The Oshidori 鴛鴦

What Kaworu knows of married commitment:

The oshidori, or mandarin ducks, have long been recognized for their loyalty and fidelity to their partners. A pair of mandarins mates for life, and Chinese and Japanese literature have honored this trait in countless poems.

Yet not all have known or respected the oshidori and their love.

Sonjyō did not have the excuse of ignorance. He had heard that oshidori were to be left alone as happy couples. But as a hunter, Sonjyō had his own reputation to consider, and even more, he was very hungry, and he had caught nothing else that day. There were two ducks, a pair, floating on the marsh water. He assured himself that it was only this once, and he took his bow, and he shot the male duck.

There was a great flurry of flapping and quacking, and the female with duller colors fled for cover. But Sonjyō was not interested; he needed only one duck to dine tonight. He collected the body of the male and carried it home, where he prepared it and ate well.

That night, Sonjyō dreamed.

A young woman came into his room, sobbing. She was beautiful through her tears, and her cries of anguish tore his heart. In his dream, Sonjyō asked her why she cried and what he could do to help her.

"Why did you kill him, Sonjyō? What had my husband ever done to you? We were so happy together, living peacefully in Akanuma, and what a wicked thing you have done!"

Sonjyō gaped at her, shocked that she had come to rebuke him.

She drew a shaking breath and sobbed out a poem:

At the coming of
twilight I invited him
to return with me
Now to sleep alone
in shadow of the rushes
of Akanuma
Ah! What misery unspeakable.

"Ah, Sonjyō! You don't understand what you have done. But tomorrow, at Akanuma, you will see. You will see!" And she fled away in to the night.

Sonjyō woke, disturbed and restless. But after all, it was only a dream. It was only a duck, and only a dream.

Still, he thought in the morning, he would go to Akanuma, and prove to himself that it was only a dream. That would put this uneasy feeling to rest.

So he went to Akanuma, and there in the water, he saw the female duck swimming alone. She had survived, and she was unharmed, and she was only a duck.

She perceived him as well, but she did not flee, as a duck who had witnessed a hunter's kill might. Nor did she swim away, safe at a distance. Instead, she swam toward Sonjyō, paddling directly to him, and holding eye contact all the way. Sonjyō felt uneasy, but still, it was only a duck.

Then the duck paused, only a short reach from the bank. She raised her head and plunged her beak directly into her downy breast, staining her feathers with red as she tore open her chest. As Sonjyō recoiled, she collapsed and died.

Sonjyō had done wrong. Sonjyō had killed a mandarin duck, and so he had killed two mandarin ducks. He had done wrong.

Sonjyō left the Akanuma and shaved his head, giving up his life of hunting to become a monk.

aka-numa = "red marsh"
akanu-ma = "time of our inseparable relation" Adapted from "Oshidori," recorded by Lafcadio Hearn, 1904