a line. His eyes darted. He jerked his hand out from under the scabbard and again reached for the neck of the flask." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Before his fingers could seize it, she rapped his knuckles with the scabbard.\n\nHe let out a yowl as he took a half step back, waving his arm to shake off the stinging." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His disbelief hardened into anger." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Yahochi!\" He spat the word.\n\n\"You dare call me that!\" she snarled." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He started to repeat the insult." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Yaho—\" only he could not finish as her scabbard squarely landed against the side of his jaw. He wobbled and fell to the floor, where he lay without moving." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A hush descended over the room." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Unagi looked aghast. The Gentian Samurai looked quite amused.\n\nHer fourth saké bottle lay on its side." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The only sound now was the sound of the saké escaping to the floor. Blub-blub-blub." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Humph. You spilled my saké,\" she said softly with annoyance.\n\nThe remaining four sakimori stood up one by one. Faces twisted. Sneering." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You've killed him!\" snapped the one closest to Yamabuki." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Hardly. Look closer,\" she said dryly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Not satisfied, one of the guard went for his sword hilt." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Yamabuki bolted up from the bench and stepped toward him, and before he could pull his weapon, she delivered a solid blow with her scabbard to the wrist of his sword hand. The sound of the breaking bone filled the room." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It sickened everyone, even her.\n\nHe screamed, \"My wrist!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The remaining three men looked to one another, obviously uncertain as to what they should do next." }, { "from": "human", "value": "One of them, who showed more anger than sense, started toward her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He also went for his sword. As he did, his body turned slightly from right to left, whereupon Yamabuki's scabbard found his right collarbone." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Another cracking sound. Another shriek." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The two screaming, injured men staggered toward the door of the saké house, leaving two men standing, frozen, the fifth unconscious on the floor.\n\n\"Get your friend and get out of here,\" she growled." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They quickly bowed to her, lifted their unconscious compatriot's shoulders, and hurried on, dragging him out the door, his heels scraping along the boards behind them." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Too much saké and too much tongue,\" she muttered. \"They could not have picked a worse day.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She looked over at the Gentian Samurai, who had sat motionless with the same amused smile frozen on his lips, but now, in addition, his eyes twinkled." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He lifted his saké flask up as if in salute.\n\n\"Well,\" she said aloud." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Looks like those fellows left their saké unfinished. And they ruined my meditation.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She stepped toward the now empty table with its five saké bottles." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I noticed that this one's full,\" she said out loud to no one in particular as she made a slight gesture toward her mouth with her left forefinger and grimaced. \"I think his mouth did not touch it. I shall have to take my musing elsewhere.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Unagi blanched, bowed quickly, but said nothing." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The Gentian Samurai whispered softly in the tongue of the Sòng Dynasty, The scent of saké.\n\nJade cups." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Amber light." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Yamabuki looked directly at him, smiling darkly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Educated. More than just a pretty face with a sword. She finished the poem in the language of the Autumn Creek Land." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The attendant plies us with drink." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "So that we can forget home.\n\nShe picked up the bottle in question, took a deep drink, set it back down, and walked into the street, where it was colder and darker, if that was possible, than when she had arrived." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Brazier in one hand, she started for the armory." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Footsteps approached quickly from behind.\n\nThe sakimori? They haven't had enough?" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Provide 3 sentences as a continuation in the historical fiction, Japan, adventure genre." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She stepped into the night, where the cold mountain air revived her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was dark. The chill cut through her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She shivered despite her resolve to hide her discomfort. Snow started to fall—tiny flakes smaller than sand, the kind that quickly piled up.\n\nShe watched her breath steam as she headed down the quiet lane toward the armory, her arms crossed over her chest and tucked into the kimono sleeves for warmth, her fingers touching the three scrolls and her dagger." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She thought of Blue Rice, who that morning had carried his saké in his sleeve in much the same manner." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She asked herself, if these same events had happened the night before, would she would have reacted in the same way as she just had? Not just at the House of Red Banners, but also with the five guards. Perhaps not, but that was yesterday." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Tonight was she so full of saké that she felt it necessary to break their bones? Was it that she was tired? Or angry? Or was it that compared to the morning's killings, this was a small matter that had to be settled then and there or the louts might have come back for more?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "After the duel at the Shintō shrine, she had looked at her eyes' reflection in her blade." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She had convinced herself that her she had not changed, and yet Yoshinaka claimed that he could see she had killed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And if he didn't see it in her eyes, then he saw it in her actions. Was there any difference in how he knew? She was revealing it without thinking." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She looked up and down the empty streets wondering if any of the sakimori might indeed be lurking somewhere, waiting for the chance to have another go after all. Maybe they would bring lieutenant Misaki with them.\n\nThen I'll settle some scores." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She sensed that she smiled wickedly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But if that is what she hoped, she was disappointed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Not so much as a dog nor a fox yelped." }, { "from": "human", "value": "When she arrived at the main armory building, she noticed that light leaked from the cracks in its shuttered windows and doors." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Someone surely was working into the night." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She walked along, leaving tracks in the fresh snow." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She continued on around and entered the guest quarters, knocking her boots to get the slush off." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Thankfully a small lamp burned inside the entryway, lighting the two steps into the chamber where she was to sleep.\n\nBy the light of the brazier, she sat before the little, polished steel mirror on the low stand. She looked at her face and at her white make-up." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She considered the five sakimori." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They did not recognize me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A pinewood bucket with fresh water had been placed next to the stand. With a small damp towel, she removed the rice-white make-up. The singular smell of the wet rice filled the room." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 4 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She dried her face, then brushed her wet tresses. Tangled. Life on the road had its share of hardships, but it was not as if she hadn't been warned. Her mother had warned her about everything, even what would happen if Yamabuki found herself embroiled in combat.\n\nLady Taka had said, before Yamabuki set out, \"Because blossoms are beautiful, there are those who will seek to tear them off their branches.\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Continue with the same vibes" }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was already close to midnight." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Kochiku, who was a sickly baby, was suffering from some childhood illness and had been crying almost incessantly. He was lying on bed of straw and had finally stopped nursing.\n\n\"If you get up, you'll freeze, it's so cold,\" Otsumi said to her mother. \"Go to sleep.\"\n\n\"How can I, when your father isn't home yet?\"\n\nOnaka got up, and she and Otsumi sat by the hearth, working diligently on handiwork left unfinished that evening." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What's he doing? Isn't he coming back again tonight?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Well, it is New Year's.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"But no one in this house—and especially you—has celebrated it with so much as a single millet cake. And all the time we have to work in the cold like this.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Well, men have their own pastimes.\"\n\n\"Although we go on calling him master, he doesn't work. He only drinks sake. When he does come home, he abuses you all the time. It makes me mad.\"\n\nOtsumi was of an age when a woman would ordinarily go off to get married, but she would not leave her mother's side. She knew about their money problems, and not even in her dreams did she think of rouge and powder, much less of a New Year's dress.\n\n\"Please don't talk like that,\" Onaka said in tears." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Your father isn't reliable, but Hiyoshi will become respectable someday. We'll get you married to a good man, although you can't say your mother has picked her own husbands well.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Mother, I don't want to get married. I want to stay with you forever.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"A woman shouldn't have to live like that. Chikuami doesn't know it, but when Yaemon was crippled, we put aside a string of coins from the money we received from his lord, thinking that it would be enough for your marriage. And I've collected more than seven bales of waste silk to weave a kimono for you.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Mother, I think someone's coming.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Your father?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Otsumi stretched her neck to see who it was. \"No.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Who then?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I don't know. Be quiet.\" Otsumi swallowed hard, suddenly feeling uneasy.\n\n\"Mother, are you there?\" Hiyoshi called out of the darkness. He stood stock-still, making no move to step up into the other room." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Hiyoshi?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Uh-huh.\"\n\n\"At this time of night?\"\n\n\"I was dismissed from the pottery shop.\"\n\n\"Dismissed?\"\n\n\"Forgive me. Please, Mother, forgive me,\" he sobbed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Onaka and Otsumi nearly tripped over their feet in their haste to greet him.\n\n\"What will you do now?\" Onaka asked. \"Don't just stand there like that, come inside.\" She took Hiyoshi's hand, but he shook his head.\n\n\"No, I have to go soon. If I spend even a single night in this house, I won't want to leave you again.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Although Onaka did not want Hiyoshi to come back to this poverty-stricken house, she could not bear to think of him going right back out into the night." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her eyes opened wide. \"Where are you going?\" she asked.\n\n\"I don't know, but this time I'll serve a samurai. Then I'll be able to set both of your minds at rest.\"\n\n\"Serve a samurai?\" Onaka whispered.\n\n\"You said you didn't want me to become a samurai, but that's what I really want to do. My uncle at Yabuyama said the same thing. He said now's the time.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Well, you should talk this over with your stepfather too.\"\n\n\"I don't want to see him,\" Hiyoshi said, shaking his head. \"You should forget about me for the next ten years. Sis, it's no good for you not to get married. But be patient, all right? When I become a great man, I'll clothe our mother in silk, and buy you a sash of patterned satin for your wedding.\"\n\nBoth women were weeping because Hiyoshi had grown up enough to say such things. Their hearts were like lakes of tears in which their bodies would drown." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Mother, here are the two measures of salt the pottery shop paid me. I earned it by working for two years. Sis, put it in the kitchen.\" Hiyoshi put down the bag of salt.\n\n\"Thank you,\" said his mother, bowing to the bag. \"This is salt you've earned by going out into the world for the first time.\"\n\nHiyoshi was satisfied. Looking at the happy face of his mother, he was so happy himself that he felt as if he were floating." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He swore he would make her even happier in the future. So that's it! This is my family's salt, Hiyoshi thought. No, not just my family's, but the village's. No, better yet, it's the salt of the realm.\n\n\"I guess it'll be quite a while before I'm back,\" Hiyoshi said, backing toward the outer door, but his eyes did not move from Onaka and Otsumi." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He already had one foot out the door when Otsumi suddenly leaned forward and said, \"Wait, Hiyoshi! Wait.\" She then turned to her mother. \"The string of money you just told me about. I don't need it. I don't want to get married, so please give it to Hiyoshi.\"\n\nStifling a sob in her sleeve, Onaka fetched the string of coins and handed them to Hiyoshi, who looked at them and said, \"No, I don't need them.\" He held the coins out to his mother." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Otsumi, speaking with the compassion of an older sister, asked, \"What are you going to do out in the world without money?\"\n\n\"Mother, rather than this, won't you give me the sword Father carried, the one grandfather had made?\"\n\nHis mother reacted as though she had been struck in the chest. She said, \"Money will keep you alive. Please don't ask for that sword.\"\n\n\"Don't you have it anymore?\" Hiyoshi asked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Ah... no.\" His mother admitted bitterly that it had long since been sold to pay for Chikuami's sake.\n\n\"Well, it doesn't matter. There's still that rusty sword in the storage shed, isn't there?\"\n\n\"Well... if you want that one.\"\n\n\"It's all right if I take it?\" Though he cared about his mother's feelings, Hiyoshi persisted." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He remembered how badly he had wanted the shabby old sword at the age of six, and how he had made his mother cry." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Now she was resigned to the idea of his growing up into what she had prayed he would never become—a samurai.\n\n\"Oh, well, take it. But Hiyoshi, never face another man and draw it from its scabbard. Otsumi, please go get it.\"\n\n\"That's all right. I'll go.\"\n\nHiyoshi ran into the storage shed. He took down the sword from the beam where it hung." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As he tied it to his side, he remembered that six-year-old boy in tears, long years past. In that instant, he felt that he had grown up.\n\n\"Hiyoshi, Mother wants you,\" said Otsumi, looking into the shed.\n\nOnaka had set a candle in the small shrine on the shelf. In a small wooden dish she had put a few grains of millet and a small pile of the salt Hiyoshi had brought." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She joined her hands in prayer." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiyoshi came in, and she told him to sit down." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She took down a razor from the shrine." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiyoshi's eyes opened wide. \"What are you going to do?\" he asked.\n\n\"I'm giving you your coming-of-age ceremony. Though we can't do it formally, we'll celebrate your departure into the world.\"\n\nShe shaved the front of Hiyoshi's head. She then soaked some new straw in water and tied his hair back with it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiyoshi was never to forget this experience. And while the roughness of his mother's hands as they brushed his cheeks and ears saddened him, he was conscious of another feeling. Now I'm like everybody else, he thought. An adult.\n\nHe could hear a stray dog barking. In the darkness of a country at war with itself, it seemed that the only thing that grew greater was the barking of dogs. Hiyoshi went outside." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 6 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Well, I'm off.\" He could say nothing else, not even \"take care of yourselves\"—it stuck in his throat.\n\nHis mother bowed low in front of the shrine. Otsumi, holding the crying Kochiku, came running out after him.\n\n\"Good-bye,\" Hiyoshi said. He did not look back. His figure got smaller and smaller until it disappeared from sight. Perhaps because of the frost, the night was very bright." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "I've got a bit of writer's block. I'm gonna send you something then keep it going 7 sentences at a time, also I'm going for a historical fiction genre." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Nobunaga had three sandal bearers: Matasuke, Ganmaku, and Tokichiro. Though they were servants, they had their own separate quarters and took turns on duty near the garden.\n\n\"Ganmaku, what's the matter?\"\n\nTokichiro and Ganmaku were close friends. Ganmaku was lying under the futon, asleep. He loved nothing better than to sleep and did so at every opportunity.\n\n\"My stomach hurts,\" Ganmaku said from under the futon." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Tokichiro tugged at the edge of the bedding. \"You're lying. Get up. I just got back from town, and I bought something tasty on the way.\"\n\n\"What?\" Ganmaku stuck his head out, but, realizing that he had been tricked, went back under the bedding again.\n\n\"Fool! Don't tease a sick man. Get out of here. You're bothering me.\"\n\n\"Please get up. Matasuke's not here, and there's something I have to ask you.\"\n\nGanmaku got out from under the covers reluctantly. \"Just when a person's sleeping...\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Cursing, he got up and went to rinse his mouth with water that flowed from a spring in the garden." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Tokichiro followed him out." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The cottage was gloomy, but it was hidden in the innermost part of the castle grounds, giving it a commanding view of the castle town, which made the heart feel expansive." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What is it? What do you want to ask me?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It's about last night.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Last night?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You can pretend not to understand, but I know. I think you went to Nagoya.\"\n\n\"Oh, yeah?\"\n\n\"I think you went to spy in the castle, and listened in on a secret conversation between the governor and Shibata Katsuie.\"\n\n\"Shush, Monkey! Watch what you say!\"\n\n\"Well, then, tell me the truth. Don't hold back from a friend. I've known it for a long time, but said nothing and watched you. You're Lord Nobunaga's ninja, aren't you?\"\n\n\"Tokichiro, I'm no match for your eyes. How did you find out?\"\n\n\"Well, we share the same quarters, don't we? Lord Nobunaga is a very important master to me, too. People like me worry about Lord Nobunaga, though we keep it to ourselves.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Is that what you wanted to ask me about?\"\n\n\"Ganmaku, I swear by the gods that I won't tell anyone else.\"\n\nGanmaku stared at Tokichiro. \"Okay, I'll tell you. But it's daytime and we'll be seen. Wait for the right time.\"\n\nLater, Ganmaku told him what was going on in the clan. And, having both understanding and sympathy for his master's predicament, Tokichiro could serve him all the better. But he did not have the slightest misgiving for the future of his young, isolated lord, who was surrounded by such scheming retainers." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Nobuhide's retainers were about to desert Nobunaga, and only Tokichiro, who had been with him for a short time, had any confidence in him.\n\nI wonder how my master is going to get out of this one, Tokichiro thought. Still only a servant, he could only look from afar with devotion.\n\nIt was toward the end of the month. Nobunaga, who usually went out with only a few retainers, unexpectedly called for a horse and rode out of the castle. It was about three leagues from Kiyosu to Moriyama, and he would always gallop there and return before breakfast. But that day, Nobunaga turned his horse east at the crossroads and headed away from Moriyama." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"My lord!\"\n\n\"Where is he going now?\" Surprised and confused, his five or six mounted attendants chased after him. The foot soldiers and sandal bearers were naturally left behind, straggling along the road. Only two of his servants, Ganmaku and Tokichiro, while falling behind, ran on desperately, determined not to lose sight of their master's horse.\n\n\"By the gods! We're in for trouble!\" Tokichiro said. They looked at one another, knowing that they had to keep their wits about them." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "This was because Nobunaga was riding straight for Nagoya Castle—which Ganmaku had told Tokichiro was the center of the plot to replace Nobunaga with his younger brother!\n\nNobunaga, unpredictable as ever, spurred his horse toward a place fraught with danger, where no one knew what might happen. There was no more dangerous course of action, and Ganmaku and Tokichiro were frightened that something might happen to their master.\n\nBut it was Hayashi Sado, governor of Nagoya Castle, and his younger brother who were the most surprised by the unexpected visit. A panicked retainer ran into the room in the keep. \"My lord! My lord! Come quickly! Lord Nobunaga is here!\"\n\n\"What? What are you talking about?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Doubting his own ears, he did not make a move to get up." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It just was not possible." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"He came here with no more than four or five attendants. They suddenly rode in through the main gate. He was laughing out loud about something with his attendants.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Is this true?\"\n\n\"I swear it! Yes!\"\n\n\"Lord Nobunaga, here? What does it mean?\" Sado was losing his head unnecessarily. The color had drained from his face. \"Mimasaka, what do you think he wants?\"\n\n\"Whatever it is, we'd better go and greet him.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yes. Let's hurry!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "As they ran down the main corridor, they could already hear the sound of Nobunaga's vigorous footsteps coming from the entrance." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The brothers stepped to the side and threw themselves to the floor.\n\n\"Ah! Sado and Mimasaka. Are you both well? I was thinking of riding as far as Moriyama, but decided to come to Nagoya for some tea first. All this bowing and scraping is far too serious. Let's forget formality. Quickly, bring me some tea.\" Saying this as he walked past them, he sat down on the platform in the main room of the castle that he knew so well. Then he turned to the retainers who were chasing after him, trying to catch their breath. \"It's hot, eh? Really hot,\" he said, fanning himself through his open collar.\n\nThe tea was brought in, then the cakes, and then the cushions—all out of order because everyone was thrown into such confusion by the unexpected visit. The brothers hastily presented themselves and made their obeisance, unable to ignore the confusion of the maids and retainers, and left their master's presence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It's noon. He must be hungry from his ride. He'll probably order lunch soon. Go to the kitchens and have them prepare a meal.\" While Sado gave orders, Mimasaka tugged at his sleeve and whispered, \"Katsuie wants to see you.\"\n\nHayashi nodded and replied softly, \"I'll come soon. Go on ahead.\"\n\nShibata Katsuie had come to Nagoya Castle earlier that day. He was about to leave after a secret meeting, but the confusion caused by Nobunaga's sudden arrival made it awkward for him to leave. Trapped, he had crawled, shaking, into a secret room. Both men joined him there and breathed a sigh of relief." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"That was unexpected! What a surprise!\" said Sado." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It's typical of him,\" Mimasaka replied. \"You'd go crazy trying to figure out the rules. You never know what he's going to do next! There's nothing worse than the whims of a fool!\"\n\nGlancing toward the room in which Nobunaga was sitting, Shibata Katsuie said, \"That's probably why he got the better of that old fox Saito Dosan.\"\n\n\"Maybe so,\" said Sado.\n\n\"Sado,\" Mimasaka had a grim expression on his face. Looking around, he lowered his voice and said, \"Wouldn't it be best to do it now?\"\n\n\"What do you mean?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"He has come with only five or six attendants, so isn't this what you might call an opportunity sent by the gods?\"\n\n\"To kill him?\"\n\n\"Precisely. While he's eating, we sneak in some good fighters, and when I come out to serve him, I give the signal, and we kill him.\"\n\n\"And if we fail?\" Sado asked.\n\n\"How can we? We'll put men in the garden and the corridors. We might have a few casualties, but if we attack him with all our might...\"\n\n\"What do you think, Sado?\" Mimasaka asked anxiously.\n\nHayashi Sado had his eyes cast straight down, under the intense stares of Katsuie and Mimasaka." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Well. This may be the opportunity we've been waiting for.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Are we agreed?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Looking each other in the eye, the three men had just drawn up their knees." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Just at that moment they heard the sound of energetic footsteps walking along the corridor, and the lacquered door slid open.\n\n\"Oh, you're in here. Hayashi! Mimasaka! I drank the tea and ate the cakes. I'm going back to Kiyosu now!\"\n\nThe men's knees drooped, and the three of them cowered. Suddenly, Nobunaga spotted Shibata Katsuie. \"Hey! Is that you, Katsuie?\" Nobunaga said with a smile over the prostrate form of Katsuie. \"When I arrived, I saw a bay that looked just like the one you ride. So it was yours after all?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Yes... I happened to come by, but as you can see, I'm in my everyday clothes. So I thought that it would be rude of me to appear before you, my lord, and I stayed back here.\"\n\n\"Very good, that's very funny. Look at me. Look how shabby I am.\"\n\n\"Please forgive me, my lord.\"\n\nNobunaga lightly tickled Katsuie's neck with his lacquered fan. \"In the relationship between lord and retainer, it's too standoffish to be so concerned with appearances or to be a slave to etiquette! Formality is for the courtiers in the capital. It's good enough for the Oda clan to be country samurai.\"\n\n\"Yes, my lord.\"\n\n\"What's the matter, Katsuie? You're trembling.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I feel even worse, thinking I may have offended you, my lord.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Ha, ha, ha, ha! I forgive you. Get up. No, wait, wait. The strings of my leather socks are untied. Katsuie, while you're down there, would you tie them?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Of course, my lord.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Sado.\"\n\n\"My lord?\"\n\n\"I disturbed you, didn't I?\"\n\n\"Of course not, my lord.\"\n\n\"It's not just me who might drop in unexpectedly, but also guests from enemy provinces. Be on the alert, you're in charge!\"\n\n\"I'm always on duty, from morning till night.\"\n\n\"Good. I'm glad to have such reliable retainers. But it's not just for me. If you made a mistake, these men would also lose their heads. Katsuie, have you finished?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I've tied them, my lord.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Thank you.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Nobunaga walked away from the three still-prostrate men, went from the central corridor to the entrance by a circuitous route, and left." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Katsuie, Sado, and Mimasaka looked at each other's pale faces, momentarily dazed. But when they came to themselves, they ran frantically after Nobunaga and once again prostrated themselves at the entrance. But Nobunaga could no longer be seen. Only the sound of clattering hooves could be heard on the slope that led to the main gate. The retainers, who were always being left behind, kept close to Nobunaga, trying not to lose him again. But of the servants, only Ganmaku and Tokichiro, though they could not keep up, came up behind.\n\n\"Ganmaku?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yeah?\"" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 3 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It went well, didn't it?\"\n\n\"It did.\" They hurried along behind him, happy to see the figure of their master in front of them. If something had happened, they had agreed to inform Kiyosu Castle by sending a smoke signal from the fire tower, and kill the local guards if they had to." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "keep going for seven sentences more. add these things: samurai, Japan" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Nazuka Castle was a vital point in Nobunaga's defenses, held by one of his kinsmen, Sakuma Daigaku. It was a day in early fall, before dawn, when the men in the castle were awakened by the unexpected arrival of soldiers. They jumped up. Was it the enemy? No, the men were their allies.\n\nIn the mist, a scout yelled out from the watchtower, \"The men of Nagoya are in revolt! Shibata Katsuie has a thousand men, Hayashi Mimasaka over seven hundred!\"\n\nNazuka Castle was shorthanded. Riders rode into the mist to report to Kiyosu." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Nobunaga was still asleep. But when he heard the news, he quickly put on his armor, grabbed a spear, and ran out without a single attendant. And then, ahead of Nobunaga stood a single ordinary soldier waiting with a horse by the Karabashi Gate.\n\n\"Your horse, my lord,\" he said, offering the reins to Nobunaga.\n\nNobunaga's face wore an unusual expression, as though he were surprised that someone had been faster than he. \"Who are you?\" he asked.\n\nRemoving his helmet, the soldier was about to kneel." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Nobunaga was already in the saddle." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"That's not necessary. Who are you?\"\n\n\"Your sandal bearer, Tokichiro.\"\n\n\"Monkey?\" Nobunaga was amazed again. Why was his sandal bearer, whose duties were in the garden, the first to appear ready for battle? His equipment was simple, but he did have a breastplate, shin guards, and a helmet. Nobunaga was delighted by Tokichiro's fighting figure.\n\n\"Are you ready to fight?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Give me the word to follow you, my lord.\"\n\n\"Good! Come along!\"\n\nNobunaga and Tokichiro had gone two or three hundred yards through the thinning morning mist when they heard the roar of twenty, thirty, then fifty mounted men, followed by four or five hundred foot soldiers, turning the mist black. The men at Nazuka had fought desperately. Nobunaga, a single horseman, dashed into the enemy ranks.\n\n\"Who dares raise his hand against me? Here I am, Sado, Mimasaka, Katsuie! How many men do you have? Why did you rebel against me? Come out and fight, man to man!\" The booming of his angry voice silenced the war cries of the rebels." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Traitors! I've come to punish you! Running away is disloyal too!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Mimasaka was so frightened that he fled. Nobunaga's voice pursued him like thunder. Even for these men, on whom Mimasaka counted, Nobunaga was their natural lord. When Nobunaga in person rode among them and spoke to them, they were incapable of turning their spears against him.\n\n\"Wait! Traitor!\" Nobunaga caught up with the fleeing Mimasaka and ran him through with his spear. Shaking off the blood, he turned to Mimasaka's men and proclaimed, \"Even though he struck at his lord, he will never become the ruler of a province. Rather than be the tools of traitors and leave a dishonored name to your children's children, apologize now! Repent!\"\n\nWhen he heard that the left flank of the rebel forces had collapsed and that Mimasaka was dead, Katsuie sought refuge with Nobunaga's mother and brother in Suemori Castle." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Nobunaga's mother cried and trembled when she heard of the defeat of their army; Nobuyuki shuddered. Katsuie, the defeated general of the rebel forces, said, \"It would be best if I renounced the world.\" He shaved his head, took off his armor, and put on the robes of a Buddhist priest. The next day, in the company of Hayashi Sado, and Nobuyuki and his mother, he went to Kiyosu to beg forgiveness for his crimes.\n\nNobunaga's mother's apology was especially effective. Rehearsed by Sado and Katsuie, she begged him to spare the three men. Contrary to their expectations, Nobunaga was not angry." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I forgive them,\" he said simply to his mother, and turning to Katsuie, whose back was soaked with sweat, he continued, \"Priest, why have you shaved your head? What a confused wretch you are!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He gave a forced smile and then spoke sharply to Hayashi Sado." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You too. This is unbecoming for a man of your age. After Hirate Nakatsukasa died, I relied on you as my righthand man. I regret causing Nakatsukasa's death.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Tears came to Nobunaga's eyes and he was silent for a moment." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"No, no. It was because of my unworthiness that Nakatsukasa committed suicide and you turned traitor. From now on, I am going to reflect on things more deeply. And you will serve me, giving me your hearts fully. Otherwise there is no point in being a warrior. Should a samurai follow one lord or be a masterless ronin?\"\n\nHayashi Sado's eyes were opened. He saw what Nobunaga was really like, and finally understood his natural genius. He firmly pledged his loyalty and withdrew without lifting his head.\n\nBut it seemed as though Nobunaga's own brother did not understand this. Nobuyuki had rather a low opinion of Nobunaga's magnanimity and thought, My violent older brother can't do anything to me because my mother's here.\n\nBlind, and protected by a mother's love, Nobuyuki continued his plotting." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Nobunaga deplored this, thinking, I would gladly overlook Nobuyuki's behavior." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But because of him, many of my retainers may rebel and err in their duty as samurai." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Although he is my brother, he must die for the good of the clan." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Finding a pretext, Nobunaga arrested Nobuyuki and ran him through.\n\nNobody considered Nobunaga a fool any longer. On the contrary, everyone crouched in fear of his intelligence and the keenness of his eye.\n\n\"The medicine was a little too effective,\" Nobunaga occasionally remarked with a sardonic grin. But Nobunaga had made his preparations. It had not been his intention to play the fool to deceive his retainers and relatives. With the death of his father, it had become his responsibility to defend the province from enemies on all sides." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He had adopted this camouflage for safety's sake, even to the point of appearing to be a fool." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 3 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He had convinced his relatives and retainers in order to deceive his enemies and their many spies. But all the while, Nobunaga studied human nature and the inner workings of society. Because he was still young, if he had shown himself to be an able ruler, his enemies would have taken countermeasures." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "keep the story goin for like 2 sentences more. make it historical fiction-y" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Tokichiro was happy. All alone, but happy.\n\n\"Monkey!\" Nobunaga said—he still sometimes called him that—\"you've been economical in the kitchen ever since you were put in charge of it. But sticking a man like you there is a waste. I'm promoting you to the stables.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Along with the new assignment came a stipend of thirty kan and a house in the quarter of the castle town set aside for samurai." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "This new favor brought a lingering grin to Tokichiro's face. Almost the first thing he did was visit his former workmate Ganmaku." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Are you free now?\" he said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Why?\"\n\n\"I want to go into town and treat you to some sake.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Well, I don't know.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What's the matter?\"\n\n\"You're a kitchen official now. I'm still nothing but a sandal bearer. You don't want to be seen out drinking with me.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Don't take such a warped view. If I thought that way, I would never have come to ask you. Being in charge of the kitchen was above my status, but the fact is, I've been ordered to the stables at a stipend of thirty kan.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Well!\"\n\n\"I came here because you're a true and loyal servant of His Lordship, even though you're only a sandal bearer. I want you to share this happiness with me.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"This is a matter for congratulations, surely. But, Tokichiro, you're more honest than I am.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Huh?\"\n\n\"You're open with me, concealing nothing, while I've kept a good bit hidden from you. To tell the truth, I sometimes do special services, like that time you know about. For these I receive large bonuses directly from the hand of His Lordship. I send the money secretly to my house.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You have a house?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"If you go to Tsugemura in Omi, you'll see I have a family and about twenty servants.\"\n\n\"Ah, you do?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"So it's not an honorable thing for me to be entertained by you. Anyway, if we both rise in the world, one with the other, we'll both treat and be treated.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I didn't know.\"\n\n\"Our fates lie ahead of us—that's the way I look at it.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You're right, our fates are still ahead of us.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Let's commit ourselves to the future.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Tokichiro felt even happier. The world was bright." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Nothing before his eyes lay in darkness or shadows.\n\nTokichiro took pleasure in realizing that his new position involved a mere thirty kan, but this modest amount bespoke recognition of his two years as an official." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The annual fuel expenditure had been reduced by more than half, but it was more than the reward that made him feel good." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He had been praised: \"You've done good work. A man like you in a place like that is a waste.\" To be spoken to like this by Nobunaga was a joy he would not forget." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Nobunaga was a general, and he knew how to speak to his men." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Filled with admiration for his master, Tokichiro's elation was almost more than he could bear." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Others might have mistaken him for a halfwit as, alone and grinning, his face now and again showing his dimples, he left the castle and roamed around Kiyosu. He was in a good mood when he was walking around town." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The day his duties changed, he was given five days' leave." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He was going to have to arrange for household goods, a housekeeper, and maybe a servant, although he assumed the house he had received was on a back street, had a nondescript gate, a hedge rather than a wall and no more than five rooms." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was the first time he had been the master of a house. He changed direction to go take a look at it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The neighborhood was inhabited solely by men who worked in the stables." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He found the group leader's house and went to pay his respects. He was out, so he spoke with the man's wife." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Are you still single?\" she asked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He admitted that he was." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Well, that's a little inconvenient for you,\" she said. \"I have servants here and extra furniture. Why don't you take what you need?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She is kind, Tokichiro thought as he went out the gate, saying he would probably, one way or another, be relying on her fully." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She herself came outside the gate and called to two of her servants.\n\n\"This is Master Kinoshita Tokichiro, who's just been given duties in the stables. He'll soon be moving into that vacant house with the stand of paulownia. Show him around, and when you have a moment, clean the place up.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Led by the servants, Tokichiro went off to see his official residence." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was bigger than he had imagined." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Standing in front of the gate, he mumbled, \"Well, this is a fine house.\"\n\nOn making inquiries, he found the previous tenant had been a man by the name of Komori Shikibu." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A while had passed, it seemed, and the house was rather in disrepair, but in his eyes it was nothing less than a mansion." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"That stand of paulownia in back is auspicious, because the Kinoshita family crest has been a paulownia since the time of our ancestors,\" Hiyoshi said to the servant." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He wasn't sure this was true, but it sounded right. He thought he had seen such a crest on his father's old armor chest or sword scabbard." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In the mellow mood he was in now, he would warm up to those around him, and if there was nothing of overriding importance, no necessity to have cool nerves, he would give in to his elation and his tendency to be talkative. Still, after the words were out of his mouth, he admonished himself for not being more judicious, not because his words came from ill will or fear, but because he himself did not attach any importance to the matter." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Beyond that, he assumed it would spawn criticism that Monkey was a braggart." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He might admit to himself, It's true; I am a bit of a braggart. Nevertheless, small-hearted, fastidious people who, because of his loquaciousness, harbored misconceptions about him or were prejudiced against him, were never to be his allies during his illustrious career." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Later he was seen in the bustling center of Kiyosu, where he bought furnishings." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Then, at a secondhand clothing shop, he saw a coat, meant to be worn over armor, that bore a white paulownia crest. Tokichiro went straight in to ask the price." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was cheap. He quickly paid for it and just as quickly tried it on." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was a little large, but not unbecomingly so, so he kept it on as he continued on his way." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The blue cotton was thin and rippled in the breeze as he walked and some rich-looking material, like gold brocade, was stitched only into the collar." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He wondered who the wearer had been, the man who had the paulownia crest dyed in white on the back of the garment." }, { "from": "human", "value": "How I'd like to show this to my mother! he thought joyfully." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Right there, in the prosperous part of town, he was assailed by an almost unbearable emotion." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It went back to the pottery shop in Shinkawa. He was forced to recall what a miserable figure he had made, barefoot, pushing the handcart piled high with pottery past the staring men, the beautiful inhabitants of the town." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He stopped by a dry goods store where high-quality woven goods from Kyoto lined the shelves." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Please deliver this without fail,\" he admonished, putting down the money for his purchases.\n\nOutside again, he noted it was always like this: after half a day of leisure, his purse was empty." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Steamed Buns\" proclaimed the magnificent sign with mother-of-pearl letters that hung from the roof at a street corner." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "These buns were a specialty of Kiyosu, in whose crowded shops travelers mingled with the locals.\n\n\"Welcome!\" said a servant girl in a red apron." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Come in. Will you have some here, or buy some to take home?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Tokichiro sat down on a stool and said, \"Both. First I'll have one to eat here. Then I'd like you to deliver a box—and make it a big one—to my house in Nakamura. Ask the packhorse driver when he'll be making a trip up that way. I'll leave a tip to cover that.\"\n\nA man with his back to Tokichiro was hard at work, but he seemed to be the owner of the shop." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Many thanks for your patronage, sir,\" he said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You seem to be doing good business. I was just now asking to have some buns sent to my home.\"\n\n\"Certainly, sir.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It doesn't matter when, but I'll entrust this to you. Would you please put this letter in the box with the buns?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He handed the shopkeeper a letter from his sleeve. On the envelope was written, \"To Mother, Tokichiro.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The shopkeeper took it and asked if it really wasn't urgent." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"No, as I said, it's not. Anytime is all right. Your buns have always been my mother's favorites.\"\n\nWhile he was talking, he took a mouthful, and the taste of the bun brought a flood of memories and, very quickly, tears to his eyes." }, { "from": "human", "value": "These were the buns his mother loved so much." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He recalled the days of his youth, when he had passed by this place, yearning to buy some for her, and craving one for himself so keenly that a hand seemed to be coming out of his throat. In those days he could only push his handcart on with abject patience." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A samurai who had been looking in his direction finished off his plate of buns, stood up, and called, \"Isn't it Master Kinoshita?\" He had a young girl with him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Tokichiro bowed deeply and with great courtesy. It was the archer Asano Mataemon." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He had been kind to Tokichiro from the time he had been a servant and he was inclined to be especially polite to him. As the shop was far away from the castle grounds, Mataemon was relaxed and in high spirits." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You're alone, eh?\" he asked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Yes.\"\n\n\"Won't you join us? I'm with my daughter.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Oh, your daughter?\" Tokichiro looked toward where, a bench away, a girl of sixteen or seventeen rearranged herself to have her back to him, leaving exposed only the white nape of her neck, in the midst of this boisterous crowd. She was lovely." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It wasn't that she only appeared this way to Tokichiro, who was equipped with a sharply appreciative eye for beauty. Anyone would say the same; she was beautiful, no two ways about it, a woman far above the ordinary." }, { "from": "human", "value": "At Mataemon's beckoning, Tokichiro sat down before the possessor of those bright eyes." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Nene,\" said Mataemon. It was a pretty name, which suited her character well. Wise eyes shone serenely in the midst of her finely formed features." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"This is Kinoshita Tokichiro. He's recently been promoted from kitchen staff to duties in the stables. You should meet him.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yes, well...\" Nene blushed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'm already acquainted with Master Kinoshita.\"\n\n\"Eh? What do you mean, acquainted? When and where did you meet?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Master Tokichiro's sent me letters and presents.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Mataemon looked taken aback. \"I'm shocked. Did you reply to his letters?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I've sent nothing at all in reply.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"That's all well and good, but not to show them to me, your father, is inexcusable!\"\n\n\"I told my mother each time, and she had the gifts returned, except those for special occasions.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Mataemon looked at his daughter, then at Tokichiro." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"As a father, I'm always worried, but I was really careless. I didn't know. I had heard that Monkey was a shrewd man, but I never imagined he would be interested in my daughter!\"\n\nTokichiro scratched his head." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 3 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He was very embarrassed, blushing a deep red. When Mataemon began to laugh, he was relieved, but still flushed. Even though he could not tell how Nene felt about him, he was in love with her." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "I'll be your writing partner today. I will set the scene, and you will continue the story with 3 sentences, channeling the voice and techniques of Eiji Yoshikawa in the historical fiction genre." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Hey, Monkey! Are you going today too?\" asked a country samurai standing at Seijuro's gate.\n\n\"Inuchiyo!\" Tokichiro looked at his friend with surprise." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was not just that he was surprised that Inuchiyo was coming, but that his appearance had been transformed; from the way he tied his hair right down to his leggings, Inuchiyo was dressed like a samurai right out of the backwoods." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What is it all about?\" Tokichiro asked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Everybody's already here. Hurry on in.\"\n\n\"What about you?\"\n\n\"Me? I've been appointed gatekeeper for a while. I'll join you later.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Tokichiro lingered in the garden just inside the gate." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "For a moment he didn't know which path to take. Doke Seijuro's dwelling was an unusual old house, even to Tokichiro's eyes. He couldn't tell exactly how old it was." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It seemed to be left over from an earlier age, when whole families had lived together in one large enclosure." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A long, multiroomed house, smaller outhouses, gates within gates, and countless paths covered the entire grounds." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Monkey! Over here!\" Another country samurai was beckoning to him from a gate near the garden." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He recognized the man as Ikeda Shonyu. Entering the garden, he found twenty or so retainers dressed up as country samurai. Tokichiro had also been informed of this plan, and he looked the most countrified of all." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A group of seventeen or eighteen mountain ascetics were resting around the edges of the courtyard." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They, too, were disguised Oda samurai. Nobunaga seemed to be in a small room on the far side of the courtyard. Naturally, he too was in disguise." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Tokichiro and the others were relaxed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "No one asked any questions. No one knew. But they speculated.\n\n\"His Lordship is disguised as the son of a country samurai traveling with a few retainers. He's waiting for all of his attendants to arrive. He's probably going to a distant province, but I wonder if anyone knows where we're really going?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I haven't heard much, but when I was called to Hayashi Sado's residence, I overheard someone say something about the capital.\"\n\n\"The capital?\" and everyone gulped.\n\nNothing could be more dangerous, and Nobunaga must have some secret plan in mind if he was going there." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Unobserved by the others, Tokichiro nodded in agreement and went out into the vegetable garden." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A few days later, the group of country samurai that would accompany Nobunaga and the company of mountain ascetics, who would guard him at a distance, set out for the capital.\n\nThe first group posed as country samurai from the eastern provinces, who were going on a sightseeing trip to Kyoto. The men looked relaxed as they walked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They hid the fierce light that had shone in their eyes at Okehazama, and took on the rough looks and slow speech of those they pretended to be.\n\nTheir lodgings had been arranged by Doke in a house on the outskirts of the capital. When he walked around Kyoto, Nobunaga always had the brim of his hat pulled down over his eyes, and he was dressed like a simple provincial." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His attendants numbered four or five men at the most." }, { "from": "human", "value": "If assassins had known who he was, he would have made an easy target." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There were days when he would let himself go completely and walk all day among the crowds and dust of Kyoto. And there were evenings when he would suddenly leave at some inopportune hour to call upon the mansions of courtiers and hold secret talks.\n\nThe young samurai understood neither the motives of these actions nor why he dared to take on this venture in the dangerous tumult of a country at war with itself." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Tokichiro, of course, had no reason to understand such circumstances either." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But he himself used the time for observation. The capital has changed, he thought. During the time he had wandered the country selling needles, he had often come here to buy supplies." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Counting on his fingers, he figured it had only been about six or seven years before, but the conditions around the Imperial Palace had changed remarkably." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The shogunate still existed, but Ashikaga Yoshiteru, the thirteenth shogun, held the office in name only. Like the water in a deep pool, the culture and morale of the people stagnated. Everything had the feel of the end of an era." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The real authority rested in the hands of his vice-governor-general, Miyoshi Nagayoshi, but he in turn had abdicated control in almost all areas to one of his retainers, Matsunaga Hisahide. This resulted in unsightly dissension and in an inefficient and tyrannical administration. The gossip of the common people was that Mastunaga's rule would soon collapse of its own accord." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "What was the trend of the times? Nobody knew. The lights burned brightly every night, but the people were lost in the darkness. Tomorrow is tomorrow, they thought, and a directionless, helpless current flowed through their lives like a muddy stream." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "If the administration of Miyoshi and Matsunaga was considered unreliable, what about those provincial governors who had been appointed by the shogun? Men like Akamatsu, Toki, Kyogoku, Hosokawa, Uesugi, and Shiba all faced similar problems in their own provinces.\n\nIt was just at this point that Nobunaga made his secret trip to the capital." }, { "from": "human", "value": "This was something that no other provincial warlord had dreamed of doing." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Imagawa Yoshimoto had marched on Kyoto at the head of a great army. His ambition—to be granted an imperial mandate, and thereby control the shogun and rule the country—was cut off halfway, but he was only the first to try. Every other great lord in the country considered Imagawa's plans to be the best." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But only Nobunaga was bold enough to travel to Kyoto alone and prepare for the future.\n\nAfter several meetings with Miyoshi Nagayoshi, Nobunaga finally secured an interview with Shogun Yoshiteru. Naturally he went to the Miyoshi mansion in his usual disguise, changed into formal dress, and went to the shogun's palace." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The shogunal dwelling was a luxurious palace gone to ruin." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The luxury and wealth that had been created and then exhausted by thirteen successive shoguns was now nothing more than a half-remembered dream. All that remained was a self-serving and self-important administration.\n\n\"So you are Nobuhide's son, Nobunaga?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Yoshiteru said. There was no strength in his voice." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His manners were perfect, but there was no life in them.\n\nNobunaga quickly perceived that there was no longer any vigor left in the office of shogun. Prostrating himself, he asked for the favor of Yoshiteru's acquaintance." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But in the voice of the bowing man, there was a strength that overwhelmed his superior." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I came to Kyoto incognito this time. I doubt if any of these local products from Owari will please the eye of a person from the capital.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Presenting Yoshiteru with a list of gifts, he started to back away.\n\n\"Perhaps you would favor me by staying for dinner,\" Yoshiteru said.\n\nSake was served. From the banquet room they could view an elegant garden." }, { "from": "human", "value": "In the evening darkness, the color of hydrangeas and the dew on the damp moss glittered in the lamplight." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Nobunaga's character was not one of strict formality, regardless of the company and the situation." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He behaved without reserve when the sake flasks were reverently brought in and when the meal was served in a fastidiously traditional manner.\n\nYoshiteru gazed at his guest as though his appetite were a wonderful thing. Although weary of luxury and formality, he saw it as a point of pride that every dish that was served at his table was a delicacy from the capital." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Nobunaga, how do you find Kyoto cooking?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It's excellent... \"\n\n\"How's the flavor?\"\n\n\"Well, the flavor of the cooking of the capital is pretty subtle. Food this insipid is rare for me.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Is that so? Do you follow the Way of Tea?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I've drunk tea in the same way I've drunk water ever since I was a boy, but I'm unacquainted with the way experts practice the tea ceremony.\"\n\n\"Did you view the garden?\"\n\n\"Yes, I saw it.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What did you think?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I thought it was rather small.\"\n\n\"Small?\"\n\n\"It's very pretty, but when I compare it with the view of the hills of Kiyosu... \"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You don't seem to understand anything at all.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The shogun laughed again." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"But it's better to be ignorant than have only a smattering of knowledge. Well, then, what do you have a taste for?\"\n\n\"Archery. Beyond that, I have no special talents. But if you would hear something extraordinary, I was able to rush here to your very gates in three days, passing through enemy territory on the Mino-Omi road from Owari. Now that the entire country is in chaos, there's always the possibility that an incident may occur in or near the palace. I would be very thankful if you would keep me in mind,\" he said with a smile.\n\nOriginally it had been Nobunaga who had taken advantage of the national chaos and overthrown the Shiba governor of Owari who had been appointed by the shogun." }, { "from": "human", "value": "And, even though the matter was reviewed in the High Court of the shogun as a show of the administration's outrage and authority, this was really only a matter of form." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But recently the provincial governors rarely came to visit Kyoto, and the shogun felt isolated. His boredom was relieved by Nobunaga's call, and he seemed to be anxious to talk.\n\nYoshiteru might have expected hints of a desire for official promotion or court rank during this talk, but none came, and finally Nobunaga cheerfully took his leave." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Let's go home,\" Nobunaga said, announcing their return after a thirty-day stay in the capital. \"Tomorrow,\" he quickly added. As the attendants in disguise as country samurai and ascetics, who had lodged separately, now busily prepared to start off on the journey home, a messenger delivered a warning from Owari." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Rumors have been spread since your departure from Kiyosu." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When you go back, use extreme prudence, and please be prepared against some mishap on the road.\n\nWhichever way they went, they were going to have to go through one enemy province after another. What road could they take safely?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Perhaps they should return by ship.\n\nNobunaga's attendants gathered that night in the house where he had been staying and discussed the matter, but were not able to come to an agreement. Suddenly, Ikeda Shonyu came out unceremoniously from the direction of Nobunaga's room and stared at them." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You gentlemen still haven't gone to bed?\"\n\nOne of the men looked at him with an irritated expression. \"We're discussing something important.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I didn't know you were in the middle of a conference. What in the world are you talking about?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You're pretty carefree for one of His Lordship's attendants. Don't you know about the message that came by courier this evening?\"\n\n\"I heard.\"\n\n\"It's most important that nothing happen on the way home. We're just now banging our heads together trying to figure out which road we should take.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Your worry is all for nothing. His Lordship has already decided.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What? He's decided?\"\n\n\"When we came to the capital, there were too many people, so he felt as though we stood out. His plan for going home is that four or five people will be enough. The retainers can go home separately, taking any road they like.\"\n\nNobunaga left the capital before sunrise." }, { "from": "human", "value": "And just as Shonyu had said, twenty or thirty of the men disguised as mountain ascetics, and most of the country samurai, were left behind." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Only four men accompanied him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Shonyu was among them, of course, but the one who felt most honored about being chosen for this small group was Tokichiro." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"He's rather unprotected.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Do you suppose he's all right?\"\n\nThe group of retainers that had been left behind was uneasy, and followed Nobunaga as far as Otsu, but at that point Nobunaga and his men hired horses and went east over the bridge at Seta. There were a number of checkpoints, but he passed through without difficulty." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Nobunaga had asked for a letter of safe conduct from Miyoshi Nagayoshi that stated he was traveling under the protection of the governor-general." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 1 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "At every barrier they came to, he would show the letter and pass on." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "NarrativeBot: Extend text by 5 sentences sentences. Maintain historical fiction genre." }, { "from": "human", "value": "On the morning following the three-day wedding party, Tokichiro and his wife put on formal kimonos for yet another ceremony, and visited the mansion of their go-between, Lord Nagoya." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "After that, they went around to two or three houses, feeling as though all the eyes of Kiyosu were on them that day. But Nene and her young husband had nothing but good intentions for the passersby who turned to look at them.\n\n\"Let's go visit Master Otowaka's house for a moment,\" said Tokichiro.\n\n\"Hey, Monkey!\" Otowaka yelled, and then corrected himself in a fluster, \"Tokichiro.\"\n\n\"I've brought my wife to meet you.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What? Of course! The honored daughter of the archer, Master Asano! Tokichiro, you're a lucky fellow.\"\n\nIt was only seven years ago that Tokichiro had come up to this veranda selling needles, dressed in dirty, travel-stained clothes. He had felt as though he hadn't eaten in days. When they had given him some food, he had sat there eating greedily, with his chopsticks clacking.\n\n\"You're so lucky, it's scary,\" Otowaka said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Well, the house is filthy, but come in.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Somewhat flustered, he yelled to his wife inside the house and then showed them in himself. Just then, they heard a voice shouting in the street. It was a herald, dashing from house to house.\n\n\"Join your regiment! Join your regiment! By His Lordship's order!\"\n\n\"An official order?\" Otowaka said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The call to arms.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Master Otowaka,\" Tokichiro said suddenly, \"I have to get to the assembly grounds as quickly as possible.\"\n\nUntil this morning, there had been no indication that something like this might happen, and even when Tokichiro had visited Nagoya's residence, appearances had been nothing but peaceful. Where in the world could they be going? Even Tokichiro's usual intuition had failed him this time. Whenever the word \"battle\" was spoken, his intuition was usually right on target as to where they were headed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But the young bridegroom's mind had been far away from the current situation for some time." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He ran into a number of men dashing from the samurai neighborhoods, shouldering their armor." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A group of horsemen raced from the castle." }, { "from": "human", "value": "While he didn't know what was going on, Tokichiro had a premonition that the battlefield would be far away." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Nene hurried home ahead of her husband." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Kinoshita! Kinoshita!\" As he approached the archers' tenement houses, somebody yelled from behind him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Turning to look, he saw that it was Inuchiyo." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He was on horseback, in the same suit of armor he had worn at Okehazama, a banner decorated with a plum-blossom crest fluttering from a thin bamboo pole fastened to his back." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I was just coming by to call for Master Mataemon. Get yourself ready and come immediately to the assembly grounds.\"\n\n\"Are we marching out?\" Tokichiro asked.\n\nInuchiyo jumped off his horse. \"How did it go... later on?\" Inuchiyo asked.\n\n\"What do you mean, 'How did it go?'\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"That would be better left unsaid. I was asking if you are now man and wife.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"That's nothing you need to ask about.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Inuchiyo laughed loudly. \"But anyway we're going to the front. If you're late, they'll laugh at you at the assembly grounds, because you just got married.\"\n\n\"I don't mind being laughed at.\"\n\n\"An army of two thousand infantry and cavalry is marching to the Kiso River at dusk.\"\n\n\"We're going into Mino, then.\"\n\n\"There was a secret report that Saito Yoshitatsu of Inabayama suddenly became sick and died. This call to arms and the advance toward the Kiso River is a feeler to determine whether there's any truth in the story.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Well, now, let's see. There was a lot of excitement when we heard that Yoshitatsu had gotten sick and died earlier this summer, too.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"But this time it seems to be true. And regardless, from the clan's standpoint Yoshitatsu murdered Lord Nobunaga's father-in-law, Lord Dosan. In terms of morality, he's the enemy, and we cannot live with him under the same sky; and if the clan is to gain the center of the field, we must have a foothold in Mino.