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Dans-Prosemaxx-Cowriter-XL

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[ { "from": "system", "value": "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 Lucia St. Clair sorta thing." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When Cat and Hanshiro arrived at the government barrier in Shinagawa, Viper and Cold Rice were jogging in place. Viper held the palanquin door balanced on his head. They were both shouting, \"Go on! Go on!\" in rhythm with their feet, as though they were carrying the whole conveyance.\n\nThe sun had set long before, and underlings had lit the lanterns. They had slid the big shutters partway across the open front of the building and stood ready to close the narrow opening they had left. Inside, wrapped in a cocoon of lantern light and secure in the prerogatives of government service, clerks were finishing the day's paperwork. They sat on the tatami and leaned over their low desks, their brushes flying." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Rolls of paper lay piled up around them." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Cat could tell that the barrier official's impassive expression was only masking his exasperation, but he let the small procession pass with little trouble. The travel papers Lord Hino had supplied were all in order. Cat's pass gave her mother's family name of Suzuki. Besides, a highborn woman entering Edo didn't require the scrutiny of one leaving.\n\nHanshiro knew that the guards and clerks and the officials themselves assumed Cat was Lord Hino's consort, his woman of the provinces. The silent affront set him to seething with a fury that surprised him, but he matched their polite hisses and bows.\n\nOn the other side of the barrier, Hanshiro dismissed the two criers, the box bearer, and the men carrying his palanquin. He arranged for the officials to have it returned to Lord Hino." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Viper and Cold Rice insisted they could carry Cat's palanquin themselves, and the extra men were paid off, too." }, { "from": "human", "value": "From here Hanshiro would trot along behind and act the part of a servant, carrying the clothing box on its pole across his shoulder." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He looked as stalwart as always, but the long, rough ride had made him ill. He ached in every joint. The exercise and the cold air would do him good.\n\nCat directed Viper and Cold Rice to turn off at Sengakuji, Spring Hill Temple. Whatever happened, she couldn't pass by her father's grave without honoring him, especially now, on the eve of the monthly anniversary of his death. Viper and Cold Rice passed through the big, ornate wooden gate, turned left, and set down the palanquin among the gravestones in the grove of trees.\n\nHanshiro helped Cat out into snow that came above her ankles. In the moonlight, her white robes seemed to be part of the soft white landscape around her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "To Hanshiro she looked like the mythical Lady of the Snows, who would fade into mist in a man's arms.\n\nCat turned to Viper and Cold Rice, who had folded into tight obeisances in the snow. Only the ragged patchwork humps of their jackets and the cheerful sparrows on their blue head towels were visible.\n\n\"I thank you both for your great efforts on my behalf. Amida will bless you,\" Cat said. \"And please, Boss Viper, give my greetings to your honorable wife.\" She shivered and pulled her cloak about her. \"We'll continue on foot, so you can leave the palanquin. Hanshiro-san will arrange with the priests here for its return to Hino-sama.\"\n\n\"Your Ladyship...\" Viper looked up at her from the snow." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We're ready to carry you to your final destination. And we might be of some further, though humble, use to you.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"That wouldn't be prudent. And please stand up before your hands freeze.\"\n\n\"At least let us take you to Nihon Bridge,\" Viper persisted doggedly. \"You can travel faster with us carrying you.\"\n\n\"Lord Hino's palanquin would draw attention to us.\" Cat was used to Viper's impertinent habit of arguing with his superiors, but Hanshiro marveled at her patience with him. Someday, if they survived the night, he would ask her about it.\n\n\"How's this for a bargain, my lady?\" Viper adopted his favorite expression, somewhere between cunning and irony." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"If, when you finish here, Cold Rice and I are waiting with a kago, a nondescript, lowly, and completely unworthy affair, would you honor us by riding in it?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Cat had to smile to herself. Viper and Kasane were chiseled from the same rough-hewn, cross-grained stuff. \"We're not sure where we'll go from here, but perhaps we'll have need of your services, if you can find a kago in such a short time.\"\n\nIn fact, Cat didn't know where to look for Oishi and the Akō men. She planned to begin at the inn where Oishi and his son had stayed near the Nihon Bridge. It was the same one that received the red-haired barbarians on their annual visits to Edo.\n\nIf he wasn't there, she would go to the drapers' district and ask for the shop of Otaka Gengo, the Akō retainer who took lessons from Kira's tea master. Then she would try to find the shop of Kanzaki Yogoro, who had posed as a rich Kyōto rice merchant and had gained access to Kira's mansion." }, { "from": "human", "value": "There were thousands of rice shops scattered throughout Edo, though, and finding Yogoro's would be difficult." