"What would be the point of visiting him? He ended up like this because he overestimated himself and couldn't recognize his own limits! A person's talent is determined at birth. He's just as useless as I am, yet he keeps trying to act strong! Of course he ended up badly injured!"
At the Rengoku Family Mansion, Shinjuro Rengoku sat in the courtyard, picked up his sake flask, and gulped down several mouthfuls.
The burning sensation traveled down his throat into his stomach. His head grew hazy, and his many pains eased for the moment.
"But Father, my brother..."
Senjuro was terribly worried about Kyojuro. He thought that if he and his father visited together, Kyojuro would be happy and might recover a little faster.
Thud!
The flask struck the floor with a dull thud, cutting Senjuro off. Shinjuro had frightened him into silence.
"Stop bothering me with this nonsense! I'm not going to visit him, and neither are you! If you understand, get back to your room!" Shinjuro roared viciously, without even turning to look at Senjuro.
"Yes..." After a long silence and a lengthy inner struggle, Senjuro still couldn't bring himself to argue with Shinjuro. He turned and went back to his room.
Listening to Senjuro's footsteps fade into the distance, Shinjuro gulped down another mouthful of sake...
That afternoon, when everything outside had fallen quiet, Senjuro guessed that Shinjuro had drunk himself to sleep and cautiously left his room.
Sure enough, Shinjuro lay sprawled on the wooden floor at the courtyard steps, snoring, with an empty sake flask beside him.
Seeing this, Senjuro tiptoed toward the exit, trying not to make the slightest sound for fear of waking Shinjuro.
Thank goodness I didn't wake Father...
Stepping down into the courtyard, Senjuro turned to glance at Shinjuro's