\"\n\n\"That day is coming soon, isn't it?\"\n\n\"Soon? We're leaving for the Kiso tonight.\"\n\n\"No. Not yet, not yet. I doubt if His Lordship will attack yet.\"\n\n\"The armies are under the commands of Lord Katsuie and Lord Nobumori; His Lordship will not go out in person.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"But even if Yoshitatsu is dead, and even if his son, Tatsuoki, is a fool, the Three Men of Mino—Ando, Inaba, and Ujiie—are still alive. Plus, while there is still a man like Takenaka Hanbei, who is said to be living in seclusion on Mount Kurihara, it's not going to be done so easily.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Takenaka Hanbei?\" Inuchiyo cocked his head to one side. \"The names of the Three Men have echoed for a long time even in neighboring provinces, but is this Takenaka Hanbei so formidable?\"\n\n\"Most people have never heard of him; I'm his only admirer here in Owari.\"\n\n\"How do you know things like this?\"\n\n\"I was in Mino for a long time, and...\" Tokichiro stopped in midsentence." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He had never told Inuchiyo of his experiences as a peddler, the time he spent with Koroku in Hachisuka, and of his spying in Inabayama." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Well, we've lost time.\" Inuchiyo remounted.\n\n\"See you at the assembly grounds.\"\n\n\"Right. Later.\" The two men sped away from each other, toward opposite ends of the neighborhood.\n\n\"Hello! I'm home!\" Whenever he returned home, he always yelled out loudly at the entrance before going in. This way, they would all know that the son-in-law of the house had returned—from the servant working in the storage room to the corners of the kitchen." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But today Tokichiro did not wait for people to come out and greet him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When he entered the room, Tokichiro was struck by what he saw. A new mat had been spread out on the floor, and his armor chest placed on top of it. Naturally enough, his gloves, shin guards, body armor, and waistband were there, but also some medicine for wounds, a brace, and an ammunition pouch—everything he would need to take with him was laid out in order.\n\n\"Your equipment,\" said Nene.\n\n\"Very good! Very good!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He praised her without thinking, but was suddenly struck with the thought that he hadn't yet judged this woman correctly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She was even more capable than he had perceived before marrying her.\n\nWhen he had finished putting on his armor, Nene told him not to worry about her. She had taken out and arranged the earthenware cup for sacred sake.\n\n\"Take care of everything, please, while I'm away.\"\n\n\"Of course.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"There's no time to say good-bye to your father. Would you do it for me?\"\n\n\"My mother took Oyaya to Tsushima Temple, and they still haven't returned. Father's been ordered to duty at the castle, and sent a message a while ago that he won't be coming home tonight.\"\n\n\"Won't you be lonely?\"\n\nShe turned away but did not cry.\n\nShe looked like a flower caught by the wind with the heavy helmet on her lap." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Tokichiro took it from her, and as he put it on, the fragrance of aloeswood unexpectedly filled the air." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 1 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He smiled at his wife appreciatively, tightly knotting the scented cords." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "yo can u write like Eiji Yoshikawa using my stuff as a starting point?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Nagamasa was under thirty, but he already had four children by the Lady Oichi, who herself was twenty-three. He occupied the third enclosure of Odani Castle, which was really three castles in one.\n\nGunfire could be heard from the ravine to the south until the evening. The report of cannon sounded periodically, and each time the fretwork ceiling shook as if it were going to come loose.\n\nOichi looked up instinctively with frightened eyes, and held a baby more tightly against her breast. The child was as yet unweaned. There was no wind, but soot was blowing everywhere, and the light of the lamp flickered wildly.\n\n\"Mother! I'm scared!\" Her second daughter, Hatsu, clung to her right sleeve while her eldest daughter, Chacha, silently held fast to her left knee." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her son, however, did not come to his mother's lap even though he was still small. He was brandishing an arrow shaft at a lady-in-waiting. This was Nagamasa's heir, Manjumaru.\n\n\"Let me see! Let me see the battle!\" Manju cried petulantly, striking the lady-in-waiting with the headless arrow.\n\n\"Manju,\" his mother reproved him, \"why are you hitting her? Your father is fighting. Have you already forgotten that he told you to behave during the fighting? If you're laughed at by the retainers, you won't become a good general even when you grow up.\"\n\nManju was old enough to understand a little of his mother's reasoning. He listened to her silently for a moment, but then suddenly began to cry out loud fretfully." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I wanna see the battle! I wanna see!\" The child's tutor did not know what to do either, and simply stood there watching. Just then there was a lull in the fighting, but gunfire could still be heard. The eldest girl, Chacha, was already seven years old, and she somehow understood the difficult circumstances her father was in, her mother's sorrow, and even the feelings of the warriors in the castle.\n\nShe said precociously, \"Manju! Don't say things that upset Mother! Don't you think this is horrible for her? Father's out there fighting the enemy. Isn't that right, Mother?\"\n\nTaken to task, Manju looked at his sister and jumped on her, still brandishing the arrow shaft. \"You stupid Chacha!\" he shouted.\n\nChacha put her sleeve over her head and hid behind her mother." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Be good now!\" Trying to humor him, Oichi took the arrow shaft and talked to him quietly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Suddenly there was the sound of violent footsteps in the entrance hall outside.\n\n\"What's that? To the likes of the Oda? They're nothing but little samurai who have pushed their way from the backwoods of Owari. Do you think I'm going to surrender to a man like Nobunaga? The Asai clan is in a different class from them!\" Asai Nagamasa entered unannounced, followed by two or three generals.\n\nWhen he saw that his wife was out of harm's way in this cavernous, poorly lit room, he was relieved. \"I'm a little tired,\" he said, sitting down and loosening the cords on a section of his armor. Then he said to the generals behind him, \"With the way things are going this evening, the enemy may well make an all-out attack around midnight. We'd better rest now.\"\n\nWhen the commanders got up to leave, Nagamasa heaved a sigh of relief. Even in the midst of battle, he was able to remember that he was both a father and a husband." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Was the sound of the guns this evening frightening, my dear?\" he asked his wife.\n\nSurrounded by her children, Oichi replied, \"No, we were in here, so it was all right.\"\n\n\"Didn't Manju or Chacha get scared and cry?\"\n\n\"You should be proud of them. They acted like adults.\"\n\n\"Really?\" he said, forcing a smile. Then he continued, \"Don't worry. The Oda made a fierce attack, but we pushed them back with a volley from the castle. Even if they continue attacking us for twenty or thirty, or even one hundred days, we'll never surrender. We are the Asai clan! We're not going to yield to someone like Nobunaga.\" He railed against the Oda almost as though he could spit, but then suddenly fell silent." }, { "from": "human", "value": "With the light of the lamp behind her, Oichi's face was buried in the child suckling at her breast." }, { "from": "human", "value": "This was Nobunaga's little sister!" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Nagamasa shook with emotion. She even looked like him. She had her brothers' delicate complexion and his profile.\n\n\"Are you crying?\"\n\n\"The baby sometimes gets fretful and chews my nipple when the milk doesn't come out.\"\n\n\"The milk isn't coming out?\"\n\n\"No, not now.\"\n\n\"That's because you have some unseen sorrow and you're getting too thin. But you are a mother, and this is a mother's true battle.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I know.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I suspect you think I'm a hard husband.\"\n\nShe edged up to her husband's side, still holding the child to her breast. \"No, I don't! Why should I bear a grudge? I look at it all as fate.\"\n\n\"People can't be reconciled just by saying that it's fate. The life of a samurai's wife is more painful than swallowing swords. If you are not completely resolved, it won't be a true resolution at all.\"\n\n\"I'm trying to come to that kind of an understanding, but all I can think of is that I'm a mother.\"\n\n\"My dear, even on the day I married you, I didn't think that you would be mine forever. Neither did my father give his permission for you to become a true bride of the Asai.\"\n\n\"What! What are you saying?\"\n\n\"At a time like this, a man has to tell the truth. This moment will never come again, so I'm going to open my heart to you. When Nobunaga sent you to marry me, it was really nothing more than a political strategem. I could see through to what was in his heart from the very first.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He paused. \"But even while I knew that, a love grew between us that nothing could ever stop. Then we had four children. At this point you are no longer Nobunaga's sister. You're my wife and the mother of my children. I won't allow you to shed tears for our enemy. So why are you growing so thin and holding back the milk you should be giving to our child?\"\n\nNow she could see. Everything that had been a result of \"fate\" had been conceived as political strategem. She was a bride of political strategy: from the very first Nagamasa had seen Nobunaga as someone to watch. But Nobunaga had sincerely loved his brother-in-law.\n\nNobunaga believed that the heir of the Asai clan had a future, and he had trusted him. He had pushed for the marriage enthusiastically. But the match had been in doubt from the very beginning, because of the much older alliance between the Asai and the Asakura of Echizen." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Their pact was not simply one of mutual defense, but a complex relationship based on friendship and mutual favors. The Asakura and Oda had been enemies for years. When Nobunaga had attacked the Saito in Gifu, how much had they hindered him and come to the aid of the Saito?\n\nNobunaga overcame this obstacle to the match by sending a written pledge to the Asakura, promising not to invade their domain.\n\nSoon after the wedding, both Nagamasa's father and the Asakura clan—to which he owed so many favors—began to pressure Nagamasa to regard his wife with suspicion. In the meantime, the Asai had joined the Asakura, the shogun, Takeda Shingen of Kai, and the warrior-monks of Mount Hiei in an anti-Nobunaga alliance.\n\nThe following year Nobunaga had invaded Echizen. Suddenly he was struck from behind." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "StoryBot: Ready to continue your text. Will write 3 sentences sentences. Focusing on genres: historical fiction. Will attempt to include: samurai, Japan." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hideyoshi was left on his own." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It had been well over three hours since Mikawa had brought him to the guest room and asked him to wait for just a moment." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He certainly is taking his time, Hideyoshi thought, bored. The evening shadows were already darkening the fretwork ceiling of the empty room. It was dark enough in the room for lamps to be lit, and when he looked outside he could see the setting sun of late fall turning the mountains around the castle a deep crimson." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The plate in front of him was empty." }, { "from": "human", "value": "At last he heard the sound of footsteps." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A tea master walked into the room." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"As the castle is under siege, I'm afraid I have little to offer you, but His Lordship has asked me to prepare you an evening meal.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The tea master cheered the guest by lighting a couple of lamps.\n\n\"Well now, under the circumstances you don't have to worry about a meal for me. Rather than that, I'd like to talk with General Mikawa. I'm sorry to trouble you, but could you call him?\"\n\nMikawa appeared soon afterward." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In a little under four hours he had aged ten years; he seemed to have lost all vigor, and his eyelids showed the traces of tears. \"I'm sorry,\" he said, \"I've been terribly rude.\"\n\n\"This is really no time to be thinking about normal etiquette,\" Hideyoshi replied, \"but I am wondering what Lord Nagamasa is doing. Has he said his farewells to Oichi and the children? It's getting late.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You're absolutely right. But what Lord Nagamasa said so bravely at first... well, now that he's telling his wife and children that they must leave him forever... I think you can imagine...\" The old general looked down and wiped his eyes with his fingers." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Lady Oichi says that she does not want to leave her husband's side to return to her brother. She keeps pleading with him, so it's difficult to see when they'll be finished.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yes, well... \"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"She's even pleaded with me. She said that when she was married, she resolved that this castle would be her grave. Even little Chacha seems to understand what is happening to her mother and father, and she's crying pitifully, asking why she has to leave her father and why he has to die. General Hideyoshi... forgive me, I'm being rude.\" He dabbed his eyes, cleared his throat, and broke down crying.\n\nHideyoshi sympathized with what Mikawa was going through and could understand only too well Nagamasa and Oichi's grief." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hideyoshi was more easily moved to tears than other men, and now they quickly streaked down his face. He sniffled repeatedly and looked up toward the ceiling. But he did not forget his mission and reprimanded himself—he must not be led astray by mere emotion." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He wiped away his tears and pressed ahead.\n\n\"I promised to wait, but we can't wait forever. I would like to request that a time limit be put on their leave-taking. You might say until what hour, for example.\"\n\n\"Of course. Well... I'll make this my own responsibility, but I'd like to ask you to wait until the Hour of the Boar. I can declare that mother and children will have left the castle by then.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hideyoshi did not refuse." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Yet there was no time for such leisure: Nobunaga was determined to take Odani before sunset." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The entire army was waiting expectantly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Although Hideyoshi had flown the banner signaling that the rescue attempt had been successful, too much time was passing. There was no way for Nobunaga or any of his generals to know what was going on inside the castle. During this time, Hideyoshi could imagine their perplexity, the various opinions going around headquarters, the indecision and confusion on Nobunaga's face as he listened to the voices of doubt." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No, that's not unreasonable,\" Hideyoshi agreed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"So be it. Let them make their unhurried farewells until the Hour of the Boar.\"\n\nCheered by Hideyoshi's consent, Mikawa went back to the keep. By that time the colors of evening were already deepening." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Servants and the tea master served Hideyoshi delicacies and sake that would not ordinarily have been found inside a besieged castle.\n\nWhen the servants withdrew, Hideyoshi drank by himself. It seemed as though his entire body was soaking up the autumn from the thin-edged lacquer cup." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was a sake on which you could not get drunk—cold and slightly bitter. Well, I should drink this with gusto, too. How much difference is there between those going to their deaths and those left behind?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I suppose you could say only an instant, when you take the long-term philosophical view, considering the flow of thousands of years. He did his best to laugh out loud. But every time he drank, the sake chilled his heart." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Somehow, he felt as if sobbing were pressing in on him in the oppressive silence.\n\nOichi's sobs and sorrow; Nagamasa; the innocent faces of the children: he could imagine what was taking place in the keep. What would it be like if I were Asai Nagamasa?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "he asked himself. After thinking this way, his emotions took a sudden swing, and he remembered his last words to Nene:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I am a samurai. I might die in some battle this time. If I am killed, you should marry again before you are thirty years old. After you reach thirty, your beauty is going to wane, and the possibility of a happy match is going to be dim. You are capable of discretion, and it is better for a human being to be prepared with discrimination in this life. So if you've passed thirty, choose a good path with your own sense of discrimination. I'm not going to order you to remarry. And again, if we have a child, plan a future for that child to be your mainstay, whether you're young or on in years. Don't give yourself up to the complaints of women. Think as a mother, and use your mother's discrimination in everything you do.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "At some point Hideyoshi had fallen asleep." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Which is not to say that he had lain down; he just sat there and looked as though he were practicing meditation. From time to time he nodded his head. He was good at sleeping." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He had developed this ability during the unfavorable circumstances of his youth, and was so disciplined that he could nod off whenever he wanted to, regardless of time or place." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He awoke to the sound of a hand drum. The food trays and sake had been taken away. Only the lamps still flickered with a white light." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His lightheadedness had cleared away, and the fatigue had left his body." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hideyoshi realized that he must have slept for quite a while." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "At the same time he somehow felt a sense of cheer wrapping his entire being. Before he had gone to sleep, the atmosphere in the castle had been one of gloom and melancholy; but now it had changed with the sounds of the drum and laughing voices, and strangely, a genial warmth seemed to be floating in from somewhere.\n\nHe couldn't help feeling as though he had been bewitched." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He was clearly awake, however, and everything was real. He could hear the sound of a hand drum, and someone was singing. The sounds were coming from the keep and were far away and indistinct, but he was sure someone had burst out laughing." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hideyoshi suddenly wanted to be with people and went out onto the veranda. He could see a great number of lamps as well as people in the lord's residence on the other side of the wide central garden. A light breeze carried the smell of sake, and when the wind blew in his direction, he could hear the samurai beating time and singing." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The flowers are crimson,\n\nThe plums are scented.\n\nThe willows are green," }, { "from": "human", "value": "And a man's worth is decided by his heart." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Men among men," }, { "from": "human", "value": "Samurai that we are;" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Flowers among flowers,\n\nSamurai that we are.\n\nHuman life passes like this." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "What is it without some pleasure?\n\nEven if you'll never see tomorrow.\n\nNo, especially if you'll never see tomorrow." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "This was Hideyoshi's cherished theory. He, who despised the dark and loved the light, had found something that was a blessing in this world. Almost unconsciously he ambled in the direction of the gaiety, pulled along by the singing voices." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Servants went running by in a hurry." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They were carrying large trays piled high with food, and a barrel of sake." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They hurried with the same kind of eagerness they would probably show in the battle for the castle." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was certainly a gay party, and the vigor of life appeared on every face. It was enough to make Hideyoshi a little doubtful. \"Hey! Isn't that Lord Hideyoshi?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Oh, General Mikawa.\"\n\n\"I wasn't able to find you in the guest room and was looking all over for you.\" Mikawa had the blush of sake on his cheeks too, and he no longer looked so haggard." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Why all this gaiety in the keep?\" Hideyoshi asked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Don't worry. As I promised you, it will end at the Hour of the Boar. It is said that since we must all die, the manner of our dying should be glorious. Lord Nagamasa and all his men are in high spirits, so he opened up all the sake vats in the castle and let it be known that there would be an Assembly of the Samurai. This way they're going to drink their farewells to each other before they leave this world.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What about his farewell to his wife and children?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"That's been taken care of.\" Through his intoxication, tears once again began to well up in Mikawa's eyes. An Assembly of the Samurai—this was a common affair in any clan, a time when the iron-clad divisions between classes and between lord and retainers were relaxed, and everyone enjoyed themselves with drunken song." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The assembly served a dual purpose: it was Nagamasa's farewell to his retainers, who were going to their deaths, and to his wife and children, who would live." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"But it's going to be boring for me just to hide away until the Hour of the Boar,\" Hideyoshi said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"With your permission, I'd like to attend the banquet.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"That's exactly why I was looking around for you. It's what His Lordship desires as well.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What! Lord Nagamasa wants me to come?\"\n\n\"He says that if he's entrusting his wife and children to the Oda clan, you must look after them from now on. Especially his young children.\"\n\n\"He shouldn't worry! And I'd like to tell him that in person. Would you take me to him?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hideyoshi followed Mikawa into a large banqueting hall. Every eye in the room turned toward him. The smell of sake filled the air." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Naturally, everyone was in full armor, and every man there had resolved to die. They were going to die together; like blossoms shaking in the wind, they were ready to fall all at once. But now, as they were having the best time they could, suddenly here was the enemy!" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Most of them glared at Hideyoshi with bloodshot eyes—eyes that would make most men cower." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Excuse me,\" Hideyoshi said to no one in particular." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He entered, walking with small steps, and advanced right up to Nagamasa, in front of whom he prostrated himself." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I have come, grateful that you've commanded that a cup should be extended even to me. Concerning the future of your son and three daughters, I will protect them even at the cost of my own life,\" Hideyoshi said in one breath. Had he paused or appeared to be in the least bit afraid, the samurai around him might have been driven to some unfortunate action through their inebriation and hatred.\n\n\"That is my request, General Hideyoshi.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Nagamasa took a cup and passed it directly to him.\n\nHideyoshi took the cup and drank.\n\nNagamasa seemed satisfied. Hideyoshi had not dared to mention the name of Oichi or Nobunaga." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Nagamasa's beautiful young wife was sitting with her children off to the side, hidden by a silver folding screen. They huddled together like irises blooming at the edge of a pond. Hideyoshi looked at the flickering of the silver lantern from the corner of his eye, but did not look at them directly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He returned the cup respectfully to Nagamasa." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"For the time being, we should forget that we are enemies,\" Hideyoshi said. \"Having accepted this sake at your assembly, with your permission, I would like to perform a short dance.\"\n\n\"You want to dance?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Nagamasa said, expressing the surprise of all the men present. They were a little overawed by this little man.\n\nOichi drew her children to her knee, just as a mother hen might protect her chicks." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Don't be frightened. Mother is here,\" she whispered.\n\nHaving received Nagamasa's permission to dance, Hideyoshi got up and walked to the middle of the room. He was just about to begin when Manju cried out, \"It's him!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Manju and Chacha held fast to their mother's lap. They were looking at the man who earlier had been so frightening. Hideyoshi began to beat the time with his foot." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "At the same time, he slapped open a fan that showed a red circle on a golden field.\n\nHaving so much leisure,\n\nI gaze at the gourd at the gate." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Now and then, a gentle breeze\n\nUnexpectedly there, by chance here;\n\nUnexpectedly, by chance," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The gourd vine, how amusing.\n\nHe sang in a loud voice, and danced as though he had not one other thing in his mind. But before his dance had ended, gunfire rang out from one section of the castle wall." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Then came the sound of return fire from a shorter distance. It seemed that the forces both inside and outside the castle had started to fire on each other at the same moment.\n\n\"Damn it!\" Hideyoshi swore, throwing down his fan." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was not yet the Hour of the Boar. The men outside the castle had known nothing about that, however. Hideyoshi had given no second signal." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Thinking that they would not make an attack, he had felt more or less secure." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But now it seemed that the generals at headquarters had lost patience and decided to press Nobunaga to take immediate action.\n\nDamn it! Hideyoshi's fan fell at the feet of the castle's commanding generals, who had all stood up together, and this brought their attention quite clearly to Hideyoshi, whom until now they had not thought of as an enemy.\n\n\"An attack!\" shouted one man." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The coward! He lied to us!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The crowd of samurai split into two." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The larger group dashed outside while the rest of the men surrounded Hideyoshi, ready to hack him to pieces with their swords.\n\n\"Who ordered this? Don't strike him! That man is not to be killed!\" Nagamasa suddenly yelled at the top of his voice." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His men shouted back as though they were challenging him, \"But the enemy has started a general attack!\"\n\nNagamasa ignored their complaints and called, \"Ogawa Denshiro, Nakajima Sakon!\"\n\nThe two men were his children's tutors." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When they came forward and prostrated themselves, Nagamasa also called for Fujikake Mikawa. \"The three of you are to protect my wife and children and guide Hideyoshi out of the castle. Go now!\" he commanded.\n\nThen he looked sternly at Hideyoshi and, calming himself as much as possible, said, \"All right, I'm entrusting them to you.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "His wife and children threw themselves at his feet, but he shook them off and shouted, \"Farewell.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "With that one word, Nagamasa grasped a halberd and ran off into the howling darkness." }, { "from": "human", "value": "One side of the castle was engulfed in mounting pillars of flame." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Nagamasa instinctively shielded his face with one hand as he ran." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Splinters of burning wood, like wings of flame, grazed his face." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A thick black smoke was winding its way over the ground." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The first and second Oda samurai to breach the castle walls had already called out their names. The flames had reached the mansion in the keep and were running up the gutters faster than the rain had ever gone down them. Nagamasa spied a corps of iron-helmeted men concealed in that area and suddenly lunged to the side." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The enemy!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "His close retainers and family members stood around him and struck at the invading troops." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Above them were the flames, all around them was black smoke. The clanging armor rang out, spear against spear, sword against sword. The ground was soon covered with the bodies of the dead and wounded." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The larger part of the soldiers in the castle followed Nagamasa and fought as long as they could, each achieving a glorious death. Few of them were captured or surrendered. The fall of Odani Castle was nothing like the defeat of the Asakura in Echizen or of the shogun in Kyoto." }, { "from": "human", "value": "So it could be said that Nobunaga's judgment in choosing Nagamasa as a brother-in-law had not been wrong." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The troubles of Hideyoshi, who had saved Oichi and her children from the flames, and those of Fujikake Mikawa, were not concerned with the battle." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "If the attacking troops had only waited another three hours, Hideyoshi and his charges could have been led out of the castle easily. But only minutes after they had left the keep, the inside of the castle was engulfed in flames and fighting soldiers, so that Hideyoshi was finding it very difficult just to protect the four children and get them out.\n\nFujikake Mikawa carried the youngest girl on his back, her elder sister, Hatsu, went on the back of Nakajima Sakon, and Manju was strapped on the back of his tutor, Ogawa Denshiro." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Hop up onto my shoulders,\" Hideyoshi told Chacha, but the little girl refused to leave her mother's side." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Oichi held the girl close as though she would not let her go." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hideyoshi wrenched them apart and scolded them." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It would not do for you to be hurt. I'm begging you, this is what Lord Nagamasa asked me to do.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "This was no time to treat them sympathetically, and even though his words were polite, his tone was frightening." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Oichi put Chacha on his back.\n\n\"Is everybody ready? Stay by me. My lady, please give me your hand.\" Shouldering Chacha, Hideyoshi pulled Oichi by the hand and started out straight ahead." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Oichi stumbled along, barely able to keep from falling." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Soon she pulled her hand free from Hideyoshi's grasp without saying a word." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She followed as a mother would follow, half-crazed with distraction for the children who were in front of her and behind her in the midst of the fury.\n\nNobunaga was now watching the flames of Odani Castle, which were almost close enough to burn his face. The mountains and valleys on all three sides were red, and the burning castle roared like a huge smelting furnace." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When the flames finally turned to smoking ashes and it was all over, Nobunaga could not hold back his tears over his sister's fate. The fool! he cursed Nagamasa.\n\nWhen all the temples and monasteries on Mount Hiei had been consigned to the flames along with the lives of every monk and layman on the mountain, Nobunaga had watched unmoved." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Now those same eyes were filled with tears." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The slaughter on Mount Hiei could not be compared with the death of his sister.\n\nHuman beings possess both intellect and instinct, and they often contradict each other. Nobunaga, however, had great faith in his destruction of Mount Hiei—that by destroying one single mountain, countless lives would be promised happiness and prosperity." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The death of Nagamasa held no such great significance. Nagamasa had fought with a narrow-minded sense of duty and honor, and thus Nobunaga had been forced to do the same. Nobunaga himself had asked Nagamasa to abandon his stunted sense of duty and to share his own larger vision." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Certainly he had treated Nagamasa with a large degree of consideration and generosity to the very end." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But that generosity had to have a limit. He would have been lenient with the man right up to this evening, but his generals would not permit it.\n\nEven though Takeda Shingen of Kai was dead, his generals and men were still in very good health, and his son's abilities were supposed to exceed his father's." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Nobunaga's enemies were only waiting for him to stumble." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It would be folly to wait passively in northern Omi for a long time after he had defeated Echizen with one blow. Listening to this sort of reasoning and argument from his generals, even Nobunaga had been unable to speak up for his sister. But then Hideyoshi had requested permission to be Nobunaga's envoy for just one day." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And although he had sent a signal of good news while it was still light, evening came, and then night, and he had sent no further report whatsoever.\n\nNobunaga's generals were indignant.\n\n\"Do you think he was tricked by the enemy?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"He's probably been killed.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The enemy is planning some scheme while we're off guard.\"\n\nNobunaga resigned himself and finally gave the order for an all-out attack. But after making his decision, he wondered if he had not sacrificed Hideyoshi's life, and his regret was nearly unbearable." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Suddenly a young samurai wearing black-threaded armor ran up in such a hurry that he almost hit Nobunaga with his spear." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"My lord!\" he gasped." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Kneel!\" a general ordered. \"Put your spear behind you!\"\n\nThe young samurai fell heavily to his knees under the stares of the retainers surrounding Nobunaga." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Lord Hideyoshi has just returned. He was able to get out of the castle without mishap.\"\n\n\"What! Hideyoshi is back?\" Nobunaga exclaimed. \"Alone?\" he asked hurriedly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The young messenger added, \"He came with three men of the Asai clan, and with the Lady Oichi and her children.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Nobunaga was trembling. \"Are you sure? Did you actually see them?\"\n\n\"A group of us guarded them on the way back, right after they ran from the castle, which was collapsing in flames. They were exhausted, so we took them to a place of safety and gave them some water. Lord Hideyoshi commanded me to run ahead and make this report.\"\n\nNobunaga said, \"You're Hideyoshi's retainer; what is your name?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'm his chief page, Horio Mosuke.\"\n\n\"Thank you for bearing such good news. Now go and take a rest.\"\n\n\"Thank you, my lord, but the battle is still raging.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "With this, Mosuke quickly took his leave and dashed out toward the faraway clamor of warriors.\n\n\"Divine help...\" someone mumbled off to the side with a sigh. It was Katsuie. The other generals also congratulated Nobunaga." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"This is an unanticipated blessing. You must be very happy.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "A thread of emotion found its way wordlessly among them." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "These men were jealous of Hideyoshi's accomplishments, and were the very ones who had advocated abandoning him and hastening a general attack on the castle.\n\nNevertheless, Nobunaga's joy was overflowing, and his excellent mood immediately caused a brighter spirit to spread through his headquarters. While the others were offering their congratulations, the shrewd Katsuie said privately to Nobunaga, \"Shall I greet him?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Receiving Nobunaga's permission, he hurried off with a few retainers down the steep slope toward the castle." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Finally, under the protection of Hideyoshi, the long-awaited Oichi climbed up to the headquarters on the plateau. A small corps of soldiers went in front, carrying torches. Hideyoshi panted along behind the men, still carrying Chacha on his back." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The first thing Nobunaga saw was the sweat on Hideyoshi's forehead, glistening in the light of the torches. Next came the old general, Fujikake Mikawa, and the two tutors, each carrying a child on his back. Nobunaga gazed at the children silently." }, { "from": "human", "value": "No emotion showed on his face at all." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Then, from about twenty paces to the rear, Shibata Katsuie came up, a white hand holding the shoulder of his armor. The hand belonged to Oichi, who was now half-dazed.\n\n\"Lady Oichi,\" Katsuie said, \"your brother is right here.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Katsuie quickly led her to Nobunaga." }, { "from": "human", "value": "When Oichi had fully regained her senses, all she could do was weep." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "For an instant the woman's sobbing blotted out every other sound in the camp. It wrung the hearts of even the veteran generals who were present. Nobunaga, however, looked disgusted." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "This was the beloved sister he had worried about so much until just a few moments before. Why wasn't he greeting his sister with wild joy? Had something ruined his mood?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The generals were dismayed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The situation passed even Hideyoshi's understanding. Nobunaga's close retainers were constantly troubled by their lord's quick changes of mood. When they saw the familiar expression on his face, not one of them could do anything but stand by silently; and in the midst of the silence, Nobunaga himself found it difficult to cheer up." }, { "from": "human", "value": "There were not very many of Nobunaga's retainers who could read his inner thoughts and disentangle him from his moody and introverted self." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In fact, Hideyoshi and the absent Akechi Mitsuhide were about the only ones who had this ability.\n\nHideyoshi watched the situation for a moment, and since no one seemed about to do anything, he said to Oichi, \"Now, now, my lady. Go to his side and greet him. It won't do just to stand here crying for joy. What's the matter? You're brother and sister, aren't you?\"\n\nOichi did not budge; she could not even look at her brother." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Her mind was set on Nagamasa." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "To her, Nobunaga was nothing more than the enemy general who had killed her husband and had brought her here, a shamed captive in the enemy camp.\n\nNobunaga could tell exactly what was in his sister's heart. So, along with his satisfaction at her safety, he felt an uncontrollable revulsion for this foolish woman who could not understand her brother's great love." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Hideyoshi, let her be. Don't waste your breath.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Nobunaga stood up abruptly from his camp stool." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He then lifted a section of the curtain surrounding his headquarters." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Odani has fallen,\" he whispered, gazing at the flames." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Both the battle cries and the fires burning the castle were dying down, and the waning moon cast a white light on the peaks and valleys as they waited for the dawn.\n\nJust then, an officer and his men ran up the hill, yelling victory cries. When they set down the heads of Asai Nagamasa and his retainers in front of Nobunaga, Oichi screamed, and the children clinging to her started to cry." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Nobunaga shouted, \"Stop that noise! Katsuie! Get the young ones out of here! I'm putting them in your care—both Oichi and the children. Hurry up and take them off someplace where no one will see them.\"\n\nThen he summoned Hideyoshi and told him, \"You will be in charge of the former Asai domain.\" He had decided to return to Gifu as soon as the castle had fallen." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 4 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Oichi was helped away. Later she would marry Katsuie. But one of Nagamasa's three young daughters who had come down the fiery mountain that night held a fate even stranger than her mother's. The eldest, Chacha, was later to become Lady Yodogimi, Hideyoshi's mistress." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Job: User writes start, you add ~1 sentence sentences. Style: Eiji Yoshikawa" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The confusion at Nirasaki Castle in the new capital was as great as if people were proclaiming the end of the world." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Takato Castle has fallen and everyone, including your brother, has been killed.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As he listened to his retainer, Katsuyori seemed completely unmoved." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Still, his expression showed that he clearly perceived that his own strength was no longer sufficient." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The next report came in." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The soldiers of Oda Nobutada have already broken into Kai from Suwa, and our men are being killed without mercy, whether they fight or surrender. Their severed heads are exposed on the roadside, and the enemy is flowing in this direction like a tide.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Another urgent message arrived." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Shingen's kinsman, the blind priest Ryuho, was captured and butchered by the enemy.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "This time Katsuyori raised his eyes and spoke abusively of the enemy." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The Oda forces have no compassion. What fault could they find in a blind priest? How could he even have had the power to resist?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But now he was able to think more deeply about his own death." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He bit steadily on his lip and repressed the waves roiling at the bottom of his heart." }, { "from": "human", "value": "If I give vent to my anger like this, he thought, they may think I've become distracted, and even the retainers around me will feel disgraced." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There were many people who saw nothing more than Katsuyori's manly exterior and who considered him bold and even coarse." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But the truth was that he was very deliberate in his actions toward his retainers." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In addition, he was extremely strict in adhering to his own principles—to his honor as a lord and to self-reflection." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He had continued in his father's tradition and had been taught the principles of Zen by Kaisen." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But although he had had the same teacher and had studied Zen, he was unable to bring it to life as Shingen had done." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "How could Takato Castle have fallen?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I was sure it could hold out for another two weeks to a month, Katsuyori thought, which showed that the situation had resulted less from a miscalculation of defensive strategy than from a lack of human maturity." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Now, however, regardless of what his natural temperament might be, he had to meet this new tide of fortune." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The sliding partitions had been taken from the wide conference room and even from the outlying rooms of the main citadel; and now the entire clan lived together as though they were refugees from a great cataclysm that continued day and night." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Naturally, curtains were set up even in the garden, shields were set up side by side, and soldiers went without sleep, holding large paper lanterns and policing the area at night." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Messengers with reports of the situation were taken hourly directly from the entrance through the central gate to the garden, so that Katsuyori listened to the dispatches in person." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Everything that had just been part of the construction the year before—the scent of new wood, the gold and silver inlay, the beauty of the furniture and utensils—now seemed only to be in the way." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Accompanied by a maid and binding up the train of her kimono, a lady-in-waiting with a message from Katsuyori's wife stepped out of the confusion of the garden and into the dark hall, and bravely looked through the crowd of men." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "At that time, the room was full of generals, both young and old, all noisily expressing their opinions about what to do next." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The woman finally came before Katsuyori and appealed to him with the message from his wife." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The women are all standing around crying in confusion, and won't stop no matter how we console them. Your wife has said that our last moment comes only once, and she thinks that perhaps the women would be a little more easily resolved if they could be here with the samurai. If she has your permission, she will move here immediately. What are my lord's wishes?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"That's fine,\" Katsuyori answered quickly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Bring my wife here and the young ones too.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "At that moment his fifteen-year-old heir, Taro Nobukatsu, came forward and tried to dissuade him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Father, that wouldn't be very good, would it?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Katsuyori turned to his son, less with displeasure than with a nervous preoccupation. \"Why?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Well, if the women come here, they'll just get in the way. And if the men see them crying, even the bravest samurai may become disheartened.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Taro was still a boy, but he insisted on giving his opinion." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He continued to argue that Kai had been their ancestral land since the time of Shinra Saburo, and it should be their land to the very end, even if they have to fight and die." }, { "from": "human", "value": "To abandon Nirasaki and flee, as one general had just recommended, would bring the greatest shame to the Takeda clan." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A general argued the opposite position: \"Nevertheless, the enemy is on all four sides, and Kofu is situated in a basin. Once the enemy invades, it will be like water rushing into a lake. Wouldn't it be better to escape to Agatsuma in Joshu? If you got to the Mikuni mountain range, there would be any number of provinces where you might find asylum. Once you called together your allies, you could certainly reestablish yourself.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Nagasaka Chokan agreed, and Katsuyori's mind was inclined in that direction." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He set his eyes on Taro and was silent for a moment." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He then turned toward the lady-in-waiting and said, \"We will go.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Taro's advice was thus refused by his father." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Taro turned away silently and hung his head." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The remaining question was whether to flee to Agatsuma or to entrench themselves in the area of Mount Iwadono." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But whichever route they chose, abandoning their new capital and fleeing was the unavoidable fate to which both Katsuyori and his generals were resigned." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was the third day of the Third Month." }, { "from": "human", "value": "If it had been any other year, Katsuyori and his retinue would have been enjoying the Doll Festival in the inner citadel." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But on this bright day, the entire clan was driven from behind by black smoke as they abandoned Nirasaki." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Katsuyori, of course, also left the castle, as did every samurai that served him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But as he turned and looked at his entire force, his expression was one of amazement." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Is this all?\" he asked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "At some point, senior retainers and even kinsmen had disappeared." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He was told that they had taken advantage of the confusion during the darkness of dawn, and had fled each to his own castle with his retainers." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Taro?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'm here, Father.\" Taro drew his horse up to the solitary figure of his father." }, { "from": "human", "value": "With all the retainers, the common samurai, and the foot soldiers combined—there were less than a thousand men." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There were large numbers, however, of lacquered palanquins and litters for his wife and her court ladies, and the pathetic figures of veiled women, both walking and on horseback, filled the road." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Oh! It's burning!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The flames are so high!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The crowd of women could hardly stand to leave, and when they had traveled only about a league from Nirasaki, they turned to look even as they walked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Flames and black smoke rose high in the morning sky as the castle at the new capital burned." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They had set the fires at dawn." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I don't want to live a long life,\" said one of the women." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What kind of future would I see? Is this the end of Lord Shingen's clan?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The nun who was Katsuyori's aunt, the charming young girl who was Shingen's granddaughter, the wives of the clan members and their servant ladies—all of them were drowning in their tears, holding each other as they cried, or calling out the names of children." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Golden hairpins and other ornaments were left on the road, and no one even bothered to pick them up." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Cosmetics and jewelry were smeared with mud, but no one gazed at them with regret." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Hurry up! Why are you crying? This is what it is to be born a human being. You're going to shame yourselves in front of the farmers!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Katsuyori rode in among the slow-moving palanquins and litters, urging them on, to escape farther and farther to the east." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hoping to reach Oyamada Nobushige's castle, they looked at the old castle in Kofu as they passed by but could only walk on toward the mountains." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As they walked on, the carriers who shouldered the palanquins gradually disappeared, the menials who carried the baggage and litters ran off one after another, and their number was reduced by half and then by half again." }, { "from": "human", "value": "By the time they had entered the mountains near Katsunuma, their entire force numbered only two hundred men, and less than twenty of those were mounted, counting Katsuyori and his son." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When Katsuyori and his followers had struggled along as far as the mountain village of Komagai, they found that the one man they had been relying upon had suddenly had a change of heart." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Take refuge somewhere else!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Obstructing the summit path to Sasago, Oyamada Nobushige prevented Katsuyori's party from passing through." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Katsuyori, his son, and the entire group were at a complete loss." }, { "from": "human", "value": "There was nothing they could do but change their direction, and they now fled toward Tago, a village at the foot of Mount Temmoku." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Spring was in full bloom, but the mountains and fields, as far as the eye could see, held neither comfort nor hope." }, { "from": "human", "value": "So now the small group that remained put all their trust in Katsuyori, as they might in a staff or a pillar." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Katsuyori himself was at his wits' end. Huddling together in Tago, his followers waited in a daze, swept over by the mountain wind." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Write 6 sentences sentences in the style of Eiji Yoshikawa spawning from what the user wrote." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It looks like the rainy season is ending here too.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The morning mist in the pine grove beyond the castle still had not cleared, and it made the surrounding area look almost like a scene at the bottom of the sea. The two mounted men hurried through the grove at a light gait. A large bird flew over them, flapping its wings majestically.\n\n\"The weather is fine, isn't it, Genemon?\"\n\n\"If it stays like this, the mountain will be clear.\"\n\n\"I haven't felt this good in a long time,\" Mitsuhide said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"That fact alone makes this trip worthwhile.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I want to meet the Abbot of Yokawa more than anything else. That's my only business here.\"\n\n\"I daresay he will be surprised to see you.\"\n\n\"People would have been suspicious if I had invited him to Sakamoto Castle. I have to meet him in private. Make the arrangements, Genemon.\"\n\n\"People are more likely to see you at the foot of the mountain than on the mountain itself. It would be highly unpleasant if word got around to the villagers that Lord Mitsuhide was out on an excursion. You should wear your hood down over your face, at least as far as Hiyoshi.\"\n\nMitsuhide pulled his hood down, until only his mouth was visible.\n\n\"Your clothes are plain, and your saddle is just that of a common warrior's. No one will be likely to think that you are Lord Akechi Mitsuhide.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"If you treat me with that much courtesy, people will be suspicious immediately.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I hadn't thought of that,\" Genemon said with a laugh. \"I'll be a little more careful from now on, but don't blame me for being rude.\"\n\nAt the foot of Mount Hiei, rebuilding had been going on for two or three years, and the streets of Sakamoto were slowly taking on their former appearance. As the two riders passed through the village and turned off on the path going up to the Enryaku Temple, the morning sun finally began to sparkle on the waters of the lake.\n\n\"What shall we do with the horses once we dismount on the way up?\" Genemon asked.\n\n\"A new shrine has been built on the site of the old one. There must be farmhouses nearby. If not, it should be all right to leave them with a workman at the shrine itself.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A lone rider was whipping his horse to catch up with them.\n\n\"Isn't that someone calling us from behind?\" Genemon asked with some concern.\n\n\"If there's someone chasing us, I'm sure it's Mitsuharu. Yesterday he looked as though he wanted to stop me from making this trip.\"\n\n\"He possesses a gentility and sincerity you rarely see in men these days. He's almost too gentle to be a samurai.\"\n\n\"It is Mitsuharu, just as I thought.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"He certainly seems determined to stop you, my lord.\"\n\n\"Well, I won't turn back, no matter what he says. Maybe he's not going to try to stop me. If he wanted to do that, he'd have grabbed my horse's bridle at the castle gate. Look, he's dressed for a mountain excursion, too.\"\n\nIn the end, Mitsuharu had rethought his position before starting out. He felt that it would be best not to oppose Mitsuhide, but rather to come along with him for the day to make sure he made no mistakes.\n\nAs he brought up his horse alongside of his cousin, he smiled brightly. \"You're too fast for me, my lord. I was taken by surprise this morning, and not a little shaken up. I didn't think you would leave at such an early hour.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I didn't think you were planning to come with me. You wouldn't have had to chase us like that if we'd made arrangements last night.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I was negligent. Even if you are traveling in disguise, I thought that you would be accompanied by at least ten mounted men carrying along a picnic, and that you would be traveling at a more leisurely pace.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I would have liked that if this had been a normal excursion,\" Mitsuhide said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"But the only purpose of today's trip is to pray for those who went through hellfire years ago and to hold at least one memorial service for their bones. I hadn't thought about carrying up fine sake and delicacies.\"\n\n\"I may have said something that offended you yesterday, but I'm just prudent by nature. It was really nothing more than my not wanting you to do something that might be taken the wrong way in Azuchi. Given the way you're dressed, and that your intention is to say a mass for the dead, I'm sure Lord Nobunaga couldn't blame you even if he were to hear about it. The fact is that even though I reside in a castle close to Sakamoto, I haven't made one trip to the mountain. So I thought that today would be a good opportunity to visit the place. Well, lead on, Genemon.\"\n\nSpurring his horse, Mitsuharu rode up next to Mitsuhide and began to make conversation as though he were afraid Mitsuhide might become bored. He discussed the plants and flowers they saw along the roadside, explained the habits of the different birds as he distinguished them by their calls, and generally carried on with the solicitude of a kind woman trying to cheer up a sick person.\n\nMitsuhide could not reject such a display of true feelings, but Mitsuharu talked almost exclusively about nature, while Mitsuhide's mind was immersed in human concerns whether he was asleep or awake or even holding a brush over a painting. He lived in human society, in the midst of contending demons and within the flames of wrath and malice." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Even though the song of the cuckoo filled the mountain air, the hot blood that had risen to his temples during his retreat from Azuchi had not yet been calmed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As Mitsuhide climbed Mount Hiei, his heart was not at peace even for a moment. How desolate the place looked, when contrasted with its former prosperity. Following the Gongen River up toward the Eastern Pagoda, the party saw no signs of human life. Only the birdsong hadn't changed. The mountain had been famous as a sanctuary for rare birds since ancient times.\n\n\"I don't see a single monk,\" Mitsuhide said as he stood in front of a ruined temple." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He appeared to be surprised at Nobunaga's thoroughness." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Isn't there a single living soul on this mountain? Let's try the main temple.\"\n\nHe looked more than a little disappointed. Perhaps he had thought he would see the latent power of the warrior-monks come back to life on the mountain, in spite of Nobunaga's supremacy.\n\nBut when they finally arrived at the former location of the main temple and lecture hall, nothing remained but mounds of ashes. Only in the area of the monastery had a number of huts been erected. The scent of incense drifted from that direction, so Genemon went to investigate." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He found four or five mountain hermits, sitting around a pot of rice gruel that was cooking over a fire.\n\n\"They say the Abbot of Yokawa isn't here,\" Genemon said.\n\n\"If the abbot is not there, is there not perhaps a scholar or elder from former times?\"\n\nGenemon inquired a second time, but his answer was not encouraging. \"It seems there's no such person on the mountain. They're not allowed to come here without the permission of either Azuchi or the governor of Kyoto. Moreover, even now the law does not recognize any permanent residences on the mountain other than for a limited number of monks.\"\n\n\"The law is the law,\" Mitsuhide said, \"but religious zeal is not like a fire that can be doused with water and disappear forever. Come to think of it, the elders probably thought that we're warriors from Azuchi, and they probably hid. The abbot and the elders who survived are probably somewhere on the mountain right now. Genemon, explain to those men that they should have no such worries, and ask them once again.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As Genemon started to walk off, Mitsuharu said to Mitsuhide, \"I'll go. They are not likely to tell us anything, with Genemon's stern way of asking questions.\"\n\nWhile he was waiting for Mitsuharu, however, Mitsuhide unexpectedly encountered someone he hadn't planned on meeting at all.\n\nThe man was dressed in a greenish brown hood and a monk's robe of the same color and wore white leggings and straw sandals. He was over seventy years of age, but his lips were a youthful red. His eyebrows were pure white, and he looked like a crane dressed in a monk's robe. He was accompanied by two servants and a child." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Lord Mitsuhide? Well, well, I never thought I'd meet you here, my lord. I heard that you were in Azuchi. What brings you to this deserted mountain today?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He hardly spoke like an old man; his voice was exceptionally resonant, and his lips formed a constant, untroubled smile." }, { "from": "human", "value": "On the contrary, it was Mitsuhide who appeared to be confused." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Distracted by the sharp eyes beneath the old man's clear brow, his response was hesitant.\n\n\"It's Doctor Manase, isn't it? I've been staying at Sakamoto Castle for a few days, and I thought a little walk through the mountains might cheer me up from the gloom of the rainy season.\"\n\n\"There's no better medicine for the body or the mind than an occasional cleansing of the ch'i by walking through the hills and getting in touch with nature. At a a glance, I'd say you've been tired for some time. Are you returning to your home province on sick leave?\" the doctor asked, narrowing his eyes to the size of needles. For some reason Mitsuhide found it impossible to deceive a man who had eyes like that. Manase had been practicing medicine at the time Yoshiaki's father, Yoshiteru, was shogun." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The two men had not met for quite a while, but Mitsuhide had sat in the company of the great doctor a number of times at Azuchi Castle." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Nobunaga had often invited Manase to be his guest at tea ceremonies, and whenever he was sick, he would call him immediately. He had more confidence in this man than in his own physicians.\n\nBy nature, however, Manase did not enjoy being employed by the powerful and, as he lived in Kyoto, traveling to Azuchi was a chore, despite his robust health.\n\nAt that point Mitsuharu returned without having gone to the hut, as Genemon had quickly run to call him back.\n\n\"We've bumped into someone, and it's an awkward situation,\" Genemon whispered to him as they walked back. But when Mitsuharu saw that it was Manase, he happily joined the conversation, indicating clearly that he had long been on friendly terms with the doctor." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What a treat! It's Doctor Manase. You always look healthier than a man in his prime. Did you climb up from Kyoto today? Off on a mountain excursion?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Manase enjoyed conversation and was happy to run into friends on the mountain." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I climb Mount Hiei every year in the spring or early summer and again in the fall. But you know, there must be a lot of herbs that we haven't discovered yet right here.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "As Manase talked, he did not seem to be paying particular attention to Mitsuhide, though he had been casting his doctor's eye over the man from time to time." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Eventually he turned the subject to Mitsuhide's health." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I've heard from Lord Mitsuharu that you'll soon be leaving to take part in the campaign in the west. Be sure to take good care of your health. When a man passes fifty, it's difficult to deny his age, no matter how strong he may be.\"\n\nThere was a concern in his advice that went beyond the words.\n\n\"Is that so?\" Mitsuhide smiled and responded to Manase's advice as though they were discussing someone else's health. \"Recently I've felt as though I've had a bit of a cold, but I've got a strong constitution and haven't really considered myself to be ill.\"\n\n\"Well, I wouldn't be so sure. It's all very fine when a sick man is conscious of his own illness and takes the proper precautions. But when a man is overconfident, as you are, he can fall quite gravely into error.\"\n\n\"Well then, do you think I am suffering from some chronic condition?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I can see, just by looking at your complexion and listening to your voice, that you're not in your usual state of health. Rather than saying that you are suffering from a chronic disease, I would suggest that your internal organs may have become fatigued, and that the subtle energies associated with them are out of balance.\"\n\n\"If you're just saying I'm fatigued, I'll certainly agree to that. From taking part in various battles over the past few years and from serving my lord, I've pushed my body beyond its limits time and again.\"\n\n\"Speaking about something like this to someone as knowledgeable as you is probably like teaching the Dharma to the Buddha, but you really should take care of your health. The five internal organs—the liver, heart, spleen, lungs, and kidneys—are manifested in the five aspirations, the five energies, and the five sounds. For example, if the liver is ill, you'll have copious tears; if the heart is injured, you'll be beset by fears, no matter how brave you are ordinarily; if the spleen is distressed, you'll be easily angered; if the lungs are not functioning properly, you'll go through mental agony and not have the psychological strength to understand why. And if your kidneys are weak, you'll have strong swings of mood.\"\n\nManase gazed steadily at Mitsuhide's complexion. For his part, Mitsuhide was confident of his own health and did not intend to listen to what Manase was going to say. He did his best to conceal what he felt behind a forced smile but was beginning to feel ill-humored and uneasy." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "I'll be your writing partner today. I will set the scene, and you will continue the story with seven sentences, channeling the voice and techniques of Eiji Yoshikawa in the historical fiction genre." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There was a huge gate at the very center of the compound's mud wall, and each of the sub-temples had its own enclosure and gate. The pine forest seemed to have been swept clean, and itself looked like a Zen garden. Birdsong, and the sunlight streaming through the treetops, added to the peace of the scene.\n\nAfter tethering their horses, Mitsuhide and his retainers ate the meals they had packed for both breakfast and lunch. Although they had planned on having breakfast near the Kamo River, they had waited to eat until they had arrived at Kitano.\n\nThe soldiers carried a day's worth of provisions: a simple meal of uncooked bean paste, pickled plums, and brown rice. They had not eaten since the night before, and they now breakfasted happily." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Three or four monks from the nearby Myoshin Temple, who had recognized the men as members of the Akechi clan, had invited them into the temple compound.\n\nMitsuhide was sitting on a camp stool in the shadow of the curtain his attendants had set up. He had finished his meal and was dictating a letter to his secretary.\n\n\"The priests of the Myoshin Temple... they'd make perfect messengers! Call them back!\" he ordered a page. When the priests had returned, Mitsuhide entrusted them with the letter his secretary had just written. \"Would you please take this letter quickly to the residence of the poet Shoha?