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The thought of knocking at shuttered doors in deserted streets and finding no one there filled Cat with despair.\n\nWhen Viper and Cold Rice trotted off into the darkening night, Cat leaned against Hanshiro. She drew comfort from his warmth and solidity. He put an arm around her shoulder and held her close to shelter her from the cold. Then he prayed with her at the statue of Kannon-sama, the smiling goddess of mercy.\n\nSnow had been falling in Edo for three days, and a thick covering of it lay over everything on the temple grounds. The full moon had risen. The snow mounded on the gravestones and statues and tall granite lanterns glowed in its light." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Long black shadows flowed away from the buildings and monuments and trees." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The full moon hung low in the eastern sky like the tip of a fat, badger-hair brush dipped in light. Cat's exhaustion made her weak and dizzy, and she succumbed to the moon's spell. As she stared, it pulsed and shimmered, growing and receding. No wonder the peasants believed that to gaze on the moon in solitude was to risk enchantment. Cat had to shake her head to break its hold.\n\n\"Everything looks different from the last time I was here.\" Cat thought back to the morning she had awakened in the chapel to Kannon-sama so very long ago. She remembered how ignorant and foolish she had been." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It seems so peaceful. As though there could be no sorrow in all the world.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"'The troubled waters are frozen fast under clear heaven,' \" Hanshiro recited.\n\n\"'Moonlight and shadow ebb and flow.' \" Cat finished Lady Murasaki's poem.\n\nThey walked to Lord Asano's grave. Fresh incense was still burning there as Cat unwrapped the food and joss sticks she had bought as an offering. She lit the incense in the coals that burned for that purpose. Hanshiro took out the scarf, still wrapped around the coil of Cat's hair.\n\nHe laid it on the grave as his own offering. Then he and Cat bowed their heads and prayed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A pale moon shadow fell across the grave, and Hanshiro leaped back, his hand on his sword hilt.\n\n\"My lady.\" The plump-faced man on the other side of the grave had slightly bulging eyes and a mild expression. He folded his hands together and bowed. Several gray-headed men, all in formal black clothes, stood behind him like a gathering of sages.\n\n\"Good evening, sensei.\" Cat bowed low. \"Are you in good health?\"\n\n\"Yes, hime, princess. And you?\"\n\n\"I am well.\" Cat turned to Hanshiro." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"This is the councilor, Oishi Kuranosuke,\" she said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As the abbot ended the purification ceremony in a rear reception chamber of the monks' quarters, Hanshiro sat silent in the corner with Cat. He had never been in a room so suffused with warrior spirit. These were the old men, the leaders, the planners of the vengeance league.\n\nOne was seventy-seven. Five were in their sixties and four in their fifties. Except for his sixteen-year-old son Chikara, Oishi, at forty-five, was the youngest of the Akō retainers there.\n\nSeveral of the temple's acolytes served tea and tobacco. Then, when the abbot withdrew to let the men discuss their plans, Oishi turned to Cat. She still wore the nun's clothes, and the white scarf framed her oval face." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She was even more beautiful than Oishi remembered her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His large, sad eyes sparkled with tears in the lantern light. He had heard that the young Lady Asano had been killed somewhere along the Tōkaidō Road. It had been one more care added to the terrible burden he had carried for two years.\n\n\"Hime, we've been worried about you.\" He used the affectionate term from Cat's childhood. \"It eases our hearts to see you safe and in the shade of such a strong tree as Hanshiro of Tosa.\"\n\nHanshiro caught the brief glance Oishi gave him. It was a request to continue looking after Lady Asano no Kinume." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hanshiro nodded slightly, in acceptance of the charge.\n\nThe sight of her father's oldest and most trusted retainers almost made Cat forget the tragedy that brought them here. The occasion seemed like a reunion of loved ones after a long separation.\n\nBut she knew that soon all these men would be dead. Chikara, with whom she had hunted fireflies and explored the rocks and beaches of Akō, would be dead. Oishi would be dead. Surely a heart was too small a vessel to contain so much grief.\n\n\"How many men are in the league?\" she asked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Forty-seven.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Forty-seven,\" Cat murmured. Lord Hino had said there were sixty." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Could forty-seven men overcome the small army living in barracks on the grounds of Kira's mansion?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"A number of them fell away.\" Onodera Jūnai, Oishi's sixty-one-year-old chief of staff, spoke up. \"People nowadays have lost the perseverance of their ancestors.\"\n\n\"One cannot weigh honor on a merchant's scale,\" added Yoshida Chūzayemon. \"And so it has been discarded as worthless.\"\n\n\"How will you manage it, with so few?\"\n\n\"It's best, mistress, that you know as little as possible about the plan,\" Oishi said.\n\n\"I have a right to know.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Oishi smiled. That was true." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She was her father's daughter in spirit as well as in beauty. Oishi had heard of the troubles Kira's men had experienced on the Tōkaidō. He could easily believe she and her companion from Tosa had taken such a toll on their enemies.\n\nBesides, he recognized the look on her face. He had seen her narrow those swallow's eyes, flare her nostrils, and set her jaw since before she had been old enough to speak the word no. He gave in gracefully.\n\n\"Dressed as tradesmen and laborers and priests, the young men have been mapping the area around Kira's mansion on Matsuzaka Street, Honjō-chōnai, Honjō ward. Tonight we will all meet at the hour of the Ox at Yogoro's rice shop north of the Ryōgoku Bridge. It's close to the mansion.\" Oishi paused to light his pipe and take a puff." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He was terribly weary, but he knew the end was near now." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'll take half the men to the front gate. Chikara, with Jūnai and Chūza, will lead the rest around behind the mansion. While Kira's men try to stop the tiger at the front gate, the wolf will enter at the rear.\"\n\nChikara nodded politely. To Cat he looked hardly older than when she last had seen him, a laughing, naked boy of nine wading in the surf at Akō.\n\n\"The young men will enter and fight,\" Oishi said. \"A few of them will rush the armory and cut the bowstrings and break the spear shafts. Hara, Mase, and I, we old ones, will guard the gate, to cut off the enemy's retreat and repel reinforcements.\"\n\n\"Lord Uesugi's bowmen?\"\n\n\"Yes. Lord Uesugi has loaned his father some of them. We think the rest are quartered at Uesugi's villa in Azabu, all the way across the city. Unless we can find Kira quickly, we expect them to come to his aid as soon as they hear of the attack.\"\n\n\"If we fail to find him, mistress,\" Jūnai said, \"we will set fire to the house and commit seppuku.\"\n\n\"Sensei...\" Cat began." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Oishi raised a few fingers in a gesture of restraint, and Cat fell silent.\n\nHe knew that she had been about to ask to go with them. The silence in the room became strained. Hanshiro understood it. He knew he had no place here. Even Lady Asano, for all her determination and skill and noble blood, had no part in this.\n\nFor almost two years these men had lived only for this night. They had abandoned their families and destroyed their good names. They were risking the ignominious death of criminals and perhaps subjecting their families to the same fate." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They had given up everything to keep faith with their honor." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In the process, they had become a unit with a single mind and arm and purpose. They could admit no one else.\n\nOishi lifted his right leg from under him and by dropping it forward, shifting his weight, lifting the other, and pivoting, he moved along the mat. In his full black hakama he seemed to glide across the floor until, almost knee to knee with Cat, he put his legs under him and settled back on his ankles.\n\n\"Whether we find our enemy tonight or not,\" he said gently, \"all who embark on this will die as a result of it.\"\n\n\"I'm not afraid to die, sensei.\"\n\n\"I would expect no less of you, my lady. But true courage is in living when it is time to live and dying when it is time to die. In your veins alone flows the blood of your father. If you die before bearing an heir, your father truly dies. While you live, his spirit lives. Future generations depend on you.\" Oishi paused to give Cat time to think about his words." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"For me there will be no moment like this one, sensei.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Cat's grief threatened to overwhelm her, so she retreated behind the barrier of decorum. \"None of us can hope to live forever,\" she said. \"But your names and your devotion will live in the hearts of those to come.\" She bowed low. \"On behalf of my mother I thank you. I will pray for your success.\"\n\n\"We are grateful, my lady, that Amida of Immeasurable Light has spared us to see this night. And to see you before we follow our liege on the dark path.\" Almost as though he were talking to himself, Oishi quoted Li Po. \" 'Heaven and earth,' the poets say, 'are but a roadside inn for Time, a traveler on a journey through the ages, and our fleeting lives are but phantoms in Time's dreams.'\"\n\nOishi was silent for a moment, and when he spoke again his voice for the first time betrayed his weariness. \"Please, hime, when you see your mother, tell her I deeply regret the sorrow my actions must have caused her. Tell her she has always been in my thoughts.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I will, sensei.\" Cat knew the time had come for her to go.\n\nHanshiro held a brief, whispered conference with Oishi, then he and Cat left the room. As they walked down the quiet corridor, the voices of the men faded behind them. As though but phantoms in Time's dream, Cat thought.