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Immediately afterward he got up and walked back to his horse, telling the monks, \"I'm afraid that we have no spare time on this trip. I'll have to forgo meeting the abbot. Please give him my regards.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The afternoon grew hot." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The road to Saga was extraordinarily dry, and the horses' hooves kicked clouds of dust into the air. Mitsuhide rode in silence, thinking through a plan in his characteristically careful way, weighing its feasibility, the likely public reaction, and the possibility of failure. Like a horsefly that always comes back no matter how often it is brushed away, the scheme had become an obsession that Mitsuhide could not drive from his mind. A nightmare had sneaked into him and filled his entire body with poison. He had already lost his power to reason.\n\nIn all of his fifty-four years, Mitsuhide had never relied on his own wisdom the way he was doing now. Although objectively he would have had every reason to doubt his own judgment, subjectively he felt exactly the opposite." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I haven't made the smallest mistake, Mitsuhide said to himself." }, { "from": "human", "value": "No one could suspect what's on my mind." }, { "from": "human", "value": "While he had been in Sakamoto, he had wavered: Should he go ahead with the plan or scrap it?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But this morning, when he heard the second report, his hair had suddenly stood on end. In his heart he had resolved that the time was now, and that heaven had sent him this opportunity. Nobunaga, accompanied by only forty or fifty lightly armed men, was staying at the Honno Temple in Kyoto. The demon that possessed Mitsuhide whispered to him that it was a unique opportunity.\n\nHis decision was not a positive act of his own will, but rather a reaction to external circumstances. Men like to believe that they live and act according to their own wills, but the grim truth is that outside events actually stir them to action. So while Mitsuhide believed that heaven was his ally in the present opportunity, part of him was beset by the fear as he rode along the road to Saga that heaven really was judging his every action." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Mitsuhide crossed the Katsura River and arrived at Kameyama Castle in the evening, just as the sun dropped below the horizon." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Having been informed of their lord's return, the townspeople of Kameyama welcomed him home with bonfires that lit up the night sky. He was a popular ruler who had won the affection of the people as a result of his wise administration.\n\nThe number of days in a year that Mitsuhide spent with his family could be counted on the fingers of one hand. During long campaigns, he might not come home for two or three years. For that reason, those rare days he could be at home were animated by the delight of seeing his wife and children, and being a husband and father.\n\nMitsuhide had been blessed with an exceptionally large family of seven daughters and twelve sons. Two-thirds of them were married or had been adopted by other families, but several of the younger ones, as well as children of his kinsmen and their grandchildren, were still living at the castle." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His wife, Teruko, always said, \"How old will I be when I no longer have to look after children?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She took in the children of clan members who had died in battle and even raised the children her husband had fathered with other women. This gentle, wise woman was contented with her lot, and although she was already fifty, she put up with the children and their mischief.\n\nSince leaving Azuchi, Mitsuhide had not found a comfort equal to being at home, and he slept peacefully that night. Even on the next day, his children's cheerfulness and his faithful wife's smile soothed his heart.\n\nIt might be supposed that spending such a night would cause him to change his mind. But he did not waver in the least. On the contrary, he now had the courage to realize an even more secret ambition that lodged in his heart." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Teruko had been with him from the time he had had no lord to serve. Happy with her present estate, she had no other thoughts than to be a mother to her children. Looking at her now, Mitsuhide formed silent words in his breast. Your husband is not going to be like this forever. Everyone will soon be looking up to you as the wife of the next shogun. And as he gazed at the children and other members of his large household, for a moment he was caught up in his own fantasy. I'm going to move you all from this provincial castle to a palace even more elevated than Azuchi." }, { "from": "human", "value": "How much happier you will be then!" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Later that day, Mitsuhide left the castle, accompanied by a few attendants. He was lightly dressed and was not being waited upon by his usual retainers. Though there had been no official announcement, even the soldiers at the castle gate knew that their lord was going to spend the night at Atago Shrine.\n\nBefore departing for the west, Mitsuhide was going to the shrine to pray for good luck in battle. Accompanied by a few of his closest friends, he would stay in the shrine to hold a poetry party and would return the following day.\n\nWhen he said that he was going to a shrine to pray for victory in battle, and that he was inviting some friends from the capital for a party, nobody suspected what was really in Mitsuhide's mind.\n\nThe twenty servants and half a dozen mounted retainers were dressed more lightly than they would have been had they been going hawking." }, { "from": "human", "value": "On the day before, the monks of Itokuin Temple and the priests of Atago Shrine had been informed of the visit, so they were waiting to welcome their lord." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As soon as he had dismounted, Mitsuhide asked for a monk by the name of Gyoyu." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Is Shoha coming?\" Mitsuhide asked the monk. When Gyoyu replied that the famous poet was already there waiting for him, Mitsuhide exclaimed, \"What? Here already? Well, that's perfect. Has he brought other poets from the capital?\"\n\n\"It seems that Master Shoha had very little time to prepare himself. He received your invitation yesterday evening, and found that whoever he tried to invite was unable to attend at such short notice. Along with his son, Shinzen, he was only able to bring two others: a disciple by the name of Kennyo, and a relative called Shoshitsu.\"\n\n\"Is that so?\" Mitsuhide laughed. \"Did he complain? I knew it was an unreasonable request, but after honoring him time and time again by sending palanquins and escorts, this time I thought it would be much more elegant—and more enjoyable—if he was the one who went to some trouble to meet me. That's why I invited him to this place so suddenly. But just as you might expect, Shoha didn't even feign illness. He scurried up the mountain at once.\"\n\nWith the two monks walking ahead and his attendants behind, Mitsuhide climbed a flight of high stone stairs. Just when it seemed as though there would be flat ground to walk on for a while, the stairs would begin again." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As they climbed, the dark green of the cypress trees deepened even more, and the dark violet of the summer sky edged into evening. They felt the night approaching quickly. With every step, their skin could feel the sudden drop in temperature; it was considerably colder at the summit than it had been at the foot of the mountain.\n\n\"Master Shoha sends his apologies,\" Gyoyu told Mitsuhide when they had reached the guest room of the temple. \"He would have come to meet you, but since he thought you would probably pray first at the temples and shrines on the way, he said he would greet you after your devotions.\"\n\nMitsuhide nodded silently. Then, after drinking a cup of water, he asked for a guide. \"Before anything else, I'd like to offer a prayer to the patron deity, and then I'll visit the Atago Shrine while there's still some light.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The shrine priest led the way along a neatly swept path." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He climbed the stairs of the outer shrine and lit the sacred candles. Mitsuhide bowed low, and stood in prayer for some time. Three times the priest whisked a branch of the sacred tree over Mitsuhide's head, and then offered him an earthen cup of sacred sake.\n\n\"I've heard that this shrine is dedicated to the fire god. Is that true?\" Mitsuhide asked afterward.\n\n\"That is true, my lord,\" the priest replied.\n\n\"And I've heard that if you pray to this god and abstain from using fire, your prayers will be answered.\"\n\n\"That has been said since ancient times.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The priest avoided giving a clear answer to the question, and turned it back on Mitsuhide. \"I wonder how that tradition originated?\" Then, changing the subject, he began to talk about the history of the shrine.\n\nBored by the priest's monologue, Mitsuhide gazed at the holy lamps in the outer shrine. Finally he stood up silently and descended the stairs. It was already dark when he walked to the Atago Shrine. Leaving the monks, he went alone to the nearby Temple of the Shogun Jizo." }, { "from": "human", "value": "There he drew his fortune, but the first lot he pulled predicted bad luck." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 8 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He drew again, and that one too read \"Bad luck.\" For a moment, Mitsuhide stood as silent as stone. Picking up the box that held the fortunes, he lifted it reverently to his forehead, closed his eyes, and drew for the third time. This time the answer was \"Great good fortune.\"\n\nMitsuhide turned and walked toward his waiting attendants. They had watched him from afar as he drew his fortune, imagining that he was only indulging a fancy. Mitsuhide was, after all, a man who prided himself on his intellect and who was, above all else, rational. He was hardly the kind of man who would use fortune-telling to reach a decision." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "hey AI, write five sentences more. use these ideas: samurai, Japan" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ekei first reported Muneharu's agreement to Hideyoshi, then rode at full gallop to the Mori camp at Mount Iwasaki." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Both Kikkawa and Kobayakawa were worried about the reason for his sudden return." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Have they broken off talks?\" Kobayakawa asked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"No,\" Ekei replied. \"There are prospects of success.\"\n\n\"Well then, Hideyoshi has yielded?\" Kobayakawa asked, looking a little surprised. Ekei, however, shook his head.\n\n\"The person who has prayed more than anyone for a peaceful reconciliation has offered to sacrifice himself for the sake of peace.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Who are you talking about?\"\n\n\"General Muneharu. He said that he would repay with his life Lord Terumoto's protection for all these years.\"\n\n\"Ekei, did you talk to him at Hideyoshi's request?\"\n\n\"You know I could not have gone out to the castle without his permission.\"\n\n\"Then you explained the situation to Muneharu, and he offered to commit seppuku of his own free will?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yes. He will kill himself at the Hour of the Horse, on board a boat in full view of both armies. At that moment the peace treaty will be concluded, the lives of the defenders will be saved, and the safety of the Mori clan will be assured forever.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Full of emotion, Kobayakawa asked, \"What are Hideyoshi's intentions?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"When he heard General Muneharu's offer, Lord Hideyoshi was deeply moved. He said that it would be heartless not to reward such matchless loyalty. Therefore, while your promise had been to cede five provinces, he would take only three and leave the remaining two, out of regard for Muneharu's sacrifice. If there is no disagreement, he will send a written pledge immediately after witnessing Muneharu's seppuku?\"\n\nSoon after Ekei had left, Muneharu announced his decision. One after another, the samurai of Takamatsu Castle came before their lord to beg him to allow them to follow him in death. Muneharu argued, cajoled, and scolded, but they would not be mollified. He was at a loss what to do." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But in the end he did not grant anyone's request." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He ordered an attendant to prepare a boat." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Bitter wailing filled the castle. When the requests of all his retainers had been withdrawn, and Muneharu seemed to have a little breathing space, Gessho, his elder brother, came to speak with him.\n\n\"I heard everything you said,\" Gessho said. \"But there's no need for you to die. Let me take your place.\"\n\n\"Brother, you are a monk, while I am a general. I appreciate your offer, but I cannot let anyone take my place.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I was the eldest son, and I should have carried on the family name. Instead I chose to enter holy orders, putting you in the position that I should have taken. So today, when you have to commit seppuku, there is no reason why I should prolong what's left of my own life.\"\n\n\"No matter what you say,\" Muneharu replied, \"I will not let you or anyone else commit seppuku in my place.\"\n\nMuneharu refused Gessho's offer but allowed him to accompany him in the boat. Muneharu felt at peace. Calling his pages, he ordered them to put out a light blue ceremonial kimono for him to die in." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"And bring me a brush and ink,\" he ordered, remembering to write a letter to his wife and son.\n\nThe Hour of the Horse was fast approaching. Every single drop of drinking water had been regarded as essential to the lives of the people in the castle, but that day he ordered a bucketfull of water to be brought in, to clean off the dirt that had accumulated on his body during the forty days of the siege.\n\nHow peaceful was this lull in the fighting. The sun seemed to climb innocently to the middle of the sky." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There was no wind at all, and the color of the muddy water on all sides of the castle was as murky as ever.\n\nThe small waves that lapped gently at the castle walls glinted in the sun, and from time to time the cry of the snowy egret could be heard in the silence.\n\nA small red banner was raised at the Nose of the Frog on the opposite shore, indicating that the time had come. Muneharu stood up abruptly. An involuntary sob came from the midst of his attendants." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Muneharu walked quickly in the direction of the castle walls, as though he had suddenly become deaf." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The oar made a loose pattern in the water." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The boat carried five men: Muneharu, Gessho, and three retainers. Every single man, woman, and child in the castle was perched on the walls and rooftops. They did not cry out when they watched Muneharu go but either folded their hands in prayer or wiped the tears from their eyes.\n\nThe boat sculled peacefully over the surface of the lake. When he turned around, Gessho could see that Takamatsu Castle was a good way behind them, and that the boat was halfway between the castle and the Nose of the Frog." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"This will do,\" Muneharu instructed the oarsman.\n\nThe man pulled up the oar without a word. They did not have to wait for long.\n\nWhen the boat had set out from the castle, another had left the Nose of the Frog. That one carried Hideyoshi's witness, Horio Mosuke." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A small red banner had been fixed to the prow and a red carpet spread over the wooden floor.\n\nThe little boat bearing Muneharu in his death robe floated gently as it waited for Mosuke's boat with its fluttering red banner to pull alongside. The water was at peace. The surrounding mountains were at peace. The only sound to be heard was the oar of the approaching boat." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Muneharu faced the Mori camp on Mount Iwasaki and bowed. In his heart he gave thanks for the many years of patronage he had received. Gazing at his lord's banners, his eyes filled with tears.\n\n\"Is this boat carrying the defending general of Takamatsu Castle, Shimizu Muneharu?\" Mosuke asked.\n\n\"You are correct,\" Muneharu answered politely." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I am Shimizu Muneharu. I have come to commit seppuku as a condition of the peace treaty.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I have something else to say, so please wait a moment,\" Mosuke said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Bring your boat a little closer,\" he instructed the retainer at the oar of Muneharu's boat." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The gunwales of the two boats lightly brushed each other." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Mosuke then said in a dignified manner, \"I have a message from Lord Hideyoshi. Peace would have been impossible without your consent in this matter. The long siege must have been trying for you, and he would like you to accept this offering as a small token of his feelings. You should not be concerned if the sun climbs too high. Please finish your leave-taking at your leisure.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A cask of the best sake and a number of delicacies were transferred from one boat to the other.\n\nMuneharu's face was filled with joy. \"This is unexpected. And, if it is Lord Hideyoshi's wish, I will gladly sample them.\" Muneharu helped himself, and ladled cups for his companions. \"Maybe it's because I haven't had such fine sake for a long time, but I'm feeling a little drunk. Please excuse my clumsiness, General Horio, but I would like to perform a final dance.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Then turning to his companions, he asked, \"We don't have a drum, but would you clap and beat the rhythm and sing?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Muneharu stood up in the small boat and flicked open a white fan. As he moved to the rhythm of the clapping, the boat swayed slightly, making small waves. Mosuke could nor bear to look at him and hung his head.\n\nAs soon as the chanting stopped, Muneharu spoke distinctly once again. \"General Mosuke, please witness this carefully.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Mosuke looked up and saw that Muneharu had knelt down and cut straight across his stomach with his sword. As he spoke, his blood turned the inside of the boat red.\n\n\"Brother, I'm coming too!\" Gessho cried out, slashing his own belly.\n\nAfter Muneharu's retainers had handed the box containing Muneharu's severed head to Mosuke and returned to the castle, they followed their master in death." }, { "from": "human", "value": "When Mosuke arrived at the Jihoin Temple, he reported Muneharu's seppuku and displayed his head in front of Hideyoshi's camp stool." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Such a pity,\" Hideyoshi lamented. \"Muneharu was an excellent samurai.\" He had never appeared more moved. But soon thereafter, he summoned Ekei. When the monk arrived, Hideyoshi immediately showed him a document." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The only thing that remains now is to exchange pledges. Look at what I've written, and then I'll send a messenger for the Mori's pledge.\"\n\nEkei looked over the pledge and then respectfully returned it to Hideyoshi. Hideyoshi asked for a brush and signed. He then cut his little finger and affixed a seal of blood next to his signature. The peace treaty was signed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A few hours later, shock and a sense of loss swept over the Mori camp like a whirlwind with the report of Nobunaga's death." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In Terumoto's field headquarters, the faction that had opposed peace all along now spoke up loudly, clamoring for an immediate attack on Hideyoshi.\n\n\"We were fooled!\"\n\n\"That bastard completely took us in!\"\n\n\"The peace treaty should be torn up!\"\n\n\"We have not been deceived,\" Kobayakawa said firmly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The talks were initiated by us, not by Hideyoshi. And there was no way he could have foreseen the disaster in Kyoto.\"\n\nHis brother Kikkawa, who spoke for those who favored the resumption of hostilities, urged Terumoto, \"Nobunaga's death means the disintegration of the Oda forces; they will be no match for us now. Hideyoshi is the first one you'd name as a successor to Nobunaga, and it should be an easy matter to attack him here and now, especially considering the weakness at his rear. If we were to do that, we would become the rulers of the Empire.\"\n\n\"No, no. I disagree,\" Kobayakawa said. \"Hideyoshi is the only man who can restore peace and order. And it's an old samurai saying that one does not strike an enemy in mourning. Even if we were to tear up the treaty and attack, if he survived, he would come back to take his revenge.\"\n\n\"We cannot let this opportunity slip by,\" Kikkawa insisted." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As a last resort, Kobayakawa brought up their former lord's dying instructions: \"The clan must defend its own borders. No matter how strong or wealthy we become, we must never expand beyond the western provinces.\"\n\nIt was time for the lord of the Mori to give his decision. \"I agree with my uncle Kobayakawa. We will not break the treaty and make Hideyoshi into an enemy for a second time.\"\n\nBy the time the secret conference ended, it was the evening of the fourth. As the two generals walked back to their camp, they met a party of their own scouts." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The officer in charge pointed excitedly into the darkness and said, \"The Ukita have started to withdraw their troops.\"\n\nListening to the report, Kikkawa clicked his tongue. The opportunity had already passed. Kobayakawa read his older brother's thoughts. \"Are you still feeling some regrets?\" he asked." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 6 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Of course I am.\"\n\n\"Well, suppose we did take over the country,\" Kobayakawa continued, \"do you think you'd be the man to rule?\" There was a pause. \"Judging from your silence, I suspect you don't think so. When someone without the proper ability rules the country, it leads to certain chaos. It would not stop at the fall of the Mori clan.\"\n\n\"You don't have to say any more, I understand,\" Kikkawa said, turning away. Looking up sadly at the night sky over the western provinces, he fought to hold back the tears that were rolling down his cheeks." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Task: The user will write a bit then you need to write around 2 sentences continuing directly from the user's text.\n\nAuthor style: Eiji Yoshikawa" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Inuchiyo, Kanamori, and Fuwa returned to Kitanosho on the tenth day of the same month, and immediately reported to Katsuie." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Katsuie was overjoyed that his plan to establish a pretense of peace had been carried out more smoothly than he had anticipated.\n\nSoon thereafter Katsuie held a secret meeting with his most trusted retainers and told them, \"We'll keep the peace through the winter. As soon as the snows melt, we'll butcher our old enemy with a single blow.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "As soon as Katsuie had completed the first stage of his strategy by making peace with Hideyoshi, he dispatched another envoy, this time to Tokugawa Ieyasu." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "That was at the end of the Eleventh Month.\n\nFor the last half year—since the Sixth Month—Ieyasu had been absent from the center of activity." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "After the Honno Temple incident, the entire nation's attention had been focused on filling the void that had been created when the center had so suddenly collapsed. During that time, when no one had had a moment to look anywhere else, Ieyasu had taken his own independent road." }, { "from": "human", "value": "At the time of Nobunaga's murder, he had been on a sightseeing tour of Sakai and had barely been able to return to his own province with his life." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Immediately ordering military preparations, he pushed as far as Narumi." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But the motive behind that action was quite different from the one Katsuie had had for crossing over Yanagase from Echizen." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When Ieyasu heard that Hideyoshi had reached Yamazaki, he said, \"Our province is entirely at peace.\" Then he withdrew his army to Hamamatsu." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ieyasu had never considered himself to be in the same category as Nobunaga's surviving retainers. He was an ally of the Oda clan, while Katsuie and Hideyoshi were Nobunaga's generals." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He wondered why he should take part in the struggle among the surviving retainers, why he should fight to pick over the ashes. And there was something far more substantial for him now." }, { "from": "human", "value": "For some time he had watched eagerly for a chance at territorial expansion into Kai and Shinano, the two provinces that bordered his own." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He had been unable to play his hand while Nobunaga was alive, and there would likely be no better opportunity than now.\n\nThe man who foolishly opened up a path toward that goal and who gave Ieyasu a splendid opportunity was Hojo Ujinao, the lord of Sagami, another of the men who took advantage of the Honno Temple incident." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Thinking that the time was ripe, a huge Hojo army of fifty thousand men crossed into the former Takeda domain of Kai." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was a largescale invasion, executed almost as though Ujinao had simply taken a brush and drawn a line across a map, taking possession of what he thought he could." }, { "from": "human", "value": "That action gave Ieyasu a splendid reason to dispatch troops." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The force he raised, however, consisted of only eight thousand men. The three-thousand-man vanguard checked a Hojo force of well over ten thousand men before it joined Ieyasu's main force." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The war lasted more than ten days." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 3 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Finally, the Hojo army could do nothing more than make a last stand or—as Ieyasu had hoped for and as it finally did—sue for peace.\n\n\"Joshu will be handed to the Hojo, while the two provinces of Kai and Shinano will be awarded to the Tokugawa clan.\"\n\nThat was the agreement to which they came, and it was just as Ieyasu had intended." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "can u write? use my bit as a start. add these 2: samurai, Japan" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The man appeared to be a traveling monk, but walked with the gait of a fighting man." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Right now he was climbing the Shufukuji road." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Where are you going!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "the Shibata guard challenged." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It's me,\" the priest replied, pushing back his monk's hood." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The sentries signaled to the palisade behind them." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "At the wooden gate was huddled yet another party of men." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The monk approached the officer and said a few words." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There appeared to be some confusion for a few moments, but then the officer himself led out a horse and handed the priest the reins." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Mount Yukiichi was the encampment of Sakuma Genba and his younger brother, Yasumasa." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The man dressed as a priest was Mizuno Shinroku, a retainer of Yasumasa." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He had been entrusted with a secret message, and was now kneeling in front of his lord, inside his headquarters." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"How did it go? Good or bad news?\" Yasumasa asked impatiently." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Everything is arranged,\" Shinroku replied." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Were you able to meet him? Did everything go well?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The enemy already has strict lookouts, but I was able to meet with Lord Shogen.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What are his intentions?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I have them written down in a letter.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He looked inside his wickerwork hat and tore off the joint of the hat's cord." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A letter that had been pasted underneath fell onto his lap." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Shinroku straightened out the creases and put the letter into his lord's hand." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Yasumasa studied the envelope for some time." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Yes, this is definitely Shogen's handwriting, but it's addressed to my brother. Come with me. We'll go see my brother right now and notify the main camp at Mount Nakao.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Lord and retainer went out through the palisade and climbed to the peak of Mount Yukiichi." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The arrangement of men and horses, the palisade gates and the barracks became progressively tighter and more controlled as they reached the top." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Finally the main citadel, which looked like a castle, came into view, and they could see innumerable curtained enclosures spread over the peak." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Tell my brother that I am here.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "As Yasumasa spoke to the guard, one of Genba's retainers came running up." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I'm afraid Lord Genba is not in his quarters, my lord.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Has he gone to Mount Nakao?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No, he's over there.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Looking in the direction in which the retainer was pointing, he saw his brother, Genba, sitting with five or six warriors and pages on the grass beyond the main citadel." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was difficult to see what they were doing." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When he came closer, he could see that Genba was having one of the pages hold a mirror while another held a basin." }, { "from": "human", "value": "There, under a blue sky, he was shaving as though he had no other care in the world." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was the twelfth day of the Fourth Month." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Summer had already come, and in the castle towns on the plains, the heat could be felt." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But in the mountains, spring was now at its height." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Yasumasa walked over and knelt on the grass." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Well, brother?\" Genba looked at him out of the corner of his eye, but continued to thrust out his chin in front of the mirror until he was finally finished shaving." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Only after the razor was put away and the shaved hair was washed from his face with the water in the basin did he turn completely to face his little brother." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What is it, Yasumasa?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Would you have all the pages withdraw, please?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Why don't we go back to my quarters?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"No, no. This is really the best place for a secret discussion.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You think so? All right.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Turning to his pages, Genba ordered them to withdraw some distance." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The pages took the mirror and basin and left." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The samurai also withdrew." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The Sakuma brothers remained facing each other on the top of the mountain." }, { "from": "human", "value": "One other man was there—Mizuno Shinroku, who had come along with Yasumasa." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In accordance with his position, Shinroku was still at a distance, prostrating himself toward his two superiors." }, { "from": "human", "value": "At that point Genba noticed him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Shinroku has returned, has he?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"He has and he reports that everything went smoothly. His errand seems to have been successful.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'm sure it wasn't easy. Well, what about Shogen's reply?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Here is Shogen's letter.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Genba opened the letter as soon as he held it in his hand." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "An open pleasure filled his eyes and hung on the corners of his mouth." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "What kind of secret success could have made him so happy?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His shoulders shook almost uncontrollably." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Shinroku, come a little closer. You're too far away over there.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Yes, my lord.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"According to Shogen's letter, it appears that the real details were entrusted to you. Tell me everything Shogen had to say.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Lord Shogen said that both he and Lord Ogane had had differences of opinion with their lord, Katsutoyo, even before Nagahama changed sides. Hideyoshi knew that and though they have been put in charge of the fortresses at Mount Dangi and Mount Shinmei, they are under the watchful eye of Hideyoshi's trusted retainer, Kimura Hayato. They can hardly make a move.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"But both Shogen and Ogane intend to escape and come here.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"They plan to kill Kimura Hayato tomorrow morning, and then bring their men over to our side.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"If this is going to happen tomorrow morning, there's no time to lose. Send out a force to them,\" Genba ordered Yasumasa." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He then interrogated Shinroku once again." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Some reports say that Hideyoshi is in his main camp, while others claim that he is in Nagahama. Do you know where he is?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Shinroku admitted that he did not." }, { "from": "human", "value": "For the Shibata side, the question of whether Hideyoshi was at the front or at Nagahama was an extremely important one." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Without knowing where he was, the Shibata were uncertain how to proceed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Katsuie's strategy was not for a single frontal attack." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He had been waiting quite some time for the opportunity to have Nobutaka's Gifu army spring into action." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Takigawa Kazumasu's forces could then initiate their attack, and together the two armies of Mino and Ise would threaten Hideyoshi's rear." }, { "from": "human", "value": "At that point Katsuie's main force of twenty thousand men could rush in and drive Hideyoshi into a corner at Nagahama." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Katsuie had already received a letter from Nobutaka to that effect." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "If Hideyoshi was at Nagahama, he would quickly catch wind of such operations and see to it that both Gifu and Yanagase were ready." }, { "from": "human", "value": "If Hideyoshi was now on the front lines, Katsuie would have to be fully ready, for the time for Nobutaka's uprising was now." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But before any of those plans could be carried out, the Shibata had to pin down Hideyoshi to create the right circumstances for Nobutaka to move." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"That one point remains unclear,\" Genba said again." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There was no doubt that during the long period of waiting, which had lasted for more than a month, he was becoming more and more depressed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Well, we succeeded in luring Shogen, and we should rejoice in that alone. Lord Katsuie must be informed immediately. We will wait for Shogen's signal tomorrow.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Yasumasa and Shinroku left first and returned to their own camp." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Genba called over a page to bring him his favorite horse." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Accompanied by ten warriors, he left immediately for the main camp on Mount Nakao." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The newly built road between Mount Yukiichi and the main camp at Nakao was about four yards wide and meandered along for over two leagues, along the ridgeline of the mountains." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The spring greenery of the mountains filled the warriors' eyes, and as Genba whipped his horse along, even he was overcome by a poetic sentiment." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The main camp at Mount Nakao was surrounded by several palisades." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Each time Genba approached a gate, he would simply give his name and ride through, looking down at the guards from his saddle." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But just as he was about to ride through the gate to the main citadel, the commander of the guards called out abruptly and challenged him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Wait! Where are you going?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Genba turned around and stared at the man." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Ah, is that you, Menju? I've come to see my uncle. Is he in his quarters or at staff headquarters?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Menju frowned, walked around in front of Genba, and said angrily, \"Dismount first, please.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"This gate is very close to Lord Katsuie's headquarters. It doesn't make any difference who you are or how much of a hurry you're in, it is not permitted to ride in on horseback.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You dare say that to me, Menju?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Genba said angrily, but according to military discipline he could not really refuse." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Instead he dismounted as Menju had required him to do and barked, \"Where's my uncle?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"He's in the middle of a military conference.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Who's attending?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Lord Haigo, Lord Osa, Lord Hara, Lord Asami, and Lord Katsutoshi.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"If that's so, it'll be all right if I join them.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No, I'll announce you.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"That won't be necessary.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Genba pushed his way through." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Menju watched him as he walked off." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A look of misery clouded his face." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The challenge he had thrown out just now, at the risk of his own reputation, was not simply for the sake of military law." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He had been secretly trying to get Genba to reflect on his attitude for some time." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The attitude shown in the proud manner Genba usually displayed was connected with his uncle's favoritism." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When he observed how the lord of Kitanosho acted with biased blind love toward his nephew, Menju could not help feeling uneasy about the future." }, { "from": "human", "value": "At the very least, he felt that it was not right for Genba to be calling the commander-in-chief \"uncle.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But Genba paid no attention to such matters as Menju's unhappy thoughts." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He now walked directly into his uncle's headquarters, ignoring the other retainers there, and whispered to his uncle, \"When you're finished, I have a private matter to discuss with you.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Katsuie quickly ended the conference." }, { "from": "human", "value": "After the generals had all withdrawn, he leaned from his camp stool and spoke excitedly with his nephew." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "After giving a self-satisfied laugh, Genba silently showed Shogen's answer as though he knew it would give Katsuie great pleasure." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Katsuie was immensely pleased." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The plot that he had conceived and asked Genba to put into effect was working." }, { "from": "human", "value": "On that account alone, the happiness of having seen everything go according to plan was greater for him than for anyone." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He, in particular, had the reputation for loving intrigue, and as he read Shogen's reply he was so happy that he was almost drooling." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The aim of the plot was to weaken the enemy from within." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "From Katsuie's point of view, the presence of men like Shogen and Ogane in Hideyoshi's army provided opportunities for hatching plot after plot." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As for Shogen, he believed that the victory would go to the Shibata." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "That belief was surprisingly blind." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It is true that at a later date he, too, would be anguished and undoubtedly questioned by his own conscience." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But the letter of consent had already been sent, and it was no longer a matter for deliberation. For better or worse, Shogen's betrayal was definitely set for the following morning, and he waited to invite the Shibata army into his fortress." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "WRITING ASSISTANT ENGAGED\nCONTINUE USER INPUT\nOUTPUT: 7 sentences SENTENCES\nGENRES: historical fiction\nINCORPORATE: samurai, Japan" }, { "from": "human", "value": "On the morning of the same day, six or seven warships moved north across Lake Biwa like a flock of water birds." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "On the curtain enfolding the bridge of one of the ships, a large iris crest fluttered in the wind.\n\nNiwa Nagahide was standing on the bridge of the ship when he suddenly saw black smoke rising from a mountain on the north side of the lake and yelled out to the men around him. \"Is that near Oiwa or Shizugatake?\" he asked.\n\n\"It looks like Shizugatake,\" one of the members of his staff replied.\n\nIn fact, as one looked out in that direction, the mountains appeared to be piled one on top of another, so that the flames from Mount Oiwa looked quite convincingly as though they were rising from Shizugatake.\n\n\"It's hard to understand.\" Niwa knitted his brow and continued to gaze steadily out into the distance." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was surprising how overly accurate his premonition was." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "At dawn that day—the twentieth of the month—he had received a message from his son, Nabemaru:\n\nThere have been suspicious movements in both Katsuie's and Genba's camps during the night.\n\nAt that time he had guessed that what he must be seeing was an enemy attack. Hideyoshi was busy attacking Gifu. And if their enemies were aware of it, they would know that it was the moment to strike at Hideyoshi's unguarded position.\n\nNiwa felt apprehensive as soon as he heard his son's report. Boarding his meager force of a thousand men aboard five or six ships, he had them cross the lake to the vicinity of Kuzuo." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Just as he had feared, there were flames from the direction of Shizugatake, and when they finally approached the shore at Kuzuo, he could hear gunfire.\n\n\"The enemy seems to have overrun the fortress at Motoyama. Shizugatake is also in danger, and I doubt if Mount Iwasaki will be able to hold out.\"\n\nNiwa asked two of the staff officers for their opinions.\n\n\"The situation certainly doesn't look good,\" one of the men answered. \"The enemy has sent in a large force, and it would appear that our numbers are not going to be sufficient to help our allies in this emergency. The best plan would be to return to Sakamoto and entrench ourselves in the castle there.\"\n\n\"You're talking nonsense,\" Niwa said, dismissing the suggestion. \"Disembark the entire army immediately. Then take the ships to Kaitsu and bring a third of Nagamaru's forces.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Will there be time, my lord?\"\n\n\"Everyday calculations have absolutely no value when it comes to war. Our mere presence will have an effect. It will take them some time to realize how few of us there are. And that will delay them. Get the troops landed, and hurry back to Kaitsu.\"\n\nThe army landed at Ozaki, and the ships set sail immediately. Niwa brought his horse to a stop in a village to question the locals.\n\nThe villagers told him that the battle had begun at dawn and was completely unexpected. Just as they had seen the flames from Mount Oiwa, they had heard war cries like the sound of tidal waves. Then, warriors from the Sakuma forces, perhaps a reconnoitering party, had whipped their horses through the village from the direction of Yogo." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Rumor had it that Nakagawa Sebei's forces defended the fortress but were cut down to the last man.\n\nWhen asked if they knew anything about Kuwayama's men in the area of Shizugatake, the villagers answered that just moments ago, Lord Kuwayama Shigeharu had led all of his forces from the fortress at Shizugatake and was now hurrying along the mountain road in the direction of Kinomoto.\n\nThis information left Niwa in openmouthed surprise. He had come with reinforcements, ready to entrench himself here with his allies, but the Nakagawa forces had been annihilated and the Kuwayama forces had abandoned their posts and were fleeing as fast as they could. What disgraceful conduct! What had they been thinking? Niwa pitied Kuwayama's confusion.\n\n\"And this happened just now?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "he asked the villagers." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"They couldn't be much farther than half a league away,\" the farmer replied.\n\n\"Inosuke!\" he called out to a retainer. \"Run after the Kuwayama corps and talk with Lord Shigeharu. Tell him that I've come and that we'll defend Shizugatake together. Tell him to turn back immediately!\"\n\n\"Yes, my lord!\"\n\nThe man whipped his horse and hurried off in the direction of Kinomoto.\n\nKuwayama had tried two or three times that morning to persuade Nakagawa to retreat, but had offered him no help at all and had completely lost his head at the onslaught of the Sakuma forces. As soon as he heard of the destruction of the Nakagawa corps, he wavered all the more." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Then, in the face of the rout of the central camp of his allies, he abandoned Shizugatake without firing a single bullet or wielding a spear in resistance, fleeing with a pace that left every man for himself." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His intentions were to join up with their allies at Kinomoto and then wait for Hidenaga's orders. But now, en route, here was a man from the Niwa clan informing him of Niwa's reinforcements. Suddenly gaining courage, he reorganized his troops, made a quick turnaround, and went back to Shizugatake.\n\nIn the meantime Niwa had reassured the villagers. Ascending Shizugatake, he was finally united with Kuwayama Shigeharu.\n\nHe wrote a letter at once, sending it by dispatch to Hideyoshi's camp in Mino, informing him of the urgency of the situation.\n\nThe Sakuma forces at Mount Oiwa made a provisional camp there and, secure in their feeling of triumph, rested quietly for more than two hours from about the Hour of the Horse." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The warriors were weary after the intense battle and the long march that had started the night before." }, { "from": "human", "value": "After eating their provisions, however, they took pride in their blood-soaked hands and feet; lighthearted talk arose here and there, and their fatigue was forgotten." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Orders were given, and the officers were told to relay them from corps to corps.\n\n\"Sleep! Sleep! Close your eyes for a while. No one knows what's going to happen tonight!\"\n\nThe clouds overhead looked like the clouds of summer, and the cries of the season's first cicadas could be heard in the trees. The wind wafted pleasantly over the mountains from lake to lake, and the soldiers—who had now satisfied their empty stomachs—finally felt themselves becoming drowsy. Still holding their firearms and spears, they sat down.\n\nIn the shade of the trees, the horses closed their eyes as well, and even the group commanders leaned against the trunks and fell asleep.\n\nEverything was quiet, but it was the kind of silence that comes after an intense fight." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The camp of their enemies—who had been wrapped in dreams until just before dawn—had been turned to ashes, and all of its soldiers become corpses left to the clusters of grass." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was now fully day, but death was in the air. Except for the alertness of the sentries everything was subdued, even the atmosphere in the staff headquarters was hushed.\n\nThe loud snores of the commander-in-chief, Genba, leaked happily through the curtains. Suddenly, five or six horses came to a halt somewhere, and a group of men in helmets and armor ran in the direction of the field staff headquarters. The members of the staff, who had sat sleeping around Genba, quickly looked outside.\n\n\"What's up?\" they yelled.\n\n\"It's Matsumura Tomojuro, Kobayashi Zusho, and the other scouts.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Come on in.\"\n\nThe man who invited them in was Genba. Awakened unexpectedly, his eyes were wide with surprise and still red from a lack of sleep. It appeared that just before taking a nap, he had gulped down a good deal of sake. A large red sake cup lay empty next to his seat.\n\nMatsumura knelt in a corner of the curtained enclosure and then reported what they had observed.\n\n\"There's no longer even a single enemy soldier at Mount Iwasaki. We thought there was a chance that they had hidden their banners and were planning to lie in wait for us, so we looked around to make sure. But the commanding general, Takayama Ukon, and everyone under his command have gone to Mount Tagami.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Genba clapped his hands." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"They ran away?\" He laughed out loud and looked around at his staff officers. \"He says Ukon ran away! He's a fast one, isn't he!\" He laughed again, sending his entire body into convulsions of glee.\n\nIt seemed he had not yet sobered up from the drunken state he had fallen into after the victory sake. Genba could not stop laughing.\n\nJust then, the messenger who had been sent to Katsuie's main camp to report on the war situation returned with Katsuie's instructions.\n\n\"Are there no enemy movements in the area of Kitsunezaka?\" Genba asked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Nothing in particular. Lord Katsuie seems to be in very fine spirits.\"\n\n\"I imagine he was quite pleased.\"\n\n\"Yes, he was.\" The messenger continued to answer Genba's repeated questions without even the chance to wipe the sweat from his brow. \"When I described the details of this morning's battle to him, he said, 'Is that so? Well, that's just like that nephew of mine.'\"\n\n\"Well, what about Sebei's head?\"\n\n\"He examined it immediately and said that it was definitely Sebei's. Looking around at the men who were with him, he declared it to be a good omen, and his mood seemed to improve even more.\"\n\nGenba was in a very good mood himself." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hearing of Katsuie's happiness, he exulted in his own triumph and burned with the desire to surprise his uncle with even greater joy." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I suppose that the lord of Kitanosho still doesn't know that the fortress at Mount Iwasaki has also fallen into my hands,\" he laughed. \"He gets satisfied just a little too quickly.\"\n\n\"No, the capture of Iwasaki was reported to him at about the time I was taking my leave.\"\n\n\"Well then, there's no need to send another dispatch, is there?\"\n\n\"If that were the only thing.\"\n\n\"At any rate, by tomorrow morning Shizugatake is going to be mine.\"\n\n\"Well, as for that... \"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What do you mean?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Lord Katsuie said you might get carried away with this victory and start viewing the enemy as being too easy to deal with, and this might begin to put you off guard.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You're talking foolishness,\" Genba said, laughing." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I'm not going to get drunk on this one victory.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"But just before you left, Lord Katsuie gave you that one warning in particular, telling you to make a clean retreat when you've entered deep into the enemy's territory. It's dangerous to stay here very long. Today again, he told me to tell you to return right away.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"He said to withdraw immediately?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"His words were that you should withdraw quickly and unite forces with our allies to the rear.\"\n\n\"How weak-willed!\" Genba grunted, showing a thin derisive smile. \"Well, all right.\"\n\nAt that point, several scouts entered with their reports. Niwa's three thousand men had joined forces with the Kuwayama corps, and together they were reinforcing the defenses at Shizugatake.\n\nThat simply threw oil on the fire of Genba's eagerness to attack. Such news will make a truly brave general want to fight all the more.\n\n\"This will be interesting.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Genba brushed aside the camp curtain and went outside." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Looking out over the new greenery of the mountains, he could see Shizugatake at a distance of about two leagues to the south." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Closer and below where he stood, a general was climbing up from the foot of the mountain, accompanied by a number of attendants. The defending commander of the wooden barrier gate was hurrying ahead to show him the way.\n\nGenba clicked his tongue and muttered, \"That must be Dosei.\"\n\nAs soon as he recognized a general always at his uncle's side, he guessed the man's errand before meeting him.\n\n\"Ah, here you are.\"\n\nDosei wiped the sweat from his brow. Genba simply stood there without inviting the man inside the curtained enclosure." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Lord Dosei, what are you doing here?\" he asked flatly.\n\nDosei looked as though he did not wish to say anything there and then, but Genba spoke out first.\n\n\"We'll camp here tonight and withdraw tomorrow. This was reported to my uncle already.\" He looked like he did not want to hear anything else about it.\n\n\"I've been informed.\" Dosei politely introduced his remarks with a greeting. He then congratulated Genba at length on his great victory at Mount Oiwa, but Genba was not able to bear his roundaboutness.\n\n\"Did my uncle send you here because he's still anticipating trouble?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"As you've conjectured, he's extremely anxious about your plan to camp here. His wishes are for you to withdraw from enemy territory by tonight at the latest and return to his main camp.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Don't worry, Dosei. When my picked troops advance, they have explosive power; when they stand to defend a place, they're like steel walls. We have not been shamed yet.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Lord Katsuie has had faith in you from the very beginning, but when you look at this from a military standpoint, to be delayed when you've penetrated deep inside enemy territory is not really the accomplishment of your strategy.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Wait a moment, Dosei. Are you saying that I don't understand the art of war? And are those your words or my uncle's?\"\n\nAt that point even Dosei was getting nervous, and there was really nothing he could do but stay silent. He began to feel that his role as a messenger was putting him in danger.\n\n\"If you say so, my lord. I shall report the extent of your conviction to Lord Katsuie.\"\n\nDosei hurriedly took his leave, and when Genba returned to his seat he quickly sent out orders. Dispatching one corps of men to Mount Iwasaki, he also directed a number of small reconnaissance parties to Minegamine and the vicinity of Kannonzaka, between Shizugatake and Mount Oiwa.\n\nSoon thereafter, another voice was heard making an announcement." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Lord Joemon has just arrived on orders from the main camp at Kitsune.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The messenger this time had not come for simple conversation or to relay Katsuie's thoughts." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Rather, he delivered formal military orders, the content of which was yet another request to retreat." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Genba listened tamely, but his answer, as before, firmly upheld his own view and he showed no indication of submitting." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"He has already given me the responsibility of supervising an incursion deep into enemy territory. To comply with what he asks now would be to omit the finishing touch to a military operation that has been successful so far. I would like him to trust me with the baton of command for just one more step.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "So Genba neither bowed to what the envoy had been sent to say nor submitted to his commander-in-chief's very explicit orders." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He had used his ego as a shield." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Standing before him now, even Joemon—who had been chosen to come here by Katsuie himself—was unable to prevail upon the man's rigidity.\n\n\"There's nothing more I can do,\" Joemon said, washing his hands of the whole affair. His final words were accompanied by a slightly indignant look. \"I cannot imagine what Lord Katsuie will think, but I will pass your answer on to him.\"\n\nJoemon quickly returned without further conversation. He naturally whipped his horse to quicken his return, just as he had in coming.\n\nThus the third messenger returned, and by the time the fourth arrived, the sun was growing dim in the west." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The old warrior, Ota Kuranosuke, a veteran retainer and personal attendant to Katsuie, talked at length." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He spoke, however, more about the relationship between uncle and nephew than about the order itself, and did his best to soften the youthful Genba's rigid stance." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Now, now. I understand your resolve, but of all the members of your family, Lord Katsuie holds you in the highest esteem, and that's why he's so worried now. Particularly, now that you've destroyed one section of the enemy, we will be able to consolidate our position, continue to make one victory after another, and break down the enemy's weak points step by step. That is our larger strategy, and it's the one that has been decided upon in order to take control of the country. Listen, Lord Genba, you should stop here.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The road is going to be dangerous when the sun goes down, old man. Go back.\"\n\n\"You won't do it, will you?\"\n\n\"What are you talking about?\"\n\n\"What is your decision?\"\n\n\"I wasn't thinking of making that decision from the very beginning.\"\n\nFatigued, the old retainer left.\n\nThe fifth messenger arrived." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Genba had become even more rigid." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He had come so far, and he was not going to turn back. He refused to see the messenger, but the man was not some minor retainer. The messengers who had come that day had all been distinguished men, but the fifth one was a particularly powerful member of Katsuie's entourage.\n\n\"I know that our envoys to you may not have been satisfactory, but now Lord Katsuie has talked about coming here himself. We, his close attendants, have urged him to stay in camp and I, as unworthy as I am, have come in his place. I implore you to think about this clearly and then strike camp and leave Mount Oiwa as quickly as possible.\"\n\nHe made his plea while prostrating himself outside the curtained enclosure.\n\nGenba, however, had judged the situation thus: Even if Hideyoshi had been informed of the incident and had hurried from Ogaki, it was still a distance of thirteen leagues from there to here, and it would have taken until nightfall for the warning to arrive. It would also not be an easy matter to get away quickly from Gifu." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Therefore, the soonest imaginable time for the completion of that shift in field positions would be tomorrow night or the day after." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"That nephew of mine is not going to listen, no matter who I send,\" Katsuie complained. \"I'll have to go there myself and make him withdraw by nightfall.\"\n\nThe main camp at Kitsune had received word that day of the raiding army's happy success and was temporarily overjoyed. But the order for a swift retreat had not been carried out. In fact, Genba had dismissed all of the distinguished envoys with a refusal to obey and a derisive sneer.\n\n\"Ah, that nephew of mine is going to be the end of me,\" Katsuie lamented, barely able to contain himself. When word leaked out about the internal discord within the field staff—that Genba's willfulness was being criticized by Katsuie—the martial spirit within the camp somehow lost its cheerfulness." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Another envoy has left camp.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What! Another?\"\n\nThe repeated comings and goings between the main camp and Mount Oiwa pained the hearts of the warriors.\n\nFor half a day, Katsuie felt his life would be shortened. During the time he waited for the return of his fifth envoy, he could hardly stay seated on his camp stool. The camp was located at a temple in Kitsunezaka, and it was along the corridors of that building that Katsuie now wandered silently, looking in the direction of the temple gate.\n\n\"Shichiza hasn't returned yet?\" he asked his close attendants innumerable times." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It's already evening, isn't it?\"\n\nAs dusk pressed in, he became irritated. The evening sun was now casting its light on the bell tower.\n\n\"Lord Yadoya has returned!\" That was the message relayed by the warrior at the temple gate.\n\n\"What happened?\" Katsuie asked anxiously.\n\nThe man delivered his report frankly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Genba had at first refused to meet him, but Yadoya had persisted. He had related his lord's view in detail, but in vain. Genba insisted that even if Hideyoshi rushed to Mount Oiwa from Ogaki, it would take him at least one or two days. Thus Genba would be able to destroy Hideyoshi's troops quite easily because they would be so fatigued from the long journey. For that reason, he had declared his resolution to remain on Mount Oiwa and in no way appeared ready to change his mind.\n\nKatsuie's eyes glistened with anger. \"That fool!\" he yelled, almost as if he were spitting blood." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Then, beneath a heavy groan that shook his entire frame, he muttered, \"Genba's behavior is outrageous.\"\n\n\"Yaso! Yaso!\" Looking all around him and into the warriors' waiting area in the next room, Katsuie yelled out in a high-pitched voice.\n\n\"Are you looking for Yoshida Yaso?\" Menju Shosuke asked in return.\n\n\"Of course!\" Katsuie shrieked, venting his anger on Shosuke. \"Call him here right now! Tell him to come here right away!\"\n\nRunning footsteps echoed through the temple." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Yoshida Yaso received Katsuie's orders and immediately whipped his horse toward Mount Oiwa." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The long day finally darkened and the flames of the bonfires began to flicker in the shadows of the young leaves. They reflected what was now deep within Katsuie's breast.\n\nThe return trip of two leagues could be completed in the twinkling of an eye by a fast horse, and Yaso returned in no time at all.\n\n\"I told him that this was the last you had to say and admonished him thoroughly, but Lord Genba would not consent to a retreat.\"\n\nThe sixth report was the same. Katsuie no longer had the energy to be angry and would have shed tears had he not been on the battlefield. Instead, he simply sank into grief and blamed himself, regretting the blind love he had held for Genba until now." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I'm the one who was wrong,\" he lamented." }, { "from": "human", "value": "On the battlefield—where a man must act strictly according to military discipline—Genba had taken advantage of his close ties to his uncle." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He had made a decision that could affect the rise or fall of the entire clan, and had insisted on his own selfish way without the least bit of reflection.\n\nBut who was it who had allowed the young man to become accustomed to that kind of action? Wasn't this morass the result of his own heedless love for his nephew? Through it he had first lost his foster son, Katsutoyo, and Nagahama Castle. Now he was about to lose an enormous and irretrievable opportunity upon which rested the fate of the entire Shibata clan.\n\nWhen these thoughts came to him, Katsuie sank deep into a remorse for which there was absolutely no one else to blame.\n\nYaso had more to report: the words that Genba had actually spoken." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In response to Yaso's advice, Genba had laughed and even ridiculed his uncle:\n\n\"Long ago, when people mentioned the name of Lord Katsuie, they called him the Demon Shibata, and said he was a general of devilish contrivances and mysterious schemes—at least from what I've heard. Today, however, his tactics come from an old head out of touch with the times. You can't wage war today with old-fashioned strategies. Look at our penetration into the enemy territory this time. At the beginning, my uncle wouldn't even give his permission for the plan. He should leave the whole thing to me and watch for the next day or two.\"\n\nKatsuie's gloom and wretchedness were unbearable to watch. He, more than anyone, knew Hideyoshi's true value as a general. The comments he had made to Genba and his other retainers had never been anything more than strategic remarks aimed at taking away their fear of the enemy. In his very bowels, Katsuie knew that Hideyoshi was a formidable adversary, especially after his withdrawal from the western provinces and his performance at the Battle of Yamazaki and the conference at Kiyosu. Now this powerful enemy was before him, and at the very opening of these all-or-nothing hostilities, he saw that his own ally was a stumbling block." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Genba's behavior is outrageous. Never once have I suffered a defeat or shown my back to the enemy. Ahh, this was inevitable.\"" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The night darkened, and Katsuie's anguish turned to resignation.\n\nMessengers were not sent out again." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "INPUT: user text\nOUTPUT: four sentences sentences\nSTYLE: Eiji Yoshikawa\nGENRES: historical fiction\nTAGS: samurai, Japan\nCONTINUE STORY" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Katsuie had barely escaped with his life, but his army had been annihilated. Until that morning, the Shibata standard with its golden emblem had flown in the vicinity of Yanagase, but now only Hideyoshi's standard could be seen. It shone brilliantly in the bright sunshine, impressing all who saw it, symbolizing a reality that transcended ordinary wisdom and strength.\n\nThe flags and banners of Hideyoshi's army—which stretched out along the roads, and covered the fields presented a grand spectacle of victory." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They were packed so closely together that they resembled a thick golden haze." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The army started eating its provisions. Hostilities had begun early that morning and had lasted for about eight hours. When the meal was finished, the entire army was given orders to advance north immediately.\n\nAs the men approached Tochinoki Pass, they could see the Tsuruga Sea to the west, while the mountains of Echizen opened up to the north seemingly right under their horses' hooves." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The sun was already beginning to sink, and heaven and earth burned with an evening glow encompassing all the colors of a rainbow.\n\nHideyoshi's face was burnt a deep red. He did not, however, appear to be a man who had not slept for days. He seemed to have forgotten that men need to sleep." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Constantly advancing, he had not yet ordered a halt." }, { "from": "human", "value": "At that time of year the nights were at their shortest." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "While it was still light, the main army bivouacked at Imajo in Echizen. The vanguard went on, however, having been ordered to advance as far as Wakimoto—more than two leagues away—while the rear guard stopped at Itadori, about the same distance behind the central army. Thus, the camp that night stretched for four leagues from van to rear.\n\nThat night Hideyoshi fell into contented slumber—one that even the song of the mountain cuckoo could not disturb." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Tomorrow we'll get to Fuchu Castle, Hideyoshi thought just before going to sleep." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But how will Inuchiyo receive us?\n\nWhat was Inuchiyo doing at that time? He had passed through the area at noon that same day and, while the sun was still high in the sky, had withdrawn his army into Fuchu, his son's castle.\n\n\"Thank the gods you're safe,\" his wife said as she came out to greet him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Take care of the wounded. You can look to me later on.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Inuchiyo did not even take off his sandals or untie his armor; he just stood in front of the castle. His pages were also there, lined up behind him, solemnly waiting.\n\nFinally, corps after corps of warriors marched smartly through the gate, carrying the corpses of their fallen comrades, on top of which they had laid their banners. Next, those wounded in battle were either carried in or walked in, leaning on their comrades' shoulders." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The thirty-odd casualties the Maeda had suffered in the retreat did not compare with the losses of the Shibata and Sakuma." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The bell was rung at the temple, and as the sun dipped in the sky, the smoke from cooking fires began to rise from all parts of the castle. The order was given for the soldiers to eat their rations. The troops, however, did not disperse, but stayed in their units, as if they were still on the battlefield.\n\nA guard at the main gate yelled, \"The lord of Kitanosho has arrived at the castle gate.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What! Lord Katsuie here!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Inuchiyo muttered in astonishment. This was an unexpected development, and Inuchiyo seemed unable to bear to meet the man—now a fugitive. For a moment he was sunk in thought, but then he said, \"Let's go out to greet him.\"\n\nInuchiyo followed his son out of the keep." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Descending the last set of stairs, he walked to the darkened connecting corridor. One of his attendants, Murai Nagayori, followed after him.\n\n\"My lord,\" Murai whispered.\n\nInuchiyo looked at Murai questioningly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The retainer whispered in his lord's ear, \"Lord Katsuie's arrival here is an incomparable and happy opportunity. If you kill him and send his head to Lord Hideyoshi, your and Lord Hideyoshi's relationship will be patched up without difficulty.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Without warning Inuchiyo struck the man in the chest. \"Shut up!\" he thundered.\n\nMurai staggered back to the wooden wall behind him and just barely avoided falling over. Turning pale, he had the presence of mind neither to stand up nor to sit completely down." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Glaring at him, Inuchiyo spoke with undisguised anger." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It is an outrageous act to whisper into a lord's ear an immoral, cowardly plan that a man should be ashamed to utter. You consider yourself a samurai, but you know nothing of the Way of the Samurai! What kind of man would sell the head of a general who had come knocking at his gate, just to profit his own clan? Much less when he's spent as many years campaigning with that general as I have!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Leaving the trembling Murai behind, Inuchiyo went out toward the main entrance to greet Katsuie." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Katsuie had come up to the castle gate still on horseback." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He held the shaft of a broken spear in one hand and did not appear to be wounded, but his entire face—his entire being—was suffused with desolation." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The reins of his horse were held by Toshinaga, who had run out to greet him. The eight men who accompanied him had stayed outside the main gate. So Katsuie was alone.\n\n\"I'm greatly obliged to you.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "With those courteous words to Toshinaga, Katsuie dismounted." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He looked Inuchiyo in the face and spoke in a loud voice full of self-scorn." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We lost! We lost!\"\n\nHe was in surprisingly good spirits. It may have been that he was just pretending, but he seemed far more relaxed than Inuchiyo had imagined he would be. Inuchiyo was kinder than usual in greeting the defeated general." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Toshinaga was no less concerned than his father and helped the fugitive take off his blood-soaked sandals." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I feel as though I've come home to my own house.\"\n\nKindness makes a deep impression on a man in the abyss of destruction and causes him to abandon any suspicions and bitterness. It is the only thing that will make him think that there is still light in the world.\n\nApparently now quite happy, Katsuie continued to congratulate father and son on their escape." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"This defeat was entirely due to my own oversights. I brought troubles onto you, too, and I hope you'll forgive me,\" he apologized." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I'll retreat as far as Kitanosho and put my affairs in order and without any regrets. I wonder if you wouldn't give me a bowl of rice and tea.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Demon Shibata seemed to have become the Buddha Shibata. Even Inuchiyo was unable to hold back his tears.\n\n\"Bring some tea and rice quickly. And sake,\" Inuchiyo ordered. He could think of few words of comfort for the man." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Nevertheless, he felt that he had to say something." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It's often said that victory and defeat are the stuff of a warrior's life. If you consider today's disaster in terms of human destiny, you know that to be proud of victory is the first step toward the day of destruction, and to be completely defeated is the first step toward the day of victory. The eternal cycle of man's rise and fall is not just a matter of temporary joy and sorrow.\"\n\n\"Therefore, what I regret is neither my own personal destruction nor the perpetual cycle of change,\" Katsuie said. \"I only regret the loss of my reputation. But rest assured, Inuchiyo. It is all predestined.\"\n\nFor him to say such a thing was a complete departure from the Katsuie of olden days." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But he seemed to be neither tormented nor confused." }, { "from": "human", "value": "When the sake arrived, Katsuie happily took a cup and, supposing that it would be his farewell, poured one for father and son as well." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He heartily ate the simple meal Inuchiyo had ordered.\n\n\"I've never tasted anything like the rice I've eaten today. I'll never forget your kindness.\" That said, he took his leave.\n\nInuchiyo, who accompanied him outside, immediately noticed that his mount was exhausted." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ordering a page to bring out his own beloved dapple-gray horse, he offered it to Katsuie. \"Put your mind at ease,\" Inuchiyo said. \"We will hold this place until you get to Kitanosho.\"\n\nKatsuie started to leave but then turned the horse around and came up to Inuchiyo as though he had suddenly remembered something." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Inuchiyo, you and Hideyoshi have been close friends since your youth. The battle having turned out this way, I release you from your duty to me as a retainer.\"" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 5 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Those were to be his last words to Inuchiyo. As he mounted his horse, his expression was devoid of any falsehood. Confronted with such feeling, Inuchiyo bowed with heartfelt emotion. The figure of Katsuie leaving the castle gate was black against the red of the evening sun. The tiny remaining army of eight mounted men and ten or so foot soldiers now took flight to Kitanosho." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Collaborative writing exercise:\n1. User provides opening\n2. AI continues with eight sentences sentences\n3. Mimic Eiji Yoshikawa's style\n4. Incorporate genres: historical fiction\n5. Include elements: samurai, Japan" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In just one short year, Hideyoshi had risen so rapidly to prominence that even he was surprised. He had struck down the Akechi and the Shibata; Takigawa and Sassa knelt before him; Niwa held him in special confidence; and Inuchiyo had demonstrated his loyalty to their old friendship.\n\nHideyoshi now controlled almost all the provinces that Nobunaga had conquered. Even his relationship with provinces outside Nobunaga's sphere of influence had undergone a complete change. The Mori, who for years had obstinately resisted Nobunaga's plans for hegemony, had signed a treaty of alliance and sent hostages.\n\nThere was, however, one man who remained an open question: Tokugawa Ieyasu. There had been no communication between the two for some time. They were silent, like poor chess players waiting for the other side to make a good move." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The silence was finally broken by a diplomatic overture from Ieyasu, soon after Hideyoshi's return to Kyoto on the twenty-first day of the Fifth Month. Ieyasu's most senior general, Ishikawa Kazumasa, called on Hideyoshi at Takaradera Castle.\n\n\"I have come to convey Lord Ieyasu's congratulations. Your great victory has brought peace to the nation.\" With that solemn announcement, Kazumasa presented Hideyoshi with a valuable antique tea container called Hatsuhana.\n\nHideyoshi had become a devotee of the tea ceremony, and he was delighted to receive the precious gift. But it was also clear that he derived even greater satisfaction from having received the courtesy from Ieyasu first. Kazumasa had planned on returning to Hamamatsu that very day, but Hideyoshi detained him.\n\n\"You don't have to hurry,\" Hideyoshi said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Stay for two or three days. I'll tell Lord Ieyasu that I insisted. Especially since we're having a little family celebration tomorrow.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "What Hideyoshi called \"a little family celebration\" was the banquet to mark his investiture with a new court title, which was the seal of imperial approval on his domestic policies and military successes. He was also to announce the construction of a major new castle in Osaka.\n\nThe banquet lasted three days. A seemingly endless line of guests made its way up to the castle, and the narrow streets of the town were clogged with the carriages of courtiers, and their servants and horses.\n\nKazumasa was forced to admit that Nobunaga's mantle had come to rest on Hideyoshi's shoulders. Until that day he had firmly believed that it would be his lord, Ieyasu, who would succeed Nobunaga, but the time he spent with Hideyoshi changed his mind. When he compared Hideyoshi's and Ieyasu's provinces and reflected on the differences between their troops, he concluded sadly that the Tokugawa domain was still a small provincial outpost in eastern Japan.\n\nA few days later, Kazumasa announced his intention to leave, and Hideyoshi accompanied him as far as Kyoto." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As they were riding along, Hideyoshi turned in the saddle and looked back." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He beckoned to Kazumasa, who was riding some way behind, to join him. As a retainer of another clan, Kazumasa had been received with the courtesy due to a guest, but he quite naturally rode behind Hideyoshi.\n\nHideyoshi said warmly, \"We decided to travel together, and that doesn't mean that we should ride separately. The road to Kyoto is particularly boring, so let's talk as we ride.\"\n\nKazumasa hesitated for a moment but then rode up to Hideyoshi's side.\n\n\"It's inconvenient going back and forth to Kyoto,\" Hideyoshi went on. \"So within the year I'm going to move to Osaka, which is close to the capital.\" He then described his plans to build a castle.\n\n\"You've chosen a good location in Osaka,\" Kazumasa remarked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It's said that Lord Nobunaga had his eye on Osaka for a number of years.\"\n\n\"Yes, but the warrior-monks of the Honganji were entrenched in their temple-fortress there, so he was forced to settle for Azuchi.\"\n\nBefore long they entered the city of Kyoto, but just as Kazumasa was about to take his leave, Hideyoshi stopped him once again and said, \"It wouldn't be advisable to take the land route in this heat. You'd better take a boat across the lake from Otsu. Let's have some lunch with Maeda Geni while the boat's being prepared.\"\n\nHe was referring to the man he had recently appointed to the governorship of Kyoto. Giving Kazumasa no chance to refuse, Hideyoshi led him to the governor's mansion. The courtyard had been swept clean, as though the visitor had been expected, and Geni's reception of Kazumasa was extremely courteous.\n\nHideyoshi continuously urged Kazumasa to relax, and during lunch they talked of nothing else but the castle he was going to build.\n\nGeni brought in a large sheet of paper and spread it out on the floor." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A plan for a castle was being shown to an envoy from another province, and both the man showing it and the man being shown it looked apprehensive of the reason for Hideyoshi's openness; the only apparent explanation was that Hideyoshi had forgotten that Kazumasa was a retainer of the Tokugawa clan, as well as the status of his own relationship with that clan." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I've heard that you're quite an expert on castles,\" Hideyoshi told Kazumasa, \"so if you have any suggestions, please don't hesitate.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Just as Hideyoshi had said, Kazumasa was quite well versed in castle construction. Normally such plans would be top secret—hardly something to show to a retainer from a rival province—but Kazumasa put away his doubts about Hideyoshi's intentions and studied the plans.\n\nKazumasa knew Hideyoshi was unlikely to do anything small, but he was overawed by the scale of the project. When Osaka had been the headquarters of the warrior-monks of the Honganji, their fortress had occupied an area of one thousand square yards. In Hideyoshi's plan, that became the foundation for the main citadel. The area's topography—rivers, mountains, and seacoast—had been taken into consideration; their advantages and disadvantages had been considered, and the comparative difficulties of attack and defense and other logistical problems had all been thought out. The main citadel, and the second and third, were all surrounded by earthen walls. The circuit of the outer walls was more than six leagues." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The tallest building within the walls was a five-story keep, which would be pierced with openings from which to shoot arrows. The tiles of the roof were to be gold-leafed.\n\nIn his amazement Kazumasa could only marvel in silent awe at what he saw before him. But what he had been staring at was still nothing more than a part of the project. The moat surrounding the castle took its water from the Yodo River. With the prosperous mercantile city of Sakai close by, Osaka was connected with numerous trade routes to China, Korea, and Southeast Asia. The nearby Yamato and Kawachi mountain chains formed a natural defensive wall. The Sanin and Sanyo roads connected Osaka with sea and land routes to Shikoku and Kyushu, and made it a gateway with access to all outlying areas." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As the location of the country's most important castle and a place from which to rule the nation, Osaka was many times superior to Nobunaga's Azuchi." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Kazumasa could discover nothing lacking here." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What do you think?\" Hideyoshi asked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Absolutely perfect. It's a plan on a grand scale,\" Kazumasa replied. There was nothing more he could honestly say.\n\n\"It will be sufficient, don't you think?\"\n\n\"On the day it's completed, it will be the largest castle town in the whole country,\" Kazumasa said.\n\n\"That's what I intend.\"\n\n\"When do you anticipate its completion?\"\n\n\"I'd like to move in before the year is through.\"\n\nKazumasa blinked disbelievingly. \"What! By the end of the year?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Well, about then.\"\n\n\"It could take ten years for an engineering project of that size.\"\n\n\"In ten years the world will have changed, and I'll be an old man,\" Hideyoshi said, laughing. \"I've ordered the overseers to complete the castle's interior, including its decorations, within three years.\"\n\n\"I can't imagine it's going to be easy to make the craftsmen and laborers work at such a pace. And the amounts of stone and lumber you will need are going to be immense.\"\n\n\"I'm bringing in lumber from twenty-eight provinces.\"\n\n\"How many laborers will you need?\"\n\n\"I'm not sure about that. I suppose I'll need well over a hundred thousand. My officials say that it will require about sixty thousand men working every day for three months just to dig the inner and outer moats.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Kazumasa fell silent. He was depressed as he reflected on the great difference between this project and the castles of Okazaki and Hamamatsu in his own province." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But would Hideyoshi really be able to bring the huge stones he needed to Osaka, an area totally lacking in quarries? And where, in these difficult times, did he think he could find the huge sums to pay for the project? He wondered whether Hideyoshi's great plans were really anything more than bragging.\n\nJust then something urgent seemed to have occurred to Hideyoshi, and he called for his secretary and began dictating a letter. Completely forgetting that Kazumasa was there, he looked over what had been written down, nodded, and started to dictate another letter. Even if Kazumasa had not wanted to listen to what was being said, Hideyoshi was right in front of him and he could not help but hear. Hideyoshi seemed to be dictating an extremely important letter to the Mori clan.\n\nOnce again Kazumasa was embarrassed and hardly knew what to do with himself." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He said, \"Your official business seems to be rather urgent. Shall I withdraw?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"No, no, that won't be necessary. I'll be done in a moment.\"\n\nHideyoshi continued with his dictation. He had received a letter from a member of the Mori clan congratulating him on his victory against the Shibata. Now, under the pretext of giving an account of the battle of Yanagase, he was demanding that his correspondent define his own attitude concerning the future of his clan. It was a personal letter, and an extremely important one.\n\nKazumasa sat next to him, silently looking at the stands of bamboo groves, while Hideyoshi dictated:\n\n\"If I had given Katsuie a moment's rest, it would have taken much longer to defeat him. But the fate of Japan hung in the balance, so I had to resign myself to the loss of my men. I attacked Katsuie's main castle at the second half of the Hour of the Tiger, and by the Hour of the Horse I took the citadel.\"\n\nWhen he dictated the words, \"the fate of Japan,\" his eyes were ablaze just as they had been when the castle fell." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The letter then took a turn that would rivet the Mori clan's attention on his words.\n\n\"It would be futile to mobilize our troops, but if necessary I will visit your province in person to determine the matter of boundaries. Therefore, it is important that you use discretion and be resolved not to provoke me.\"\n\nKazumasa unconsciously stole a look at Hideyoshi and marveled at the man's boldness. Here was Hideyoshi lightheartedly dictating some very frank words, almost as if he were sitting cross-legged in front of his correspondent, having a friendly chat. Was he being arrogant or just naïve?\n\n\"Both the Hojo in the east and the Uesugi in the north have entrusted matters to my resolve. If you are also prepared to let me work freely, the government of Japan will be better than it has been since ancient times. Give this deep thought and your own personal care. If you have any objections, please let me know before the Seventh Month. It is essential that you relay all of this in detail to Lord Mori Terumoto.\"\n\nKazumasa's eyes watched the play of the wind in the bamboo, but his ears were absolutely fascinated with what Hideyoshi was saying. His heart quivered like the bamboo leaves in the wind." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "I'll be your writing partner today. I will set the scene, and you will continue the story with 7 sentences, keeping within the historical fiction genre." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The main temple hall was deserted." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Only the lamps waited for the night. The guests arrived. It was the middle of the First Month and bitterly cold. Then someone else approached, clearing his throat. Because the person was accompanied by an attendant, Nobuo's four retainers immediately realized that it must be Hideyoshi. He seemed to be giving orders in a loud voice as he walked along.\n\n\"Sorry to keep you waiting,\" he said as he entered the room, and then coughed into his hand.\n\nWhen they looked up, they could see that he was now alone—not even a page was behind him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The four men were ill at ease." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As each one greeted him, Hideyoshi blew his nose." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You appear to have a cold, my lord,\" one of Nobuo's retainers said affably." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I just can't seem to get over it,\" Hideyoshi replied in no less a friendly manner." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was a rather plain setting for a discussion." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Neither food nor drink were offered, nor did Hideyoshi begin with any small talk." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Aren't you troubled by Lord Nobuo's recent behavior?\" he began.\n\nThe four men were filled with apprehension. They were shocked by what seemed to be a reprimand, and thought he was laying the blame on them as Nobuo's senior advisers. \"You're doing your best, I suppose,\" he said then, and the color returned to their faces. \"All of you are intelligent men, but I suspect you can't do much under Lord Nobuo. I understand. I've taxed my own ingenuity for his sake, but regrettably, it seems like I'm always meeting with reverses.\"\n\nHe said these last words emphatically, and the four men felt extremely cramped. Hideyoshi continued to expose his innermost feelings, making his dissatisfaction with Nobuo very plain." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I have made my decision,\" Hideyoshi said. \"I feel sorry that you four have spent many years serving this man. To be brief, we can end the matter without fuss if you can persuade Lord Nobuo either to commit seppuku or to become a priest. As a reward, I will give you lands in Ise and Iga.\"\n\nIt was not just the cold that chilled the four men to the bone. The four walls felt like silent swords and spears. Hideyoshi's eyes shone fixedly, tiny pinpoints of light. Those eyes required the retainers to say either yes or no.\n\nHe would not give them time to consider his offer or allow them to leave without hearing their answer." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They were in a desperate situation." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The four men hung their heads in grief. Finally, however, they agreed and quickly wrote and signed pledges.\n\n\"My retainers are drinking sake in the Willow Room,\" Hideyoshi said. \"Go and join them. I'd like to go with you, but I'm going to bed early because of this cold.\"\n\nPicking up the pledges, he retired to his quarters in the temple.\n\nNobuo was unable to settle down that night. At dinner he had sat with his retainers and attendants, the priests, and even the virgin priestesses from the neighboring shrine." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He had been cheerful and talked in a loud voice, but when everyone had left and he was once again alone, he constantly asked his pages and the samurai on guard, \"What time is it now? Haven't the senior retainers come back from the main temple yet?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "After a while only one of the men returned.\n\n\"Are you alone, Saburobei?\" Nobuo asked the retainer suspiciously.\n\nThe expression on the man's face was not normal, and even Nobuo felt apprehensive. Prostrating himself with both hands to the floor, the old man could not even look up. Nobuo could hear him sobbing.\n\n\"What is it, Saburobei? Did something happen while you were talking with Hideyoshi?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It was a painful meeting.\"\n\n\"What! Did he call you over to scold you?\"\n\n\"If that had been it, it would not have been painful at all. What happened was totally unexpected. We were forced to sign pledges. You, too, must be resolved, my lord.\" He went on to reveal Hideyoshi's order in its entirety, then said, \"We knew that if we said no, he would kill us on the spot, so there was nothing we could do but sign. Later I saw my chance during a drinking party with his retainers and ran back here alone. There'll be an uproar when they discover I'm gone. You are not safe here, my lord. You must leave immediately.\"\n\nNobuo's lips had lost their color. The movements of his eyes seemed to show that he had heard only half of what the man had said. His heart beat as fearfully as a fire bell, and he could hardly sit still." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"But... then... what about the others?\"\n\n\"I came back here on my own. I don't know about the others.\"\n\n\"The others, they signed the pledge too?\"\n\n\"They did.\"\n\n\"So they're still drinking with Hideyoshi's retainers? I misjudged them. They're lower than beasts!\"\n\nHe stood up as he continued this abuse and snatched the long sword from the hands of the page behind him. As he walked hastily out of the room, the flustered Saburobei chased after him, pleading to know where his lord was going." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Nobuo turned around and, lowering his voice, asked for a horse to be brought immediately." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Wait for a moment, my lord.\" Understanding his lord's intentions, Saburobei dashed off to the stables.\n\nThe horse was a fine one, a bay called Sledgehammer. As soon as Nobuo was in the saddle, he galloped through the rear gate into the cover of night. No one knew he was gone until the following day. Naturally, the meeting with Hideyoshi was canceled on the excuse that Nobuo had fallen ill, and Hideyoshi calmly returned to Osaka as though that was exactly what he had expected.\n\nNobuo returned to Nagashima, shut himself up inside his castle, and, still on the pretext of illness, would not show his face even to his own retainers." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But his seclusion was not entirely on account of a feigned malady." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 3 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He had really become quite ill. Only the doctor went in and out of the inner apartments, and although the plum blossoms behind the castle bloomed, the music ceased, and the garden was quiet and deserted.\n\nIn the castle town, on the other hand, and all over Ise and Iga, rumors spread and multiplied by the day. Nobuo's flight from the Onjo Temple had fueled everyone's suspicions." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Task: Cooperative storytelling\nMy role: Provide a brief opening\nYour role: Expand upon my opening with four sentences, emulating the writing style of Eiji Yoshikawa. Genres: historical fiction\nThemes/Elements to include: samurai, Japan" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "At the time everyone thought Hideyoshi was in Osaka Castle, but he had been in Sakamoto Castle since the thirteenth day of the Third Month, the day Ieyasu was talking with Nobuo in Kiyosu. That kind of tardiness was not typical of him.\n\nIeyasu had already roused himself to action, completing his plans and making steady progress in his anticipated push from Hamamatsu to Okazaki and then Kiyosu; but Hideyoshi, who had often shocked the world with his lightning speed, was slow to start this time. Or so it seemed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Somebody come here! Aren't my pages here?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was the master's voice. And, as usual, it was loud.\n\nThe young pages, who had intentionally withdrawn to the faraway pages' room, hurriedly put away the game of suguroku they had been surreptitiously playing. From among them, the thirteen-year-old Nabemaru went running off as fast as he could to the room where his lord was repeatedly clapping his hands." }, { "from": "human", "value": "By now Hideyoshi had gone out onto the veranda." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Through the front castle gate he could see the tiny figure of Sakichi hastening up the slope from the castle town, and, without looking around toward the footsteps behind him, he shouted out an order to admit him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Sakichi entered and knelt in front of Hideyoshi.\n\nAfter he listened to Sakichi's report of the situation at Osaka Castle, Hideyoshi asked, \"And Chacha? Are Chacha and her sisters well, too?\"\n\nFor a moment Sakichi displayed an expression that seemed to indicate that he couldn't remember. To answer as though he had been waiting for that question would only make Hideyoshi suspicious (That damned Sakichi has found out), and would undoubtedly make him feel uncomfortable later on." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The proof was that in the instant he had asked awkwardly about Chacha, Hideyoshi's lordly expression had crumbled and a blush filled what seemed to be his prevaricating face. He looked extremely self-conscious.\n\nSakichi alertly saw through his discomfort and could not help feeling amused.\n\nAfter the fall of Kitanosho, Hideyoshi had cared for Oichi's three daughters as though they were his own." }, { "from": "human", "value": "When he had built Osaka Castle, he had had a small, bright enclosure constructed just for them." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "From time to time he would visit and play with them as though he were taking care of some rare birds in a golden cage.\n\n\"What are you laughing about, Sakichi?\" Hideyoshi challenged him. But he himself felt slightly amused. Obviously, Sakichi had already understood." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No, it's nothing at all. I was distracted by my other responsibilities and returned without visiting the three princesses' quarters.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Is that so? Well, fine.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "With that, Hideyoshi quickly changed the subject to other gossip." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What rumors did you hear around the Yodo River and Kyoto while you were on the road?\"\n\nHideyoshi inevitably asked a question like that whenever he sent a messenger to a far-off place.\n\n\"Wherever I went, war was the only topic of conversation.\"\n\nWhen he questioned Sakichi further about conditions in Kyoto and Osaka, he found out that everyone thought that the battle provoked by Nobuo would not actually be fought between Hideyoshi and the Oda heir, but that it would be between Hideyoshi and Ieyasu." }, { "from": "human", "value": "After Nobunaga's death, it was thought that peace would finally be established by Hideyoshi, but once again the nation had been divided in half, and the people's hearts were steeped in anxiety at the specter of a great conflict that would probably extend into every province." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Sakichi withdrew, and as he left, two of Niwa Nagahide's generals, Kanamori Kingo and Hachiya Yoritaka, appeared. Hideyoshi had been going to great lengths to make Niwa his ally because he knew that he would be at a serious disadvantage if he drove him into the enemy camp. Apart from the loss of military strength, Niwa's defection would convince the world that Nobuo and Ieyasu had right on their side. Niwa had been second only to Katsuie among Nobunaga's retainers, and he was held in great respect as a man of rare gentility and sincerity." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was certain that Ieyasu and Nobuo were also offering Niwa every enticement to join them. Perhaps finally moved by Hideyoshi's enthusiasm, however, Niwa had sent Kanamori and Hachiya as the first reinforcements from the north. Hideyoshi was pleased but was nevertheless not completely reassured.\n\nBefore nightfall messengers arrived three times with reports on the situation in Ise." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hideyoshi read the dispatches and questioned the messengers in person, entrusted them with verbal replies, and had letters of response written as he ate his evening meal." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A large folding screen stood in the corner of the room. A map of Japan on its two panels had been painted in gold leaf. Hideyoshi looked at the map and asked, \"Haven't we heard from Echizen? What about the messenger I sent to the Uesugi?\"\n\nWhile his retainers made some excuse about the distances involved, Hideyoshi counted on his fingers." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He had sent messages to the Kiso and to the Satake." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The net of his diplomacy had been carefully thrown over the length and breadth of the country shown on the screen. By his very nature, Hideyoshi considered war to be the last resort. It was an article of faith with him that diplomacy itself was a battle. But it was not diplomacy for its own sake." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Nor did it have its source in military weakness." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His diplomacy was always backed up by military strength and was employed after his military authority and troops had been completely provided for. But diplomacy had not worked with Ieyasu. He had said nothing about it to anyone, but long before the situation had reached this pass, Hideyoshi had sent a man to Hamamatsu with the following message:\n\nIf you will take into consideration my petition to the Emperor last year for your promotion, you will understand my warm feelings toward you." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Is there any reason we should fight? It is generally accepted throughout the nation that Lord Nobuo is weak-minded. No matter how much you wave the flag of moral duty and embrace the remnants of the Oda clan, the world is not going to admire your efforts as those of a man of virtue commanding a righteous army. In the end, there is no value in the two of us fighting." }, { "from": "human", "value": "You are an intelligent man, and if you come to terms with me, I will add the provinces of Owari and Mino to your domain." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The outcome of such proposals depends on the other party, however, and the answer that was returned to Hideyoshi had been clearly negative. But even after he had cut off relations with Nobuo, Hideyoshi still sent messengers with even better conditions than before, trying to persuade Ieyasu. The envoys only incurred Ieyasu's indignation, however, and returned utterly discomfited.\n\n\"Lord Ieyasu replies that it is Lord Hideyoshi who does not understand him,\" the envoy reported." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hideyoshi forced a smile and retorted, \"Ieyasu doesn't understand my genuine feelings, either.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "No matter what else he did, however, the time he spent in Sakamoto was consumed entirely by work. Sakamoto was both his military headquarters for Ise and southern Owari and the center of a diplomatic and intelligence network that stretched from the north to the western provinces. As the center for secret operations, Sakamoto was much more convenient than Osaka. Also, messengers could come and go to and from Sakamoto without attracting undue attention." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "On the surface, the two spheres of influence seemed to be distinctly drawn: Ieyasu from the east to the northeast, and Hideyoshi from the capital to the west. But even in Hideyoshi's stronghold of Osaka, there were innumerable people in collusion with the Tokugawa. Nor could it be said that there was no one at court who supported Ieyasu and waited for Hideyoshi to stumble.\n\nEven among the samurai clans, there were fathers and mothers in the service of provincial lords in Osaka and Kyoto whose children served generals of the eastern army." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Brothers fought on separate sides. Thus the tragic stage was set for bloody conflicts to erupt within families.\n\nHideyoshi knew the bitter hardships that war brought. The world had been at war from the time he was growing up in his mother's dilapidated house in Nakamura." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It had been the same throughout the many years of his wanderings." }, { "from": "human", "value": "With Nobunaga's appearance on the stage, society's suffering had become even more severe for a while, but it had been accompanied by a brightness and joy in the lives of the common people." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "People believed that Nobunaga was going to usher in an era of lasting peace. But he had been cut down halfway through his work.\n\nHideyoshi had vowed to overcome the setback of Nobunaga's death, and the effort he had made—almost without sleep or rest—had brought him within one step of his goal. Now that final step he needed to take to achieve his ambition was near." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It could be said that he had traveled nine hundred leagues of a thousand-league journey." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But those last hundred leagues were the hardest. He had presumed that at some point, as a matter of course, he would have to confront the last obstacle—Ieyasu—and either remove it from his path or destroy it. But when he approached, he discovered it was going to be more unyielding than he had imagined.\n\nDuring the ten days Hideyoshi spent in Sakamoto, Ieyasu moved his army as far as Kiyosu." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was clear that Ieyasu planned to stir up war like a hornet's nest in Iga, Ise, and Kishu and advance westward, entering Kyoto and pressing in on Osaka in one blow, like the path of a typhoon." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But Ieyasu did not think the road was going to be an easy one. He was anticipating one huge engagement on his advance toward Osaka, and Hideyoshi was expecting that as well. But where would it be? The only place of sufficient size to be the site of this all-or-nothing battle between east and west was the broad Nobi Plain that bordered the Kiso River." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A man of initiative would gain the advantage by constructing fortifications and holding the high ground." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "While Ieyasu had already attended to that and was fully prepared, Hideyoshi could be said to have made a belated start. Even on the evening of the thirteenth day of the month, he still had not moved from Sakamoto.\n\nDespite appearances, however, his seeming tardiness was not the result of negligence. Hideyoshi knew Ieyasu could not be compared with either Mitsuhide or Katsuie." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He had to delay in order to complete his own preparations." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He waited to win over Niwa Nagahide; he waited to make sure the Mori could do nothing in the western provinces; he waited to destroy the dangerous remnants of the warrior-monks in Shikoku and Kishu; finally, he waited to split the opposition of the generals in nearby Mino and Owari.\n\nThe stream of messengers was unending, and Hideyoshi received them even while he ate. He had just finished his meal and put down his chopsticks when a dispatch arrived. He reached out to take the letter box." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was something he had been waiting for: the answer from Bito Jinemon, whom he had sent as the second messenger to Ikeda Shonyu's castle at Ogaki." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Would it be good or bad news? There had been no news at all from the envoys he had sent to win over other castles. Hideyoshi opened the letter, feeling as though he was cutting open the envelope of an oracle, and read it.\n\n\"Fine,\" was all he said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Late that night after he had gone to sleep, he suddenly got up as though he had just thought of something and called for the samurai on night watch." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Is Bito's messenger returning tomorrow morning?\"\n\n\"No,\" the guard replied, \"he was pressed for time, and after a short rest he returned to Mino, taking to the road at night.\" Sitting on top of his bedding, Hideyoshi took up his brush and wrote a letter to Bito.\n\nThanks to your great efforts, Shonyu and his son have pledged their solidarity with me, and nothing could give me greater joy." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But there is something I must say right away: If Nobuo and Ieyasu know that Shonyu is going to support me, they will surely become threatening in every manner conceivable." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Do not react. Do nothing rash. Ikeda Shonyu and Mori Nagayoshi have always been brave and proud men with great contempt for the enemy.\n\nAs soon as he put down his pen, he sent the note to Ogaki.\n\nTwo days later, however, on the evening of the fifteenth, another message was delivered from Ogaki." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Inuyama Castle had fallen. At the same time Shonyu and his son had made their decision, they had captured the most strategic stronghold on the Kiso River and presented it as a gift of their support for Hideyoshi. It was good news.\n\nHideyoshi was pleased. But he was troubled as well." }, { "from": "human", "value": "On the following day Hideyoshi was in Osaka Castle." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 5 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "During the next few days omens of failure multiplied. After the happy victory at Inuyama, Hideyoshi learned that Shonyu's son-in-law, Nagayoshi, wanting to achieve a great military exploit of his own, had planned to make a surprise attack on the Tokugawa fortifications at Mount Komaki. His army had been intercepted by the enemy near Haguro, and it was rumored that he had perished with many of his troops.\n\n\"We lost this man because of his fighting spirit. Such foolishness is unpardonable!\" Hideyoshi's bitter lament was aimed at himself." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "I'll be your writing partner today. I will set the scene, and you will continue the story with 6 sentences, channeling the voice and techniques of Katherine M. Lawrence.i'll kick things off by writing a bit, then you'll take over and write the next 6 sentences in the distinctive voice of Katherine M. Lawrence.Ive got a bit of writers block, im gonna send you something then keep it going 6 sentences at a time, also im going for a Katherine M. Lawrence sorta thing." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Yamabuki was no more than six years of age when she had unwillingly witnessed the fugu toxin at work. During her second stay in Heian-kyō, one of her father's bodyguards, his name was Giichi, touched his tongue to a piece of puffer. His death had been almost immediate. There was a great commotion among the retinue, but no one could do anything for him, for there was no antidote.\n\nFrom that day forward, fugu was banned from the Take compound. No one was allowed to partake of it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Strictly forbidden! There were more meaningful reasons to die." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She now looked into Inu's hopeful face and then at the colorless fish. \"I don't believe that I've ever had the pleasure.\"\n\n\"Hai, fugu. Fresh.\" Inu bowed. \"I prepared it myself. Very good.\"\n\nYamabuki paused for the briefest of moments. Has Inu been informed of my father's decree about Taka not eating fugu?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Inu, in what in any other circumstances would have been a severe breach of etiquette when serving a guest, especially of her rank, plucked a piece of fugu from the platter and put the morsel into his mouth." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Hmmm.\" He pressed his lips closed, expressing his enjoyment.\n\n\"You have the courage of a samurai... and the graciousness of a scrupulous host,\" she said softly, ready to take a small portion of fugu for herself. The fish was sliced so thin, she could almost see through it.\n\nFor a brief moment, her memory again drifted back to what had happened when the tainted fugu had hardly touched Giichi's lips. It was not as if Giichi was just one of her father's numerous guards. She had liked him the way a child likes a beloved uncle, and so it was terrifying to witness Giichi's crash to the floor." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She remembered the alarm that had filled his eyes as his breath caught in his throat." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Moments later his heart no longer pumped. Giichi's eyes remained wide to the end. All these years later, her own shrieks of horror still rang in her ears.\n\nShe took a deep breath. With two wooden hashi sticks, she lifted a piece of fish, holding it against the light. It looked like a wafer of ice with the consistency of the most-finely cut radish." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She politely placed the piece into her mouth." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her lips closed, her tongue touching the flesh, her teeth biting into the meat.\n\nImmediately an unfamiliar taste filled her mouth. Not what she expected. Not poison, but a delicacy it was not. Bland, in fact. It did not taste nearly as good as her favorite, buri, which always tantalized her palate.\n\nFugu: Tough. Chewy. Like jellyfish." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Haaaa. Good! Delicious, no?\" Inu nodded vigorously, smiling in the triumph of his culinary skills.\n\nYamabuki mused to herself. Perhaps the only reason to eat raw fugu was to show raw courage.\n\nShe exhaled. \"Delicious!\"\n\nShe indicated with her hand that she wished to share it with everyone." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"A delicacy,\" she repeated, and the serving staff, after the polite ritual of several perfunctory refusals required of those with good manners, eagerly partook." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 7 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Only Ryuma, hatchet man that he was, forbore, keeping his eye on the entries to the room.\n\nAfter the puffer fish was eaten down to the last bite, seven more young women, all comely, entered the room to serve Yamabuki, bringing her more food bowls, this time filled with an assortment of pickled vegetables, and, of course, more saké flasks.\n\nThough the young women served food and drink, their real purpose was to provide the evening's entertainment: Two of their number brought in string instruments. One carried a drum. And to Yamabuki's surprise, one even played a flute, though the latter was considered the province of men. Three of the other girls were singers.\n\nIt was then that Ishi-tsuki and Chi-ye moved to the center of the room." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Provide 2 sentences as a continuation in the Japan, historical fiction, samurai genre." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A coastal front blew in, and the night grew darker and cooler." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Yamabuki announced, given all the food, dancing, singing, that it finally was time for her to retire. Everyone expressed disappointment, moaning that the lovely evening was coming to an end far too soon." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Holding an oil brazier, Inu led Yamabuki along the dim hallway, then up a stair ladder. He stopped just outside a chamber that faced the front street." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Our best room. The backside rooms?\" He shook his head." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Too close to the stables.\"\n\nHe slid the screen aside and then, in a voice not much more than a whisper, said, \"You will be leaving for the Main Isle tomorrow. Perhaps you would like some companionship, someone to pleasure you on your last night on the Isle of Unknown Fires.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "When she raised a brow at the thought of a bed companion, Inu clarified that it would be someone of the sex of her choosing, for the Inn of Young Bamboo knew samurai's pleasures were varied." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His inn was in Kita, a crossroads, where any accommodation she desired would be met." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "If she was in fact tempted by Inu's offer, she did not let on. \"Tonight's a time to remember,\" she said, \"not to forget.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He laughed, \"Ha! You can do both.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He bowed as she entered the chamber." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I have already selected my two companions.\"\n\n\"Two!\" Inu's eyes shot up." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A look crossed his face. \"Ishi-tsuki and Chi-ye?\"\n\n\"My ink stone and brush.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Ah,\" Inu said with a hint of resignation." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Tonight, I want to think only on my home.\"\n\nInu bowed. \"Hai.\" He paused." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"But if you should change your mind after you have finished with your ink and brush...\" He stepped back, slid her chamber door shut, and spoke through the closed door." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"If you need anything, call out. We will hear you.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "After many hours in others' company, delightful though it was, she sighed with relief that once again she was alone. Maybe because she was still so very young of spirit, Yamabuki would not allow the possibility that this was to be her last crossing of the barrier." }, { "from": "human", "value": "How could harm come to her?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "This would not be the last she'd see of the southern-most isle. She would come back." }, { "from": "human", "value": "And when she returned to the Taka compound, her diary would be filled with her adventures, the people she met, and what she saw." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Nakagawa had encouraged her to observe everything, and, while it was still fresh, to set it down in her pillow book." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "So instead of seeking distraction in the arms of a stranger, she picked up her brush, which she held with the same confidence as her sword or bow.\n\nNakagawa had taught her well, from weapons, to mathematics, to language." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Few women, especially one just reaching seventeen springs, were allowed to master Hō's calligraphy, let alone were they trained to be fluent in its tongue—Hō, the magnificent kingdom that lay on the furthest edge of the great Leeward Sea." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "So on this night, having captured her recollections, but still inspired to write, Yamabuki sat under brazier light to translate a poem composed hundreds of years before by a monk of Hō named Ch'u-mo. His original poem made reference to a monastery on a river." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As usual, she translated the calligraphy into the phonetic writing used by literate women of Akitsushima, her own country, or Wa, as it was called by the people of Hō." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She dropped several lines of Ch'u-mo's original text, and then, in a dash of boldness, replaced the river he mentioned with the Barrier Strait." }, { "from": "human", "value": "This suited her purpose and her mood." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Pleased, she dimmed the brazier and placed the paper aside to let the ink dry." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The town bell struck four times marking the Third Watch. Somewhere far off a dog barked and then fell quiet." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She lay in the warmth of the bedding, her eyes slowly growing accustomed to the dimness.\n\nThe silence was interrupted by the sound of men chanting, \"Ho-ha! Ho-ha! Ho-ha!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She did not need to look. Just listening, she easily pictured the low-class traveling kago with its occupant slung hammock-like in the litter, carried by two runners bearing its support pole over their shoulders." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A guide would be running ahead of the kago, calling the pace, carrying a torch to light the way.\n\nKago. Deer killer." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She sometimes wondered if the carrier was not named after the poles used by hunters for carrying back wild game, dangling it by its feet.\n\nFrom their footfalls and voices she could tell that the kago was headed north. \"Ho-ha! Ho-ha! Ho-ha!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "But then, the chanting stopped just below her open window." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Behind the partially drawn shutters of the darkened room, she peered down onto the street to get a glimpse of the kago's occupant: a man." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She could make out that much, but because the guide's torch was dim and the night was overcast, she could not ascertain the man's age or make out his features.\n\nThe kago guide walked into the courtyard, calling loudly, \"Innkeeper!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A stir rippled through the interior of the inn; everyone inside shushed each other, for she, the inn's only guest, was not to be disturbed. Hushed or not, she could hear everything." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Innkeeper!\" the guide cried out again. \"An important guest has arrived. Summon your staff.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "More sounds floated up from inside the inn. Whispers. Steps." }, { "from": "human", "value": "More steps." }, { "from": "human", "value": "More than just Inu." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The inn's outer door slid aside. Inu's voice reached into the night. \"Hai?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Yamabuki thought Inu's greeting was uninviting, likely because it was meant to be, all without exactly insulting anyone.\n\n\"An important guest,\" the guide repeated." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Oh, I am so sorry. We have no rooms left.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Yamabuki could picture Inu bowing low." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The man in the kago mumbled something." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Yamabuki could not make out the words.\n\n\"Then food and drink?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The guide spoke with some agitation.\n\n\"Oh, I am so sorry,\" Inu said yet again." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"So many guests. So many appetites. We have nothing left fit for eating or drinking of important guests.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Ha!\" the guide almost spat." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It's late! Our passenger is tired.\"\n\nAnother voice from inside the inn rumbled, deep and masculine." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was Ryuma speaking in the tone of a samurai." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Just north of here there're other inns that always have rooms.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"But we have come here,\" pressed the guide.\n\nRyuma's voice became almost a growl." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Do you not listen? Other inns can serve you. Up the road, not far at all.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The man in the kago muttered something." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Sorry to trouble you.\" The kago guide bowed low toward the inn and turned on his heel and without another word went to the head of the procession." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Ho-ha! Ho-ha! Ho-ha!\" the guide and pole-bearers called out, and the kago and their occupant disappeared into the darkness." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Yamabuki was familiar enough with Kita to know that most all the houses of pleasure were closest to the barrier. Ryuma had directed the stranger there." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "With their brisk turnover of rooms, vacancies during the night were common, for sleeping was only the secondary purpose of the bedchambers. Anyway, thought Yamabuki, the kago passenger was likely to have a far better time there." }, { "from": "human", "value": "This late, most everyone was probably thinking only of lovemaking, and tonight the Inn of Young Bamboo was certainly not a place likely to fulfill a stranger's desires." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Silence fell again." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Lovemaking. She sighed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A soft rain made itself known on the roof, its sound filling the night." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "For a brief moment she wondered if she had been wrong in refusing companionship. Perhaps the pleasure of someone's company was just the comfort she required." }, { "from": "human", "value": "For a moment she imagined herself swept up in another's arms." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She imagined the scent. The first touch. The caresses. Then something more." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Should I never return, maybe a last night of love would be... Then she thought of Ryuma. Hmm. He had not taken his eyes away from her all night, and he had seemed especially attentive when she danced in the silk kimono." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She recalled the intensity of his eyes." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The size of his legs." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His arms. She wondered how he looked without his kimono. Without anything. Not the spindly boy of four summers ago who had just gone through his genpuku." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Back then, Ryuma had been flush with excitement of his coming-of-age celebration, and she, also the same age, had been swept up in the headiness of his mood." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Under the guise of checking the horses, he and she had sneaked off together to celebrate his manhood. Yet with his clothes off he had looked as much like a girl as she, except for that part of him, or maybe she had looked like a boy, except for that part of her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Two sexless would-be lovers who did not know quite what to do, and so they did not do anything." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The memory of that day had faded until now. Yamabuki wondered if thicker hair finally sprouted on his chest? Elsewhere? Probably." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He, and certainly she, knew what they could do if only they had the chance to be alone with each other again. Now to her mild surprise her omeko grew wet. She tossed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The rain fell harder. Water sputtered in the downspouts." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Suddenly she realized that she could not rid herself of the image of Ryuma that she had just conjured in her mind.\n\nThis is madness. If someone visits my chamber tonight, what then?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Word's bound to get back to Great Bay.\n\nThe scent of moist wood and thatching filled the chamber." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She turned over in her bed, eyes wide, she stared at the ceiling." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Yet Inu had boasted of Wakatake's worldliness. \"Ears\" probably would not exactly be in a rush to tell his benefactors how he had not only suggested, but had machinated, that the inestimable Lady Taka would be pleasured in her bedchamber by a man who wasn't her husband." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She sighed as the rain increased.\n\nBut it was more than a matter of what Inu might recount." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Servants and retainers insatiably prattled about whom they served. She knew this well for she had seen the same in herself." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Nevertheless, it might be years for the murmurs to reach Great Bay. It might be years before she returned from her errantry." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And if they bring it up, so what?\n\nShe sighed deeply, rolled over toward the door, and slid it slightly open." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Inu?\" she called down the hall.\n\nA far-off voice called back, \"Yes, my Lady?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I want some more saké!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Saké? Hai! Saké! I'll be there in a moment.\"\n\n\"Inu?\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Mode:\nCo-writing\n\nLength:\nfour sentences\n\nStyle:\nKatherine M. Lawrence\nGenre:\nJapan, historical fiction, samurai" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Nakagawa had advised her that since the southern coasts of the Main Isle at this point consisted of rocky bluffs, the road through the mountains was the fastest and easiest way to Heian-kyō.\n\nShe rode along the level road until she came to Akamagaseki, a small settlement of about fifty buildings located just at the point where the main north-south road steepened.\n\nThere she found sweet water to replenish her canteen and bought a handful of warm rice from a street vendor, but she did not have time for more than that. Within a day, two at most, she would face the passes that, this early in the spring, might still hold snow." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As she left Akamagaseki, the road sloped up sharply." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She looked back over her shoulder from the higher vantage. The morning sun rose over fishing villages and farms on the fertile coastal plain below. In the far distance, she could barely make out the kobune, mid-channel, making its way back to Kita.\n\nBack at the beach, the six fabric merchants and their fabric-laden cart were only just starting to make their way toward the town." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Now she walked, leading Mochizuki along the highway, up into the hills." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The fragrance of cherry trees in full flower replaced the scent of the sea." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The chirping of crickets, a sign of good luck, filled the forests. The far-away bell of Akamagaseki temple began to sound out the hour. A woodcock joined in. Then the cry of a black kite." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She paused to count the number of bells." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Nine strikes. Hear that? The sun is directly overhead. The Hour of the Horse, Mochizuki. Your hour.\"\n\nThe day, which up until then had been growing progressively warmer, now grew cool as a squall blew in from what had been a cloudless sky. A steady rain began to fall.\n\nShe walked along the Main Isle road for some time, protected from the worst of the weather by the leafing tree branches that arched over the road, until she came to a clearing where someone had erected a very small Shintō shrine." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was typical of so many such shrines along the highway." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "What was not typical was the Buddhist monk standing before it, his back to her, seemingly praying to the Old Gods.\n\nEither seeing or sensing her approach, he turned around. He had a bottle of saké in his hand. He looked at her and took a generous swig." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Iebō?\" she said in puzzlement." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Though he grinned, his expression had lost all boyish charm. His eyes narrowed like a snake's. His white flowing robes were tied back in the way warriors secured their sleeves before a duel.\n\n\"How is it that you are here?\" she asked politely." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I paused here to pray.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"A Buddhist praying at a Shintō shrine?\"\n\n\"Does it matter?\" Iebō seemed dismissive.\n\n\"Where is Akibō?\"\n\n\"Behind you.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She turned her head. No more than ten paces away, Akibō stood in the middle of the road, his sleeves also tied back in dueling style.\n\nYamabuki revealed no emotion.\n\nMochizuki snorted, agitated, as Akibō slowly moved toward Yamabuki." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What are you after?\"" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 5 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"After? Nothing.\" Iebō smiled.\n\n\"Nothing?\"\n\n\"It's a long road, Lady Taka,\" Akibō said at last.\n\n\"Lady Taka? How is it that you call me by that title?\" Yamabuki's sword hand slowly slid to Tiger Claw's hilt." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Produce 8 sentences using the prose and structure of James Clavell every time it's your turn, using what the user wrote as a seed. Stick to the historical fiction, Japan genre." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "With Hiraga's information it had been easy to infiltrate the temple, to count the dragoons and other soldiers and to find the perfect lair. Then the girl had unexpectedly appeared, and the giant, and then they had gone back inside and ever since both shishi had been staring at the garden door, glazed.\n\n\"Ori, now what do we do?\" Shorin asked, his voice edged.\n\n\"We stick to the plan.\"\n\nThe minutes passed anxiously. When the shutters on the first floor opened and they saw her in the window both knew that a new element had come into their future. Now she was brushing her hair with a silver-handled brush. Listlessly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Shorin said throatily, \"She doesn't look so ugly in moonlight. But with those breasts, eeee, you'd bounce off.\"\n\nOri did not reply, his eyes riveted.\n\nSuddenly she hesitated and looked down. Directly at them. Though there was no chance she could have seen or heard them, their hearts picked up a beat. They waited, hardly breathing. Another exhausted yawn. She continued brushing a moment, then put down the brush, seemingly so close that Ori felt he could almost reach out and touch her, seeing in the light from the room details of embroidery on the silk, nipples taut beneath, and the haunted expression he had glimpsed yesterday—was it only yesterday?—that had stopped the blow that would have ended her.\n\nA last strange glance at the moon, another stifled yawn, and she pulled the shutters to. But did not close them completely. Or bar them." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Task: The user will write a bit then you need to write around one sentence continuing directly from the user's text.\n\nAuthor style: James Clavell\nGenre: historical fiction, Japan" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Now it was high noon." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Again the soft knock on her bedroom door, again \"Mademoiselle? Mademoiselle?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Babcott called out from the corridor, his voice soft, not wanting to awaken her unnecessarily, but she did not reply." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She remained standing rock still in the center of the room and stared at the bolted door, hardly breathing, her robe tight around her, her face stark." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The trembling began again." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Mademoiselle?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She waited. After a moment his footsteps died away and she exhaled, desperately trying to stop shaking, then resumed pacing to the shuttered windows and back to the bed and back to the windows once more, pacing as she had been pacing for hours." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I've got to decide, she thought in misery." }, { "from": "human", "value": "When she awoke a second time, not remembering the first awakening, her mind was clear and she lay in the crumpled bed linen without moving, glad to be awake, rested, hungry, and thirsty for the first, glorious cup of coffee of the day served with some crusty fresh French bread that her Legation's chef made in Yokohama." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But I'm not in Yokohama, I'm in Kanagawa, and today it will be just a cup of revolting English tea with milk." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Malcolm! Poor Malcolm, I do so hope he's better." }, { "from": "human", "value": "We'll return to Yokohama today, I'll board the next steamer for Hong Kong, thence to Paris... but oh, what dreams I had, what dreams!" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The fantasies of the night were still vivid and mixed up with other pictures of the Tokaidō and Canterbury's mutilation and Malcolm acting so strangely presuming that they would marry." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The imagined smell of the surgery rose in her nostrils but she fought it away, yawned, and reached for her little timepiece which she had left on the bedside table." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "With the slight movement came a small pain in her loins." }, { "from": "human", "value": "For a moment she wondered if it presaged an early period, for she was not completely regular, but dismissed the thought as impossible." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The timepiece read 10:20." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was inset with lapis lazuli and had been her father's gift on her eighteenth birthday, July 8th, a little over two months ago in Hong Kong." }, { "from": "human", "value": "So much has happened since then, she thought." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I'll be so happy to be back in Paris, in civilization, never to return, never never nev—" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Abruptly she realized that she was almost naked under the sheet." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "To her astonishment she found that her nightdress only clung to her arms and shoulders and was totally split down the front and scrambled up behind her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She lifted the two sides in disbelief." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Wanting to see better, she slid out of bed to go to the window but again felt the slight soreness." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Now in the day's light she noticed the telltale smear of blood on the sheet and found a trace between her legs." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"How can my period...\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She began counting days and recounting them but the addition made no sense." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her last period had stopped two weeks ago." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Then she noticed that she was slightly moist and could not understand why—then her heart twisted and she almost fainted as her brain shouted that the dreams had not been dreams but real and that she had been violated while asleep." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"That's not possible! You must be mad—that's not possible,\" she had gasped, fighting for air, fighting for space." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Oh, God, let this be a dream, part of those dreams.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She groped for the bed, heart pounding." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You're awake, this isn't a dream, you're awake!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She examined herself again, frantically, and then again but this time with more care." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She had enough knowledge to know that there was no mistake about the moisture, or that her hymen was split." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was true. She had been raped." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The room began to spin." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Oh, God, I'm ruined, life ruined, future ruined for no decent man, eligible man will marry me now that I'm soiled, marriage a girl's only way to better herself, have a happy future, any future, no other way..." }, { "from": "human", "value": "When her senses settled and she could see and think, she found herself lying across the bed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Shakily she tried to reconstruct the night." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I remember bolting the door." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She peered at it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The bar was still in place." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I remember Malcolm and the foulness of his room and running away from him, Phillip Tyrer sleeping peacefully, Dr. Babcott giving me the drink and going upstair—" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The drink! Oh, God, I was drugged!" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "If Babcott can operate with these drugs, of course it could happen, of course I would be helpless but that doesn't help me now! It happened!" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Say I get a child!" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Again panic overwhelmed her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Tears gushed down her cheeks and she almost cried out." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Stop it!\" she muttered, making a supreme effort for control." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Stop it! Don't make a sound, don't! You're alone, no one else can help, just you, you've got to think. What are you going to do? Think!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She took deep breaths, her heart hurting, and tried to slam her jumbled mind into order." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Who was the man?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The bar's still in place so no one could have come through the door." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Wait a minute, I remember vaguely... or was it part of the dream before the..." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I seem to remember opening the door to—to Babcott and, and the naval officer Marlowe... then barring it again." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Yes, that's right! At least, I think that's right." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Didn't he speak French... yes, he did, but badly, then they went away and I barred the door, I'm sure I did." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But why did they knock on the door in the night?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She searched and re-searched her mind but could not find an answer, not truly sure this had happened, the night pictures slipping away. Some of them." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Concentrate!" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "If not through the door he came through the window." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She squirmed around and saw that the shutter bar was on the floor, below the window, not in its slots." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "So whoever it was got in through the window!" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Who? Marlowe, that Pallidar or even the good Doctor, I know they all want me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Who knew I was drugged? Babcott." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He could have told the others but surely none of them would dare to be so evil, would dare risk the consequences of climbing up from the garden for of course I would shout from the rooftops..." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Her whole being screamed a warning: Be careful." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Your future depends on being careful and wise. Be careful." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Are you sure that this really happened in the night?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "What about the dreams?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Perhaps... I won't think about them now but only a doctor would know for certain and that would have to be Babcott." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Wait, you could, you could have ruptured that tiny piece of skin in your sleep, twisting in the nightmare—it was a nightmare, wasn't it?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "That has happened to some girls." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Yes, but they'd still be virgin and that doesn't explain the moisture." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Remember Jeanette in the convent, poor silly Jeanette who fell in love with one of the tradesmen, and allowed him, and excitedly told us all about it later, all the details." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She didn't become pregnant but she was found out and the next day she was gone forever, and later we learned she'd been married off to a village butcher, the only man who would take her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I didn't allow anything but that won't help me, a doctor would know for certain but that won't help me, and the idea of Babcott or any doctor being so intimate fills me with horror and then Babcott would share the secret." }, { "from": "human", "value": "How could I trust him with such a secret?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "If it became known..." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I have to keep it secret!" }, { "from": "human", "value": "But how, how can you, and what then?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I'll answer that later." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "First, decide who the devil was." }, { "from": "human", "value": "No, first clean yourself of this evil and then you will think better." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "You've got to think clearly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "With distaste she shook off the nightdress and threw it aside, then washed carefully and deeply, trying to remember all the contraceptive knowledge she possessed, what Jeanette had done successfully." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Then she put on her robe and combed her hair." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Using tooth powder, she cleaned her teeth." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Only then did she look in her mirror." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Very carefully she examined her face." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was without blemish." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She loosened her robe." }, { "from": "human", "value": "So were her limbs and breasts—nipples a little red." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Again she looked deep into her mirror." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"No change, nothing. And everything.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Then she noticed that the little gold cross she had worn forever, sleeping and waking, was gone." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She searched the bed carefully, then underneath and all around." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was not buried in the bedclothes or under the pillows or caught in the curtains." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Last chance—hiding in the lace of the coverlet." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She picked it off the floor and went through it. Nothing.\n\nThen she saw the three Japanese characters, crudely drawn on its whiteness, in blood." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "yo hit me with seven sentences more. James Clavell vibes in historical fiction, Japan genre k?" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Angelique was sitting in the window of the sickroom at Kanagawa, staring into space, the sun breaking through the powder-puff clouds from time to time, her heavily perfumed handkerchief to her nose. Behind her Struan was half awake, half asleep. In the garden soldiers patrolled constantly. Since the attack security had been redoubled, more troops sent from the Yokohama encampment, with Pallidar temporarily in command.\n\nA tap on the door pulled her from her reverie. \"Yes?\" she said, hiding the kerchief in her hand.\n\nIt was Lim. Beside him was a Chinese orderly with a tray." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Food for Master. Missee wantchee eat, heya?\"\n\n\"Put there!\" she ordered, and pointed at the bedside table. She was about to ask for her tray to be brought as usual, then changed her mind, thinking it safe. \"Tonight, tonight Missee food dining room. Unn'erstan, heya?\"\n\n\"Unn'erstan.\" Lim laughed to himself, knowing that when she thought she was alone she used the kerchief. Ayeeyah, is her nose as small and delicate as her other part? Smell? What's the smell they complain of?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "There's no smell of death here yet." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Should I tell the taipan's son that news is bad from Hong Kong?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ayeeyah, better he finds out for himself. \"Unn'erstan.\" He beamed and left.\n\n\"Chéri?\" Automatically she offered the chicken soup.\n\n\"Later, thank you, darling,\" Malcolm Struan said. As expected, his voice was very weak.\n\n\"Try to take some,\" she said as usual. Again he refused.\n\nBack once more to her seat in the window and her daydreams—about being safe at home in Paris again, in the great house of her uncle Michel and her darling Emma, the highborn English aunt who had mothered her and brought her and her brother up when her father had left so many years ago for Hong Kong, all of them surrounded in luxury, Emma planning luncheons and riding in the Bois on her prize stallion, the envy of everyone, charming the massed aristocracy and being fawned on in return, then bowing so gracefully to Emperor Louis Napoléon—Napoléon Bonaparte's nephew—and his Empress, Eugénie, and their smiling recognition." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Boxes at theatres, La Comédie Française, choice tables at Trois Frères Provençaux, her coming of age, seventeen, the talk of the season, Uncle Michel recounting his adventures at the gambling tables and the races, whispering naughty stories about his aristocratic friends, his mistress, the Countess Beaufois, so beautiful and seductive and devoted." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "All daydreams, of course, for he was only a junior Deputy in the War Ministry, and Emma, English yes but an actress from a travelling group of Shakespearean players, daughter of a clerk, but neither with enough money for the outward display so necessary for Angelique in the capital of the world, for the spectacular horse, or two-in-hand and carriage that she needed so desperately to break into real society, the real upper echelon, to meet those who would marry and not just bed and flaunt and soon pass on to a younger flower.\n\n\"Please please please, Uncle Michel, it's so important!\"\n\n\"I know, my little cabbage,\" he had said sadly on her seventeenth birthday when she had begged for a particular gelding and the riding clothes to match. \"There's nothing more I can do, there are no more favors I can ask, I know no more arms to twist, or other moneylenders to persuade. I possess no State secrets to sell, or princes to promote. There's your young brother and our daughter to consider.\"\n\n\"But please, darling Uncle.\"\n\n\"I have one last idea and enough francs for a modest passage out to join your father. A few clothes, no more.\"\n\nThen the making of the clothes, all perfect, then trying them on and refitting and improving and yes, the green silk gown as well as all the others—Uncle Michel won't mind—then the excitement of the first railway journey to Marseille, steamer to Alexandria in Egypt, overland to Port Said past the first diggings of Monsieur de Lesseps' canal at Suez that all wise, informed people believe was just another stock promotion, that it would never be finished, or if it was, would partially empty the Mediterranean because those seas were higher than the seas below." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Onwards, everything begged pleaded beguiled and from the very beginning correctly First Class: \"The difference is really so tiny, dear dear Uncle Michel...\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Sweet winds and new faces, exotic nights and good days, the beginning of the great adventure, at the end of the rainbow a handsome, rich husband like Malcolm now all spoiled because of a filthy native!\n\nWhy can't I just think about the good parts? she asked herself in sudden anguish. Why is it good thoughts dribble into the bad and then into the awful and then I start thinking about what truly happened and begin to cry?\n\nDon't, she ordered herself, forcing away the tears. Behave. Be strong!\n\nYou decided before you left your room: nothing happened, you will act normally until your next period arrives. When it begins—it will begin—then you are safe." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But if... if it doesn't?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "You won't think about that." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Your future will not be torn asunder, that wouldn't be fair." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "You will pray and you will stay close to Malcolm, and pray for him too, and act the Florence Nightingale, and then perhaps you will marry him.\n\nShe glanced at him over the handkerchief. To her surprise he was watching her.\n\n\"Is the smell still so awful?\" he asked sadly.\n\n\"No, chéri,\" she said, pleased the lie sounded more sincere each time and required less effort. \"Some soup, yes?\"\n\nWearily he nodded, knowing that he must have some nourishment but whatever he consumed would inevitably be retched out of him and tear the stitches, within and without, and the pain that followed would unman him again, much as he tried to contain it. \"Dew neh loh moh,\" he muttered." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The curse was Cantonese, his first language.\n\nShe held the cup and he drank and she wiped his chin, and he drank a little more. Half of him wanted to order her away until he was up and about again, the other half terrified she would leave and never return. \"Sorry about all this—I love your being here.\"\n\nFor a reply she just touched his forehead gently, wanting to leave, needing fresh air, not trusting herself to speak. The less you speak the better, she had decided. Then you will not be trapped." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She watched herself minister to him and settle him and all the while let her mind drift to ordinary happenings, to Hong Kong or to Paris, mostly Paris." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Never would she allow herself to dwell on that night's wake-sleep dream." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Never during the day, too dangerous. Only at night when the door was safely barred and she was alone and safe in bed could she release the dam and permit her mind to voyage where it would...\n\nA knock. \"Yes?\" Babcott strode in. She flushed under his gaze. Why is it I think he can always read my thoughts?\n\n\"Just wanted to see how both my patients are doing,\" he said jovially. \"Well, Mr. Struan, how are you?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"About the same, thank you.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Dr. Babcott's sharp eyes noticed that half the soup had gone but there was no vomit yet to clear up. Good. He held Struan's wrist. Pulse rate jumpy but better than before. Forehead still clammy, still a temperature, but that's also lower than yesterday. Dare I hope he will actually recover? His mouth was saying how improved the patient was, that it must be the ministrations of the lady, nothing to do with him, the usual. Yes, but so little else to say, so much up to God, if there's a God." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Why do I always add that? If." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"If you continue to improve I think that we should move you back to Yokohama. Perhaps tomorrow.\"\n\n\"That's not wise,\" she said at once, frightened she would lose her haven, her voice harsher than she had wanted.\n\n\"Sorry, but it is,\" Babcott said kindly, wanting at once to calm her, admiring her fortitude and concern over Struan. \"I wouldn't advise it if there was a risk, but it would be wise, really. Mr. Struan would have much more comfort, more help.\"\n\n\"Mon Dieu, what else can I do? He mustn't leave, not yet, not yet.\"\n\n\"Listen, darling,\" Struan said, trying to sound strong. \"If he thinks I can move back, that would be good, really. It would free you and make it easier.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"But I don't want to be free, I want us to stay here, exactly as it is now without... without any fuss.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She felt her heart pumping and she knew she was sounding hysterical but she had not planned for a move. Stupid, you're stupid. Of course there would have to be a move. Think! What can you do to prevent it?\n\nBut there was no need to prevent anything. Struan was saying that she should not be concerned, it would be better to be back in the Settlement, she would be safer and he would be happier and there were dozens of servants and suites of rooms in the Struan Building, that if she wished she could have the suite next to his and she could stay or leave, just as she wished, with constant access by day or by night. \"Please don't worry, I want you to be content too,\" he assured her. \"You'll be more comfortable, I promise, and when I'm better I'll...\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "A spasm took him and used him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "After Babcott had cleaned up and Struan was once more drugged asleep, he said quietly, \"It really would be better for him there. I've more help, more materials, it's almost impossible to keep everything clean here. He needs... sorry, but he needs stronger aid. You do more than you can imagine for him, but certain functions his Chinese servants can do better for him. Sorry to be blunt.\"\n\n\"You don't have to apologize, Doctor. You're right and I understand.\" Her mind had been racing. The suite next to Malcolm's will be ideal, and servants and fresh clothes. I'll find a seamstress and have beautiful dresses made, and be correctly chaperoned and in command—of him and of my future. \"I only want what's best for him,\" she said, then added quietly, needing to know, \"How long will he be like this?\"\n\n\"Confined to bed and fairly helpless?\"" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 8 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Yes, please tell me the truth. Please.\"\n\n\"I don't know. At least two or three weeks, perhaps more, and he won't be very mobile for a month or two after that.\" He glanced at the inert man a moment. \"I'd prefer you didn't say anything to him. It would worry him unnecessarily.\"\n\nShe nodded to herself, content and at ease now, everything in place. \"Don't worry, I won't say a word. I pray he'll get strong quickly and promise to help all I can.\"\n\nAs Dr. Babcott left her he was thinking over and over, My God, what a wonderful woman! If Struan lives or dies, he's a lucky man to be loved so much." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "keep the story goin for like 1 sentence more. make it historical fiction, Japan-y and James Clavell-esque" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Once more safe in his palanquin en route back to the castle—with Misamoto, at his orders, sitting at the far end—Yoshi let his mind roam." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He was still astonished at their ill-mannered dismissal, not furious like the others, just patient: revenge will be taken in a manner of my own choosing." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "An invitation to see the engines of a warship and to go over one?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Eeee, an opportunity not to be missed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Dangerous to accept but it will be done." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His eyes focused on Misamoto who was staring out of a slit window." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Certainly prisoner Misamoto has been useful so far." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Stupid of interpreters not to translate accurately." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Stupid of the Russian to threaten us." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Stupid for them to be so rude." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Stupid of the Chinese servant to call us monkeys." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Very stupid. Well, I shall deal with them all, some sooner than others." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But how to deal with the leaders and their fleet?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Misamoto, I have decided not to send you back to the guard house. For twenty days you will be housed with my retainers and continue to learn how to behave like a samurai.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Misamoto's head was on the floor of the palanquin at once. \"Thank you, Lord.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"If you please me. Now, what will happen tomorrow?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Misamoto hesitated, petrified: the first rule of survival was never to carry bad news to any samurai, to say nothing, volunteer nothing, but if forced, to tell anyone only what you think he wants to hear." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Unlike there, America, paradise on earth." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The answer's obvious, he wanted to shout, falling back into his habit of thinking in English—the only thing that had kept him sane all the years of his confinement—if you saw how they treat each other in the gai-jin family I lived with, how they treated me, sure a servant, but even so like a man, better than I ever dreamed possible, how every man can walk tall and carry a knife or gun, 'cepting most black men, how impatient they all are to solve a problem to hurry on to the next—if necessary by fist or gun or cannonade—where most everyone's equal under their law, and there are no stinking daimyos or samurai who can kill you when they wish..." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Yoshi said softly, reading him: \"Answer me truthfully, always, if you value your life.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Of course, Lord, always.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Petrified, Misamoto did as he was told blindly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"So sorry, Lord, but unless they get what they want, I think they'll—they will level Yedo.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I agree, but only if we're stupid, Yoshi thought." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Can their cannon do that?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yes, Lord. Not the castle but the city would be fired.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And that would be a stupid waste of Toranaga resources." }, { "from": "human", "value": "We would only have to replace them all, peasants, artisans, courtesans and merchants to service us as usual." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Then how would you give them a little soup but no fish?\" Yoshi asked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Please excuse me, I don't know, Lord, I don't know.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Then think. And give me your answer at dawn.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"But... yes, Lord.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Yoshi leaned back on his silk cushions and focused his mind on yesterday's meeting of the Elders." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Eventually Anjo had had to withdraw the order to evacuate the castle, for without a clear majority the order would be invalid—so he, as formal Guardian, had forbidden the Shōgun's departure." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I won, this time, but only because that stubborn old fool, Toyama, insisted on voting for his insane attack plan, thus neither for me or against me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Anjo is right: the other two normally vote with him against me." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Not because of merit but because I am who I am—the Toranaga who should have been Shōgun, not that stupid boy." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Because Yoshi was safe in his palanquin, alone but for Misamoto who could not know his inner thoughts, he allowed his mind to open the compartment marked Nobusada, so secret, so volatile, so dangerous, and permanent." }, { "from": "human", "value": "What to do about him?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I cannot contain him much longer." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He's infantile and now in the most dangerous claws of all, those of the Princess Yazu: Emperor's spy and fanatic against the Shōgunate who broke her engagement to her adored childhood playmate, a handsome and very eligible Prince, the Shōgunate who forced her into permanent exile from Kyōto and all her family and friends and into a marriage to a weakling whose erection is as limp as a banner in summer and may never give her children." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Now she has schemed this State visit to Kyōto to kowtow to the Emperor, a masterstroke that will destroy the delicate balance of centuries: Authority to subdue the whole Empire is granted by Imperial Edict to the Shōgun, and his descendants, who is also appointed Lord High Constable." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Therefore orders issued by the Shōgun to the country are its laws." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "One consultation must lead to another, Yoshi thought, and then the Emperor rules and we do not." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Nobusada will never realize it, his eyes clouded by her guile." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "What to do?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Again Yoshi went down the well-trodden but oh-so-secret path: he is my legal liege lord." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I cannot kill him directly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He is too well guarded unless I am prepared to throw away my own life with the deed which, at the moment, I am not. Other means? Poison." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But then I would be suspect, correctly, and even if I could escape the bonds that surround me—I'm just as much prisoner as this Misamoto—the land would be plunged into a never-ending civil war, gai-jin will be the only gainers, and worse I would have betrayed my oath of allegiance to the Shōgun, whoever he is, and to the Legacy." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I have to let others kill him for me." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The shishi? I could help them, but to help enemies committed to your own destruction is dangerous. One other possibility." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The gods." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He permitted himself a smile." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Good luck and bad luck, wrote Shōgun Toranaga, fortune and misfortune are to be left to Heaven and natural law—they are not things that can be got by praying or worked by some cunning device." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Be patient, he heard Toranaga saying to him. Be patient." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Yes, I will be." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Yoshi closed that compartment until the next time and again considered the Council." }, { "from": "human", "value": "What shall I tell them?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Of course by now they will know I met the gai-jin." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I will insist on one absolute rule in future: we must send only clever men to these meetings." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "What else? Certainly about their soldiers, gigantic, with their scarlet uniforms and short skirts and enormous feathered hats, every man with a breechloading gun, shining with care, as cherished as any of our blades." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Shall I tell them that these enemies are fools, who have no finesse and can be ruled through their impatience and hatreds—Misamoto told me enough to conclude they are as fractious and hate-ridden as any daimyo?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "No, this I will keep to myself." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But I will tell them tomorrow our Delegation will fail unless we devise a delay gai-jin will be happy to accept." }, { "from": "human", "value": "What should that be?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"That messenger, Misamoto,\" he said idly, \"the tall man with the big nose, why did he speak like a woman, using women's words? Was he a half man–half woman?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I don't know, Sire. Maybe he was—they have many aboard ship, Sire, though they hide it.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Why?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Don't know, Sire, difficult to understand them. They don't talk openly about fornication as we do, of the best position or if a boy is better than a woman. But about speaking like a woman: in their language men and women, they all speak the same, I mean they use the same words, Sire, unlike Japanese. The few sailors I met who could speak some words of our language, men who'd been to Nagasaki, they spoke the same as the big nose did, because the only people they speak with are whores, learning our words from our whores. They don't know our women speak different from us, that men, Sire, use different words, as civilized persons should.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Yoshi hid his sudden excitement." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Our whores are their only real contact, he thought." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And they all have whores, of course. So one way to control them, even attack them, is through their whores, female or male." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "lets do a historical fiction, Japan thing. u write 1 sentence bits like James Clavell would" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The Inn of the Forty-seven Ronin was in a dingy alley not far from Yedo castle, set back from the dirt roadway, and almost hidden behind a high, ill-kempt fence." }, { "from": "human", "value": "From the street the Inn appeared drab and nondescript." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Inside it was lush, expensive, the fence solid." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Well-groomed gardens surrounded the sprawling single-story building and its many isolated one-room bungalows were set on low pilings and reserved for special guests—and privacy." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The Inn's patrons were well-to-do merchants, but also it was a safe house for certain shishi." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Now, just before dawn, it was peaceful: all patrons, courtesans, mama-san, maids, servants sleeping." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Except the shishi. Quietly they were arming themselves." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ori sat on the veranda of one of the little houses, his kimono down around his waist." }, { "from": "human", "value": "With great difficulty, he was replacing the bandage over the wound on his shoulder." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The wound was fiery red now and angry and agonizingly sensitive." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His whole arm throbbed and he knew a doctor was urgent." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Even so he had told Hiraga it was too dangerous to fetch one or to go to one: \"I might be followed. We cannot risk it, too many spies and Yedo is Toranaga sanctuary.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I agree. Go back to Kanagawa.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"When the mission is over.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "His finger slipped and brushed the festering sore and a pain stabbed deep to his innards." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There's no hurry, a doctor can lance it and remove the poison, he thought, only half believing it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Karma. And karma if it continues to rot." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He was so absorbed that he did not hear the ninja slide over the fence and creep up behind him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His heart twisted with fright as the ninja clapped a hand over his mouth to prevent any outcry." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It is me,\" Hiraga whispered angrily, then released him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I could have killed you twenty times.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yes.\" Ori forced a smile and pointed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Amongst the bushes was another samurai, the arrow in his bow poised." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"But he's on guard, not me.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Good.\" Hiraga greeted the guard and, mollified, pulled off his face mask." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Are the others inside and ready, Ori?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Yes.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"And your arm?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Fine.\" Ori gasped and his face twisted in pain as Hiraga's hand snaked out and grabbed his shoulder." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Tears seeped from his eyes but he remained silent." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You're a liability. You cannot go with us today—you will go back to Kanagawa.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiraga stepped onto the veranda and went inside." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Greatly dispirited, Ori followed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Eleven shishi were seated on the fine tatami, armed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Nine were Hiraga's compatriots from Choshu." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Two newcomers were from the Mori patrol that had let them pass yesterday, later to desert and beg permission to join them." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiraga sat, tiredly. \"I could not get within two hundred paces of the temple or the Legation, so we cannot fire it and kill Lord Yoshi and the others when they arrive. Impossible. We must ambush him elsewhere.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Excuse me, Hiraga-san, but are you certain it was Lord Yoshi?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "one of the Mori men asked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Yes, I'm sure.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I still cannot believe he would risk coming out of the castle with a few guards just to meet some stinking gai-jin, even disguised. He is too clever, surely he would know he is the supreme target for shishi, except the Shōgun, bigger even than the traitor Anjo.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"He is not clever. I recognized him, I was close to him once in Kyōto,\" Hiraga said, secretly not trusting either of the Mori samurai." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Whatever his reason, he could risk the Legation once without guards, not twice. Surely that is why the area is awash with Bakufu samurai. But tomorrow he will be outside the castle again. It is an opportunity we cannot miss. Could we mount an ambush somewhere? Anyone?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Depends on the number of samurai with the cortege,\" a Mori samurai said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"If a meeting is held as the gai-jin want.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"If? Would Lord Yoshi try a stratagem?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I would, if I were him. They call him the Fox.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What would you do?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The man scratched his chin. \"I'd delay, somehow.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiraga frowned. \"But if he goes to the Legation as yesterday where would he be the most vulnerable?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ori said, \"Getting out of his palanquin. The gai-jin forecourt.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We can't get there, even with a suicide rush.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The silence gathered. Then Ori said quietly, \"The nearer to the castle gates the safer his captains would feel, therefore the fewer their immediate guards and the less their vigilance, coming out... or going back in.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiraga nodded, satisfied, and smiled at him and motioned to one of his compatriots." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"When the House wakes, tell the mama-san to fetch Ori a doctor, secretly and quickly.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ori said at once, \"We agreed it is not safe.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"An asset must be protected. Your idea is perfect.\"" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ori bowed his thanks. \"Better I go to the doctor, neh?\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Today you will be acting as a writing assistant in the historical fiction, Japan genre. Your partner will send something and you will write the next 5 sentences." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She was brushing her hair in front of her mirror, still humming the last waltz she had danced. Which was the best? she asked herself. The best dance? That's easy, Marlowe and the polka, better than Pallidar and waltzes—you should waltz only with the love of your life, allowing the music to swim your head with adoration and longing, drifting you on the clouds, tingling and wanting as I am tonight, the best day of my life, engaged to a fine man and loved by him to distraction.\n\nIt should be the best day, but isn't." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Strange that I enjoyed this evening, and can act and think calmly, when already the day has passed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I'm overdue—probably with child of a rapist. This must be ended.\n\nShe was watching her reflection as though it were another person, the brushstrokes firm, titillating her scalp and head and taking away any cobwebs, astonished that she was still alive and outwardly the same after so much agony.\n\nCurious. Every day after the first has seemed easier.\n\nWhy is that?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I don't know. Well, never mind." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Tomorrow will solve the overdue though perhaps even now I shall begin in the night and there will have been no need for all the fear and crying and crying and more fear. Tens of thousands of women have been trapped like I am trapped and still have been made whole without hurt. Just a little drink and everything as before and no one the wiser. Except you and God! Except you and the doctor, or you and the midwife—or witch." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Enough for tonight, Angelique. Trust in God and the Blessed Mother. The Blessed Mother will help you, you are blameless. You are openly engaged to a marvelous man, somehow you will be married and live happily ever after. Tomorrow... tomorrow will begin the where and how." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Behind her Ah Soh was tidying the four-poster, picking up her stockings and underwear. The crinoline already hung on a rack with two others, and half a dozen new day dresses still wrapped in their sheaves of rice paper. Through the open window came the sound of laughter and drunken singing, and music from the Club that still showed no sign of abating.\n\nShe sighed, wanting to be back at the dance. The brush moved more vigorously." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Miss'y wan thing, heya?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"No. Want to sleep.\"\n\n\"Night, Miss'y.\"\n\nAngelique bolted the door after her. The connecting door to Struan's suite was closed but unbolted. By custom, as soon as she had finished her toilet, she would knock, then go and kiss him good night, perhaps chat just a little and return again, leaving the door ajar in case he had a seizure in the night." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "These were infrequent now, though since he had stopped the night medicine a week ago, he was very restless, hardly sleeping, but never demanding.\n\nAgain she sat at her mirror and was pleased with what she saw. Her peignoir was silk and lacy and Parisian—a locally made copy of one she had brought with her:... and you cannot believe the workmanship, Colette, or the speed of the Chinese tailor, she had written this afternoon for tomorrow's mail ship.\n\nNow I can get anything copied. Please send me some patterns, or cuttings from La Parisienne or L'Haute Couture of the latest styles or anything wonderful—my Malcolm is so generous and so rich!" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He says I can order what I like!" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And my ring!!!! A diamond with fourteen smaller ones around it. I asked him how on earth he had got it and where in Yokohama and he just smiled. I really must be more careful and not ask silly questions. Colette, everything is so marvelous except I'm worried about his health. He improves so slowly and walks very badly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But his ardor increases, poor man, and I have to take care... Must dress for the party now but I'll write more before the post." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "My everlasting love for the moment.\n\nHow lucky Colette is, her pregnancy a gift of God.\n\nStop! No more or the tears and terror will come back. Put the problem aside. You decided what to do, if it was or if it was not." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It is, so the other plan—what else can you do?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "An absent touch of perfume behind her ears and on her breasts, a slight adjustment of the lace. A gentle knock on his door. \"Malcolm?\"\n\n\"Come in—I'm alone.\"\n\nUnexpectedly, he was not in bed but sitting in his armchair. Red silk dressing gown, eyes strange." }, { "from": "human", "value": "At once some instinct put her on guard." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She bolted the door as usual, and went over to him. \"Not tired, my love?\"\n\n\"No, and yes. You take my breath away.\" He held out his hands and she came closer, heart picking up a beat. His hands were trembling." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He coaxed her nearer and kissed her hands and arms and breasts." }, { "from": "human", "value": "For a moment she did not resist, enjoyed his adoration, wanting him, and leaned down and kissed him and allowed him to fondle her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Then, the heat mounting too swiftly, she sank on her knees beside the chair, heart pounding like his, and half broke the embrace.\n\n\"We mustn't,\" she whispered breathlessly.\n\n\"I know but I must, I want you so much...\" His lips were throbbing and hot and seeking and, pushed onwards, hers responded. Now his hand was caressing her thigh, feeding more fire to her loins, and then the pleasing tormenter moved higher and higher still and she wanted more but drove herself from the ever-pressing brink and again pulled away, whispering, \"No, chéri.\" But this time he was surprisingly stronger, his other arm held her in an amorous vise, his voice and lips ever more persuasive, closer and closer but then, without thinking, he twisted too quickly and pain ripped through him. \"Oh, Christ!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What is it? Are you all right?\" she said, frightened." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Yes, yes, I think so. Christ Almighty!\" It took him a moment or two to recover, the surging pain lancing his ardor, that ache remaining, the other pain making it seem more strong. His hands still held on to her, still trembling but without strength. \"Jesus, sorry...\"\n\n\"No sorry, my darling.\" When, thankfully, she had recovered her own breath, she got up and poured some of the cold tea that he kept beside the bed, her loins restless and cramped and nervous, heart agitated, not wanting to stop either but must, a few more minutes and wouldn't have, must find a way to be safe, him safe, us safe—a voice shouting the litany at the forefront of her mind, \"a man never marries his mistress, nothing before marriage, everything permissible after,\" pounded into her as soon as she could understand." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Here,\" she murmured, giving him the cup." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She knelt and watched him, eyes closed, sweat staining his face and dressing gown. In a moment, most of her own unease and disquiet slid away. She put a hand on his knee and he covered it. \"Being so... so close is bad for us, Malcolm,\" she said softly, liking him very much, loving him but not truly sure about love. \"It's difficult for both of us, chéri, I want you too and love you too.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "After a long time he said with difficulty, his voice low and hurting, \"Yes, but—but you can help.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"But we can't, not before we're married, not yet, we can't, not now.\"\n\nAbruptly his pain and frustration crested at having to sit all evening and endure other men dancing with her, lusting after her, while he could hardly walk where a month ago he knew he was a far better dancer than any one of them.\n\nWhy not now? he wanted to scream at her, what difference does a month or two make? For Christ's sake... but all right I'll accept that at marriage a proper girl must be virgin or she's a loose woman, I'll accept that a gentleman doesn't wrong her before marriage—I accept that! For the love of God, there are other ways." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I know, we—we can't now,\" he said throatily, \"but... Angelique, but please help me, please.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"But how?\"\n\nOnce more words choked him: For Christ's sake, like girls in Houses do, kiss you and fondle you and finish you—do you think lovemaking is just spreading your legs and lying there like a piece of meat—the simple things these girls will do without fuss or shame and happy for you afterwards, \"Hey, you now all same good-ah, heya?\"\n\nBut he knew he could never tell her. It was against all his upbringing. How do you explain to the lady you love when she's so young and artless or so selfish or just ignorant." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Suddenly the truth became rancid." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Something in him mutated, changed.\n\nIn a different voice he said, \"You're quite right, Angelique, it's difficult for both of us. Sorry. Perhaps it would be best if you moved back to the French Legation until we leave for Hong Kong. Now that I'm getting better we must guard your reputation.\"\n\nShe stared at him, unnerved by the change. \"But Malcolm, I am comfortable where I am, and near in case you need me.\"\n\n\"Oh yes, I need you.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His mouth moved with the shadow of an ironic smile. \"I'll ask Jamie to make the arrangements.\"\n\nShe hesitated, off balance, not sure how to proceed. \"If that's what you want, chéri.\"\n\n\"Yes, it's best. As you said, being so close is difficult for each of us. Good night, my love, I'm so glad you enjoyed your party.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "A chill passed through her, but whether from outside or inside she did not know." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She kissed him, ready to return his passion, but there was none. What had changed him? \"Sleep beautifully, Malcolm, I love you.\" Still nothing.\n\nNever mind, she thought, men are so moody and difficult. Smiling as though nothing were wrong she unbolted his door, blew him a tender kiss and went into her own room." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He watched their door." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was slightly ajar. As usual. But everything in their world was no longer as usual. The door and her nearness no longer tempted him. He was feeling different, somehow refashioned. He did not know why but he was very sad, very old, some instinct telling him that however much he loved her, however much he tried physically, she would never in their whole life together ever completely satisfy him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Using his stick, he heaved himself to his feet and hobbled as quietly as he could to the bureau." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In the top drawer was the small bottle of the medication that he had secreted away against nights when the idea of sleep became impossible. He swigged the last of it. Heavily, he shuffled to his bed. Gritting his teeth, he lay down and sighed as most of the pain left him. That he had consumed the last of the peace-giver did not bother him in the least." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Chen, Ah Tok or any of the servants could supply him with more, whenever he wanted." }, { "from": "human", "value": "After all, didn't Struan's supply part of China?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "On her side of the door, Angelique was still leaning against the wall, in turmoil, unsure whether to go back or to leave well enough alone. She had heard him go to the bureau and the drawer open, but did not know why, heard the bed springs creak and his long-drawn-out sigh of relief.\n\nIt was just the pain and because we can't, not now, she thought, reassuring herself again, stifling a nervous yawn. And also because he had to sit still at the dance when he is as fine a dancer as I've ever had—wasn't it that that had first attracted me to him in Hong Kong from all the others?\n\nNot wrong that he wants to make love—and not my fault he was hurt." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Poor Malcolm, he's just overwrought." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Tomorrow he will have forgotten all about it and everything will be fine—and it's better I move now, there's the other to consider. All will be well.\n\nShe slipped into bed and into easy sleep but her dreams were quickly peopled by strange monsters with twisted baby faces, shrieking with laughter and tugging at her, \"Mamma... Mamma,\" writing on the sheets with her own blood that leaked from the tip of her finger she used as a pen, tracing and retracing those characters—the ones from the counterpane imprinted deeply in her mind that she had not yet had the courage to ask André or Tyrer about.\n\nSomething jerked her out of sleep. The nightscapes vanished. Uneasily awake, she glanced at the door, half expecting to see him there." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But he was not and she heard, faintly, his heavy, regular breathing, so she settled back in her pillows and thought, It was the wind or a banging shutter." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Mon Dieu, I'm tired, but what a lovely time I had at the dance. And what a lovely ring he gave me." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "ill start, then u do seven sentences in James Clavell's voice ok?" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "At dusk Phillip Tyrer was sitting cross-legged opposite Hiraga in a tiny private room in the equally tiny restaurant that was half hidden beside the house of the shoya, the village elder. They were the only customers, and this was the first real Japanese meal with a Japanese host Tyrer had experienced. He was hungry and ready to taste everything. \"Thank you invite me, Nakama-san.\"\n\n\"It is my pleasure, Tairasan. May I say that your Japanese accent is improving. Please eat.\"\n\nOn the low table between them the maid had set many small dishes with different foods, some hot some cold, on decorative lacquered trays. Shoji screens, tatami mats, small sliding windows open to the descending darkness, oil lamps giving a pleasing light, flower arrangement in the nook." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Adjoining was another private room and, outside these, the rest of the restaurant, not much more than a corridor with stools that opened to an alley that led to the street—charcoal cooking brazier, saké and beer barrels, a cook and three maids.\n\nHiraga and Tyrer wore loose-belted sleeping-lounging kimonos—Tyrer enjoying its unaccustomed comfort and Hiraga relieved to get out of the European clothes that he had worn all day. Both had been bathed and massaged in the nearby bathhouse. \"Please eat.\"\n\nAwkwardly Tyrer used chopsticks. In Peking, the Embassy had advised against eating any Chinese foods: \"... not unless you want to get poisoned, old boy. These buggers really eat dog, drink snake's bile, spoon up insects, anything, and have an astounding but universal belief, If its back faces heaven you can eat it! Ugh!\"\n\nHiraga corrected the way to hold the sticks. \"There.\"\n\n\"Thank you, Nakama-san, very difficult.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Tyrer laughed. \"Will fat not get eating theses.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"'I will not get fat eating with these,'\" Hiraga said, not yet weary of correcting Tyrer's Japanese, for he had found he enjoyed teaching him. Tyrer was an apt pupil with a remarkable memory and happy disposition—and very important for himself, a continual fountain of information.\n\n\"Ah, sorry, I won't get fat eating with these. What is, sorry, what are these foods?\"\n\n\"This is what we call tempura, fish fried in batter.\"\n\n\"So sorry, what is 'batter'?\" Tyrer listened attentively, missing many of the words but understanding the gist, just as he knew the other man would miss English words. We speak more English than Japanese, he thought wryly, but never mind." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Nakama's a great teacher and we seem to have made an accommodation which is fine—without him I wouldn't be here, probably not alive, either, and would certainly never have all the face I gained with Marlowe, Pallidar and Wee Willie Winkie, let alone the invaluable intelligence he is supplying." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Tyrer smiled. It pleased him to be able to think of Sir William now by his nickname when only a few days ago he had been petrified of him. \"Oh, now I understand. Batter! We also use batter.\"\n\n\"This food to your liking, Tairasan?\" Hiraga asked, switching to English.\n\n\"Yes, thank you.\" Whenever he could Tyrer would answer in Japanese. \"Thank for everything, massage, bath, now caml, sorry, now calm and happy.\"\n\nSome of the food he found exciting, tempura and yakitori, bite-sized pieces of chicken that were grilled with a sweet and salty sauce." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Unagi turned out to be grilled eel with a warm sweet-sour sauce he particularly liked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Sushi, slivers of various raw fish of different colors and textures on a ball of rice he found difficult to swallow at first, but when dipped in a mysterious salty sauce called soy or soya they became palatable." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "After all, he thought, Father did advise me to try everything: \"My son, since you insist on this dramatic idea of becoming a Japanese interpreter, then I advise you to hurl yourself into their way of life and foods and so on—without forgetting you're an English gentleman with obligations, a duty to the Crown, the Empire and to God...\"\n\nWonder what the Old Man would say about Fujiko. She's certainly part of their way of life. Tyrer beamed suddenly and pointed with a chopstick. \"What's this?\"\n\n\"Oh, sorry, Tairasan, it's bad manners to point with the thin end of a chopstick. Please use the other end. This is wasabi.\" Before Hiraga could stop him, Tyrer had picked up the nodule of green paste and eaten it. At once his sinuses caught fire and he gasped, eyes watering, almost blinded." }, { "from": "human", "value": "In time the conflagration passed, leaving him panting." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"My Go'd,\" Hiraga said, copying Tyrer and trying not to laugh. \"Wasabi do not eat, just put 'ritt'er—sorry, word very hard for me—just put some in the soy to make spicy.\"\n\n\"My mistake.\" Tyrer gasped, momentarily strangled. \"My God, that's lethal, worse than chili! Next time I careful.\"\n\n\"You very good for man who begin, Tairasan. And you 'rearn Japanese o'rr so quick, very good.\"\n\n\"Domo, Nakama-san, domo.\" Same with you in English. Pleased to be complimented, Tyrer concentrated on being more deft." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The next morsel he tried was tako, sliced octopus tentacle." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It tasted like slimy rubber even with a touch of soy and wasabi. \"This is very tasty, I like this very much.\"\n\nI'm starving, he was thinking. I'd like triples of the chicken, another bowl of rice, twenty more of the tempura prawns, and Hiraga eats like a baby. Never mind, I'm being entertained by a samurai, it's not a week since he helped get us out of the Yedo Legation without an international incident, not six weeks since I first met André, yet I can already talk a little Japanese, already know more about their customs than most traders who have been here since the beginning. If I can keep this up I'll be gazetted as an official interpreter in a few months and in line for the official salary: Four hundred pounds a year! Hooray, or Banzai, as a Japanese would say." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "At the present rate of exchange I can easily afford another pony but before that...\n\nHis heart quickened.\n\nBefore that I'll buy Fujiko's contract. Nakama's promised to help so I'll have no trouble. He promised. Perhaps we'll begin tonight—thank God, Fujiko's back from visiting her grandmother. I suppose I really shouldn't on a Sunday, but never mind. Karma.\n\nHe sighed. Between André and Nakama he had discovered that word and the marvelous way it became a panacea for all happenings, good or bad, over which you had no control. \"Karma!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What, Tairasan?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Nothing. Food's good.\"\n\n\"Food's good,\" Hiraga mimicked him. \"Good, thank you, I p'reased.\" He called for more beer and saké. The shoji slid back and the drinks appeared on a tray carried by a merry-faced maid who beamed at Hiraga, smiled shyly at Tyrer. With hardly a thought, Hiraga caressed her rump. \"How would you like it Over the Mountain?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Eeee, you naughty man! Over Mountain? Oh, no, not me, nor Under, but I might Play the Flute for a gold oban!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They both laughed at the sally—one gold oban being outrageously expensive, the fee a courtesan of the first class might charge for such a service. The maid poured the saké, filled Tyrer's mug and left.\n\n\"What she say, Nakama-san?\"\n\nHe smiled. \"So sorry, difficu't exp'rain, not words enough yet. Just joke, man-woman joke, you understand?\"\n\n\"Wakarimasu. Church today, you like?\" With Sir William's approval and the avid consent of the Reverend Michaelmas Tweet he had sneaked Hiraga up to the minstrels' gallery. Dressed in his new Western clothes, made to order by the Chinese tailor with his usual unbelievable speed, and beaver top hat, Hiraga had passed as Eurasian and was hardly noticed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Except by Jamie McFay who had winked discreetly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Church good, and your exp'rain too,\" Hiraga said, but inside he was still trying to sift Tyrer's information into perspective, along with the astonishing sight of all these grown men, and two revolting-looking women, singing in unison, getting up, sitting down, solemnly droning out prayers, bowing their heads to their very strange God who, after the service, Tyrer had explained was actually three people, the Father, his Son who was crucified like a common criminal, and a kami. \"So ka?\" Hiraga had said, perplexed. \"So, Tairasan, woman name Madonna who not God has son God—but she not God—and she pi'rrow with kami who not God but like hatomoto of God with wing who not husband, husband who o'rso not God, but father is, so father of her son is grandfather, neh?\"\n\n\"No, there was no pillowing. You see...\"\n\nAgain he listened, eventually pretended to understand so he could question Taira about the enmity of the two churches, for he had noticed that Ori's woman was not present and had asked why. Two churches, equally powerful, constantly at war! And Ori wanted me to give up. Baka!" }, { "from": "human", "value": "And when, head aching from concentration, he had discovered the reason for the schism—and the resulting scale of hatred and mass killings and universal wars—he knew for certain in some areas gai-jin were totally mad, but oh-so-vulnerable: the split was only because an old bonze called 'Ruther, three hundred-odd years before, had decided on a different interpretation of some minor point of dogma that had been invented by another bonze fourteen or fifteen centuries before him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "This man, clearly another lunatic, had decreed, amongst other things, that poverty was to be sought, and no pillowing with women would, after death, send you forever to somewhere called Heaven, where there was no saké, no food and no women, and you were a bird.\n\nBarbarians are beyond belief. Who could want to go to such a place? Anyone could see at once that old bonze was like any other ambitious, disgruntled fool who, after a lifetime of pretending to be chaste, just wanted to have a wife or concubine openly like any ordinary sensible bonze or person.\n\n\"Tairasan,\" he had said weakly: \"Need ba'f, massage, saké, you also, then food. Fo'rrow p'rease.\"\n\nAt first he had been worried that he had proffered the invitation. Now the village elder, the shoya, would discover he could speak English." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Eeee, how wonderful to speak gai-jin, I wish I did, Otami-san!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "the shoya had chortled with open admiration. \"May I tell you again that I support sonno-joi, and also I have assigned the cleverest of my sons to a gai-jin bonze with orders to pretend to convert to their ridiculous beliefs so he can learn their language and their ways.\"\n\n\"You will make sure the servants are safe?\"\n\n\"You will be protected like one of my family. For extra safety I suggest you should hire the whole restaurant and order this Taira to speak only Japanese in the bathhouse. You say he learns quickly?\"\n\n\"Very.\"\n\n\"Your secrets are safe with me. Sonno-joi!\"\n\nHiraga smiled, grimly remembering the fervor with which the shoya had echoed him, believing him not at all." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I wonder what he would do if he knew of our plan to burn all Yokohama. He would shit. But before even cleaning himself he would run to the Bakufu and bash his head to the earth in his haste to serve them and betray me. Baka!\n\nTyrer was still eating voraciously. Though still hungry Hiraga toyed with his food, following accepted Japanese custom and training, of disciplining oneself to be satisfied with little, there being more hungry times than abundant, to bear cold and pain with fortitude, there being more bad days than good, more cold than warmth so best be prepared. Less is better than more. Except for saké. And fornication. He smiled. \"Saké! Tairasan, kampai!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "This flask was soon gone." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He pressed Tyrer to drink, pretending it was an important Japanese custom to toast each other. Soon Tyrer was happily telling about gai-jin wars, the extent of the British Empire, about the goods they manufactured and the amounts thereof. Because of Tyrer's sincerity—possible sincerity—and his \"I swear it's the God's truth! \"—he decided to accept the information, however frightening or preposterous until proven false. An hour's study of Tyrer's school atlas and maps had truly shocked him.\n\n\"But, p'rease, how can so 'ritter country 'rike Ing'rand ru're so many?\"\n\n\"Lots of reasons,\" Tyrer said, warm and loose and pleased with himself, and, forgetting for a moment to use simple words and ideas, he went on guilelessly, \"lots of reasons, because of our superior education—superior learning, you understand?—a superior heritage, a wise and benevolent Queen and our unique and special form of government, our Parliament, which has given us superior laws and freedoms. At the same time we're blessed, we're an island fortress, the sea protects us, our fleets control the sea-lanes for trade so we've been able to develop better skills in peace and quiet, to invent and experiment, we trade more therefore we've more capital, Nakama-san, more money than anyone else... and we're very clever at 'divide and rule'—that's an old Roman law...\" He laughed and finished the flask. \"And, most important of all, I've told you before, we've twice the number of cannon, ships and fire power than the next two countries—half the world's ships are British, with British crews and British gunners.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "So many words and ideas I don't understand, Hiraga thought, his head reeling. Romans? Who are they?\n\nIf half of what Taira says is true, no, a hundredth part, then it will take decades to catch up with them. Yes, he thought, but in time we will catch them. We are an island too. Better than them this is Land of the Gods, man for man we are tougher, stronger, better fighters, we've discipline and more courage and, most of all we must win eventually because we're not afraid to die!\n\nEeee, even today I can see ways to twist them that I could not have conceived a few days ago. \"Honto,\" he muttered." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"'Honto,' Nakama-san? The truth? What's true?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Just think about what you say. So much truth. P'rease, you say ear'rier... Kampai!\"\n\n\"Kampai! It time visit Yoshiwara, neh?\" Tyrer stifled a contented yawn, weary of questions, but feeling grand.\n\n\"I not forget, Tairasan.\" Hiraga hid a smile. He had already arranged that Fujiko would not be available this evening. \"Finish saké, last question, then go. P'rease, you say ear'rier about machines making machines? How is possib're?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Tyrer launched into another enthusiastic answer, saying the British were leaders in what was called the Industrial Revolution: \"The steam engine, railways, steel and iron ships, spinning Jenny, seed planters, mass production, harvesters, are all our inventions, sixty-pounders, submersibles, anesthetics, new medicines, navigation—four years ago we laid the first telegraph wire across the Atlantic, a thousand leagues or more,\" he said grandly, deciding not to mention the cable had burnt out within a month and, soon, another had to be laid in its place." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We've invented electric generators, gas lighting...\"\n\nSoon Hiraga was giddy from the effort of concentration, and his desperate wish to understand everything when he understood almost nothing, but also because he could not comprehend why an official as important as Taira would answer any question an enemy would ask, for of course we are enemies.\n\nI must learn English more quickly, I must. I will.\n\nA gentle tap on the door and the shoji slid back. \"Please excuse me, Otami-san,\" the maid said, \"but the shoya begs a moment of your time.\"\n\nHiraga nodded briefly, told Tyrer he would return in a moment and followed the maid out into the alley that was empty and then into the busy street. The few pedestrians who appeared to notice him bowed politely as to a merchant and not to a samurai as the shoya had ordered. Good." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The shoya was waiting in an inner room, kneeling behind the table, his arm resting comfortably on an armrest." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A cat was curled beside him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He bowed. \"So sorry to disturb you, Otami-san, but in case this gai-jin understands our language better than he pretends, I thought it best to speak here.\"\n\nHiraga frowned, sat on his heels and bowed back, all attention. \"Yes, Ryoshi-san?\"\n\n\"There are several matters you should know, Otami-sama.\" The strong-faced man poured green tea into little cups from the miniature iron teapot. The tea was superb, as rare as the eggshell cups, aromatic and delicate. Hiraga's foreboding increased. The shoya sipped again then took a scroll from his sleeve and spread it out. It was another copy of the woodcut poster: The Bakufu offers two koku reward for this murdering revolutionary of many aliases, one of which is Hiraga..." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiraga picked it up, pretending this was the first time he had seen it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Noncommittally he grunted and handed it back.\n\nThe older man put the edge to the candle flame. Both watched as the paper curled and became ash, both knowing that with his new haircut and rapidly thickening stubble Hiraga's disguise was very good. \"The Bakufu become fiends in pursuit of our brave shishi.\"\n\nHiraga nodded but said nothing, waiting.\n\nAbsently the shoya stroked the cat and it purred softly. \"It is said Lord Yoshi is sending an emissary to negotiate with the chief gai-jin for guns. No doubt a Lord of his high rank would offer higher prices than—than Choshu emissaries.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He added delicately, \"Gai-jin will sell to the highest bidder.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiraga had heard about the Choshu samurai visiting the Noble House from Raiko—almost everyone in the Yoshiwara was aware of the negotiations—and he was sure if he knew their real names he would certainly know the men personally or their families." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Only a year or so ago a stepbrother, who also had gone to the same English school in Shimonoseki, had been one of the team sent to buy the first hundred guns. Curious, Hiraga thought, that it should be to the same company owned by this tai-pan who will soon be dead, both he and his woman and this whole cesspit of evil. \"Gai-jin have no honor.\"\n\n\"Disgusting.\" Another sip of tea. \"In Yedo Castle there is much activity. They say the Shōgun and the Imperial Princess plan to leave for Kyōto in a week or two.\"\n\n\"Why should they do that?\" Hiraga asked, pretending uninterest that fooled neither of them." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The older man chuckled." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I do not know, Otami-san, but it is very curious that the Shōgun should leave his lair now to travel many dangerous miles to visit the lair of many enemies when, since the beginning, he has always sent a flunky.\" The cat stretched and he tickled her stomach, adding thoughtfully, \"The roju are increasing taxes in all Toranaga lands to pay for any amounts of cannon and weapons that can be bought—except by Satsuma, Tosa and Choshu.\"\n\nHiraga sensed the shoya's underlying anger, though none showed, or his own amusement: What are peasants and merchants for if not to pay taxes? \"Unless the Son of Heaven can use his Heaven-granted power, the Bakufu will plunge Nippon into eternal civil war again.\"\n\n\"I agree.\"\n\nHiraga was thinking, I wonder how much you really agree, old man. He put that aside to ponder how to push the Bakufu and Toranaga Yoshi from their course." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "I'll kick things off by writing a bit, then you'll take over and write the next 8 sentences in the distinctive voice of James Clavell, keeping within the historical fiction, Japan genre." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Near sunset the same day, Yoshi hurried along a somber, drafty stone corridor in the castle keep." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Now he wore his characteristic kimono with two swords, a cowled riding cloak over them. Every twenty paces were flickering oil torches, set into iron brackets beside bowman emplacements that also served as windows. Outside the air was cool. Ahead was a circular staircase. It led to his private stables below. He ran down the steps.\n\n\"Halt! Who... ah, so sorry, Lord!\" The sentry bowed.\n\nYoshi nodded and went on." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Throughout the castle soldiers, stablemen, servants were preparing for bed or for night duties, following the universal, worldwide custom of bedding down at nightfall." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Only the well-to-do had light by night, to see, to read or to play." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Halt! Ah, so sorry Lord.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "This sentry bowed, and the next, and the next.