\n\nShe and Hanshiro tied on their sandals at the stone stoop of the veranda and walked out into the night. The temple bell tolled five times, marking the hour of the Dog. They had three long hours until the watch of the Tiger and the raid on Kira's mansion.\n\n\"What did sensei say to you?\" Cat asked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I volunteered to perform a service.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Cat was about to ask what service when she saw Viper and his partner. They were standing next to a battered open wickerwork kago, and though they were suitably solemn, the expression in their eyes was triumphant.\n\nSuddenly Cat was exhausted. The temple bell had stopped ringing, but the sound continued to reverberate in her skull. The strain of speaking with her father's men for the last time had used up the strength that had brought her through the long ordeal of the trip. When Hanshiro helped her into the basket, he was alarmed at how cold her hands were. She settled back against the worn cushions and closed her eyes. Viper draped a ragged quilt over the kago to keep out the worst of the wind." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The Circle Inn.\" Hanshiro's voice seemed far away to her. \"Honjō-chōnai, Honjō ward.\"" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 1 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Cat imagined she was a snowflake, whirling on a high wind before gently dissolving into nothingness." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "expand on the story like Lucia St. Clair would" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The seven-foot scroll hanging in the tokonoma contained a single ideogram as long as Hanshiro's arm. At the serifs of its bold black strokes, splatters of ink arced out onto the white paper, testimony to the calligrapher's vigor. The character spelled \"DREAM,\" the single word the priest and swordsman Takuan was to have written just before he died." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hanshiro lay on his side with his arm across Cat's waist and studied the scroll by the dim light of the night lantern." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As he stared at it, the ideogram seemed to separate from the soft rice paper and brocade of the scroll and float in the clouds of incense from the bronze pot nearby. It was a universe in itself. Hanshiro knew that each angle of the strokes, each irregularity left by the calligrapher's brush, had meaning, if he could only interpret it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The midnight tolling of a distant temple bell told him the time had come to get up." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He lay still a few moments longer, breathing in rhythm with Cat and savoring the feel of her body pressed against him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As he lifted his arm off her and eased away, he tucked the quilt around her bare back so the cold air wouldn't waken her.\n\nHis good clothes and the ones Cat had worn as his disciple were draped on racks. Fragrant smoke drifted up from the incense pot under them." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hanshiro's swords, helmet, long-bow, and quiver of arrows and Cat's naginata rested on racks in front of the tokonoma." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "To retrieve his helmet and bow, Hanshiro had detoured by the tenement where he rented a tiny room. Viper and Cold Rice had waited in the street, standing guard over their borrowed kago and its sleeping occupant while Hanshiro hurried inside. He had been relieved that Cat had been asleep and didn't see the shabby neighborhood where he lived." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Then they had trotted through the throngs on the tall arc of the Ryōgoku Bridge." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The Sumida River below had been crowded with boatloads of partygoers eating and drinking and enjoying the moonlight on the snowy landscape. The boat's strings of lanterns spangled the night. The aroma of broiling eel and the sounds of hand drums and samisens and laughter drifted upward." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They had made their way through the busy, brightly lit district of stores and sake shops and riverfront restaurants around the bridge." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They had passed the gate into Honjō ward and walked down the quiet, residential streets to the Circle Inn. Hanshiro had carried Cat, still sleeping, through the small side door in the front gate.\n\nNow it was time for him to prepare for the night ahead." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He ignored the new clothes he had bought when he intended to pledge his sword to Lady Asano's cause." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Instead he put on his old hakama and jacket and wadded coat. He wrote a message for Cat should she wake up, although that didn't seem likely. She had been sleeping so soundly when they arrived, he had felt as though he were carrying a body from which the spirit had fled." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She had barely awakened long enough to bathe." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hanshiro settled his swords precisely in his sash. When he left, his stockinged feet made no noise on the boards of the corridor.\n\nViper was waiting for him outside." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He was flanked by a merry band of carpenters and roofers, plasterers and stonemasons." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They appeared to have been celebrating early the arrival of the New Year.\n\nAt Spring Hill Temple Hanshiro had realized that Viper was determined to help Cat whether she wanted him to or not. So he wasn't surprised to see that while he and Cat had been sleeping Viper had been enlisting the aid of men from Honjō ward's otokodate, the society of \"brave men.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hanshiro, however, thought of them by the less flattering name of machi yakko, town underlings. For Hanshiro, an alliance with Viper and his friends was as cautious as it was temporary.\n\nMany of the shogun's bannermen entertain themselves by roaming about the city and brutalizing merchants and laborers." }, { "from": "human", "value": "For protection, some of the merchants funded societies formed by the local artisans and guild bosses." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Sometimes the otokodate also fought with low-ranking samurai and rōnin, many of whom now made their living by theft and extortion.\n\nTo otokodate, a rōnin like Hanshiro was a potential enemy. And to those of the samurai class, common street brawlers like Viper and his friends were beneath contempt." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But the otokodate were skilled with a variety of weapons, many fashioned from the tools of their trade." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They asked no member about his past, which was just as well, since many were gamblers and men with stained histories.\n\nThe otokodate claimed that they were sworn to help the downtrodden. Hanshiro, however, had often found them to be disposed to violence for its own sake and to be dishonest when it profited them." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He also knew that among the various leaders of otokodate, Chubei of Honjō was one of the most powerful." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There must have been thirty or forty of Chubei's men here now. Their small topknots were fashionably askew, and their sidelocks stood out in disorderly fringes from their florid faces. The reinforced linings of their collars were stained, their cuffs frayed, and their jackets much mended and patched." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A few carried ladders or used their long rules as walking sticks." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Others had stuck their hands into the fronts of their jackets to warm them. Most carried their tools—mallets and planes, chisels and adzes—dangling from their sashes.\n\n\"Propitious dreams,\" they shouted as they bowed to Viper and Hanshiro." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They went off discussing where they could buy sake and women at this hour. Their straw sandals squeaked in the snow. They left a wake of laughter in the quiet of the street." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hanshiro turned to Viper." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He knew he would have to be diplomatic in rejecting the kago man's help and that of his friends. They were an unpredictable lot. Insulting them would surely cause trouble for Cat and Oishi and his men." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Regulations forbid that the 'chastisement of an enemy be attended with riot,' \" he said.\n\n\"Everything will be done with discretion, Your Honor.\" Viper gave his sly, ingenuous smile." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He was a bit more circumspect with Hanshiro than with Lady Asano, but not much." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Good evening.\" The man who joined them from a side street was dressed in the dark blue trousers and tight-sleeved wadded jacket of an artisan." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He carried a carpenter's long-handled adze with a mattock-shaped steel blade. His short legs were bowed, but his chest was round and solid as a rice bale. He had big, callused hands, and his arms strained the black canvas arm guards." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His bushy brows almost met at the concave bridge of his nose." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A shaggy mustache sprouted from under the lumpy end of that nose like rank grass from under a boulder.\n\n\"Good evening,\" he said.\n\nHanshiro nodded in reply to Chubei's bow." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He had met the boss once, many years ago, while intervening for a young wastrel in debt to a gambling boss in Honjō." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"So, Tosa, tonight you're not here to bargain for the balls of a young dandy.\"\n\n\"No.\" Hanshiro was impressed with Chubei's memory. The affair had happened long ago." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It grieves me to observe,\" Chubei said with a smile, \"that sons are quite inferior to their fathers these days and that grandsons rarely offer hope for improvement.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Just so,\" Hanshiro said politely. \"As for what brings me to Honjō, Viper and I were just discussing the regulations concerning the proper conduct of a vendetta.\"\n\n\"Ah, yes. The dog shōgun's regulations.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Chubei's grin widened. \" 'The chastisement of an enemy may not be attended with riot.' \" He spoke in a low voice, but it carried in the silent street. From somewhere behind a nearby wall a dog began barking.\n\n\"Is there a place we can talk in private?\" Hanshiro asked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Certainly.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Chubei lit a lantern and led Viper and Hanshiro through the narrow back streets to the large shed, open on two sides, that sheltered his cluttered workshop. Hanshiro sat on the rough-hewn surface of a huge cypress log that was being dressed as a beam. Viper and Chubei sat cross-legged among the fragrant curls of wood that the apprentices' adzes had shaved off the log." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Around them were stacked the beams and posts of the house Chubei had been engaged to build." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"This is no ordinary street brawl,\" Hanshiro said. \"It involves men of great honor who are determined to right an infamous wrong.\"\n\n\"I'm not a fool, Tosa.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Chubei's voice was still cordial, to show he meant no real offense." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But he was no longer smiling. \"I know who is involved.\"\n\n\"Who else knows?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Chubei chuckled. \"Viper told only me, but everyone suspects. Edo has been waiting two years for this night.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Then the object of the endeavor might suspect, too.\"\n\n\"No more than usual. For two years Kira's been as suspicious as a cat with its head in a bag. He rarely peeks out from behind his walls.\" Chubei stroked his mustache lovingly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"My wife's cousin is a rice dealer. He says the food bills for Kira's extra bodyguards are ruinous. He's only recently sent some of Uesugi's bowmen back to Azabu, probably so his son can feed them for a while.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"If Kira had done the honorable thing and opened his belly,\" Viper said, \"or even shaved his head in penance and taken holy orders, folk might have felt more kindly toward him.\"\n\n\"It's more important to shave the heart than to shave the head,\" Chubei said. \"And Kira's heart is as hard as ever. Many's the man, even among us wretched Edokko, who would like to see him pay.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"This isn't a matter for commoners.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hanshiro looked hard at Chubei." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He had to make this very clear. \"For them to participate would sully the honor of the men involved. Is that understood?\"\n\n\"Yes, Tosa,\" Chubei said. \"It's understood.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Chubei rose and walked to the open side of the shed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He stood in the rectangle of moonlight and looked up. \"My old and tender friend Viper has suggested an evening stroll to view the moon.\" He threw open his arms, as if to embrace the full moon, which was almost directly overhead." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Then he turned to face Viper and Hanshiro." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Mairimasho ka? Shall we go?\"\n\nFor the next hour Chubei showed Hanshiro which street gates would be open and which would be locked. He showed him where the vantage points would be and where the blind alleys were." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He introduced him to the gate guards and to the men of the fire watch." }, { "from": "human", "value": "And when Hanshiro parted company with him he gave him two brown canvas firemen's coats." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When Hanshiro returned to the inn he slipped in the small side door that he had paid the night attendant to leave open for him. He padded down the dimly lit hall to the room he shared with Cat.\n\nHe took off his old clothes and put on the white satin loincloth, the new undershirt of wadded habutae silk, and the black-and-white wadded silk robe and black hakama." }, { "from": "human", "value": "An undertaking such as tonight's required purity of heart and mind, body and dress." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He knelt and shook Cat's hip gently." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Is it time?\" Cat sleepily ran a hand over her skull, fuzzy now with a six-day growth of dark hair.\n\n\"Yes.\"\n\nShe rose and pulled her quilted sleeping robe closer around her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She went to the low desk, mixed ink, and wrote what she dared not say aloud." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What did you speak to sensei about?\"\n\nWhile Hanshiro wrote a reply, she knelt and tied on his leggings.\n\n\"I offered to watch for messengers trying to reach Uesugi to ask for reinforcements.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Viper is plotting something.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Cat's nervousness showed in her calligraphy, but her only fear was that some outsider would interfere with Oishi's plan.\n\n\"I know.\" Hanshiro put down the brush and helped Cat tie her hakama cords. Then he wrapped her long sash three times around her waist." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As he bent down to tie it in a warrior's dragonfly knot, he leaned over her shoulder and whispered in her ear." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"He and Honjō's boss showed me the area while you slept. But they understand that they must not interfere.