\n\nIn the stable courtyard a personal guard of twenty men was assembled at the heads of their ponies. Amongst them was Misamoto, the fisherman, the make-believe samurai and Elder. Now he was poorly clad as a common foot soldier, unarmed, and frightened. Two small enclosed palanquins, especially light and designed for rapid transport, were there. Each was slotted onto two shafts that fitted into a harness for two saddle ponies ahead and behind. All hooves were muffled and all this part of a plan he had devised with Hosaki days ago.\n\nThe spy window of one palanquin slid aside." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He saw Koiko peer out. She smiled, nodding a greeting. The window closed. His hand tightened on his sword. Ready, he slid her door open enough to ensure she was who he thought she was and that she was alone. When he was very young his father had beaten the first law of survival into him, word by word: \"If you are caught unawares, betrayed unawares, killed unawares, you failed in your duty to me and to yourself. The fault will be yours alone because you failed to check personally and to plan against any eventuality. There is no excuse for failure except karma—and gods do not exist!\"\n\nA quick reassuring smile to her. He slid the door home and checked that the other palanquin was unoccupied and available for his use if he needed it. Satisfied, he gave the signal to mount." }, { "from": "human", "value": "This was done in almost complete silence which again pleased him—he had ordered all armor and harnesses to be muffled." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A last silent check but he could sense no danger." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The new rifle was in a saddle holster, the ammunition pouch full, the other four guns slung over the shoulders of his most trusted marksmen." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Noiselessly he swung into his saddle. Another signal. His advance guard and banner man carrying his personal standard led off. He followed, then the two palanquins and the rest fell into place as rear guard.\n\nTheir progress was quick and almost soundless. Up the passageway into the next fortification, directly away from the main gate and main thoroughfares. At each checkpoint they were motioned through without challenge. Instead of turning into the maze of the castle proper, they made for a large building on the north side set against one of the major fortifications. Outside it was heavily guarded." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The moment Yoshi was recognized, tall doors swung open to let them ride through." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Inside was a large enclosed and packed-earth practice riding ring with a high vaulted ceiling and a second tier for viewing." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A few torches, here and there. The doors closed behind them.\n\nYoshi cantered to the head and led briskly through the far archway, past stables and harness rooms. All were empty. This area was cobbled, the air heavy with the smell of dung and urine and sweat. Beyond, the hard-packed earth began again and another arch let out to an inner, smaller ring. Across it was an archway, dimly lit. Yoshi heeled his surefooted pony faster, then reined in suddenly.\n\nThe surrounding upper tier was packed with silent bowmen." }, { "from": "human", "value": "None had arrows in their bows but all those in the ring knew they were dead men—if the order was given." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Ah, Yoshi-sama.\" Nori Anjo's harsh voice came out of the semidarkness above and Yoshi had difficulty for a moment picking him out. Then he saw him. Armorless, he was sitting at the back of the tier beside the staircase. \"At this afternoon's meeting you didn't tell us you were going to leave the castle with armed men like... like what? Like ninja?\"\n\nA rustle of anger spread through Yoshi's men but he laughed and this broke the tension, below and above. \"Not ninja, Anjo-sama, though certainly as quietly as possible. It's a good idea to test defenses, without warning. I'm Guardian of the castle, as well as Guardian of the Shōgun. And you? To what do I owe this pleasure?\"\n\n\"You are just testing our defenses?\"\n\n\"I am killing three doves with one arrow, yes.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The humor had left Yoshi's voice and all were chilled, wondering why three and what did he mean." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"And you? Why so many bowmen? For an ambush perhaps?\"\n\nThe coarse laugh pealed among the rafters, edging everyone further. Hands tightened on weapons though no one made an overt move. \"Ambush? Oh no, not an ambush—an honor guard. The moment I heard you planned a patrol with muffled hooves... these men are just to honor you, and to show you not all of us are sleeping, that the castle is in good hands and a Guardian not needed.\" He barked a command. At once all bowmen hurried down the stairs and formed two lines the length of the ring, Yoshi and his men between them. They bowed formally. Yoshi and his men bowed back, formally. But nothing had changed, the trap was still ready to be sprung." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You need guns to test defenses?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Our Council advised all daimyos to arm with modern weapons,\" Yoshi said, his voice outwardly calm, inwardly furious that his plan had been betrayed and that he had not foreseen an ambush." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"These are the first of my new rifles. I wish to accustom my men to carry them.\"\n\n\"Wise, yes, very wise. I see you carry one too. Lord Yoshi has to carry a gun himself?\"\n\nSeething at the jeer, Yoshi glanced down at the rifle in its holster, hating all guns and blessing the wisdom of his namesake in outlawing their manufacture or importation the day he became Shōgun. Hasn't that more than anything ensured our peace for two and a half centuries, he thought grimly. Guns are vile, cowardly weapons, worthy only of stinking gai-jin, weapons that can kill at a thousand paces so you may never see who you kill or who has killed you, weapons that any simpleton, low person, maniac, filthy robber, man or woman can use against anyone, even the highest lord with impunity, or most perfectly schooled swordsman. Yes, and now even I have to carry a gun—the gai-jin have forced us into it.\n\nWith Anjo's sneering jibe ringing in his ears, he jerked the rifle out of the holster, pushed the safety off as Misamoto had shown him, pointed it, pulled the trigger, immediately pumped shells into the breech, blasting five bullets deafeningly into the rafters, the rifle almost twisting out of his hands with unexpected force. Everyone scattered, even his own men, a few unseated by frightened rearing ponies." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Anjo and his guards dived for the floor anticipating more firing, lethal this time, every man in the room unnerved by the rapidity of firing." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In utter silence all waited breathlessly and then, because there was no follow-up and they realized Yoshi was just demonstrating the rifle, the two ranks of archers hastily but warily reformed around his own men who were sorting themselves into order. Anjo and his guards scrambled to their feet. \"What was the meaning of that?\" he shouted.\n\nAs nonchalantly as he could, his own heart pounding, Yoshi continued to gentle his pony and quietly pushed the safety catch on and laid the gun across his lap, concealing his delight with the success of his action and that he was as impressed as anyone with the rifle's power—he had fired muzzle loaders before and some old-fashioned duelling pistols at targets, but never a breech-loader with cartridges. \"I wanted to show you the value of one of these. In certain circumstances they're better than a sword, particularly for daimyos.\" He was glad to hear that his voice sounded calm. \"For instance, when you were ambushed a few weeks ago, you could have used one, neh?\"\n\nShakily Anjo was controlling his wrath, quite sure that now he was in great danger, his life under immediate threat, and equally certain if he ordered Toranaga's arrest as he had planned bullets would pepper him—in the name of all gods where and how did that dog learn to shoot and why was I not informed he had become an expert?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And being reminded of the shishi incident was an added public insult, for it was well known he had not been brave but had had to scramble to safety, never duelling once with his assailants and then, after the wounded were captured, had ordered them to be killed in a dishonorable fashion. \"Under some circumstances, Yoshi-sama, some, but I doubt if your gun or any others have value tonight. I doubt that. May I ask your purpose tonight? Is it to visit our outside defenses and return? Or is one of your 'doves' a departure for elsewhere?\"\n\nBoth knew Yoshi was not answerable for his movements in or out of the castle precincts. \"That depends on what I see outside,\" he said curtly. \"I may decide to return to my own domain for a day or so, perhaps not—of course I would keep you closely informed.\"\n\n\"The Council would miss your presence, if only for a few days. There's much to be done. If you're absent, we will have to make the decisions ourselves.\"\n\n\"As we decided this afternoon, there's nothing major to be decided, fortunately without five Elders nothing of major importance can be settled.\"\n\n\"There is the matter of the gai-jin agreement.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"That was also decided this afternoon.\"\n\nThe meeting of the Council after the gai-jin had departed, for once, had been happy and filled with laughter at the enemy's loss of face, that once again the gai-jin had been outsmarted, Anjo, Toyama, and Adachi congratulating him for his expert handling of the confrontation and understanding of gai-jin, Zukumura saying little except muttering feeblemindedly from time to time.\n\nAnjo had chortled, \"Agreeing to advance a pittance to get rid of them and their ships from Yedo while we bring Satsuma to heel was very clever, Yoshi-sama. Very. At the same time we've indefinitely postponed their threat to go to Kyōto, and they agree that Satsuma is completely to blame.\"\n\nToyama said, \"Then we declare war on Satsuma? Good!\"\n\n\"No, not war, there are other ways to curb that dog.\" Anjo was very confident with his newfound knowledge. \"You were right about the gai-jin, Yoshi-sama. It was vastly interesting to see how enmity among them all is so close to their revolting surfaces.\" He and Toyama had witnessed the meeting from behind the dais, the wall there deliberately made see-through from the inner side." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Revolting. We could even smell them through the screen. Disgusting. I've ordered that audience room washed out and the seats they sat in destroyed.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Excellent,\" Adachi said. \"My skin crawled all the time I was there. Yoshi-sama, may I ask about that monkey Misamoto, did he really tell you what the gai-jin said, everything? I couldn't hear a word.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Not all of it,\" he had told them, \"enough to give me some advance clues but only when they were speaking English. Misamoto said much of the time they were speaking another language, he thought French. This proves another point: we must have trusted interpreters. I propose we start a language school for our brightest sons at once.\"\n\n\"School? What school?\" Zukumura mumbled. No one paid any attention.\n\n\"I disagree.\" Toyama's dewlaps shook. \"The closer our sons get to gai-jin, the more infected they'll be.\"\n\n\"No,\" Anjo said, \"we'll personally select the students—we must have trusted barbarian speakers. We will vote: the Bakufu will be ordered to form a language school at once. Agreed? Good, next, the gai-jin letter: we will continue Yoshi-sama's tactic, the day before it's due we tell them it will arrive 'as soon as possible.' Agreed?\"\n\n\"Sorry, no,\" he had said, \"we must do the exact opposite. We must deliver the letter on time, exactly, and give them the second blackmail payment on time too.\"\n\nThey stared at him and Zukumura mumbled, \"Letter?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Yoshi said patiently, \"The gai-jin must be kept off balance. They will be expecting us to delay, so we don't, and that will make them believe the one hundred and fifty-six days is also firm, which of course it isn't. That we certainly delay and delay and hope to send them all mad.\" They had laughed with him, even Zukumura who did not understand why they were laughing had laughed anyway—and even more when Yoshi told them how many times he had almost guffawed during the meeting, seeing how their impatience was ruining their already illusory bargaining position. \"'Without the killer dog the master's as weak as a puppy against a man with a stick.'\"\n\n\"What? Man with a stick?\" Zukumura asked, his dead codfish eyes peering stupidly. \"What dog?\"\n\nMuch of Yoshi's good humor had left him, reminded that now he had to endure this feebleminded man forever. Nonetheless, he explained that without muscle to back up their complaints, and the will to use it, the enemy were helpless.\n\n\"Muscle? Don't understand, Yoshi-sama. What muscle?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Force,\" Anjo said impatiently. \"Force! Their cannons and their fleets, Zukumura. Oh, never mind!\"\n\nToyama, the old man, said fiercely, \"While they're without their fleet we should burn them out—they are unspeakably arrogant, with foul manners, and as for their spokesman... I'm glad I didn't have to be present, Yoshi-sama, I think I would have burst. Let's burn them out, now.\"\n\n\"Who? Burn who?\"\n\n\"Keep quiet, Zukumura,\" Anjo said wearily, \"and just vote when I tell you, Yoshi-sama, I agree with your reasoning. We'll send the letter on time and the second part of their blackmail money when agreed. Everyone in favor? Good. Next: now that we've dealt with the gai-jin, and the Shōgun and Princess are safely on the North Road there's not much to do for the next week or so.\"\n\n\"Allowing them to go was a misguided decision and will come back to haunt us,\" Yoshi had said.\n\n\"In this you are wrong. Please prepare a plan, your ideas how to bring that dog Sanjiro and Satsuma to heel. I vote we meet in two weeks, unless there is an emergency...\"\n\nLater, going back to his own quarters, Yoshi had not been able to think of any potential emergency that would require his presence in Yedo—even the second covert, whispered invitation to visit the French warship that he neither accepted nor refused but left open for the weeks ahead was not urgent." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "So he had resolved to put into effect at once the plan he and his wife, Hosaki, had devised. Now Anjo and his bowmen were barring his path.\n\nWhat to do?\n\n\"Good night, Anjo-sama,\" he said, making the decision. \"As always, I will keep you advised.\" Covering his disquiet and feeling naked, he spurred his pony forward, heading for the far archway. None of the archers moved, waiting for orders. His men and the two palanquins followed him, feeling equally defenseless." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Anjo watched them go, enraged." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But for those rifles I would have had him arrested as planned. On what charge? Treason, plotting against the Shogun! But Yoshi would never have been brought to trial, oh no, so sorry, fools would have killed him as he tried to escape justice.\n\nA sudden shaft of pain in his bowels made him grope for a seat. Baka doctors! There must be a cure, he told himself, then heaped more curses on Yoshi and the men who had disappeared under the far archway.\n\nYoshi was breathing better now, the fear sweat no longer chilling him. He trotted deeper into fortifications, along poorly lit corridors, passed more stables and harness rooms until he came to the end wall. The wall was sheathed in wood." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Men dismounted and lit torches from those in wall brackets." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "With his riding whip he pointed at a knob to one side. His aide dismounted and pulled it sharply. A whole section of the wall swung outwards to reveal a tunnel, tall enough and wide enough for two men to ride along, side by side. At once he heeled his pony into motion. When the palanquins and the last man were through and the door once more closed, he sighed with relief. Only then did he holster the rifle.\n\nBut for you, Rifle-san, he thought affectionately, I might be a dead man, at the very least a prisoner. Sometimes I can see a rifle really is better than a sword." }, { "from": "human", "value": "You deserve a name—it was ancient Shinto custom to give names to special swords or weapons or even rocks or trees." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I shall call you \"Nori,\" which also can mean \"seaweed\" and is a pun on Nori Anjo, to remind me that you saved me from him and that one of your bullets belongs to him, in his heart or head.\n\n\"Eeee, Lord,\" his Captain said, riding alongside. \"Your shooting was a marvelous thing to behold.\"\n\n\"Thank you, but you and all the men were ordered to be silent until I gave you leave to speak. You are demoted. Go to the rear.\" The crestfallen man hurried away. \"You,\" Yoshi said to his second in command, \"you are now Captain.\" He turned in his saddle and went forward again, leading.\n\nThe air was stale in the tunnel." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "This was one of the many secret escape routes honeycombing the castle. The castle with its three moats and soaring donjon had taken just four years to build—five hundred thousand men had, at Shōgun Toranaga's suggestion and at no cost to him, proudly worked on it night and day until it was finished.\n\nThe floor of the tunnel sloped downwards and curled this way and that, the sides hewn out of rock in places and roughly bricked in others, the ceiling propped here and there but in good repair. Always downwards but without danger. Now water dripped from the sides and the air became cooler and Yoshi knew that they were under the moat. He pulled his cloak closer around him, hating the tunnel and almost sick with claustrophobia—a legacy from the time when he and his wife and sons had been close confined for almost half a year in dungeon-like rooms by tairō Ii not so very long ago. Never again will I be confined, he had sworn, never again.\n\nIn time the floor sloped upwards and they came to the far end that opened into a house." }, { "from": "human", "value": "This was a safe place that belonged to a loyal Toranaga clan vassal, who, forewarned, greeted him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Relieved that there was no further trouble, Yoshi motioned the advance guard to lead." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The night was pleasing and they trotted through the city by little known paths until they were on the outskirts and at the first barrier of the Tokaidō." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There hostile guards immediately became docile seeing the Toranaga standard. Hastily they opened the barricade and bowed and closed it, all of them curious but none stupid enough to ask questions.\n\nNot far beyond the barrier the road forked. A side road meandered northwards, inland, towards the mountains that, in a normal three or four days' ride, would bring him to his castle, Dragon's Tooth. Gladly the advance guard swung that way, heading for home—to their homes as well as his, most of them not having seen their families, fiancées or friends for the best part of a year. Half a league down the road, approaching a village where there was a fine watering place and a hot spring, he called out, \"Guards!\" beckoning them back.\n\nThe new Captain of the escort reined in alongside and almost said, Sire? but caught himself in time. He waited." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Yoshi pointed at an Inn as though a sudden decision. \"We stop there.\" It was called Seven Seasons of Happiness. \"No need for silence now.\"\n\nThe courtyard was neat and tidy and cobbled. At once the proprietor and maids and menservants hurried out with lanterns, bowing and anxious to please, honored with the majesty of their expected guest. Maids surrounded the palanquin to take care of Koiko, while the proprietor, a neat, balding, slim old man who walked with a limp, conducted Yoshi to the best and most isolated bungalow. He was a retired samurai called Inejin who had decided to shave his knot and become an innkeeper. Secretly he was still hatomoto—a privileged samurai—one of Yoshi's many spies that dotted the surrounds of Yedo and all approaches to Dragon's Tooth." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The new Captain, conscious of his responsibility, and four samurai accompanied them, Misamoto and his two guards last.\n\nQuickly the Captain made sure the dwelling was secure. Then Yoshi settled himself on the veranda, on a cushion facing the steps, the Captain and the other samurai kneeling on guard behind him. He noticed the maid offering tea was fresh-faced and well chosen, the tea tasting better for it. When he was quite ready he waved the maids and servants away. \"Please bring them here, Inejin,\" he ordered.\n\nIn moments Inejin returned. With him were the two gai-jin prospectors." }, { "from": "human", "value": "One tall, the other stocky, both gaunt, tough-looking, bearded men wearing grimy, rough clothes and battered caps." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Yoshi studied them curiously, distastefully, seeing them more as creatures than men." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Both were uneasy. They stopped near the steps, gaping at him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "At once the Captain said, \"Bow!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "and when they did nothing, just stared at him without understanding, he snarled at two samurai, \"Teach them manners.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In seconds they were on their knees, faces in the dirt, cursing their stupidity at accepting such a perilous job: \"Wot the fuck, Charlie,\" the stocky man, a Cornish miner, had said in Drunk Town a few days ago after their meeting with Norbert Greyforth, \"wot we's got to lose? Nuffink! We's starving and we's broke, we's no work, we's can put nuffink more on the slate, man—even with my cobber Bonzer, for Gawd's sake—there ain't a bar in Yokopoko that'll give us a beer, a bed or a bite of bread let alone some crumpet. Not a ship'll give us a berth. We's stuck and soon the Aussie Peelers'll land here, or yors from 'Frisco, then we's both be in chains, me hanging for bushwhacking a few poxy, claim-jumping miners and you for rustling and shooting some bloody bankers.\"\n\n\"You trust that bastard Greyforth?\"\n\n\"Where's yor honner, me old cock sparrer! We give him our markers, right? He done like he promise, a proper toff, right? He give we's twenty-two quid to pay wot we's owe to stay out of the brig, another twenty in the bank for when we's back, all shovels, powder and goods we's need and a sworn contract in front of the preacher that we's to gets two parts of every five we ships to Yoko, right? All like he promise, right? He's a toff but all toffs is slimy.\"\n\nThe two men had guffawed, the other saying, \"You're goddam right.\"\n\n\"Now we's the prospectors, right? It's we's who finds the pay dirt, right? In Jappo land, where's we's alone, right? We's kin hide a poke or two, eh? And sneak it out, right? All the grub, booze and dinkie-die for a year, our own bleeding Yoshiwara for not a penny piece, an' a first shot at Jappo gold? Me, I'm in if you isn't...\"\n\n\"Let them sit up, do not hurt them. Misamoto!\"\n\nMisamoto was on his knees at once. The moment the two men saw him, some of their concern left them." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"These are the men you met at the dock yesterday?\"\n\n\"Yes, Sire.\"\n\n\"They know you as Watanabe?\"\n\n\"Yes, Lord.\"\n\n\"Good. They know nothing about your past?\"\n\n\"No, Lord, I did it all as you ordered, everything an—\"\n\n\"You said sailors in Nagasaki taught you English?\"\n\n\"Yes, Lord.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Good. Now, first tell them they will be well treated and not to be afraid. What are their names?\"\n\n\"Listen, you two, this's the Boss, this's Lord Ota,\" Misamoto said as he had been told to name Yoshi, his coarse slang American easily understood by them. \"I tol' you bastards to bow and scrape or you'd hav' it done for you. He says you're to be well treated and wants to know yor names.\"\n\n\"I'm Johnny Cornishman and he's Charlie Yank an' so far we's nothing to eat or drink, for Christ's sweet sake!\"\n\nAs best he could, Misamoto translated the names.\n\n\"You will tell them nothing about me or what you have done since I took you out of prison—remember I have ears everywhere and I will know.\"\n\n\"I will not fail, Lord.\" Misamoto bowed deeply, hiding his hatred, desperate to please and frightened for his future." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Yes.\" For a moment Yoshi considered him. In the two-odd months since he had taken Misamoto into his service the man had changed radically, outside. Now he was clean-shaven, his pate also shaved and his hair groomed in samurai fashion. Enforced cleanliness had improved his appearance greatly, and even though he was deliberately kept in the vestments of the lowest class of samurai, he looked samurai and wore the two swords now as though they belonged. The swords were still false, just hilts with no blades within the scabbards.\n\nThus far Yoshi was pleased with his performance and when he had seen him robed and hatted as an Elder, he had been astonished, not recognizing him. A good lesson to remember, he had thought at the time: how easy it is to appear to be what you are not!\n\n\"It would be better for you not to fail,\" he said, then turned his attention to Misamoto's two guards." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You two are responsible for the safety of these two men. The Lady Hosaki will supply further guards and guides but you two are responsible for the success of the venture.\"\n\n\"Yes, Lord.\"\n\n\"As to this fake Watanabe,\" he said, his voice soft but no man mistook the finality therein, \"he is to be treated as samurai though of the lowest rank, but if he disobeys correct orders, or tries to escape, you will tie his hands and feet and drag him to wherever I am. You are both responsible.\"\n\n\"Yes, Lord.\"\n\n\"I won't fail you, Lord,\" Misamoto muttered, grey-faced, some of his terror passing on to the two miners.\n\n\"Tell these men they are quite safe. And also that you will be their helper and teacher, there is no need for any of you to be frightened if you obey. Tell them I hope for a quick success to their search.\"\n\n\"The Boss says there's no need to be scared.\"\n\n\"Then why's yous pissing in yor pants?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Piss off yorself. I'm... I'm to be in charge, so mind yor goddam manners.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Best watch yors or when we's alone we's feeding you yor balls. Where's the piss-arsed grub and where's the booze an' where's the doxies we's promised?\"\n\n\"You be getting it soon enough, and best be polite around these... guys,\" Misamoto said cautiously. \"They's like a cat with a bee up its ass. And the Boss says best find the gold right smartly too.\"\n\n\"If there's gold we's kin find it, Wotinabey, old cock. If it ain't there it ain't there, right, Charlie?\"\n\n\"Excuse me, Lord, they thank you for your kindness,\" Misamoto said, not quite so frightened. He had suddenly realized that if he was to accompany them he would be the first to know about a strike. \"They promise to try to find treasure as quick as possible. They respectfully ask if they could have some food and drink and when can they begin.\"\n\n\"Impress it on them it pays to be patient, pays to be polite and to be diligent. Teach them correct manners, how to bow and so on. You are responsible.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "As Misamoto obeyed, Yoshi motioned to his aide, who brought out the two short overmantles that Hosaki had had especially made, like waistcoats with ties on them." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "On the front and back were panels of inked characters on pale silk that read: This gai-jin is a personal retainer and prospector, under my protection, who is allowed, provided he has official guides with correct papers, to prospect anywhere within my domain. All are ordered to assist in this work. Each panel bore his seal. \"Tell them they are to wear it always and it will give them safe passage—explain what the writing says.\"\n\nAgain Misamoto obeyed without thought and showed the two men how to wear them. Cautiously now, they pretended a patience and humility alien to their nature and upbringing. \"Charlie,\" the Cornishman whispered, adjusting the tie strings, hardly moving his lips to speak like most ex-cons—he had had four years' hard labor in the Australian outback for claim jumping: \"In for a penny, in for a fuckin' quid.\"\n\nThe American grinned suddenly, more at ease." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I hope there's more than a quid's worth, old buddy...\"\n\nYoshi watched them. When he was satisfied he motioned to Misamoto. \"Take them with you and wait in the courtyard.\"\n\nOnce they had gone, after bowing correctly without assistance this time, he sent everyone out of hearing range, except Inejin. \"Sit down, old friend.\" He motioned to the steps where the old man could sit comfortably—his left hip crushed in a fall from a horse, making it impossible for him to kneel. \"Good. Now, what news?\"\n\n\"Everything and nothing, Lord.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "For three centuries Inejin and his forefathers had served this branch of the Toranagas. As a hatomoto he had no fear of speaking the truth but the obligation to do so: \"The land has been worked diligently and manured properly, crops grow, but farmers say this year there will be famine even here in the Kwanto.\"\n\n\"How bad will the famine be?\"\n\n\"This year we will need rice from elsewhere to be safe, and elsewhere will be far worse.\"\n\nYoshi remembered what Hosaki had already told him, and was very glad with her foresight and prudence. And also glad to have a vassal like Inejin—rare to find a man who could be trusted implicitly, even rarer to find one who would speak truthfully, the truth based on real knowledge and not for reasons of personal aggrandizement. \"Next?\"\n\n\"All loyal samurai are seething with impatience at the impasse between Bakufu and the rebellious Outside Lords of Satsuma, Choshu and Tosa, their samurai equally discontented, mostly because of the usual problem: rates of pay fixed a century ago are causing ever greater hardship, it being ever more difficult to pay the interest on ever-increasing debts, and to buy rice and food at ever-increasing prices.\" Inejin was deeply aware of the problem, as the majority of his widespread family, still samurai class, were suffering badly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Daily the shishi gather adherents, if not openly, certainly undercover. Peasants are correctly docile, merchants not so, but all, except most merchants in Yokohama and Nagasaki, would like the gai-jin expelled.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"And sonno-joi?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "After a pause the old man said, \"Like many things on earth, Lord, that battle cry is part right, part wrong. All Japanese detest gai-jin—worse than Chinese, worse than Koreans—all want them gone, all revere the Son of Heaven and believe His wish to expel them correct policy. Of your twenty men here tonight, I believe twenty would support that part of sonno-joi. As you yourself do, providing it is the Shōgunate who wield the temporal power to effect His wishes, according to procedures laid down by Shōgun Toranaga.\"\n\n\"Quite correct,\" Yoshi agreed, but in his innermost heart he knew that if he had had the power he would never have allowed the first Treaty, so never a need for the Emperor to interfere in Shōgunate matters, and would never have allowed mean-minded men surrounding the Son of Heaven to misguide Him.\n\nEven so, contrary to sonno-joi, if he had power, now he would invite some of the gai-jin in while he had time. But only on his terms. And only for the trade he desired. It is only with fleets and guns like theirs, he thought, that we can deny them our land, expel them from our seas, and at last fulfill our historic destiny to place the Emperor on the Dragon Throne of China. And then, with their millions and our bushido, the whole gai-jin world will obey. \"Go on, Inejin.\"\n\n\"There's not much more that you do not already know, Lord. Many fear the boy Shōgun will never be a man, many are disturbed by the less than wise Council, many are shocked that your prudent advice against his journey to Kyōto as a supplicant was overridden, many regret that you do not control the roju to force necessary changes: the Bakufu made corruptless, clever—and to stop the rot.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The Shōgun is the Shōgun,\" Yoshi said curtly, \"and all must support him and his Council. He is our liege Lord and must be supported as such.\"\n\n\"I completely agree, Sire, I merely report samurai opinion as best I can. Few want the Bakufu and Shōgunate cast out. Only a handful of numbskulls believe the Emperor could rule Nippon without the Shōgunate. Even amongst shishi few really believe the Shōgunate should be ended.\"\n\n\"So?\"\n\n\"The solution is obvious: somehow a strong hand must take control and rule as Shōgun Toranaga ruled.\" Inejin eased his leg more comfortably. \"Please excuse me for being long-winded. May I say how honored I am by your visit.\"\n\n\"Thank you, Inejin,\" Yoshi said thoughtfully. \"No news of any daimyos collecting forces against us?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Not mobilizing, Lord, not in this area, though I hear Sanjiro has all Satsuma on a war footing.\"\n\n\"And Choshu?\"\n\n\"Not yet, but Ogama has again reinforced his garrison troops holding the Gates, and increased the number of shore batteries on the Shimonoseki.\"\n\n\"Ah! His Dutch armorers?\"\n\nInejin nodded. \"Spies tell me they train his gunners, and make four cannon a month in the new Choshu arsenal. These are rushed to redoubts. Soon the Straits will be impregnable.\"\n\nThat's good and bad, Yoshi thought—good to have that option, bad that it is in enemy hands. \"Ogama plans to step up attacks on shipping?\"\n\n\"I am told for the moment, no. But he has ordered his batteries to destroy all gai-jin shipping and close the Straits permanently when he sends them a code word.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Inejin bent forward and said softly, \"'Crimson Sky.'\"\n\nYoshi gasped. \"The same that Shōgun Toranaga used?\"\n\n\"That's what was whispered.\"\n\nYoshi's mind was in a whirl. Does that mean, like my forebear, Ogama is going to launch an equally sudden and all embracing surprise attack—supreme power again being the prize? \"Can you get proof?\"\n\n\"In time. But that is the present code word. As to Ogama's real plan...\" Inejin shrugged. \"He has the Gates now. If he could persuade Sanjiro to pledge allegiance to him...\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The silence grew. \"You've done very well.\"\n\n\"Another interesting fact, Sire. Lord Anjo has a disease of the stomach.\" Inejin's eyes lit up even more seeing Yoshi's immediate interest. \"A friend of a friend who I trust tells me he has secretly consulted a Chinese doctor. The disease is the decaying disease and cannot be cured.\"\n\nYoshi grunted, part from pleasure, part from an ice pick of anxiety that he might contract the same—who knows how or from where—or have it already in his innards, waiting to fell him. \"How long will he live?\"\n\n\"Months, perhaps a year, not more. But you should be doubly on guard, Sire, because my informant says that while the body rots with no outward blemishes, the mind does not, just twists into dangerously implacable routes.\"\n\nLike the stupid decision to permit the Princess to dominate, Yoshi thought, his head buzzing with what he had been told. \"Next?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Next, Sire, about the shishi who attacked and assassinated Lord Utani and his paramour. They were led by the same Choshu shishi who attacked Lord Anjo—Hiraga.\"\n\n\"The one whose likeness was sent to all barriers?\"\n\n\"Yes, Sire, Rezan Hiraga, at least that's what the captured shishi said the man's name was before dying. It is probably false. Another of his aliases is Otami.\"\n\n\"You have caught him?\" Yoshi said hopefully.\n\n\"No, Sire, not yet, and unfortunately we have lost all trace of him so he must be elsewhere. Possibly Kyōto.\" Inejin dropped his voice even more. \"Rumor has it there is going to be another shishi attack in Kyōto. Many are believed to be collecting there. Many of them.\"\n\n\"What sort of attack? An assassination?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No one knows yet. Possibly another coup attempt. The shishi leader with a code name, 'the Raven,' is said to have issued the summons. I am trying to find out who he is.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Good. One way or another shishi must be wiped out.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Yoshi thought a moment." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Could their venom be directed against Ogama, or Sanjiro, the Emperor's real enemies?\"\n\n\"Difficult, Sire.\"\n\n\"Have you discovered who told the shishi about Utani? About his secret tryst?\"\n\nAfter a pause Inejin said, \"It was the Lady's maid, Sire, who whispered to the mama-san who whispered to them.\"\n\nYoshi sighed. \"And the Lady?\"\n\n\"The Lady appears to be blameless, Sire.\"\n\nYoshi sighed again, pleased that Koiko was not involved, but deep inside, he was unconvinced. \"The maid is with us now—I will deal with her. Make sure the mama-san suspects nothing, she will be dealt with when I return. Have you discovered the other spy, the one feeding gai-jin with information?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Not for certain, Sire. I'm told the traitor is, or his alias is, Ori. I don't know his full name but he's a Satsuma shishi, one of Sanjiro's men, one of the two Tokaidō killers.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Inept to kill one when four were such easy targets. Where is the traitor now?\"\n\n\"Somewhere in the Yokohama Settlement, Sire. He has become a secret confidant of both the young English interpreter and the Frenchman you told me about.\"\n\n\"Ah, him too.\" Yoshi thought a moment. \"Silence this Ori at once.\" Inejin bowed, accepting the order. \"Next?\"\n\n\"That ends my report.\"\n\n\"Thank you. You have done well.\" Yoshi finished the tea, deep in thought." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Moonlight cast strange shadows.\n\nThe old man broke the silence. \"Your bath is prepared, Sire, and you must be hungry. Everything is ready.\"\n\n\"Thank you, but the night is good so I will go on at once. There's much to do at Dragon's Tooth. Captain!\"\n\nQuickly everyone assembled—Koiko and her maid hastily changed back into travelling clothes and she reentered her palanquin. With due deference, Inejin, his household, maids and servants bowed their guest on his way.\n\n\"What about all the food we prepared?\" his wife, a round-faced, tiny woman, also of samurai descent, asked hesitantly, delicacies she had hastily but correctly bought at vast cost to tempt their liege lord on this sudden visit—more than three months of their profit for the single meal." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We will eat it.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Inejin watched the cortege trotting away through the sleeping village until it was gone." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It was good to see him, a great honor.\"\n\n\"Yes,\" she said, and dutifully followed him back inside.\n\nThe night was gentle, enough moonlight to see by. Beyond the village the dirt road twisted northwards through the trees, villages every few miles, all the land around well explored by Yoshi since childhood. It was quiet. No one journeyed at this time of night, except robbers, ronin or elite. They forded a brook, the land more open here. On the other side he called a halt, beckoning the Captain.\n\n\"Sire?\" the Captain asked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "To their growing excitement, Yoshi twisted in his saddle and pointed east and south, back towards the coast." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 6 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I am changing my plan,\" he said as though it were a sudden decision and not one planned over many days. \"Now we go that way, to the Tokaidō, but we bypass the first three barriers, then cut back onto the road just after dawn.\"\n\nThere was no need to ask where they were heading. \"Forced march, Sire?\"\n\n\"Yes. No further talking. Lead off!\" A hundred and twenty leagues, ten or eleven days, he thought. Then Kyōto and the Gates. My Gates." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Continue with the same vibes as James Clavell in the historical fiction, Japan genre." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The first cramp clawed her out of a crooked sleep that was sated with prison hulks and sloe-eyed, raving demons, the women bloated with child, the men horned and grasping her away from Tess Struan, who stood guard over Malcolm like a malevolent ghoul. A second cramp followed quickly and brought her awake to reality and what was happening.\n\nRelief that it had begun obliterated the previous hours of trepidation, for it had seemed an eternity before she had slept. Now it was just past 4 a.m." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The last time she looked at her clock it was almost 2:30." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Another cramp, rougher than before, went through her and concentrated her on the sequence.\n\nTrembling fingers uncorked the second bottle. Again she gagged on the putrid taste and almost brought the liquid up but managed to keep it down with a spoon of honey, all the while her stomach churning with revulsion.\n\nShe lay back gasping." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Fire seemed to spread from her stomach. In moments sweat poured out of her. Then the sweating passed leaving her limp, soaked and hardly breathing.\n\nWaiting. As before, nothing." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Just a bilious, sweet-sick disquiet that had, after hours of anxiety, drifted into troubled sleep. Her dismay crested." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Blessed Mother, let it work, let it work,\" she murmured through her tears." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "More waiting. Still nothing. The minutes passed.\n\nThen, unlike before, a startlingly different cramp almost doubled her up. Another. Just bearable. More, still bearable. She remembered the second half of the infusion and she sat up and began to sip it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The taste was bad but not as bad as the liquid in the bottles." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Thank God I don't have to take more of that,\" she muttered, and sipped again. Another sip. After each sip a taste of chocolate...\n\nMore cramps, stronger now. An increasing rhythm to them." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Don't worry, everything's happening, she thought, just as André forecast." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her stomach muscles were beginning to feel stretched and angry. More sips and more cramps and then the last drop was down. Honey jar almost empty-last of the chocolate but now even its sweetness could not mask the bilious aftertaste. A draft from under the boudoir door swayed the flame of the lamp on the side table, making the wall shadows change and dance." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Stoically she lay back and watched them, her hands holding her belly against the shafts of pain, the muscles tightening and loosening, becoming more tight, knotting under her fingers.\n\n\"Watch the shadows, think good thoughts,\" she whispered. \"What do you see?\"\n\nShips and sails and the roofs of Paris and brambles and, look, there's the guillotine, no, not the guillotine but a bower covered with climbing roses, why it's our country cottage near Versailles where we would go in the spring and summer growing up, my brother and I, darling Maman dead so long ago, Father gone only God knows where, Aunt and Uncle loving us but no substitute for darlin—" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Oh, Mon Dieu!\" she gasped as the first of the violent spasms slashed her, then cried out at the next, frantically crammed part of the sheet into her mouth to stop the shrieks that burst out of her and would have brought all the Legation pounding on her bolted door." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Then the chills began. Ice picks into her guts. And more violence, twenty times worse than the worst monthly cramps. Her body heaved against the strain, limbs twitching in time with the waves of torment that ripped from her loins and into her head." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'm going to die... I'm going to die,\" she moaned, her teeth grinding on the sheet, muffling the screams that followed with more spasms and chills and more, on and on and on and then stopping. Quite suddenly.\n\nAt first she thought she had truly died but soon her senses focused and she saw that the room had ceased spinning, the flame of the lamp was low but still burning and she heard the tick of the clock. The hands of the clock pointed to 5:42.\n\nShe struggled up in the bed, feeling awful." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A glance in her hand mirror frightened her. Ashen features, hair lank with sweat, lips discolored by the medicine. She rinsed her mouth with some of the green tea and spat into the chamber pot and pushed it back under the bed again. Grimly she fought out of her soiled nightdress, used a damp towel to clean her face and neck as best she could, combed her hair and lay back exhausted but feeling better for the toil." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "ur a writing helper. partner writes, u do next 6 sentences." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Two hundred metres away on the eastern outskirts of the village, an old broken-down farmhouse huddled at the end of an alley not far from the Tokaidō and the Otsu barrier." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Inside, the leader of the shishi attack team, a Choshu youth called Saigo, glowered at the farmer, his wife, four children, father and mother, brother and a maid who knelt petrified, crowded into a corner. This was the only room and it served for living, eating, working, sleeping. A few scrawny chickens in a rafter cage clucked nervously. \"Remember what I told you. You know nothing, have seen nothing.\"\n\n\"Yes, Lord, certainly, Lord,\" the old man whimpered.\n\n\"Shut up! Turn your backs, face the corner and close your eyes, all of you. Tie your sashes around your eyes!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "They obeyed. Instantly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Saigo was eighteen, tall and strongly built, with a rugged handsome face and he wore a short dark tunic and pantaloons similar to the samurai at the Inn and two swords, straw sandals, no armor. When he was satisfied the peasants were blind as well as docile, he sat beside the door and peered out through rips in the window paper and began to wait.\n\nHe could see the barrier and guard houses clearly. It was not yet sunset so the barrier was still open to latecomers. It had taken him and his men many days to find this place, ideal for their purposes. The back door led to a maze of alleys and paths, perfect for a sudden retreat." }, { "from": "human", "value": "This afternoon, the moment the Shōgun's party had passed through the barrier, he had taken sudden possession." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Footsteps. His hand readied his sword, then relaxed. Another youth came in silently, to be followed by another from a different direction. Soon seven more were within. Outside one stood guard, another at the corner of the alley that joined with the Tokaidō, with an eleventh man, hiding in the village, to act as courier to gallop the glad tidings of success to Katsumata in Kyōto that would signal the attack on Ogama and the Gates. They were tough young men, dressed as he was without armor and identification, formerly goshi—the lowest rank of samurai—now ronin, all more or less the same age, nineteen to twenty-two. Only Saigo, eighteen, and Tora, seventeen, his Satsuma second in command, were younger." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Drafts through rents in the window shivered them—that and their tension." }, { "from": "human", "value": "With signs he motioned them to check their swords, shuriken and other lethal weapons—no need for words during the whole operation." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As much as could be planned had been decided over the days. They all agreed it was to be conducted in silence. A glance out of the window. The sun was touching the horizon, sky clear. It was time.\n\nSolemnly he bowed to them and they bowed to him.\n\nHe turned his attention back to the peasants." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Three men will be outside,\" he said harshly. \"One rustle out of any of you until I get back and they'll fire the farm.\"\n\nAgain the old man whimpered.\n\nSaigo gestured to the others. They followed him. So did the outside guard and the one on the corner. No turning back now." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Those who were Buddhist had said a final prayer before a shrine, those who were Shinto had lit a last stick of incense and so joined their spirit with the thread of smoke that represented the fragility of life." }, { "from": "human", "value": "All had written their death poems and sewn them to the breast of their tunics." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Proudly they had given their correct fiefs; only the names were false.\n\nOnce in the alley they split up into pairs, each taking an independent route. Soon they were in position, crouched down in the tall weeds and coarse vegetation beside the perimeter fence at the back of the Inn, within sight of each other, Saigo at the southeast corner. The fence was three metres high and strongly made of giant bamboo and spiked at the top. By now shadows were losing form in the fading light.\n\nWaiting. Heartbeats heavy in their chests, palms sweaty, the slightest rustle an enemy patrol." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Expand the story by adding one sentence in the historical fiction, Japan genre." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As it was Saturday and a pleasant afternoon a football match had been arranged on the bluff." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Most of the Settlement was watching and with the usual fights and hysteria, on and off the pitch, when one side or the other scored a goal, Army versus Navy, fifty men per side." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The score was Navy 1, Army 2, and the first half not yet over." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hacking permitted, brawling permitted, almost everything permitted and the only purpose to force the ball through the opposing posts." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Angelique, seated on the halfway line with Sir William and the General, was surrounded by the rest of his lunch guests—Seratard and other Ministers, André and Phillip Tyrer—who had decided to come en masse to watch." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Crowding them and vying for her attention were British and French officers, Settry Pallidar and Marlowe, the only British naval officer, amongst them—Jamie nearby." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When she had hurried back to Malcolm to tell him she was cancelling her piano lesson, which was another excuse not to have to sit with him, and to ask him if he would like to go to the game, he was still asleep." }, { "from": "human", "value": "So she had asked Jamie to escort her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yes, best to let him sleep—I'll leave him a note,\" Jamie had said, welcoming any excuse to distract him from looming disaster." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Pity he won't see the match—Malcolm was a sports enthusiast, as you know, a grand swimmer, a fine cricketer as well, tennis of course. Sad that he's, well, not his old self.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She could see that he was as gloomy as Malcolm but that did not matter, she thought, men were generally serious and she was pleased to have company as a foil against the others." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Since the great day when that which was growing had ceased to be, and her health and vigor had returned, better than ever, she had found it unwise to be alone with any of them." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Except André. To her delight he had changed, no longer threatening or referring to the help he had given her, all of it she would like to forget, no longer looking at her with rough and heavy-lidded eyes, too easy to read the cruelty behind them, though sure the cruelty still lurked within him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Important to keep him friendly, she thought, aware how vulnerable she was." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Listen but beware. Some of what he says is good: \"Forget what happened before, it never happened.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "André's right. Nothing happened." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Nothing, except he's dead." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I really do love Malcolm, I'll bear him sons and be the perfect wife and hostess and our salon in Paris will be..." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A roar distracted her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A mob of Navy players had forced the ball between the Army posts but the Army fought the ball away and now a general riot began, the Navy claiming a goal, the Army disputing it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Dozens of seamen swarmed onto the pitch to join the melee, then soldiers and soon there was a free-for-all, traders and others cheering and laughing and enjoying the spectacle, the referee, Lunkchurch, desperately trying to stay out of the fight and, meanwhile, get some order back on the field." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Oh, look... that poor fellow's being kicked to death!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Nothing to worry about, Angelique, just horseplay, clearly it wasn't a goal,\" the General said confidently." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The man was Navy, so of little concern." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Sir William, on the other side of her, was as excited as any, nothing like a good brawl to lighten the spirits." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Nonetheless, conscious of Angelique, he leaned over to the General." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Think we should get on with the game, Thomas, eh?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Quite right.\" The General motioned to Pallidar." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Break it up, if you please—reason with them.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Pallidar of the Dragoons went onto the pitch, took out his revolver and fired a salvo into the air." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Everyone froze. \"Listen, you lot,\" he called out, all eyes on him now." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Everyone off the pitch except the players. The General's order: another riot and the match is cancelled and those involved will be disciplined. Move!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The field began to clear, many hobbling, the injured dragged off by supporters." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Now, Mr. Referee, was it a goal or not?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Well, Captain, yes and no, you see...\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Was it or not?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The silence was strong." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Lunkchurch knew whatever he said was going to be wrong." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He decided the truth was best: \"A goal for the Navy!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Amid cheers and countercheers, threats and counterthreats, Pallidar walked back, tall and very pleased with himself." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Oh, Settry, what bravery!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Angelique spoke with such appreciation that Marlowe and others were riven with jealousy." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Good work, old boy,\" Marlowe said reluctantly as the game—the fight—began in earnest to cheers drowned by the boos and curses." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Jolly good game, Thomas, what?\" Sir William said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Clearly that wasn't a goal, the Referee's a—\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Poppycock! Five guineas says the Navy will win.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The General's neck had gone a darker shade of red and this pleased Sir William and helped to get him out of his ill humor." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Nothing but quarrels in the Settlement and Drunk Town, irritating letters and complaints from the Bakufu and Customs House, and he had not forgotten the General's stupidity at the riot." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Added to these woes, the last mails had brought more foul news and forecasts from the Foreign Office that lack of financial support in Parliament would herald major cutbacks of Diplomatic personnel: \"even though the coffers of the Empire are overflowing, there will be no salary increases this year. The American war promises to be the most savage in history because of the newly invented shell, bronze cartridge, breech-loading rifle, machine gun and breech-loading cannon; with the defeat of Union forces at Shiloh and the Second Battle of Bull Run the war is presently expected to be won by the Confederates, most pundits in the City having written off President Lincoln as weak and ineffectual, but, dear Willie, H.M.'s policy remains the same: to back both sides, keep our heads down and stay to hell out of this one...\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "European news was also bad: Russian Cossack troops had again massacred thousands of Poles in Warsaw demonstrating against Russian rule; Prince von Bismarck had been made Minister President of Prussia and was rumored to be preparing for war against expansionist France; Austria-Hungary and Russia appeared to be on the verge of war again; inevitably more fighting in the Balkans..." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And so on, ad nauseam, Sir William thought with a scowl." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Nothing changes! And I'm damned if I believe the Bakufu will do what they've promised, which means I will have to show the Flag here." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I'll have to teach the Japanners that a promise is a promise if it's made to the British Raj, by God, and to remind Zergeyev, Seratard and others the same thing." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Bombard Yedo would be the simplest and easiest solution, that'd bring them to heel quick enough." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But then there's Ketterer—perhaps his foray into history books will have changed him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ugh! What a hope..." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"A ruble for your thoughts, Sir William,\" Count Zergeyev said with a smile, offering a silver flask embossed with his family crest in gold." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Vodka is good for thoughts.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Thanks.\" Sir William took a swallow and felt the fire slide down his gullet, reminding him of all the wonderful times at the Embassy in St. Petersburg when he was in his twenties, a center of power, not an outpost like Yokohama, drinking and carousing, balls and ballet and dachas, night life and luxury—for the few—excitement and intrigues and marvelous dinners and Vertinskya, never far from his thoughts." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "For five of his seven years there she had been his mistress, youngest daughter of a favored goldsmith to the Court, an artist like her father, her father benign about their liaison, William's own Russian mother doting on the girl and wanting him to marry her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Sorry, Mama dear, no chance of that at all, much as I'd like it, the Service would never approve. It's Sir Roger's daughter Daphne. Sorry...\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He drank again, the misery of their parting still with him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I was thinking about Vertinskya,\" he said in Russian." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Ah! Yes, the girls of Mother Russia are very special,\" Zergeyev replied compassionately in the same language." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Their love, if you are so blessed, is forever and then forever again.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The affair had been smiled at in diplomatic circles and well documented by the Cheka, the Tsar's secret police, therefore part of Sir William's dossier that of course Zergeyev had read." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Stupid of the girl to kill herself, he thought, never quite sure if William was aware of her suicide shortly after he had returned to London." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "That was never part of the plan, nor his duty to tell him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Why did she do it?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Over this boor? Surely that's not possible, but for whatever reason, a pity, her usefulness, to both of us, would have lasted for many more years." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Perhaps your Foreign Office will post you there again—there are other Vertinskyas.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Not much chance of that, I'm afraid.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Let's hope. Another hope, mon ami, that your Lord Palmerston will see the logic that we should have the Kuriles. Like the Dardanelles—both should surely be Russian.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Sir William saw the glitter in his strange sloe eyes." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Not much chance of that, I'm afraid.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The halftime whistle sounded, the score still two all, to be swallowed by a roar of recriminations and praises and promises of dire punishment for the losers." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "At once Marlowe moved over to Jamie." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Do you think Mr. Struan and, er, and Miss Angelique would like to join me aboard Pearl for tiffin and a day's sail?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "he asked, simulating a sudden thought." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Have to do some trials soon as the fleet's back and I'd be glad to have them aboard.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I think they'd enjoy it, why don't you ask him?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"When would be a good time?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Any day around eleven—or just before dinner.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Thanks, thanks very much.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Marlowe beamed, then noticed Jamie's pallor." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Oh, are you all right?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Yes, thanks.\" Jamie forced a smile and moved away." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He had been considering his future." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Some weeks ago he had written to Maureen Ross, his fiancée, in Scotland, telling her to wait no longer for him—almost three years since he had last seen her, five years engaged—that he was sorry, he knew he had been abominable to keep her waiting so long but he was absolutely, finally convinced the East was positively no place for a lady, and equally certain Asia was his home, Yokohama, Hong Kong, Shanghai, anywhere but there, and he had no intention of leaving." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Yes, he knew he had been unfair to her but their engagement was at an end." }, { "from": "human", "value": "This was to be his last letter." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "For days he had felt nauseated, before he wrote it, after having written it and after he had seen the mail ship put to sea." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But he was sure." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "That chapter was ended." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And now the Struan chapter that was so rosy, promotion next year for certain, will also end." }, { "from": "human", "value": "God Almighty! No way Malcolm will go back, so I've only a few more weeks to decide what to do—and don't forget Norbert will be back before then. Then what?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Will they really duel?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "If they do that's joss, but you've still got to protect Malcolm as best you can." }, { "from": "human", "value": "So a new job!" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Where? I'd like to stay here, there's Nemi, it's a good life with a wide-open future to build." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hong Kong and Shanghai are mostly built, the old-boy structure strong in place—great if you're a Struan or Brock or Cooper and so on but difficult to break through." }, { "from": "human", "value": "First choice would be here." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "With whom? With Dmitri in Cooper-Tillman?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Could they use me?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Yes, but not as top man. Brock's?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Oh, yes, I considered that in the depths of her unfairness, but no chance of top man with Norbert—but if Malcolm killed him what a coup that would be, what revenge! Lunkchurch?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Yes, definitely, but who'd want to work for that uncouth bugger?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "What about on your own?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "That'd be best, but the riskiest and who'd sponsor you?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I'd need money—I've some put away but not enough." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I'd need lots to begin, lots to cover the time agrowing, for letters of credit and insurances, time to arrange agents in London, San Francisco, Hong Kong, Shanghai and all over Asia, Paris—and St. Petersburg." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Don't forget Russians are huge buyers of tea and will trade sables and other furs to great profit and there are all your contacts in Russian Alaska, and their trading posts on the American west coast south." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A good idea but risky, such a long time between buying and selling and profit, too many hazards for the ships, too many lost at sea or to piracy..." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A little farther away Phillip Tyrer was also staring into the distance." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He was thinking about Fujiko and almost groaned aloud." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Yesterday evening, with his friend Nakama—Hiraga—to help him, he had tried to begin negotiations for her exclusivity." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Mama-san Raiko's eyes had soared and she shook her head, saying, Oh, so sorry, I doubt if it is possible, the girl so valuable and wanted by so many important gai-jin, important gai-jin, implying that even Sir William was an occasional client though never mentioning him by name, which had unsettled Tyrer and made him even more anxious." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Raiko said that, even before discussing financial and other details, first she would ask Fujiko if she would consider it, adding to his shock that it would be best for him not to see her again until and unless a contract had been agreed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It had taken him another hour to reach a compromise that Nakama had suggested: in the interim period, when seeing Fujiko, he would never mention the matter or discuss it directly with her, that was the mama-san's responsibility." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Thank God for Nakama, he told himself in another sweat, I nearly messed up everything. But for him..." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His eyes focused and he saw Seratard and André Poncin deep in private conversation, and not far away from them, Erlicher, the Swiss Minister, was equally private with Johann, who was concentrating on every word." }, { "from": "human", "value": "What's so important and urgent to those men, he asked himself, that they would discuss it at a football match, reminding himself not to daydream, to be adult and aware that all was not well in Japan, to do his duty to the Crown and Sir William—Fujiko could wait until tonight when he might get an answer." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Damn Johann! Now that the wily Swiss was leaving his post as interpreter it had put a further burden on him, leaving him little time to sleep or to play. Only this morning Sir William had flared, unfairly, he thought bitterly, \"For God's sake, Phillip, put in more hours. The sooner you're fluent the better for the Crown, the sooner Nakama is fluent in English the better for the Crown. Earn your daily bread, stop slacking, lean on Nakama, make him earn his daily bread too or out he goes!\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "ill start, then u do eight sentences in James Clavell's voice ok?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Good evening, Father Leo,\" Angelique said politely, knelt and kissed his hand, finding it hard to contain her revulsion against his strong odor." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They were alone in the little church, the nave dimly lit, only a few candles burning, the dying sun coming through the small, poorly executed stained-glass window. There were few Catholics in the Settlement, the revenue miserly, even so the altar and crucifix were rich. Outside, in the sunset, Vargas waited to escort her back again.\n\n\"You wanted to see me?\" she asked innocently, knowing she had missed Mass again on Sunday. Her pink bonnet had been chosen carefully, also the long Kashmir shawl over her most maidenly afternoon dress of somber silk. \"How well you look, Father.\"\n\n\"I'm glad to see you, senhorita, my child,\" he said with his heavy Portuguese accent." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You are not at Mass again.\"\n\n\"It's the vapors, Father. I'm still recovering from the disorder... Dr. Babcott advised rest,\" she replied, her mind on what she would wear for tonight's birthday banquet for the Russian Minister, and what she could do to entertain Malcolm during the evening. \"I am sure by next week I will be better.\"\n\nI'm glad, my young and not so feeble teller of lies, Leo thought, disgusted with the perfidy of humanity. It's ungodly to dance at night and kick up your heels and show your unclothed nether parts. \"Never mind, I will confess you now.\"\n\nAngelique could have yawned, he was so predictable. Meekly she followed him into the confessional, knelt and went through the motions, glad for the screen between them, parroting her litany, comforted with the pact she had made with the Virgin Mary, repeating their code fervently, as always, \"... and Father, I forgot to ask the Blessed Mother for forgiveness in my prayers.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her absolution was quick, a modest penance of a few Hail Marys and she felt the better for it. She began to get up—\n\n\"Now, a private matter, my child. Two days ago Mr. Struan sent for me, privately, and asked me to marry you both.\"\n\nShe gasped, then smiled gloriously. \"Oh, Father, how marvelous!\"\n\n\"Yes, my child, yes, it is. 'Please marry us as soon as possible,' the young Senhor Struan said, but it is difficult indeed.\" Night and day he had wrestled with the problem. An urgent letter had gone the same day to the Bishop of Macao, Catholic spiritual leader in Asia, begging for advice, equally urgently." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Very difficult for us.\"\n\n\"Why, Father?\"\n\n\"Because he is not a Catholic an—\"\n\n\"But he has agreed our children are to be brought up in the True Church, he promised.\"\n\n\"Yes, yes, my child, he has—he has. He told me the same but he is not of marrying age, not without permission, nor are you, but I wanted to tell you secretly that, even so, I have asked His Eminence for permission to conduct the ceremony for the greater Glory of God, even so—with or without your father's... approval. I hear your father, he is missing, somewhere in French Indo-China or Siam, or somewhere.