\"\n\nWhen Cat had dressed she draped a large cloth over her bare head. She folded the sides down along her cheeks and tied it under her chin." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hanshiro lit incense in his shallow, bowl-shaped black-lacquer helmet." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "If things went awry tonight, if warfare broke out in Honjō and his head were taken, it would be fragrant.\n\nHe and Cat lit more incense in front of the ornate lacquered cupboard that housed the altar. They each put their palms together, bowed their heads, and prayed to Amida Buddha and to the god of warriors." }, { "from": "human", "value": "In unison they softly chanted the Diamond sutra." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Every phenomenon is like a dream,\n\nan illusion, a bubble, a shadow;\n\nIt is like dew and also like lightning." }, { "from": "human", "value": "So is all to be seen." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They burned their messages to each other." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hanshiro stuck his swords into his sash and put his coat over them." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He hung his helmet from the sash. He tied the quiver on his back so the fan of arrows stood up over his head. He strapped on his long bow." }, { "from": "human", "value": "When he gave Cat the heavy fireman's coat, tears welled up suddenly in her eyes." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She stroked the stiff canvas.\n\n\"My father...\" She paused until her voice was steady enough to go on. \"My father took great care with his fire brigade.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Lord Asano's fire company had numbered more than fifty men, picked from the strongest and handsomest of the Akō-Asano retainers. They were better equipped and trained than any in their part of Edo. Cat remembered how proud she had always felt when she had watched them drill." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They had looked so impressive in their leather coats, with their pikes and fire hooks on their shoulders." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 4 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hanshiro helped Cat adjust the hood of the coat. He held her face in his big hands and laid his forehead against hers. He brushed her lips with his. She picked up the naginata, and they went out into the silence of the snowy street." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Add 5 sentences to continue story" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As in all of Edo, gates shut off most of Honjō's narrow side streets. The gatekeepers slept inside the small gate houses. Those of the main street, a thoroughfare that ran north from the Ryōgoku Bridge, were open to facilitate movement in case of fire. Hanshiro and Cat strode down the center of it. A light snow earlier in the evening had covered the layer dirtied by the day's traffic." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It silenced the tread of their sandals, but they made no special effort to be quiet.\n\nThey had no need to skulk. They were going about their duties as part of Honjō's latest innovation, a merchants' fire brigade. Of course, paired swords, a naginata, a seven-foot bow, and a quiver full of arrows weren't standard fire-fighting equipment, but Chubei had assured Hanshiro that no one would interfere with him and Lady Asano.\n\nThey entered Honjō's commercial district." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The streets were lined with the dark wooden shutters of shops and tenements." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hanshiro led the way past fire buckets stacked against a large house." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Like the others here, the house fronted directly on the roadway. The ladder to the fire watch's rooftop lookout leaned against the first-floor overhang.\n\nCat started up it. She climbed past the first-and second-story eaves to the small platform built above the roof peak. This was Chubei's house." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Between it and the open workshop behind it was a small garden, exquisitely designed and ethereally beautiful in the moonlight. Cat was astonished to find it attached to a carpenter's house.\n\nEdo was built on low land that was fairly level. For as far as Cat could see stretched the jumble of snow-covered roofs, none more than two stories high. Except for a distant five-storied pagoda, only rooftop drying racks and spindly fire towers rose above the undulating expanse of white." }, { "from": "human", "value": "When Cat turned around, her naginata hit the bronze bell hanging from the center of the platform's roof." }, { "from": "human", "value": "In the stillness it set up a metallic rumble that seemed loud enough to wake the whole district or at least the household sleeping below her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I'm sorry,\" she whispered as Hanshiro's head appeared." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her breath formed a cloud in the cold air, and she shivered.\n\n\"Don't worry,\" Hanshiro said. \"It could hardly be heard from below.\"\n\nThe full moon seemed inordinately large and almost close enough to touch. It was beginning to descend in the southern sky, but it lit everything with a silvery clarity." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The snow reflected and intensified the light. From the platform, Cat and Hanshiro could see the Sumida River and the Ryōgoku Bridge to the west.