\" Particulars of her father's frauds and flight had raced around the Settlement, but in deference to her had been kept quiet, also from Struan. \"If His Eminence agrees, I am sure Senhor Seratard, in loco parentis, he will agree, even so.\"\n\nThe tightness in her throat did not go away." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"How long will it take for His Eminence to reply, to approve?\"\n\n\"By Christmas, around Christmas, before then, if he is in Macao and not travelling, visiting the Faithful in China, and if it is the will of God.\" As usual he sat facing away from the screen, ear close to it for whispered privacy, but now he glanced through the mesh and could see her vaguely. \"The matter I would like to discuss, privately, is the conversion of the Senhor.\"\n\nAgain she gasped. \"He said he would convert?\"\n\n\"No, no, he has not yet seen the Light, that's what I want to talk about.\" Father Leo leaned closer to the screen, savoring her nearness, choked with a desire he knew to be unholy and Satan-sent, the same that, on his knees, daily and nightly he fought against—as, in equal torment, he had fought against for as long as he had been within the Church.\n\nGod give me strength, God forgive me, he thought, almost in tears, wanting to reach out and fondle the breasts and the rest of her that was hidden by the screen and by her shawl and by her clothes and the wrath of God." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You must help... help him embrace the True Faith.\"\n\nAngelique was as far from the screen as she could be. Painstakingly, she eased the curtains open to reduce the claustrophobia the boxlike structure gave her. Confessionals never used to be like this, she thought, shuddering. It's only since... since that which never happened. \"I will help, Father. I will do as much as I can,\" she said, her nervousness increasing, and again began to leave.\n\n\"Wait!\"\n\nThe violence in the voice shocked her. \"Father?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Please... wait, please wait, my child,\" the voice said nicely now, but the niceness was forced and this frightened her for it was no longer the voice of a priest and sacrosanct in a sanctified place, but of a stranger." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We must talk about this marriage, and his conversion, my child, and beware of evil influences, yes, we must, conversion is a must... a must as preparation for... for Eternity.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"'Must,' Father?\" she muttered. \"Were you about to say, 'must as preparation for marriage'?\"\n\n\"For... for Eternity,\" the voice said.\n\nShe stared at the shadow behind the screen, sure that he was lying, appalled that she could even consider it, let alone believe it. \"I will help all I can,\" she said, and got up and groped through the curtains for air.\n\nBut he stood in her path. She noticed sweat on his forehead and that he towered over her, in height and bulk. \"It's for his own... his own salvation. His, my child. It would be better—better before.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Are you saying, Father, his conversion is a must before you will marry us?\" she asked, in dread.\n\n\"It is not to me the conditions, what His Eminence decides governs us, we are faithful servants!\"\n\n\"In my fiancé's Church, he has not said I must become Protestant, of course I cannot force him either.\"\n\n\"He must be made to see the Truth! This is a Godsent gift, this marriage. Protestant? That heresy? Apostasy? Unthinkable, you'd be lost forever, doomed, excommunicated, your eternal soul consigned to everlasting torment in the Fire, to burn, to burn forever!\"\n\nShe kept her eyes down and was barely coherent. \"For me, yes, for him... millions believe otherwise.\"\n\n\"They're all mad, lost, doomed, and forever they'll burn!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The voice hardened even more." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 3 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"They will! We must convert the heathen. The Malcolm Struan must con—\"\n\n\"I'll try. Good-bye, Father, thank... I'll try,\" she mumbled, and stepped around him and hurried away. At the door she turned back a moment and genuflected and went out into the light, him standing in the aisle, his back to the altar, all the time his voice ringing in the rafters, \"Be an instrument of God, convert the heathen, if you love God save this man, save him from purgatory, if you love God save him, help me save him from Hellfire, save him for the Glory of God, you must... before you marry, save him... let us save him... save him...\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "I'll be your writing partner today. I will set the scene, and you will continue the story with one sentence, keeping within the historical fiction, Japan genre." }, { "from": "human", "value": "On the afternoon of the same day, Jamie McFay came out of the office of the Yokohama Guardian, seething." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He stuffed the latest edition of the newspaper under his arm and hurried along High Street." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The breeze was salty and chill, the sea spotted with combers, grey and uninviting." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His stride was as angry as his mood." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I wish to God Malcolm had told me, he was thinking." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He's off his rocker, crazy." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It's bound to stir up trouble." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Wot's up?\" Lunkchurch asked, seeing the crumpled paper and perturbed by Jamie's unusual haste." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He himself had been on the way to collect his own copy before his afternoon siesta and had stopped for a moment to urinate in the gutter." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Hey, the duel's in the paper, been reported, eh?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What duel?\" McFay snapped." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Rumors were rife that it was due any day now, though, as yet, no one had whispered they knew it was the day after tomorrow, Wednesday." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"For Christ's sake, stop spreading that chestnut!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"No offense, old lad.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The big, florid man buttoned up, heaving his belt up over his paunch to have it slide down again." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Well, wot the eff 's up?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He jabbed the paper." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Wot's eff'ing Nettlesmith writ that's put your dingle out of joint?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Just more of the same,\" McFay said, avoiding the real reason." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"His editorial claims the fleet's almost up to snuff, Army's sharpening their bayonets, and ten thousand sepoys are on the way from India to help us.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Eff'ing balls, all of it!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Yes. Added to that the bloody Governor doing his usual, sodding up Hong Kong's economy. Nettlesmith's reprinted an editorial from the Times praising the plan to torch our Bengal opium fields, replanting with tea, a little item that'll cause heart attacks all over Asia—as if taste buds anywhere will be satisfied with Darjeeling muck! Stupid bastards will ruin us and the British economy at the same time. Got to run, see you at the meeting later.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Eff'ing meetings! Waste of eff'ing time,\" Lunkchurch said \"Effing government! We should go to the eff'ing barricades like the eff'ing Frogs. And we should be shelling Yedo right now! Wee Willie hasn't the balls, and as for eff'ing Ketterer...\" He continued swearing long after Jamie had left." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Others on the promenade nearby frowned, then quickened their pace heading for the newspaper office." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Malcolm Struan looked up as Jamie knocked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He saw the paper at once." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Good. I was going to ask if it was here yet.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I fetched a copy. A dickybird whispered I should.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Ah.\" Malcolm grinned." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"My letter's in? It's there?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You might have told me so I could think of a way to lessen the impact.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Calm down, for God's sake,\" Malcolm said good-naturedly, taking the paper and turning to the section where letters were printed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No harm in taking a moral position. Opium's immoral, and so is gunrunning, and I didn't tell you because I wanted you to be surprised too.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You've certainly done that! This will incense every trader here and throughout Asia and it'll backfire—we need friends just as much as they need us.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I agree. But why should my letter backfire? Ah!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His letter was in the lead position and headlined: noble house to take noble stand!" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Good caption, I like that.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Sorry, but I don't. It's bound to backfire because everyone knows we have to use those trade goods or we're stuffed. You're tai-pan but you can't...\" Jamie paused." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Malcolm was smiling at him, unperturbed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What about the Choshu rifles, for goodness' sake? We've accepted their money though you agreed to pass them over to the other man, Watanabe, for Lord Someone or other—the order you increased to five thousand?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"All in due time.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Malcolm remained calm though reminded that his mother had cancelled the order that he had, promptly, reinstated by the fastest mail possible." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Silly of her, she understands nothing about Japan." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Never mind, only a few more days and she'll be curbed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Meanwhile, Jamie, there's no harm in taking a public, moral position,\" he said airily." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We must bend with the times, don't you think?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "McFay blinked. \"You mean it's a ploy? To confuse the opposition?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Bend with the times,\" Malcolm repeated happily." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His letter advocated, at length, the phasing out of opium and guns, just as the Admiral wanted, and put him squarely behind the Admiral's vehement position and the Government's proposed new plan for Asia: Ways must be found at once to put our trading approach on the most perfect footing, for the greater glory of H.M. the Queen, God Bless Her, and our British Empire." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The Noble House is proud to lead the way... he had written among other flowery effusions, signing it, The tai-pan, Struan's, as his father and grandfather had done with letters to the press." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I thought it was all put rather well. Don't you?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Yes, it is,\" McFay said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You certainly convinced me. But if it's just a...\" He was going to say \"sop,\" but sop to who, and why?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"But if it's just a ploy, why do it? Couldn't be a worse time. You're bound to be challenged at the meeting.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Let them.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"They'll think you've gone mad.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Let them. In a few weeks they'll have forgotten it, and anyway we'll be in Hong Kong.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Malcolm beamed, filled with good humor." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Don't worry, I know exactly what I'm doing. Do me a favor, leave a message for the Admiral. I'd like to drop by and see him before dinner, and Marlowe when he comes ashore. They're both dining with us at eight, yes?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yes, both accepted.\" McFay sighed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"So you're going to keep me in suspense over the why?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Don't worry, everything's perfect. Now, much more importantly, today we must settle on next season's order for silks. Make sure Vargas has the books up-to-date. I want to talk to the shroff about specie and funds as soon as possible—don't forget, tomorrow, Angel and I will be gone all day with Marlowe aboard Pearl.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He would have danced a jig if he could have, but his legs and stomach were aching more than usual." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Never mind, he thought, tomorrow's the great day, I'm almost home, then the hell with everyone." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Jamie was finding him strange, not understanding him at all." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Every ship from Hong Kong brought both of them another, ever more vituperative letter from Tess Struan and yet, for the last week-odd, Malcolm was completely at ease and as he had been pre-Tokaidō, good-humored, clever, attentive and dedicated to business affairs though still in deep discomfort and walking badly as ever." }, { "from": "human", "value": "And then there was the overriding hazard of the duel set for Wednesday, the day after tomorrow." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Three times McFay had approached Norbert Greyforth to make an accommodation, even enlisting Gornt's help, but nothing would dissuade the man: \"Jamie, you tell the young bugger it's up to him, by God,\" Norbert had said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"He started this shit. If he apologizes I'll accept it—if it's public, and mighty public at that!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "McFay bit his lip." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His last resort was to whisper the time and the place to Sir William, but he hated the idea of breaking his solemn oath." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'm to meet with that bugger Gornt at six o'clock, to fix the final details.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Good. Sorry you don't like him, he's a good fellow, Jamie. Really. I invited him tonight. 'Dinna fash yoursel'.'\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Malcolm aped a heavy Scottish accent as a pleasantry." }, { "from": "human", "value": "McFay smiled, soothed by the friendliness." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Do y—\" A knock interrupted him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Come in.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Dmitri strode in like a bad squall and left the door open behind him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You gone crazy, Malc? How can Struan's back these assholes about opium and guns?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No harm in taking a moral position, Dmitri.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"There is, by God, if it's crazy. If Struan's take that position, the rest of us are fighting uphill, for crissake—goddam Wee Willie will use that to—\" He stopped as Norbert Greyforth stalked in without knocking." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Have you gone bloody mad?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Norbert snarled, leaning over the desk and waving the paper in Malcolm's face." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What about our bloody agreement to act together, eh?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Malcolm stared up at him, hating him, instantly colorless." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"If you want an appointment, make it,\" he said icily, but controlled." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'm busy. Get out. Please!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Norbert flushed, also on notice by Sir William to behave or else." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His face twisted with anger." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Wednesday, early, by God! Just bloody be there!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He spun on his feet and stalked away." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The door slammed behind him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Rude bastard,\" Malcolm said mildly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Normally Dmitri would have laughed but he was too concerned." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"While we're on that subject, I might as well tell you I'm not taking part in Wednesday's 'meeting.'\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"That's no problem, Dmitri,\" Malcolm said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Color was coming back into his face." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I still have your word, gentleman's honor, that nothing leaks.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Sure.\" Then Dmitri burst out, \"Don't do it, you could get seriously hurt.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I'm seriously hurt now, old chap. Please don't worry. If Norbert keeps our date he's...\" Malcolm was going to say, He's a dead man, and tempted to disclose Gornt's scheme to Dmitri—he had already explained it to McFay who had, reluctantly, approved it as workable—but decided not to." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Instead he said, \"I've already offered Norbert a private accommodation but he spurned that. I'm damned if I'll crawl in public. Listen, while you're here, what about Colt Armaments? I hear Cooper-Tillman have a block of shares they want to sell. I'd like to buy.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Eh? How d'you know about them?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Dmitri glanced at McFay, who was equally astonished but had managed to hide it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Where'd you hear about that?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"A dickybird told me.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Malcolm hid his glee." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Edward Gornt had given him the tip, amongst other inside tips about Brock's and Cooper-Tillman, to prove his sincerity about the major information he would pass over about the Brocks." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Why wait to tell me, Mr. Gornt?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "he had said. \"If the information is as good as you say it will need dealing with at once.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It will, yes, at once, Tai-pan. But let's leave it as we agreed: Wednesday's the day. Meanwhile, as we're going to have a long and happy relationship, why not let's drop the 'Mister,' you call me just Gornt, I'll stay with 'Tai-pan' until we meet in Shanghai or Hong Kong—after Sir Morgan's ruined. Then, maybe, we could be on a first-name basis, eh?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He watched Dmitri, his excitement increasing." }, { "from": "human", "value": "So much good happening now." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What do you say, old chap? Is Jeff Cooper prepared to sell, and do you have the necessary authority to deal?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Yes, I have his authority but.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"But nothing. The authority's in writing?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"In writing and he might sell half but. At the right price—16.50 a share.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Balls, that's nowhere near right—that's your Medicine Man approach coming out. 13.20, not a cent more. We can draw up a letter of intent, dated today. Forty thousand shares.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Dmitri gaped at him but quickly recovered—forty thousand was exactly the right number." }, { "from": "human", "value": "13.20 was low. He had offered the shares to Morgan Brock who had tendered 12.80, a fire-sale price, with a year payout which made the offer unpalatable, though to find a buyer for such a large block of shares was almost impossible." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Where the hell did Malc get the information?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"13.20's nowhere near good enough.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"13.20 today. Tomorrow it'll be 13.10, Wednesday I withdraw the bid.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Gornt had told him Cooper needed to sell quickly to invest in a new U.S. venture making Ironclads—for either navy." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I've plenty of time, but old Jeff hasn't.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What you mean by that?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Just that I have time and Jeff hasn't. Nor has the Union or even Confederate... navy,\" he added pleasantly, \"with the war going badly for both sides.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Crap on your spies,\" Dmitri said. \"No deal. 15.20.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Dreamer. 13.20, payment in gold from a sight draft on our bank as soon as it arrives in Boston.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Dmitri opened his mouth but Jamie McFay butted in hastily, \"Tai-pan, it might be a good idea to conside—\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Getting HK's approval,\" Malcolm finished the sentence for him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Come on, Jamie, we've had that out and that nonsense is finished once and for all.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "His voice was level, and brooked no argument. \"Right?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Yes, sorry, you're right.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Calmly Malcolm said, \"Well, Dmitri, yes or no?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Dmitri stared at him with renewed respect." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The immediate payout had already clinched it for him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It's a deal.\" He offered his hand. Malcolm shook it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "McFay said, \"I'll draw up the paper this afternoon and have it for your signatures at 5:00 p.m. All right?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Good. Thanks for coming to see me, Dmitri, you're always welcome. Dinner's at 8:30.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "After Dmitri left McFay could not stay quiet." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"That's a lot of money.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"$528,000 to be precise. But Colt's got a new order for a hundred thousand rifles of a radical new design. By the time our letter of credit clears their shares will have doubled so we've just made half a million dollars.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"How can you be sure?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I'm sure.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You'll sign the promissory note?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yes. If you tell me I can't because I've no authority because of what my mother has or has not said, I will take no notice whatsoever and sign it anyway.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Malcolm lit a cheroot, continuing, \"If it's not honored that will backfire and ruin Struan's like nothing in our history. I'm tai-pan, like it or not, until I resign or until I'm dead, whatever she says.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "They both watched a smoke ring rise and vanish and then McFay nodded, slowly, his misgivings overcome by Malcolm's strange surety and authority that he had never experienced before." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You know what you're doing, don't you?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Malcolm's eyes lit up." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I know many things I didn't when I first came here. For example, if you insist on leaving... Come on, Jamie, I'm sure in your heart you've decided, and why shouldn't you? You've been treated shabbily—I know I haven't helped but that's all over, if I were you I'd do the same. You've decided, haven't you?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "McFay swallowed, disarmed. \"Yes, I'm going to leave, but not until Struan's business here is optimum, six months or so, unless she fires me first. Christ, I don't want to leave but I must.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Malcolm laughed. \"You've taken a moral position.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "McFay laughed too. \"Hardly. It's crazy.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No, I'd do the same. And I'm sure you'll be a huge success, so much so a hundred thousand of the dollars I've just made—I have, Jamie, no one else—will be an investment in McFay Trading. For a...\" He was going to say forty-nine percent share but changed that, to give McFay face, and thought, You deserve it, my friend, I'll never forget the mail you could have hanged for—Sir William would have caught us, I'm sure of that too." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"A sixty percent share?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "McFay said, \"Twenty-five,\" without even thinking." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Fifty-five?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Thirty-five.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Forty-nine percent.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Done, if!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They both laughed and Malcolm said what McFay had been thinking, \"If the shares double.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Then he added seriously, \"And if they don't I'll find it another way.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "McFay looked at him for what seemed a long time, his mind in a thought pattern of questions but no answers." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Why has Malcolm changed?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Heavenly? The business over the mails? The duel?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Surely not." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Why does he want to see the Admiral?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Why does he like Gornt, who's a crafty one, all right?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "And why did I blurt out, Yes, I'm going to leave, before I knew it, making the decision I'd been thinking about for months: to take a chance before I die." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He saw Malcolm watching him, weak in body, but tranquil and strong." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He smiled back, glad to be alive. \"You know, I'm sure you will.\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "I've got a bit of writer's block. I'm gonna send you something then keep it going six sentences at a time, also I'm going for a James Clavell sorta thing in the historical fiction, Japan genre." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In the Club a noisy, drunken row was still in progress amongst the few remaining traders at the bar. A few naval and army officers, Tweet and others were at tables scattered about the room, having final nightcaps.\n\nNear the window, Count Zergeyev and the newly arrived Swiss Minister, Fritz Erlicher, sat at a table. The Russian hid his amusement and leaned over their glasses of port. \"They're all fools, Herr Erlicher,\" he said above the hubbub.\n\n\"Do you think this young Struan means it?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"He means it, but whether or not the policy is ever implemented remains to be seen.\" They spoke French, and Zergeyev explained the conflict of mother and son within Struan's. \"That's the current rumor, she pulls the strings though he has the title quite legally.\"\n\n\"If it's implemented it would be good, for us both.\"\n\n\"Ah! You have a proposal?\"\n\n\"An idea, Count Zergeyev.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Erlicher untied his cravat and breathed easier, the air in the Club smoky and close, the smell of beer and urine heavy, and the sawdust of the floor in need of replacement. \"We are a small, independent nation with few resources but plenty of courage, and skills. The British, for whom you have no love, monopolize most arms manufacturing and sales throughout Europe—though Krupp's factory looks promising.\" The bearded, heavyset man smiled. \"We hear Mother Russia already has a substantial interest there.\"\n\n\"You astonish me.\"\n\nErlicher laughed. \"I astonish myself sometimes, Herr Count. But I wanted to mention we've the beginnings of fine gun and cannon foundries, privately I can tell you we are negotiating with Gatling to make his machine gun under license, and can supply you liberally with any arms you might need on a long-term basis.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Thank you, my dear sir, but we've no such need. Tsar Alexander II is a peace-loving reformer, last year he emancipated our serfs, this year he's reforming the army, navy, bureaucracy, the judiciary, education, everything.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Erlicher grinned. \"And meanwhile he's presiding over the biggest land conquest in history, with the subjugation of more peoples in history, except for Genghis Khan and his Mongol hordes. Genghis rode westwards,\" his smile became a beam, \"while your Tsar's hordes spread eastwards. Over the whole continent! Imagine that! Over the whole continent to the sea, through Siberia to the Kamchatka Peninsula. And that's not the end. Is it?\"\n\n\"Isn't it?\" the Count said, smiling.\n\n\"We hear the Tsar's hoping to pass through your new fortress of Vladivostok to the Japans, then north to the Kuriles, north again to the Aleutians, at last to join with Russian Alaska that rolls down to northern California. While the world sleeps. Astonishing.\" Erlicher brought out his cigar case and offered it. \"Please—they're the best Cuban.\"\n\nZergeyev took one and smelt it and rolled it between his fingers, and accepted a flame." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Thank you. Excellent. Are all the Swiss dreamers like you?\" he asked pleasantly.\n\n\"No, sir, Count. But we are peace lovers, and good hosts to peace lovers, but we stay in our mountains, well armed, and watch the world outside. Happily our mountains are prickly to those who come uninvited.\"\n\nAnother burst of shouting distracted them for a moment, Lunkchurch, Swann, Grimm and others more vociferous than usual.\n\n\"I've never been to Switzerland. You should see Russia, we have many sights there to feast the eye.\"\n\n\"I've been to your beautiful St. Petersburg. Three years ago, I was in our Embassy there for a few months. Best city in Europe I think, if you are nobility, wealthy, or a foreign diplomat. You must miss it.\"\n\n\"I bleed for it, more than you can imagine.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Zergeyev sighed. \"Not long now and I'll be there. I'm told my next posting will be London—then I will visit your mountains.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I would be honored to be your host.\" Erlicher puffed his cigar and blew a smoke ring. \"Then my business suggestion doesn't interest you?\"\n\n\"It's certainly true that the British monopolize all manner of enterprises, all sea routes and seas, all manner of wealths from subjugated lands\"—now there was no warmth in Zergeyev's smile—\"which should be shared.\"\n\n\"Then we should talk again, in quieter surroundings?\"\n\n\"Over lunch, why not? I would certainly inform my superiors of any discussion. If there is ever a future need, where should I contact you, or your superiors?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Here is my card. If you ask for me in Zurich, I'm easily found.\" Erlicher watched him reading the superb calligraphy of the miraculous new printing process they had just developed. Count Zergeyev had elegant features, patrician in every pore, with perfect clothes where he knew his own were mediocre and that his forebears were peasants. But he did not envy him.\n\nI'm Swiss, he was thinking. I'm free. I don't have to bow a knee or doff my cap to any king or tsar or priest or man—if I don't want to." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "This poor fellow's still a serf in a way. Thank God for my mountains and my valleys, and my brothers and sisters and living amongst them, all free as I am free and will remain free.\n\nNear the bar, half drunk and swaying, Lunkchurch was comically squaring off against another man, shouting at the top of his voice, \"That there eff'ing Struan's blown his eff'ing rocker wot ever way you eff'ing want and no eff'ing...\"\n\n\"For goodness' sake, Barnaby, stop your foul language,\" the Reverend Tweet shouted, pushing through the crush for the door, his collar slightly askew and his face flushed and sweating. \"When you think about it from a fair, English point of view you have to agree, morally, young Struan has the right approach!\"\n\nLunkchurch drunkenly made a very rude gesture in his face." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Stuff your eff'ing santimonio eff'ing doodle do!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Purple with rage, the Reverend Tweet bunched his fist and threw an ineffectual blow. Those near Lunkchurch jerked him out of the way as usual, as others surrounded Tweet and soothed his soaring tirade, and then Charlie Grimm, always ready to take up the gauntlet, any gauntlet, roared above the noise and through his own sodden haze. \"Barnaby, prepare to meet thy Maker!\"\n\nHelpfully, those nearby gave them room and, to cheers, the two men began battering each other with abandon.\n\n\"Drinks on the 'ouse,\" the chief barman ordered for those still remaining. \"Scotch for the Rev, port for the Count and 'is guest. Now you two, stop fighting!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Tweet accepted the drink and tottered to a table well away from the fighters who were now rolling on the floor, their belligerence undiminished. The barman sighed, emptied a bucket of slops over them, walked around the bar, picked up one in each hand and, to more cheers, cast them into High Street. \"Gents, it's time, gents, please!\" he said to howls that were quickly muted. Everyone finished their drinks and began to leave. Zergeyev and Fritz Erlicher raised their hats politely to the clergyman." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Rev,\" Swann said—he was the thin trader who acted as the deacon." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"How about looking in on the sinners in Drunk Town?\"\n\n\"Well, Mr. Swann, it is, how shall I say, on the way.\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Write four sentences sentences in the style of James Clavell spawning from what the user wrote." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In her little house in the Yoshiwara, Hinodeh waited. Furansu-san had said he would arrive tonight but he might be late. She was dressed to undress, her night kimono and under-kimonos the finest, her hair shining, tortoiseshell and silver combs decorating the swept-up coiffure that showed the nape of her neck perfectly, the combs only there to take away—to allow her hair to fall to her waist, hiding the erotic.\n\nI wonder what is so erotic about the nape of a woman's neck to men, she asked herself, and why is hiding it erotic too?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Men, how strange! But she knew that letting her hair fall excited Furansu-san like any client and this was her only concession to their pact." }, { "from": "human", "value": "This alone she would do in the light." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In the dark before dawn, when he was with her, her maiko would softly awaken her and she would dress in the dark, if he awoke or if he did not. Then she would move to the second room and close the door, her maiko guarding the door, and would sleep again if she was tired. He had agreed never to enter this sanctuary—after the first time she had insisted: \"In this way the privacy of the night may extend into the day,\" she had said.\n\n\"Please?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"In this way that which you saw once will never change, whatever the gods decree.\"\n\nA tremor went through her. Much as she tried, she could not cast out the sensation that the seed of the vile Sore God he had implanted within her was gathering strength, growing, readying to burst forth everywhere. Daily, she scrutinized herself." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Minutely. Only Raiko was trusted to make sure those places she could not see herself were examined as closely and were, as yet, blemishless." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Daily is too much, Hinodeh,\" Raiko had said before she had agreed to the contract. \"Nothing maybe happen for years...\"\n\n\"So sorry, Raiko-san. Daily, it is a condition.\"\n\n\"Why are you agreeing to this at all? You have a good future in our World. You may never reach first class, but you are educated, your mama-san says you have a long list of clients who are pleased with you, she said you could marry a well-to-do merchant or farmer or sword maker, that you are sensible and would never be wanting for a good match.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Thank you for your concern, Raiko-san, but you agreed with my mama-san that you would not question me or pry into my past, where I come from or to seek reasons. In return you share with her a percentage of the money I will earn for this year, and perhaps another. Let me say again, the reason I accept the possible contract is that I wish it.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Oh, yes, I wish it and how lucky I am." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Now she was twenty-two." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Born on a farm outside Nagasaki in the province of Hizen on the South Island, and when she was five, she was invited into the Floating World by one of the many women intermediaries who travelled the country, seeking children who could become possible geisha, art persons, those who would be trained, like Koiko, in the arts and not purely as a netsujo-jin, a person for passion." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Her parents agreed and were given money and a promissory note for five yearly payments, beginning in ten years, the amount depending on the child's success." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As an art person she had not been successful—at the samisen or singing or dancing or as an actress—but as a person of passion from fifteen when she made her debut, better educated than her contemporaries, she soon became important to her mama-san and to herself. In those days her name was Gekko, Moonbeam, and though there were many foreigners in Nagasaki at that time, she knew not one of them, her House catering only to Japanese of the highest order.\n\nOne October, the Month Without Gods, she received a new client. He was a year older than her, eighteen, a goshi and the son of a goshi—an average swordsman, average soldier but to her her dream person." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His name was Shin Komoda.\n\nTheir passion blossomed. As much as the mama-san tried to curb their mutual magnetism—the youth was poor, his bills remained unpaid—nothing she could say or do had any effect. Until the spring of the following year. Without telling Gekko, the mama-san went to the youth's home and bowed before his mother and, politely, asked for payment." }, { "from": "human", "value": "There was no money to pay." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The mother asked for time.\n\nThe youth was forbidden to see Gekko again. Outwardly he obeyed his parents, but inwardly nothing they said or did had any effect. Within a week, disguised, they ran away together, disappearing into the sprawling port." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There they changed their names and with some money she had saved, and jewelry she brought with her they purchased passage in steerage on a coastal ship sailing that day for Yedo.\n\nWithin the week Shin Komoda was dishonored in his village and declared ronin. Again the mama-san went to see his mother. It was a matter of face, of honor, that their son's bills were paid." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His mother's only possession of value and her pride, was her long and beautiful plume of hair. With her husband's agreement she went to a wigmaker in Nagasaki. Without hesitation the man bought. The money was just enough to pay their son's bills." }, { "from": "human", "value": "So, for them, honor was satisfied." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In Yedo, at the limit of their money, Gekko and Shin managed to find safe lodgings in the slums of the city. And a Buddhist priest to marry them. Without papers, either of them, and their real past obliterated, life was difficult, almost impossible, but for a year they lived happily, keeping to themselves, on the threshold of poverty. That did not matter for they basked in each other's company and their love increased and was fruitful, and though her money dwindled to nothing, however much she tried to be prudent and his pay hardly fed them—the only work he could find was as a guard at a low-class brothel that was not even in the Yedo Yoshiwara—it did not matter." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Nothing mattered. They were together. They were surviving." }, { "from": "human", "value": "And she kept their two tiny rooms spotless and made of them a palace and sanctuary for him and the child and as much as she offered and offered, he refused and refused." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Never! Never never never again will any other man ever know you, swear it!\" She swore it.\n\nWhen their son was a year old Shin was killed in a brawl. With his death the light went out of her.\n\nA week later the brothel mama-san propositioned her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She thanked her and refused, saying she was returning to their home in Nara. In the market she bought a bright new candle, a red one, and that night when the child was asleep, quietly she lit it, to watch it and to think what she should do until the flame died, petitioning the gods, promising them that when the last fluttering was gone she would decide what was best for her son, asking for their help to make the decision wise.\n\nThe flame had died long since, the decision so simple, so correct: She must send her son back to his father's parents. Her son must go alone—she must pretend she and her husband had committed jinsai, joint ritual suicide, in apology to his parents for the hurt they had done them." }, { "from": "human", "value": "To be accepted the child must have at least a year of money, preferably more." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He must be clothed well and travel well with a trusted nurse, more money. Only in this way could he gain his heritage, samurai. Last, there was no point obeying an oath to the dead when the future of their living child was at stake.\n\nIn the morning she left her son with a neighbor and with the last of her money bought the best kimono and parasol she could find in the thieves market, then, penniless, went to the best hairdresser near the gates of Yedo's Yoshiwara." }, { "from": "human", "value": "There she bartered a month's future earnings for the best up-to-date hairstyle and massage and facial and manicure and pedicure and other intimacies—and information." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Information cost a second month.\n\nThat afternoon she sallied through the gates and went straight to the House of Wisteria. The mama-san was a pattern of everyone she had ever known, always degrees of perfection in their dress and coiffure, always a measure too heavy, with makeup that veered on being masklike, eyes so gentle to customers that could become granite hard in an instant, eyes that could make her girls quiver with fear, and always scented richly with the best perfume she could afford that still could never quite disguise the pervading smell of saké. This mama-san was spare, her name Meikin." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"So sorry, I don't take ladies without papers or history,\" the mama-san said. \"We are very law-abiding here.\"\n\n\"I'm honored to hear it, Madam, but I have a history, and with your help we can invent another that will satisfy the most inquisitive Bakufu officials while satisfying the nosey toad's probe massively, when I can find it.\"\n\nMeikin laughed. Her eyes did not." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What training have you had and where? And what is your name?\"\n\n\"My name is Hinodeh. The where is unimportant.\" Gekko told her about the geisha teachers and failure to realize their expectations. Then her practical training, the sorts of clients she had and their numbers." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Interesting. But so sorry, I have no opening here, Hinodeh,\" the woman said, overkindly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Come back tomorrow. I will make enquiries, perhaps a friend could take you.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"So sorry, please, may I ask you to reconsider.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Sure that tomorrow she would not be admitted on some excuse or other. \"You are the best, and the most trustworthy.\" She gritted her teeth and praying the information was correct, added delicately, \"Even shish know that.\"\n\nThe color left the mama-san's face though her expression did not change." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You and your lover ran away and now he has abandoned you?\" she asked calmly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No, Madam.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Then he is dead.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yes, Madam.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You have a child or children, which?\"\n\n\"A son.\"\n\nThe older woman sighed. \"A son. He is with you?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"He is with his father's family.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"How old is he?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"A year and three months.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Meikin had sent for tea and they drank in silence, Gekko trembling inside, afraid that the threat had gone too far, sure that the other woman was wondering where the information came from, and how she, a stranger-dangerous enough in itself—came by the knowledge. Or if she was a Shōgunate spy. If a spy, Gekko reasoned, surely I would not have said that, not on the first interview.\n\nAt length the other woman said, \"You may not stay here, Hinodeh, but I have a sister who has a fine House in the next street. There's a price for the introduction.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"In advance may I humbly thank you for helping me.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"First, you will swear to excise bad thoughts from your head. Forever.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"On my life.\"\n\n\"On your son's life is better.\"\n\n\"On my son's life.\"\n\n\"Second, you will be a model Lady of our World, calm, obedient and worthy of trust.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"On my life, and my son's life.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Third... the third can wait until we see if my sister agrees to succor the person I see before me.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The third was a matter of money, the split between the two mama-sans." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was settled satisfactorily. She had made a financial arrangement with her neighbor to care for her son, visiting him secretly every two weeks in the morning of her day off, the lie she had told Meikin not really a lie as he was already committed to his father's parents.\n\nSoon, once again, she was popular but not popular enough. The payment to the hairdresser became continuous, to the masseuse, to the costumer." }, { "from": "human", "value": "There was never quite enough left over to save." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "By this time her son was an open secret with both mama-sans who, of course, had her watched and followed. They never mentioned the son to her but understood with compassion. Then, one day her mama-san had sent for her and told her about the gai-jin who would pay enough, in advance, to send the child to his future, with money for two years of food, at least two, and enough left over to guarantee his safe delivery wherever he was to be sent.\n\nShe had accepted with alacrity." }, { "from": "human", "value": "After the first hideous night she had wanted to end her life, the man was so bestial." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As much as she had wept and begged, Raiko had refused, implacably, for she had warned her in advance that this could not be done for at least a month." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Fortunately there were days to recover and to plan a new defense between them." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The defense had conquered the Beast, as she thought of him, and had changed him, temporarily." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Now he was docile, and cried a lot, and required passion in all its aberrations, but underneath his meek and pleasant manner she could feel the violence still bubbling, ready to explode.\n\nIn the quiet and lovely surroundings Hinodeh waited, her nerves tangled. The moment he knocked on the street gate, her maiko would come running to alert her. She still had time, so she folded herself into the Lotus Seat position for meditation and sent her mind to Zen." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Soon she was prepared." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Joining with the Beast was bearable." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Curious how different he is, she thought, built differently than a civilized person, a little longer and larger but without any of a civilized person's firmness and strength." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "So different from Shin who was smooth and sweet and so strong. Curiously, there had been no sign in her husband of his gai-jin ancestor, Anjin-san, who, two and a half centuries before, took the name Komoda for this second family in Nagasaki—his first family living in Izu where he built ships for his liege lord, Shōgun Toranaga.\n\nThank all gods for him. Because of him, eventually my Shin was born, and born samurai, and so is our son." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She smiled so happily." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her son was almost three weeks on his journey, the two servants trustworthy. In their safekeeping was a money instrument drawn on the Gyokoyama in the name of Shin's mother for almost three years of food and lodging money for her son, and for his grandparents.\n\nEverything taken care of, she thought proudly. I've done my duty to our son, Shin-sama." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Provide one sentence as a continuation." }, { "from": "human", "value": "For an hour after Sir William and the others left Skye and Jamie argued." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She listened. Nothing they said made any difference. She had lost." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Following Skye's impassioned appeal, Sir William pronounced: \"I regret I've heard nothing here this afternoon to change my mind. The body should go back to Hong Kong for burial, either with Prancing Cloud or the mail ship. As you choose, Madame. This meeting is over.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Skye said bitterly, \"If we were in Hong Kong I could apply for a writ on a dozen grounds, but here Sir William is court, judge and jury. There isn't time enough to go there and back whatever we do.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Then there's nothing more to be done.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Jamie was grim, rocked by her story." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You have to accept it, Angelique. There's nothing more to be done, God rot it.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I cannot go to Hong Kong—I must be at the burial.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I agree,\" Skye said, nodding." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Why? What's to stop you, Angelique?\" Jamie asked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Tess Struan,\" she said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What can she do? She can't stop you going to the funeral and she can't break the marriage. Nettlesmith's afternoon editorial says it's perfectly legal even though you're both minors. Go with the mail ship, I'll get her to sail at the same time.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No. Sorry, Jamie, Mr. Skye already said the editorial is only an opinion. I know Tess Struan won't bury him at sea as he wanted, I'm sure she won't. And she will attack me in any way she can. Here, read her letters to Malcolm.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Both men were jolted by the intensity of venom." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Skye said queasily, \"Pity, there's nothing actionable in them. She'd claim they were private letters from a mother to a son, desperately warning him against marriage as is her right, even to forbid it—as is her right. And the threats against you—you as a person, Mrs. Struan, there's nothing we could attack her with.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"That's not fair,\" she said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Heavenly, what about 'if that woman ever steps foot in Hong Kong I'll make sure... 'eh?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Not wanting to hurt Angelique further, Jamie did not read all of what Tess Struan had written: I'll make sure every decent person in Hong Kong knows her history, her father's, uncle's and that her aunt was an itinerant actress in a travelling group of players, gypsies and mountebanks, and about her own personal finances." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'm not ashamed that my mother was an actress,\" she had said sharply, \"even though most English consider them harlots. She wasn't, ever. And they weren't mountebanks. I'm not responsible for the sins of my father—I wasn't penniless, he stole my money, not only other people's.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I know.\" Jamie wished he had not mentioned the letter." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Heavenly, can you get proof of Dirk's burial with May-may?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Oh, yes, from Compradore Chen and Tess herself. But neither would volunteer, or admit it, would they? We would be jeered at and never get a court order to open the family crypt.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Skye coughed and coughed again." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Mrs. Angelique Struan must go with her husband's remains, if she doesn't she'll immeasurably hurt her position, both legally and publicly. But to go to Hong Kong? Dangerous.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He had asked Babcott and Hoag to smooth the wording of the death certificates but was told, as expected, it could not be done." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"In my considered opinion, Mrs. Angelique is right not to take that risk at the moment, Jamie. I'm concerned she'd be more defenseless in Hong Kong than here.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You'd go too, you can provide any shield necessary.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Yes, but there's bound to be a scandal and I want to prevent that at all costs, for everyone's sake. Including Tess Struan's. She's not a bad woman if you look at her position from a mother's point of view. My considered opinion is that there's bound to be a stink—how to avoid it or minimize it, that's the question.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Perhaps it can be contained,\" Jamie said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Tess isn't an ogre, she's always been fair in her way.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"She won't be fair, not with me,\" Angelique said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I understand her. Only a woman can really understand. She'll believe I've stolen her eldest son and killed him. Malcolm warned me against her.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"To contain her we need time,\" Skye said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We need time to negotiate, and there's not enough before a burial.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When the two men left her, nothing had been resolved." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Never mind, she thought." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I will bury my husband as he wished; I will inherit his worldly goods, if any; I will beat Tess Struan." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And I will be revenged." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The letters had hurt, but not as much as she expected." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Her tears were not tears as before." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They had not racked her as before." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Nor am I as before." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I don't understand. I'm really very strange. Will it last?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I surely hope so." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Oh, Blessed Mother, how stupid I was." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Through the window she saw that day would soon be night, and in the bay, ships' riding lights, port, starboard and at their mastheads, blinked with the rise and fall of the swell." }, { "from": "human", "value": "In the fire bucket coals settled noisily, flames flared briefly drawing her attention back. What to do?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Missee?\" Ah Soh stalked in." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Tai-tai, Ah Soh! You deaf, heya?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "she said curtly. Malcolm had explained tai-tai to her, and on his last night Malcolm had made Ah Tok, Ah Soh and Chen address her as such in front of him—and Skye had also reminded her to make the servants use it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Missee wan' my pack chop chop?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Tai-tai. You deaf, heya?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You wan' my pack, chop chop... tai-tai?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No. Tomorrow. If at all,\" she added quietly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Missee?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She sighed. \"Tai-tai!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Missee-tai-tai?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Go away!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Med'sin man wan' see-ah.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She was going to say \"Go away\" again, then changed her mind. \"Medicine man what?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Med'sin frog, missee tai-tai.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hoag. Yes, he is froglike, she thought, and was surprised to find that she was smiling." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Yes. See now,\" and when he came in she said, \"'Evening, Doctor. How are you? I'm fine, thanks to you.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Are you?\" His eyes were red from fatigue, face pasty and puglike as ever but still a warmth about him that was comely." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He peered at her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yes, I can see that. Be cautious, don't press yourself. Take it easy, Angelique, be wise.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I will, I promise.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You were marvelous this afternoon.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"But I lost.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yes. George Babcott and I were sorry about that, outraged after your story and Heavenly's appeal. George's seeing Wee Willie for dinner and will try again but I—we... we don't hold out much hope.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He saw her shrug, just a small gesture, and continue watching him, eyes enormous in the paleness of her face." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Do you need anything? To sleep or to calm—no, I can see you don't need any calming. I'm glad, so glad. I wanted to talk to you, chat, do you mind?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Of course not, please sit down. How did the inquest go? Oh, there's whisky or other drinks there if you want.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Thanks.\" On the sideboard Waterford glasses and cut-glass decanters were lined up like soldiers in silver holders, with silver labels around their necks, the silver Georgian: Whisky, Cognac, Sherry, Port." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He chose whisky and poured himself half a glass." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The inquest went as expected, Edward Gornt was exonerated of any blame and commended for bravery. The coroner, Skye, found that Greyforth's death was accidental and Gornt perfectly correct in trying to stop what could have been a brutal murder. We were surprised he used such strong words even though it was the truth.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He sat facing her, raised his glass. \"Health!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Salut! I'm glad for Edward. He deserves much praise.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"And so do you. Your story touched me deeply,\" Hoag said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It's true. Don't you believe me either?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I believe it. That's what I wanted to talk about. You see, I understand it only too well.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Then, eloquently, Hoag told her his own story, of his days in the Indian Army and falling in love and marrying against all conventions, the ostracism immediate, awful, then going home." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Nothing better there. \"It was worse in fact. Arjumand died, that was her name, the same as the beloved of Shah Jahan, who built the Taj Mahal,\" he said, his eyes locked into the fire, telling the story to the fire as well, seeing pictures of her there, her and him in the grand days before marriage." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'm so sad and yet glad that she didn't linger in the hatred, that she caught cold and died quickly like a gorgeous hothouse plant in an icy draft—that's what she was, you can't believe how exquisite, any more than I can believe she loved me—I know how ugly I look. I loved her to madness, and killed her.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"When you speak of her your face changes. You didn't kill her. It was fate. You weren't responsible.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There's that word again, she thought." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I was, marrying her and taking her home. May-may would have died too, forlorn, lonely and desperate for home. Even the great Dirk Struan himself couldn't buck public opinion, not if they'd married. They were both lucky to have died like that.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She watched him, his eyes misty." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Was Malcolm lucky to have died, like he died? I mean, you said he was so peaceful. Was he dying anyway?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hoag said, \"I'm afraid so. He could have gone any day, any hour. He was on borrowed time and I think he knew it.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "This rattled her. \"Why wasn't he told, why didn't you warn him, warn us?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It was an Act of God—we didn't know, not for certain as we do now, impossible to know or we would have.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I—I don't understand. Tell me the truth, please, I need to understand.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Gently Hoag said, \"His insides, under and near the wound were worse than we'd thought. George couldn't probe around the wound much when he was brought in, that would have killed him anyway. The autopsy showed he was rotting away.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The operation, it was well done?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Oh, yes, first class. George's repair job was admirable, as good as anyone could do,\" he said, and she believed him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You see, Angelique, we can't replace, we can only repair, there was sepsis in pockets—the reason for all the pain, poor fellow—and bad lesions that prevented him from straightening up.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He added sadly, \"He was on the last of borrowed time. Even so I'm certain you made his last days the happiest any man could have.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "A coal fell into the hearth." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Her eyes went to it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The flame flared and flickered and died—just like my Malcolm, poor man, poor love." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Sad,\" she said to the fire, \"so sad.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hoag was weighing her, weighing himself and the memory of Arjumand—whom Angelique had reborn for him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Easy to decide now, after sharing Arjumand, he thought." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Nervously he finished the drink. \"May I?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Of course. Please.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hoag replenished his glass, not so amply." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"About the burial, that's what I really wanted to see you about. You could, possibly, still do what you and Malcolm wanted.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He sat opposite her again." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Bury him at sea like his grandfather, like he wanted, like you want. I can help you.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"How?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He mopped his brow." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You go to Sir William, say you'll bow to the inevitable and as much as you deplore his decision, you will allow the body to be sent to Hong Kong. Tomorrow, we—Babcott and I—we officially put his coffin aboard Prancing Cloud from Kanagawa where it is at the moment. You see the coffin off officially, saying you could not bear to go with it on Prancing Cloud but you'll go by mail ship the day after tomorrow when she sails for Hong Kong. Everyone's satisfied.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"But the coffin is empty?\" she said excitedly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He shook his head, his brow and jowls glistening in the firelight." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No. There'll be a body in it but not his, a fisherman, a Korean, who died in Kanagawa this morning, at the clinic. Meanwhile Malcolm's remains are in the other coffin, still secretly at Kanagawa. If Jamie was with us, he could bring the cutter there tomorrow evening, we go out to sea and if we could get Tweet to officiate, Malcolm can be buried as you wish. The next day you catch the mail ship and no one's the wiser—if we can swear everyone to secrecy.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"So many 'ifs,'\" she muttered, her heart thumping." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Many more than I've thought of,\" he said, drying his forehead, throat tight." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It was just... The idea jumped into me a little while ago. I haven't thought it through, I may be quite off the mark, but I wanted to help. With or without George I can do the first part. Substituting the bodies. You have to do the other things. Perhaps I can help, I don't know,\" adding lamely, \"I'm not good at keeping secrets. Sorry, we have to decide now if... I'll have to get back to Kanagawa tonight while George is dining here. What do you think?\"" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She was out of her chair in a flash and put her arms around him, embracing him in a perfumed envelope of softness and gratitude. \"Let's try... and thank you, thank you.\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "hey can u write 6 sentences more sentences? in historical fiction, Japan style" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "That night, when Dr. Hoag arrived at the Kanagawa Legation, part of the Buddhist temple, Towery, the Sergeant-in-charge, smart in his Guards uniform, tall hat, scarlet tunic, white trousers and black boots, met him. \"Didn't expect you till morning, Doc.\"\n\n\"I just have to make sure everything's ready. We want an early start.\"\n\nEscorting him to the part of the temple used as a morgue, Towery laughed. \"If you left him ready, Doc, he's ready, 'cause he ain't about to've gone walkies.\" He opened the door." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The room was large, with a dirt floor and access to the grounds through shutter doors. Towery sniffed the air. \"They don't 'niff yet. Never did like corpses. You want a hand?\"\n\n\"No, thank you.\" Two empty coffins were on trestles, lids beside them, others standing upright against the wall. The bodies were on marble slabs covered with sheets. At the far end were big barrels containing ice." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Water seeped from them, discoloring the beaten earth floor. \"What about the native? How long we've to keep him?\"\n\n\"Tomorrow.\" Hoag felt faint, suddenly realizing, by custom, the body would be claimed for cremation according to Shinto ritual but now there would be no body...\n\n\"Wot's up, Doc?\"\n\n\"Nothing, just a... thank you, Sergeant.\" His heart started again as he remembered the man was Korean, one of some shipwrecked fishermen who eked out a pathetic existence, no way to sail home, unwanted and despised by locals." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Babcott had agreed to have the body cremated in the Buddhist crematorium." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Actually, you could help, Sergeant.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Malcolm's corpse had been cleaned and dressed after the autopsy by their Japanese trainee assistants." }, { "from": "human", "value": "With the help of the Sergeant, who took the feet, they placed him in the coffin." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"He looks right pretty for a corpse.\" Malcolm's face was serene in death. \"Let's do t'other one, Doc. No need t'give yourself a hernia, eh, not that this little bugger weighs but a stone or two.\"\n\n\"We'd better wrap him in his sheet.\"\n\nThe Korean was skin and bones. Dysentery had killed him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Together they put him into the coffin.\n\n\"Thanks, I'll just tidy things up, then turn in.\"\n\n\"All right, Doc. I'll make sure your room's ready.\"\n\nOnce alone Hoag bolted the door. With Angelique's agreement, they had decided that there would be no traditional laying-out, with the coffin open for people to pay last respects to the dead man. With care he slid the lid into place." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It took no time to nail it tight." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Now the other one." }, { "from": "human", "value": "There would be a great difference in weight." }, { "from": "human", "value": "What to use? Earth." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There was a shovel belonging to the gravediggers to one side—not every body was cremated. Outside the earth was soft, the night cold with a slight wind that rustled the vegetation. He dug swiftly and brought shovelfuls back, scattering the earth on and around the corpse, packing it tightly. A few branches filled up the gaps. Satisfied, he levered on the lid and hammered the nails in. He leaned against the coffin, his breathing heavy, sweaty and dirty and even more concerned than when he started." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Heavenly's right, he thought, washing his hands in a bucket." }, { "from": "human", "value": "We'll never get away with it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You're off your rocker, Doc,\" Skye had said with his wheezing cough, \"and so is she and so am I to say all right, I'm in. Wee Willie will have kittens but never mind, tomorrow night it is.\" This was in the Club a few hours ago, noisy and argumentative as always. \"Have another whisky.\"\n\n\"I'll have a coffee, thanks, then I'd better be off.\"\n\n\"Her story reminded me of my Nellie, Doc. Married I was when I was an articled clerk, sixteen, she was fifteen, at least we pretended we were married and lived in a garret off Fleet Street, near the Old Cheshire Cheese Pub, Sam Johnson's place. She died in childbirth and the nipper, he would have been a boy, he died too.\" He offered a cigar and lit one for himself. \"Pauper's grave, a couple of pence to the nightly barrow, bring out your dead, and that was the last of them. Cholera was bad that year, dysentery too, cemeteries full to overflowing.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Heavenly spat in the spittoon. \"Haven't thought of little Nellie for years. You been married, Doc?\"\n\n\"Yes, once, she died in London too.\"\n\n\"Another coincidence, eh? Never felt like getting married after Nellie—swore I'd not be that poor again no matter what—always on the go, travelling too much. Had lots of girls but never did get the pox. Did you, Doc?\"\n\n\"No.\" Hoag had crossed his fingers. \"Not yet.\"\n\n\"Hey, you're superstitious too, like me?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Yes. You're sure of our legal position in this?\"\n\n\"As sure as can be, sure as shit—but if Wee Willie wants he can trump up a dozen charges, never fear. Listen, whatever happens, Tess Struan will bust her knickers and that's your stipend gone and you into the creek without a paddle.\"\n\n\"No. I'm going back to India...\"\n\nStrange how bad leads to good or good to bad. All this has really decided me. I really am going back this time, going back to Cooch Behar in Bengal where I was stationed and where she came from." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I'm going to find her family and... and then we'll see." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I've enough cash for that and a few years left, our son and daughter are grown up now, part of the tapestry of London, educated as best I could, paid for as best I could, my sister and her husband their real parents—both sterling and the stuff of England.\n\nI'm a good doctor and God knows they need doctors in India, even bad ones, so who knows, maybe I can find some happiness... I don't even expect that, just some peace from the full-blooded horror of the killing of her.\n\nTired now, he studied the two coffins. A last look to check that everything was as it should be. Taking the oil lamp, he went out, bolting the door after him." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 7 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A baleful moon cast a shadow through the open windows. Silently another shadow moved. Sergeant Towery peered into the morgue. He was puzzled. Why should Doc Hoag arrive in the dead of night, and then why dig in the garden like a foul grave robber to pack the dead native's coffin with earth?\n\nCuriosity killed the cat, me lad, but not Yours Truly, not when I'm in charge. Tomorrow you'll take a closer look afore the good Doctor's awake, and afore Lord God Almighty Pallidar arrives for inspection. He can find the answer." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Expand on the story like James Clavell would, staying true to the historical fiction, Japan genre." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Angelique was watching the departure of the clipper from the tai-pan's suite, upstairs. A few passersby saw her at the window, then hurried on, wet and chilled, wondering what would happen to her. One of these was Tyrer, ashore after delivering the dispatches." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She looked so lonely there, so funereal in her black, never black before, only the colors of springtime. For a moment he stopped, tempted to see her, to ask if he could help in any way but decided not to, there was still so much to do before his rendezvous with Fujiko, a monthly payment to Raiko for \"past services pending the conclusion of the contract,\" and then there was his lesson with Nakama that had had to be postponed because of all the work for Sir William.\n\nHe groaned at the thought of all those phrases and words that he still wanted translated, and the new note to Anjo that Sir William had deliberately wanted Nakama to translate, not exactly not trusting him, but to gauge a Japanese reaction to a short, undiplomatic Anglo-Saxon harangue." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Even worse he was behind in his journal and had had no time to write his weekly letter home. It had to catch the mail ship, whatever happened.\n\nIn the last mail his mother had written that his father was ill:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "... nothing serious, dear Phillip, just a chest flux that Doctor Feld treats with the usual bleeding and purging." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Sorry to say, as always, it just seems to weaken him even more. Your Father has always hated Camomile and Leeches. Ugh!\n\nDoctors! Illness and agony seem to follow in their wake." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Your cousin Charlotte took to her birthing bed four days ago, as healthy as ever could be. We had arranged the midwife but her husband insisted on having the doctor deliver her and now she has Childbed Fever and isn't expected to live. The baby boy is ailing too." }, { "from": "human", "value": "So sad, such a nice young lady, not yet eighteen." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "News from London: The new Underground Railway, another first in the world, will open in four or five months! Horse-drawn Trams are all the rage and the Christmas Season promises to be the best ever though there are riots in some of the Factory Towns. Parliament is debating and will pass a law prohibiting horseless carriages from going more than 2 miles per hour and they must have a warning Flagman walking in front of them!" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Measles is Everywhere, many deaths, Typhoid's not too bad this year. The Times reports that Cholera is raging again in Wapping and the dock areas, brought by an India merchantman.\n\nPhillip, I do so hope you are keeping your chest wrapped and wear woolens, and woolen underwear, and keep windows closed against the terrible Fluxes that abound in the night air." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Your Father and I wish you would come back to Sensible England, though from your letters you seem to be pleased with your progress in Japan's language." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Does the Penny Post (what a joy!) work for you from the Japans as well as for us to go there?\n\nYour father says this Government is Ruining our country, our morals, and our Glorious Empire." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Did I tell you, now there are more than eleven thousand miles of railway track in Britain. In barely fifteen years stagecoaches have vanished...\n\nThe letter went on for pages, enclosing all kinds of cuttings she felt interesting, and they were." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Wonderful for Phillip, keeping him in touch with home. But between the lines he read his father's illness was not an easy one. His anxiety intensified. For all I know he's already dead, he thought, gravely concerned." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Standing there on the promenade in the rain, a tweak of pain came up from his stomach." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Sweat abruptly wet his forehead, perhaps it was the rain, he didn't know for certain, only that he was sure he was feverish. Maybe I've really caught something—the pox or something! Oh, my God, perhaps Babcott's wrong and it's not just the White Man's Burden—Gippy Tummy or normal squitters or some such rheum." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Oh, my God, even though André swore by all that's holy, Raiko too, that Fujiko was as clean as clean, perhaps she isn't!" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Oh, for goodness' sake, Phillip,\" Babcott had said this morning, \"you don't have the pox, you've just eaten or drunk something bad. Here, here's some of Dr. Collis's tincture. That'll cure you by tomorrow and if it doesn't, we'll give you a good burial, not to worry! For Christ's sake, how many times do I have to tell you: drink only boiled water, or tea.\"\n\nHe mopped his brow, the light fading but no letup in the wind. Certainly he felt better than in the night when he had the runs." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Wasn't for Babcott, or Collis's magic, I would have to have missed the funeral—not the funeral, Malcolm's sending-off. How bloody awful! Poor fellow! Poor Angelique! What will happen now, he asked himself, perturbed, took his eyes off her and hurried for the Legation." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Angelique had seen him. When the clipper was swallowed by the dark she drew the curtains and sat at the desk. Her journal was open." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Three letters were sealed and ready for the mail ship: to her aunt, enclosing a sight draft on the Bank of England for fifty guineas, the second to Colette with a ten-guinea money order, both of which Jamie had arranged for her, using part of the money Sir William had allowed her to keep." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She had considered using one of Malcolm's chits that were in the desk, backdating it, using the chop from the safe, but thought that unwise for the moment. The money for her aunt was just to help, to Colette to buy the best medicines against her lying-in time.\n\nI may or may not be there in time, she thought. Hope so." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The last letter was to be delivered by hand." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It said: My dear Admiral Ketterer, I know it was only through your kindness that we were married. I thank you from the depths of my heart and swear, whatever power this poor woman may have in the future, that I will use it in or out of Struan's to wipe out all sales of opium and equally dastardly arms sales to natives, as my husband had sworn to do. Again, with all my heartfelt affection, Angelique Struan." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Signing Angelique Struan pleased her very much. The two names went well together. It was enjoyable to practice the signature, the swirl of the \"S\" somehow helping her to think." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "My scheme with Edward, where on earth did all those lovely ideas come from? It's excellent—if he does it as I want. That should convince Tess I'm not an enemy." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But her son was her son and I wouldn't forgive, not if he had been my son, I don't think I would." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The way ahead's fraught with disaster, so much to go wrong, can go wrong, André's still a slavering dog waiting to be muzzled, or put down—yet, in truth, so many ways to go right—the correct coffin is en route, Malcolm's ready and waiting for tomorrow, I can still go to Hong Kong by mail ship if I want, I'm sure Edward wants to marry me and he of all people understands a rich wife is better than a poor one, I have Malcolm's blank chits and his chop that no one knows about—and twenty-eight days to go and not like last time, Blessed Mother, thanks be to Merciful God—I pray for his child.\n\nAh, Malcolm, Malcolm, what a good life we would have had, you and I. I would have grown up without all the awfulness, I swear I would have.\n\nMaking an effort she shook off her melancholy and rang the bell on the desk." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The door opened without a polite knock, any form of knock. \"Missee?\"\n\n\"Tai-tai, Ah Soh!\" she snapped, ready for her.\n\n\"Missee-tai-tai?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Send Chen here, chop chop.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You eat here, down'stair, Missee? Er, Missee-tai-tai?\"\n\nAngelique sighed at the permutations Ah Soh could find to avoid calling her tai-tai. \"Listen, you piece of donkey dung,\" she said to her sweetly, \"I'm stronger than you and soon I'll be paying the bills and then you will sweat,\" and was happy to see the dark eyes in the flat face cross." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As Malcolm had explained, speaking directly at Ah Soh in correct English, not pidgin, that the maid could not understand would make her lose face." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Such twisted logic these Chinese, Angelique thought. \"Chen, chop chop!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ah Soh shuffled off sullenly. When Chen came in she told him she wanted a letter delivered to the British Embassy. He nodded without comment." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Chen, Ah Tok sick, not sick, heya?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Ah Tok sick. Ah Tok gone Hong Kong.\" Chen waved a hand seawards. \"All same along Master.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Oh!\" Angelique was greatly relieved and wished she had thought of that first." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Several times she had seen her skulking in the shadows, her black eyes filled with hatred, saliva dribbling from the corner of her mouth. She gave him Ketterer's letter. \"Go Big House, now.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He glanced at the name, pretending to be able to read the barbarian." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Eat all same this place, heya?\"\n\n\"Tai-tai eat all same this place, heya? Tai-tai!\"\n\nChen's eyes flickered. His mouth smiled." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Tai-tai, eat all same this place, heya? Tai-tai Missee?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You're a piece of donkey dung too. Perhaps I'll dismiss you—no, that would be too kind. I'll think about you later.\" She smiled. \"Eat downstair'. What food have?\"\n\n\"Wat you wan', tai-tai Missee, Missee-tai-tai?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "This made her laugh and she felt better for it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Missee-tai-tai, tai-tai Missee, all same good. What food? Your food, Chinese food,\" she said suddenly, not knowing why. \"All same you-ah, Chen. China food, Number One food. Best, heya!\"\n\nChen gaped at her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "This was most unusual. In the past she would just pick at the dishes the Master enjoyed to please him, and eat European dishes, meats and potatoes and pies and bread that he and all Chinese considered fit only for animals. \"Master's food, heya?\" he asked tentatively." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Tai-pan food for Master's tai-tai!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Imperiously, aping Malcolm, she waved him away and turned her back.\n\nChen, unsettled, went off mumbling. \"All same tai-pan, have got, yes Missee-tai-tai.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I must develop a taste for Chinese food and knowledge of it, she thought, grasping a new idea. In case I stay part of the year. Jamie said he likes Chinese cooking occasionally, Phillip's enthusiastic and Edward eats it all the time..." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ah, Edward, Edward-of-so-many-faces, and possibilities." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I'm not sure about him. If...\n\nIf I bring forth a son I will be so happy that I've part of Malcolm forever. I'll go back to Paris, for then I'll have plenty of money, plenty." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Tess Struan will be glad to have me leave and our son will be brought up part French, part British, and be worthy of his father." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 4 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "If a daughter, I'll leave too, with less, but there will be more than enough. Until I meet a title worthy and a man worthy.\n\nIf I'm unlucky and there's no child, then I may consider Edward, while negotiating with that woman for my widow's mite, all this subject to Heavenly Skye being wrong.\n\nWrong about how vindictive and ruthless that woman is." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Let's engage in a collaborative writing exercise in the historical fiction, Japan genre. I'll provide a starting point, and you'll continue with 3 sentences." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The next day the sea was the same grey, the sky the same grey but the storm had blown itself out. Rain had stopped. Angelique, Skye and Hoag were waiting in the cabin of the cutter, still moored to the Struan jetty and long overdue to leave for Kanagawa. Beyond the bay they could see whitecaps." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Gloom, fed by the sharp wet wind, made waiting harder. Jamie and the Reverend Tweet were half an hour late.\n\n\"I wish they'd hurry,\" she said, nervousness creeping into her resolve. \"What's keeping them?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We won't have to go too far out so we should still be all right,\" Skye said queasily, the cutter heaving gently. The men wore top hats and sweaters and heavy topcoats—Angelique her dark green riding clothes and boots as more suitable for shipboard travel.\n\nAbove the cabin was the small, glassed-in wheelhouse." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Bosun Tinker leant on the sill of one of the opened windows, puffing a pipe, too seawise to ask questions. Jamie McFay had simply said, \"Have the cutter at the wharf early with a full load of coal, just you and a dependable stoker.\" That was enough for him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The rest would come soon enough, like why sensible people wanted to put to sea on a day when sensible seafarers were best ashore." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Look, there he is!\" Skye said, and cursed without noticing he had done so.\n\nJamie was alone, hurrying along High Street towards them." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Passersby greeted him, frowned and went about their business." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He jumped aboard and closed the cabin door. \"Tweet's changed his mind,\" he said, his chest heaving like the deck.\n\n\"God damn the fellow, why? He agreed.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Skye was disgusted. With Jamie they had decided the best story was to say that a Christian fisherman had died in Kanagawa and had begged to have a sea burial, would he officiate, the rest could come later." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There would be a contribution for his trouble.\n\n\"He said not in this weather,\" Jamie said, panting from his haste and frustration. \"I tried every way to convince him but he only said, 'The fellow's dead, tomorrow or the next day will be just as good, weather's dicey, we probably wouldn't be back before dark—I'd forgotten Lunkchurch's dinner party. After service tomorrow, or even better Monday.' Rotten bastard!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He took another breath." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Rotten after he'd agreed.\"\n\nAngelique felt sick with disappointment. \"Father Lee! I'll go and ask him. He will do it.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"There's no time, not now, Angelique, and anyway Malcolm wasn't Catholic, that wouldn't be proper.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Damn Tweet,\" Hoag said, fuming." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We'll have to postpone. Sea's not the best, perhaps it's just as well. I suppose we have to try tomorrow?\" They all looked at her.\n\nJamie said, \"Tweet's not dependable, he may want to put it off till Monday—either way there's the problem of the mail ship, she won't wait beyond noon.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He had asked her skipper to delay but, already behind schedule, the man had said that was the best he could do." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hoag said, \"We absolutely should go aboard, no doubt about that. Angelique should absolutely be at the Hong Kong funeral.\"\n\n\"I'm opposed,\" Heavenly said. \"But if she goes, I'll go.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Father Leo,\" Angelique persisted. \"I'll ask him.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Jamie said, \"It wouldn't be proper. Listen, there's one solution, Angelique. A sea burial doesn't require a chaplain, a ship's captain can do it just as Marlowe marr—\"\n\nHer hope soared. \"We'll ask John! Quick, let's—\"\n\n\"Not possible, I've already checked, he's aboard the flagship and busy with Ketterer.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Jamie continued in a run, \"Angelique, I'm captain of this craft, I've a mariner's ticket, albeit an old one, I've seen enough sea burials to know what to do, I've never done it before but that doesn't matter. We have witnesses. If you like I can officiate... it'd be legal.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He saw her confusion and looked at Skye. \"Heavenly, legally that's right? Well, isn't it, for God's sake?\"\n\n\"It'd be legal.\" Skye's nervousness increased as a larger than usual wave slapped the side of the boat, Hoag also feeling squeamish." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Jamie took another deep breath." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Angelique, this whole idea, the whole burial is bizarre to say the least, a little more won't harm Malcolm. I brought a Bible and Naval Regs, I had to fetch them, that's why I was late. What do you say?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In answer she put her arms around him, the tears wetting her cheeks. \"Let's begin. Please, Jamie, quickly.\"\n\nJamie McFay held her and found the closeness pleasing." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Skye said, \"What about the Bosun and stoker?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Jamie snapped, \"I already told you I'll deal with them.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Gently he loosed himself and slid the door back. \"Bosun,\" he called out. \"Cast off! Head for Kanagawa.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Aye, aye, sorr.\" Glad that some decision had been made, Tinker took the craft to sea and turned northwards for the far shore." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Waves made her bob and weave but not too badly, wind still well within limits, the sky promising no worse than before." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Humming a sea chanty made him feel better." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Soon Jamie joined him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You head for the Legation jetty. We're going to take a coffin aboard...\" He saw the Bosun's bite harder on his pipe." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"A coffin. Then we're going out to sea a league to deep water and we're going to bury him. We'll have a ceremony and you'll be part of it, you and our stoker.\" Jamie looked at him. \"Any questions?\"\n\n\"Me, sorr? No, sorr.\"" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 4 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Jamie nodded tautly and went below again. The others said nothing, watching the coastline and Kanagawa, dead ahead.\n\nIn the wheelhouse, the Bosun picked up the metal voice tube, beside the helm, unhooked it and bellowed to his stoker down in the engine room. \"Get the lead out, Percy!\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Task: Cooperative storytelling\nMy role: Provide a brief opening\nYour role: Expand upon my opening with 5 sentences in the historical fiction, Japan genre." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "At dinnertime, Angelique knocked on the tai-pan's office door, dressed to go out. \"Albert?\"\n\n\"Come in! I say, I love your hat.\" It was an elegant dinner hat, discreet, still suitable for mourning, dark blue, yet made chic with a few silk flowers she had tucked into the band.\n\n\"Thank you. You're working late.\"\n\n\"Part of the job.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Like everyone else he wondered what was in the letter Tess had written to her, wild rumors around the Settlement, from ordering her to get out of Asia to charging her with murder." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There was no sign on her face, only a becoming melancholy.\n\nIn his own letter Tess had cautioned him to be wary about making commitments on armaments, and if proposed, to keep them very confidential. To use McFay if need be.\n\nI have asked him to cooperate with you. Of course, his main interest will be to promote his own business but you are to treat him as friendly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Now that Mr. Edward Gornt has assumed control of Brock's in Japan, he is enemy—be careful of him, he's more cunning than we presumed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As to that other person, Dr. Hoag has agreed to assist me. I understand she still occupies quarters in our house granted by my son. You will be informed later of new arrangements.\n\n\"Where are you dining? French Legation?\" he asked.\n\n\"I accepted to sup next door with Mr. Gornt.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She saw his face harden." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It was a last-minute supper invitation with mutual friends, Dmitri, Marlowe. He asked me to ask you to join us to—to escort me if you would—are you free?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Sorry, can't, glad to take you to the door and to call for you, but that's Brock and Sons, he's the head of it and this's the Noble House.\"\n\n\"You should be friends, you could still be competitors. He really was my husband's friend, and mine, and Jamie's.\"\n\n\"Sorry, it's my problem, not yours.\" He smiled again. \"Come on.\" He took her arm, not bothering about a coat, and they went into the cold." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The wind tugged at her hat but did not displace it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She had secured it with a chiffon scarf.\n\n\"'Evening, Ma'am.\" The guard on Brock's door bowed.\n\n\"'Evening. Thank you, Albert, no need to come and fetch me, one of the others will see me home, off you go or you'll catch cold.\" He laughed and was gone. In the same moment Gornt was there to greet her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"'Evening, Ma'am. My, but you look smashing.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Now, as he accepted her wrap, her worries began to well up again." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "What trumps? A burst of laughter came from an inner room. She recognized Marlowe, saw that the guard had gone and there were no servants about and they were alone for the moment. \"Edward,\" she whispered, her concern overcoming her caution, \"why are you so sure I'll be all right?\"\n\n\"Tess invited me back. Don't worry, it's in control. Better we talk during your promenade tomorrow—tonight is only for good conversation amongst friends, gentle pleasure. I'm truly honored you accepted my invitation—it's due to you I'm head here.\" Gornt took her arm and in a normal voice said, \"Welcome to Brock and Sons, Angelique. Shall we go in?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The dining room was as big as the one in Struan's, as lush, the silver as good, the wine superior, the linen richer." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Liveried Chinese servants. Marlowe, Pallidar and Dmitri stood in front of a roaring fire, waiting to greet her. They kissed her hand, admired her hat that she kept on as was custom, Marlowe and Pallidar in their informal uniforms. And while she greeted them and listened with her quiet charm, her inner motor was sifting Gornt, what he had said and what was missing.\n\n\"Shall we sit now that our honored guest is gracing us?\" Gornt settled her at one end of the table." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He took the other." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The table was small enough to be intimate, large enough to be impressive. \"Suhs, a toast!\" he said, lifting his glass of champagne, \"To the Lady!\" They drank and his eyes never left hers. An invitation, discreetly given. She smiled back, neither yes nor no." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Plenty of time, he thought, delighted to be the host and even more delighted with himself." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "So much left to tell. Perhaps the best part. But not to her.\n\nOn the last day in Hong Kong, Tess Struan had again sent for him, secretly. \"I've been through all the papers, Mr. Gornt. It's not absolutely certain the support the papers give your scheme will bring about the Brock crash.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I think they will, Ma'am,\" he said, impressed that she knew so much about business." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I truly believe you have everything needed to unlock Pandora's Box\"—this was the code name they had agreed on. \"There's one last piece of the jigsaw that would complete the picture and guarantee success.\"\n\n\"And that is?\"\n\n\"Norbert's official chop. It's in his safe at Yokohama.\"\n\nShe had sighed and leaned back in the carved chair." }, { "from": "human", "value": "No need for either of them to articulate that this chop on almost any Brock letterheaded document, correctly couched and dated, validated it, committing Brock's of Yokohama through him to whatever was on the paper." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "No need to say aloud that all kinds of incriminating information could be written now, backdated, and found or slid surreptitiously into the pile. Who could challenge such a letter with Greyforth dead?\n\nBoth of them knew its value.\n\nMorgan and Tyler Brock had speculated heavily on this complicated but incredibly ingenious scheme to corner the Hawaiian sugar market—in principle already accomplished—bartering the sugar crop forward for Southern cotton which they had presold legally to guaranteed French interests—historic U.S. allies and not subject to Northern blockade in this instance through certain congressional help and safeguards—then to be shipped legally from France to Geneva, to be sent on legally to Lancashire cotton mills that were almost destitute and desperate for the raw material.\n\nA tiny hazard: If the Union government discovered for certain the ultimate destination—Britain was formally neutral, most of the British were actively pro-Confederate—and this was made public knowledge, they would inhibit the export by interception." }, { "from": "human", "value": "This was a minor risk because of high-level agreement to the French connection, which was, for the first time, proven by Gornt's papers to be a Brock company shell, and governmental noninterference more certain because a goodly proportion of the sugar, also desperately needed, was to be bartered for diverted Union armaments, which Brock's would promptly import to Asia." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Projected profits were immense. Brock's standing in the Asia-America entente would become preeminent, whoever won the civil war. In Asia they would be supreme. And no possible way the plan could fail, because the Victoria Bank of Hong Kong was the underwriter.\n\nThe bank, biggest in the Colony, had eagerly underpinned the venture, approved by the Board of twelve of whom Tyler Brock was one, with Brock and Sons shares and liquidity as nominal collateral." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "For all intents and purposes the Victoria was a Brock preserve. Old Man Brock had been a founder in '43, he had chosen the other members—excluding any director of Struan's perpetually from the Board—had retained a forty percent interest and had permanent voting control of at least nine to three. And while backing Brock's on the international scene, the Board had meanwhile agreed to crush Struan's through repossession of all Struan's debt paper, due by January 30th—the timetable and questionable methods of the clandestine, long-term acquisition was also tabled in Gornt's evidence.\n\nGornt had excitedly pointed out that for the first time Brock and Sons were vulnerable—never before had they put up the control of their company as collateral. The Victoria was the key to the Pandora's Box." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The key to the bank was the Board. It had to be subverted, turned around, and financial support withdrawn suddenly from Tyler and Morgan on the correct day, leaving them destitute without the necessary funds to oil the wheels. Meanwhile evidence of the scheme from Gornt's papers, and notice that the Victoria would not be supporting the deal any longer, had to be rushed by clipper to Washington to the right hands, which would make interception probable—without the Bank's backing there was no sugar to barter for cotton or for armaments. But this had to be done now, before rearranging the Bank's voting control.\n\nHow to turn the Board was the pivot of Gornt's plan." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The papers revealed highly embarrassing facts on the background of two pro-Tyler Brock Board members, so serious that their votes would go to whoever had the documentation. Seven to five. More facts about one other man, less damaging and questionable, were also there. A possible six to six.\n\nGornt's idea was that Tess should approach the chairman privately, give him the facts, tell him that details of the scheme were already en route to Washington, and propose \"that they pull the plug on Brock's and swing to you and Struan's, granting an extension of six months on Struan debts, two seats on the Board, take immediate control of Brock's and sell off the assets at bargain prices, enough to cover debts, leaving Tyler and Morgan Brock to drown in sugar they can't pay for. And last the Bank agrees to split Brock's forfeited forty percent bank holdings into four parts: one to the chairman, one to two Board members of his choice, one to the Noble House.\"\n\n\"In return for what? Why should the Bank cross Tyler?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Tess had asked. \"Double-cross, isn't that the American word?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yes, Ma'am, but this would be a triple-cross. Why should the Board gorge on the deal? Because they'll be huge winners, the chairman and all of them, because they hate Tyler privately and fear him, like everyone else. They don't hate you, you're the Noble House and no threat to them. Hate, not money alone, is the grease that oils the world.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I don't agree, but let that pass. Back to this mythical chop. What do you propose to do with it?\" Her smile had been cynical. \"If you obtain it.\"\n\n\"Anything you like, Ma'am.\"\n\n\"Perhaps you should bring it here by Prancing Cloud.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"No, sorry, that's too soon, unless you'll leave her to wallow for a week or two. I'll bring it in good time.\"\n\n\"Why delay? Send it, Strongbow's trustworthy.\"\n\n\"I'll bring it in good time.\" He remembered how her eyes, so pale and seemingly so innocent most times, penetrated like molten iron. \"I promise.\"\n\n\"Put that aside for the moment. The price, Mr. Gornt?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I would like to tell you that when I return, Ma'am.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She had laughed without humor. \"I'm sure you would. I thought you knew me well enough by now not to try to squeeze me or Struan's. You could delay till the last moment, by which time I will have had to launch the assault, on both Tyler and the Bank, Struan's would be terribly exposed and I would have to agree, whatever you demand.\"\n\n\"There must be trust on both sides. I've given you the evidence you need to crush Tyler Brock and Morgan, for a deal you promise me in the future, I'm trusting you to deliver, Ma'am. It's not much to ask to delay, I swear I'll be back in good time. What I would bring from Yokohama is the icing on the cake and the price will be fair.\"\n\n\"I've never liked cake, or icing, Mr. Gornt—any liking was beaten out of me by my father, who disapproved of such vittles, when I was very young. The price?\"\n\n\"May I assure you, Ma'am, it will be a price you will gladly pay, on my honor and my word as a gentleman.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She had looked at him." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 1 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"May I assure you, Mr. Gornt, equally, if you cross, or double-cross or triple-cross me, I will see you will be an extremely unhappy man, apart from being persona non grata in Asia and throughout the Empire—on my honor and my word as tai-pan of the Noble House...\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Let's engage in a collaborative writing exercise. I'll provide a starting point, and You'll continue with seven sentences in the style of James Clavell." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The Legations that lay northwards were not yet directly menaced. Nor Struan's, Brock's, or nearby houses and godowns though the wind was strong and hotter by the minute. The promenade and streets were crowded, everyone preparing for a last stand, more soldiers and sailors coming ashore from the fleet that had first sounded the general alarm. Samurai poured into the High Street from their barracks outside the gates with ladders and buckets, fire-masked, and efficient. In groups they trotted along, heading for danger points.\n\nSir William, a greatcoat over his pajamas, had taken charge of the Legation defense. Down by the surf Pallidar was supervising dragoons connecting pumps to the sea through long canvas hoses." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He looked back to see the General hurry out of the night, an engineer officer alongside, a detachment of soldiers with him, to stop in front of Sir William." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'm heading for Drunk Town and the village,\" the General said, out of breath. \"Plan to blow up some houses to make a fire break—with your permission. All right?\"\n\n\"Yes, do what you can, it might work. If the wind doesn't drop we're finished, hurry!\"\n\n\"Happened to be watching from the bluff, looked like three or four fires started in the Yoshiwara, same time, different areas.\"\n\n\"Good God, you mean arson?\"\n\n\"Don't know, but whether it was an Act of God or the Devil or a bloody arsonist, this'll burn us out!\" With the engineers he raced into the night." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Sir William saw the Admiral trudging up the beach from the Legation wharf where more sailors and marines were landing." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Boats are ready to evacuate,\" Ketterer said. \"We've stores enough for the whole population. We can assemble them along the beach, should be safe enough.\"\n\n\"Good. This could be dicey.\"\n\n\"Yes. Completely changes our plans, what?\"\n\n\"'Fraid so. Couldn't have happened at a worse time.\" God-cursed fire, Sir William thought angrily. Complicates everything—the Yoshi meeting tomorrow and bombardment of Kagoshima, and just when Ketterer had finally agreed to obey instructions." }, { "from": "human", "value": "What the devil do we do, evacuate or what?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Put everyone aboard the fleet and sail back to Hong Kong with our tails between our legs, or move everyone to Kanagawa and to hell with what the Japanese might do? Can't. Kanagawa's a worse trap, bay's too shallow for the fleet to be useful.\n\nHe glanced at Ketterer. The Admiral's face was hard and weather-beaten, the small eyes fixed in the distance. He'll plump for Hong Kong, he thought, sickened. Damn this wind!\n\nDown the street MacStruan had ladders against the side of his building. Servants and clerks handed up buckets of water to others perched there dousing the shingles." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Next door at Brock's, Gornt and others were doing the same." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Christ, look!\" someone shouted. Now fires blanketed the whole of the village and Drunk Town skyline. The wind was blistering hot and furious in their faces, rushing at them, taunting them.\n\n\"Mon Dieu,\" Angelique murmured. She wore a heavy coat over her nightdress, a head scarf, and had dressed hastily at the first warning and fled outside. It was evident the fires would reach them soon, so she scurried back indoors, up to her room. Rapidly she stuffed her brushes and combs and salves and creams and rouge into a bag, her best lingerie next." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A moment of thought, and then, no longer frightened, she opened the window, shouted at Ah Soh below to stay there and began throwing dresses and coats to her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ah Soh sniffled and did not move. MacStruan, close by, cursed her into motion and pointed across the road to their jetty where clerks already guarded boxes of papers, stores and rifles, Vargas and others sweating more parcels into place, MacStruan having decided to chance leaving their specie, bullion and certain documents in their iron safe.\n\n\"You motherless whore, Ah Soh,\" he shouted in perfect Cantonese, \"take tai-tai's things over there, guard them and stay there even if the fires of hell fall on you or I'll beat the soles of your feet to pulp!\" She obeyed instantly. \"Angelique,\" he called out with a laugh, \"we'll get plenty of warning, stay in the warm until I call for you!\"\n\n\"Thanks, Albert.\" She saw Gornt looking up at her from next door. He waved. She waved back. Now there was no fear in her." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Task: The user will write a bit then you need to write around six sentences continuing directly from the user's text.\n\nAuthor style: James Clavell" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "That afternoon, the sea fair, sky uneasy, the Struan cutter turned for her Yokohama berth, returning from the Kanagawa-Yoshi meeting. Sir William's pennant fluttered from the masthead. Those in the cabin, Sir William, Seratard, and Tyrer, dozed—Tyrer like a dead man. The Bosun tooted his whistle to ask cutters crowding their dock to move out of the way, but there were loud shouts of \"Wait your bloody turn,\" with a variety of profanity as punctuation.\n\nSir William opened his eyes, called up to the Bosun, \"Drop us at the Brock wharf,\" and when the Bosun suggested that Mr. MacStruan wouldn't like that at all, Sir William bellowed, \"Do what you're told!\" The others jerked out of sleep." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Except Tyrer who mumbled and drifted off again.\n\nSeratard stretched and stifled a yawn. \"Grand lunch, William, good fish,\" adding in French without noticing it, \"I would have preferred a garlic, butter and parsley sauce. Never mind, your chef is English, so what can he do?\"\n\n\"He's Chinese,\" Sir William said good-naturedly.\n\nThe meeting had gone exactly as he had planned. There had been none." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They had arrived on time, waited half an hour, then sent for the local Governor, Tyrer saying they could not understand where Lord Yoshi had got to: \"Is he sick?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Ah, so sorry I don't know Lord...\"\n\n\"My Master says, Ask after the health of Lord Yoshi, say we here as asked. As soon as well, please make new day.\" Deliberately Tyrer had dropped all real pleasantries. The Governor had flushed, bowed as to superiors, apologized again and hurried off disgusted that the gai-jin were still in place—naturally every civilized person from here to Yedo had seen the fires and presumed the gai-jin, those left, would be licking their burns, boarding their ships to join the exodus and sail away.\n\nAfter the Governor and his entourage had left, Sir William had suggested a leisurely lunch, guiding Seratard to their substantial cellar. \"We deserve a celebration, Henri. What would you like to drink? We were truly lucky last night—apart from André, poor chap.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yes. Pity. The will of God.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Seratard frowned, still looking at labels." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Ah! Montrachet, '51. Two bottles?\"\n\n\"At least two. George is joining us. Might as well taste a Margaux—I recommend the '48, Château Pichon-Longueville—and a Château d'Yquem with the pudding.\"\n\n\"Perfect, shame we have no cheese. No chance Yoshi will appear now?\"\n\n\"If he does we won't see him.\"\n\n\"At the Club meeting you said dinner tonight. You want to discuss something special with the others?\"\n\n\"Yes.\" The cellar was cool and pleasant." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A few glasses stood on a sideboard beside the racks." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Sir William selected a half bottle of champagne and began to open it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I think we must pretend the fire is not the disaster it really is and press ahead against Sanjiro, and his capital Kagoshima.\"\n\n\"Now?\" Seratard was very surprised. \"But surely sending the fleet when we're so exposed is highly dangerous, isn't it? Tempting them?\"\n\n\"Very, but that's my point. My proposal is that we send British warships only, keeping your flagship and the Russian here, with the armed merchantmen. We cancel sending army units for the proposed landing and send only marines. Simply make it a sea bombardment.\" He popped the cork and poured. \"That'll make Ketterer's mission much easier, he never liked the idea of commanding a seaborne landing. Now he can stand off in the bay and pound the devil out of them. Health.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The two men touched glasses, Seratard churning the proposal around to find the pitfalls, any places where his adversary had planted mines to disrupt French interests." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There were none. On the contrary, this helped his long-term plan to ingratiate himself into Yoshi's confidence, making him realize the British were the barbarians, not the French, and that France, which he equated with himself, could be trusted to be more patient and far seeing. \"Marvelous vintage, William. En principe, yes, but I'd like to consult my Admiral.\"\n\n\"Why not? Then that's what we'll do...\"\n\nLunch had been pleasant. In good time they were aboard and now Sir William swung nimbly on deck as the cutter tied up alongside the Brock wharf, an unheard-of happening. He saw Gornt with a clerk beside some trunks near the jetty steps." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Hope you didn't mind, Mr. Gornt,\" he said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I commandeered the cutter, it's under my flag, not Struan's.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"My pleasure, Sir William. How was the meeting?\"\n\n\"Damn fellow didn't turn up. Didn't expect us, I suppose.\"\n\n\"He's lost face from here to Timbuktu.\"\n\n\"Quite.\" Which was the whole idea, Sir William thought with a secret smile, and pointed to the trunks. \"You're not leaving, surely?\"\n\n\"No, suh, but I am going to Hong Kong by tonight's packet to arrange building supplies for ourselves and others.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Good idea. Have a safe journey and safe return.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He raised his hat and walked off with Seratard. Tyrer, sick with tiredness, reeled after them, hardly acknowledging Gornt.\n\n\"Put these aboard, Periera,\" Gornt said. \"Tell the Captain I'll be aboard in good time. Oh, hello, Doc.\" Hoag hurried up with some coolies bowed under a sea trunk and bags.\n\n\"I say, Edward, heard you're on the Atlanta Belle too.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hoag was out of breath and harassed, his clothes and hands bloodstained and filthy, eyes red-rimmed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Could I prevail on your people to put these aboard for me, I've still a dozen or so arms and legs to set and burns... thanks awfully.\" He rushed off, not waiting for an answer.\n\n\"Put 'em aboard, Periera.\" Gornt frowned. Why is Hoag in such a hurry to leave? he asked himself.\n\nEverything packed that should be, everything done to ensure Brock's would operate correctly while he was away: which traders to give credit to, which to deny; tomorrow or the next day Choshu representatives were due to discuss arms shipments—a nice business to acquire for himself when the Brocks went under and, as also planned, he acquired the premises and staff here at... well, fire-sale prices. He laughed to himself at the joke." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Next, the Yoshi coal concession that he had heard might be transferred from Struan's to Seratard through the late André Poncin's trading company, might still be available to offers." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He had instructed his shroff to make such an offer secretly.\n\nPeriera was left in charge. Last night, hearing from Maureen that Jamie's new offices were gone, he had planned to appoint Jamie, but to his surprise this afternoon Jamie had thanked him and refused, saying he thought he would be able to restart his own business.\n\nJamie would be more icing on the icing, he thought. Doesn't matter, Jamie'll take over for me when this is all Rothwell-Gornt's. He felt in his pocket." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Norbert's chop was there and the two backdated letters for Tess." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His money belt was heavy with more than enough Brock silver Mex and gold for expenses. Good. All done.\n\nNow for Angelique." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Expand the story by adding 8 sentences." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In shock, Sir William put the last of André's pages onto the side table, all of them in French and in André's handwriting. \"My God,\" he muttered, and shifted in his frayed, comfortable old chair. His anteroom was pleasant, a fire burning merrily, his curtains drawn against the drafts.\n\nHe got up, feeling very old, poured a drink, stared at the file of papers in disbelief, then again sat and leafed through them. The final part of Angelique's father's letter, carefully pasted together, clearly suggested a calculated scheme to snare Malcolm Struan, other pages set out dates and details of the ronin assassin's rape at Kanagawa and curious death at the French Legation, the name of the mama-san who supplied the medicine, how the \"lost earrings\" paid for it, and how André had rowed out to sea to dispose of the evidence—some towels, the herbs, and one of the two bottles, the other left as proof, now waiting in his Legation desk drawer.\n\nHis covering letter had said,\n\nSir William, by the time you read this I am already dead. This evidence is to be used if I meet a violent end." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I openly confess I used my knowledge to extract money from Angelique, yes, blackmail if you wish to put a word to it, but then blackmail is a diplomatic tool which you've used, as we all have. This information is given you as I may have been murdered, or my death made to look accidental, not necessarily by her but because of her, assisted by her—another truth is that quite a few would commit murder for her (Babcott, McFay, Gornt)—because of my unique knowledge and participation in her... \"crimes\" is too strong a word... her manipulations makes me a target.\n\nThese pages give you evidence to catch the murderer and lay the blame where it eventually will lead. I bear Angelique no ill will, I used her as I needed though never bedded her. If my death appears accidental it may not be. If it is, so be it, I've made my Confession (though told none of the above to Father Leo) and go before you into the great adventure—as unclean as most, much more than most, God help me.\n\nWhy have I given you this, and not Henri? Why indeed?\n\nIt was boldly signed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Why me indeed?\" Sir William muttered." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"And how is it possible that that slip of a girl could hide all this for so long, hide it from Malcolm Struan, for God's sake? From George and Hoag, for God's sake? Impossible, surely impossible, André must have taken leave of his senses and yet...\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Apart from her father's letter—and even that, taken out of context, could be an exaggeration of the truth—the rest is just André's opinion, unless she's challenged and confesses. These stories could be fabrications of a demented mind. Of course he wanted her too, how many times have we all noticed him letching after her and there was that curious happening when Vervene found him in her room. And bloody curious he used \"unclean\" like that, when he really was, poor fellow.\n\nHe shuddered. Seratard had whispered André's secret to him. Syphilis was endemic in all strata of society, in all cities, towns and villages, in St. Petersburg, London, Paris, in palaces as well as the vilest areas of the Casbah, it could lurk in any whorehouse or with any Lady of the Night, in China or in our Floating World here.\n\nAh, André, why give all this to me? Curious you died as you did, hand in hand with the girl you bought to destroy." }, { "from": "human", "value": "How evil! Except she had a choice, so we are led to believe." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Your death was an accident. Was it? Henri's not sure.\n\n\"It's all very curious, William,\" Henri had said this morning. \"The bodies, skeletons would be more accurate, lay as though they were dead before the fire arrived, no sign of trying to escape by either of them. Just side by side, hands together. I'm bewildered, for all his faults André was a survivor, and in a fire it's instinct to try to escape, you don't just lie there, you can't, not possible.\"\n\n\"Then what's the answer?\"\n\n\"I don't know. It could have been a suicide pact that was concluded before the fire. Poison, nothing else would fit. It's true he was morbid recently to the point of insanity, and needed money desperately to pay for her. Apart from that, André a suicide? Do you believe that?\"\n\nNo, not André, Sir William thought, disquieted. Was he poisoned, or both of them?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Now, there's a motive for murder." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Good God Almighty, is that possible? Yes, it is, but who?\n\nWearily, greatly troubled, he closed his eyes. The more he tried to answer that question the more distracted he became. The door opened silently. His Number One Boy padded in, began to greet him but seeing the paleness and age on his Master's face, frowned, presumed him to be sleeping, so poured a whisky and put it quietly beside him on the table. His eyes flicked over André's letters, which were atop the file, then, as silently, he went out.\n\nA few minutes later there was a knock." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Sir William awoke with a start as Babcott popped his head in. \"Got a minute?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Oh, hello, George, of course.\" Sir William put the letters into a folder, grimly aware of the attraction they seemed to radiate. \"Take a seat. Like a drink? What's up?\"\n\n\"Nothing.\" Babcott was more tired than ever before. \"Won't stay, just wanted to say I'm going to get a few hours' sleep. The count so far is three fellows from Drunk Town, one an Australian barkeeper and two vagrants, no papers—there may be other bodies in the wreckage but who knows when the cleanup will be finished. No one seems very concerned.\"\n\n\"What about the village and Yoshiwara?\"\n\n\"We'll never get a count.\" Babcott yawned. \"They seem to consider those sorts of statistics national secrets. Can't blame them, we're the outsiders. Not many casualties, I'd imagine. Same on our Yoshiwara, thank God—you heard that each Inn had an emergency cellar?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Damn clever. We'd better institute the same idea.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Pity about André...\" Babcott said, and at once another twinge went through Sir William. \"We were terribly lucky more of our people didn't get caught—how Phillip got out with his life I just don't know. William, he's badly shaken up by the loss of his girl, why not give him a couple of weeks leave, let him go to Hong Kong or Shanghai?\"\n\n\"Work's his best therapy, and I need him here.\"\n\n\"Maybe you're right.\" Another yawn. \"God, I'm tired. You know Hoag's on the packet tonight?\"\n\n\"He told me earlier, least he said he'd asked you and you didn't need him. I suppose Tess ordered him to report as soon as he knew—if she wasn't bearing.\"\n\n\"Yes. Part's personal, William, he's suddenly frantic to go back to India, thinks his happiness lies there. Hope he does, he's a grand doctor but talks too much.\" A frown and a stifled yawn." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Did he tell you what was in Tess's letter?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"To Angelique? No. He said she didn't show it to him. Difficult to call that one, in more ways than you can shake a stick at,\" Sir William said, watching him closely. \"Heavenly was here earlier, he said nothing about it either, only that she wanted me to witness her signature to a letter she was sending Tess.\"\n\nSome of Babcott's tiredness went away. \"I'd certainly like to know what's in it.\"\n\n\"I'll only be party to witnessing it. Rightly I don't need to know the contents.\"\n\nBabcott sighed, yawned again. \"I feel so terribly sorry for her, wish I could help, I'd do anything... such a nice girl and so unfair. For her and Malcolm. Well, I'm off. Glad she's not leaving us yet, she'll make someone a spectacular wife. See you in a few hours.\"\n\n\"Have a good sleep, and thanks for all the good work. By the way,\" Sir William said, not wanting him to leave, but afraid if he stayed he would be tempted to share André's evidence, to ask his advice." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"When do you see Anjo again?\"\n\n\"In a week or two, when the laudanum's used up—without that he'll be a most unhappy man.\"\n\n\"No hope for him?\"\n\n\"No. He won't last but a few months, the tests are fairly accurate—his insides are in a mess. Yoshi's our man.\" Another aching yawn. \"Do you think Anjo, or Yoshi, or both, ordered the arson?\"\n\n\"Either or neither or both, we'll never know.\" He watched Babcott limp for the door. \"George, medically, if a woman was sedated, could a fellow take her and she'd not know about it?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Babcott blinked and turned back, fatigue fled. \"What on earth made you ask that?\"\n\n\"Just a sudden thought, you mentioned laudanum. A couple of days ago Zergeyev had some wild theories about drugs, the good and the bad of them. Could that happen?\"\n\nAfter a pause, Babcott nodded, not believing that excuse. He knew how subtle Willie's mind was, and wondered the why of the question but was too smart to ask again. \"If the dose was strong and the man not savage, yes, no problem.\" He waited but Sir William only nodded thoughtfully, so he waved a hand and left.\n\nOnce more Sir William opened the file." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His fingers trembled as he reread André's covering letter." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It's clear enough. The drug in Kanagawa started the chain of events, George's drug. If she'd awakened, the man would have killed her, no doubt about that. So she was saved but destroyed. But why didn't the man kill her anyway, why leave her alive? Doesn't make sense, any of it. And what happened in the French Legation that other night when he returned? If it hadn't been for George...\n\nAnd what about George?" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Task: Cooperative storytelling\nMy role: Provide a brief opening\nYour role: Expand upon my opening with one sentence in the historical fiction, Japan genre." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was getting towards midnight when Tyrer finally hurried out of the Legation and headed for the Struan jetty." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His head ached like never before, he had had no time for supper, no time to think about Hiraga or Fujiko, no time to do anything but work." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He carried an official H.M. Government dispatch satchel and in his pocket was the translation that he had done last and wished he had done first. His pace quickened." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The jetty was thronged." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A few people were there seeing off the last of the passengers, but most of the men noisily surrounded the Belle's Purser, who was accepting last-minute mail for Hong Kong and Shanghai Head Offices—insurance agents, suppliers, shippers, banks—anyone and everyone who needed to know about the fire and damage." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He saw Angelique chatting with Gornt." }, { "from": "human", "value": "On the other side of the crowd Pallidar was talking to some officers who were boarding as passengers, and near the head of the jetty he spotted Sir William in conversation with Maureen Ross." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Seeing her immediately reminded him of Jamie and Hiraga, and of his promise to Jamie to clear the \"students\" with his superior." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He eased through the crowd." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"'Evening, Miss Maureen, excuse me, Sir William, but you might want to see this.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He handed him the translation." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I'll make sure the dispatches get safely aboard.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Quickly he turned away from the Purser, not wanting to stay close at hand for the inevitable explosion." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The Purser was a short, dyspeptic man and the haphazard queue of men jostling for position around him was still long." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Tyrer pushed his way to the head, disregarding the \"Wait your bloody turn,\" saying, \"Sorry, Sir William's orders, H.M.'s business. A receipt, please.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"All right, all right, wot's the bloody rush, eh?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "While the Purser laboriously entered the shipment in his ledger, Tyrer peeked at Sir William who had moved under the oil lamp and was squinting at the paper." }, { "from": "human", "value": "While he watched, the face contorted, the lips began to mouth profanities, men nearby backed off in shock, not because of the language but merely because it was so unexpected." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He groaned and turned his back." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The document was from the roju, signed Tairō Nori, curt, without the usual flowery phrases, and addressed impudently To the Leader of the Gai-jin, so he had translated it as best he could in the same fashion, interpolating it where necessary:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The roju congratulates you and other gai-jin on your escape with your lives and little else from fires started by malcontents and revolutionaries." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Tomorrow the Kanagawa Governor will send 500 coolies to assist in your evacuation of Yokohama in accordance with clear warnings from the gods, and according to wishes of the Emperor given to you many times." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When you return, if you return, give us a long warning." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Accommodation will be provided for selected gai-jin at Deshima, in the port of Nagasaki, from where, as in the past, all future gai-jin trade and business will be conducted. A cordial communication." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Tyrer!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He pretended not to hear, kept his back to Sir William and accepted the receipt from the Purser, the impatient men in the line calling out with degrees of rudeness, \"Hurry up, for God's sake, do you want all night... hurry, there she is!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The empty cutter, returning from the Belle, was docking." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Tyrer noticed Jamie was not aboard." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The Bosun leaned out of his cabin and bellowed, \"All aboard wot's going aboard!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "In the heightened bustle Maureen joined him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Phillip, when will Jamie be back?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Certainly with the last ferry, if not before,\" he said, not sure if Jamie had told her of their scheme." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"There's an hour or more yet.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Tyrer!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Sorry, got to go. Yessir?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "he called out, took a deep breath, mentally girding his loins, and hurried off." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"In half an hour, Phillip,\" Sir William began, almost cross-eyed with rage, \"in half an hour I'll need you to translate a reply for me, extremely bloody accurately indeed.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Yes, sir, by the way, s—\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Go and find... ah, there he is, thought I saw him.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "One look at Sir William's face was enough to cause the crowd to fall silent and part for him instantly, all ears." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Pallidar, get the Dragoons, I want you to deliver a cordial communication to the Kanagawa Governor—at once.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Tonight, sir?\" Pallidar gaped at him, saw the expression on his face and added hastily, \"Oh! Yessir. Sorry, sir. Right away, sir.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"'Scuse me, Sir William,\" Tyrer said in a rush before Sir William could leave." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No time to tell you before but I helped two Japanese students aboard who wanted to travel, to visit England, they saved my life last night, hope that's all right.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"That they saved your life? I wonder.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The eyes bored into him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"If you've turned travel agent on Her Majesty's time, I suppose there will be a satisfactory answer should I require one. Pallidar, arrive in strength in an hour and deliver my message rather rudely, by God!\" He stalked off." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Pallidar blew his nose, his cold still bad." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What the hell's up with him?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Tyrer leaned closer and told him about the ultimatum." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"My God, no wonder. What bloody cheek! Actually it's bloody good, now there'll be some action, all this hanging around inflames the General's neck along with his piles.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He laughed, more from nervousness than the old chestnut." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "At that moment, Hoag arrived puffing, still wearing his operating frock coat, the sleeves and chest stiff with ancient blood, and burdened with top hat, suitcases and packages." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I thought I was going to be late. What's the joke?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You've plenty of time,\" Tyrer said, and, with Pallidar, wondered what was in Angelique's letter that Sir William had witnessed, and Hoag carried to Hong Kong in reply to the letter, also still a mystery, given to Angelique when Hoag was sure she was not bearing Malcolm's child." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Since the first day Hoag had arrived back, the outlines of Tess's ultimatum were common knowledge and the subject of heated, private debate." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Hope you have a safe trip. It's India next, isn't it?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yes, I'll be there next month.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The ugly face split with a smile." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Can't wait. Come and visit me, you'll love it.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Pallidar said, \"India's my next posting, in fact I've just been told, the Frontier, Hindu Kush, Khyber Pass.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Though he spoke lightly Pallidar secretly hated the idea." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Too many deaths in that special hell, too many killings, a bullet from nowhere, a dagger out of the night, wells poisoned, no glory there, only slog and kill and try to stay alive in that barren, festering rock landscape where nothing grew but death." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And yet vital to the Empire, for there lay the historic invasion route to British India, for Mongol, Persian, or Russian hordes." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A sick premonition swept through him and he could not resist adding, \"No sea burials there, Doc.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No, none, not at all,\" Hoag replied, and, misreading him, put a warm, friendly arm on him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You're a good fellow, Settry. If I can help in India I'm easy to find. You'll love it, good luck!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He strode off to greet Angelique and Gornt." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What was that about?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Tyrer asked. He had noticed the sudden change in Pallidar." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Pallidar shrugged, cursing his anxiety and lapse and abrupt envy of Hoag." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Doc Hoag told me he doesn't like sea burials, said he was glad to miss Malcolm's in Hong Kong.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He smiled crookedly. After he had reported to Sir William about Hoag's curious behavior over the coffins at Kanagawa that the Sergeant had witnessed, on instructions and sworn to secrecy, unobserved he had switched the coffins after checking them." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "No difference between them that he could see." }, { "from": "human", "value": "So the coffin sent by Prancing Cloud to Hong Kong had contained Malcolm Struan and the one Hoag, Angelique, Jamie and Skye had buried was that of the villager, as Sir William had ordered." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Pity Malcolm got chopped,\" he said, his voice raw." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Life's curious, eh? You never know when it'll happen.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Tyrer nodded, Pallidar's depression unusual." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Liking him, his own guard slid away." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What's up, old man?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Nothing. You were bloody lucky last night, weren't you, getting out of—\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Shadows rushed over Tyrer's face and Pallidar swore at himself for his stupidity." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Sorry, Phillip. Didn't mean to upset you, don't know what's got into me tonight.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You heard about... about...\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "For the life of him Tyrer could not say Fujiko's name, his grief scalding, driving him down in quantum depths where he had never been before." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His mouth said, trying to sound brave, \"When something like that, something awful happens, my old man used to... I had a sister who got measles and died when she was seven, such a pretty little girl we all loved... my old man always used to say, 'These things are sent to try us. You cry and cry and... and you pick yourself up and say it was God's Will and try not to hate Him.'\"" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He felt the tears running down his cheeks and did not care. His feet took him away down to the shore and there, alone with the surf and the sky and the night, he thought about Fujiko truly, remembering her with all his passion, then put her into a little box and put the box safe beside his heart." } ]