\n\nTo the north and east were the mansions of the lords. Their walled compounds of gardens and outbuildings, servants' quarters, family shrines, and rambling mansions were scattered among the pines. In Edo's crowded center near the walls of the shōgun's castle, the lords' \"upper\" mansions were set one against each other." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "That was why so many of the government's retired officials had chosen to build their \"middle\" mansions here.\n\nThe middle mansions were where the lords' families lived and where they had room to quarter their retainers in barracks along the inner side of the wall facing the street. Kira's middle mansion only had two small rooms next to the armory near the gate. His guards were crowded into them.\n\n\"Which is Kira's?\" Cat asked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hanshiro pointed with his fan. \"Where the branches of the pine hang over the wall.\"\n\nCat found the gate of Kira's compound. She studied the barracks roofs and the inner courtyard where the palanquins and carriages of guests were received. Beyond the courtyard's low wall lay Kira's garden and private quarters." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Cat followed the angular meandering of the mansion's rooflines. She memorized the wings and ells, the verandas and covered corridors, connecting the main part of the house with the family's rooms at the rear of it. Somewhere under those roofs Lord Kira was sleeping.\n\n\"The men should pass by here,\" Hanshiro said. \"Yogoro's rice shop is past the brewery, three blocks down and across the street.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The brewery was easy to distinguish from the other shops." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Its symbol, a huge brown globe of dried cypress needles, hung from the second-story gable." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Nothing stirred in the streets except the occasional cat and a rat that scuttled along the white plaster walls of a warehouse. But Cat stared as though she could have looked through the roof of the rice shop and seen the men inside. She tried to imagine what they were doing, what they were saying. What they were feeling.\n\nCat and Hanshiro stood with their hands on the railing and their sleeves touching and surveyed the moonlit, snow-shrouded walls and houses and trees below." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The streets and rooftops seemed empty, but they weren't.\n\nCat walked around the platform looking for signs of Viper and his friends. She knew they must be hiding behind the big tubs of water on the roofs or behind fences or in the narrow side streets, but she could see no one.\n\n\"They're very good,\" she whispered. Perhaps some of the stories she had heard about the machi yakko hadn't been exaggerated after all." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"There.\" Hanshiro pointed with his iron fan to a roof several blocks away." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Moon shadow faintly outlined footprints leading up the roof's slope to the huge wooden barrel of water, stored there in case of fire. Cat realized that what few traces of the machi yakko she could detect were in the area around Kira's mansion.\n\n\"Chubei swore his men wouldn't interfere.\" Hanshiro answered Cat's unspoken doubt. He expected Chubei to keep his word, but he wasn't surprised to see the machi yakko keeping watch." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They wouldn't miss the chance to see this night's battle.\n\nCat and Hanshiro looked down the street toward the bridge and canal that separated Honjō from Fukagawa, the next ward to the south. If Lord Uesugi sent reinforcements, they would most likely approach from that direction.\n\n\"We're to ring the fire bell once if we see them coming,\" Hanshiro said.\n\nA temple bell began tolling the seventh watch, the hour of the Tiger." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Its notes hung, expectant, on the air." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Cat gripped Hanshiro's arm to keep her own hands from trembling." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The hairs on the back of her neck stirred, and her heart pounded. She felt transcendently aware, as though through the walls of Yogoro's rice shop she could hear the forty-seven men breathe. As though she could smell the incense with which they had perfumed their helmets.\n\nThe last note had faded when Cat heard the faint rasp of a wooden shutter being slid back. The Akō rōnin began fanning out from the front door of the shop." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Cat strained to distinguish individuals as they formed into a double line." }, { "from": "human", "value": "When they moved out from under the eaves, they and their weapons threw a bristling shadow, like a long, spiked dragon, onto the snow." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "For more freedom of movement, they had wrapped leggings around the bottoms of their hakama. As a disguise they wore the heavy canvas hooded capes of a warriors' fire brigade. Their sleeves were tied back to reveal mail gauntlets under matching black broadcloth coats with large white triangles around the cuffs and hems. The white design would be easier to see in the dark corridors of Kira's mansion and would identify the men to each other.\n\nSome men had on helmets." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Others had tied cloth bands around their heads." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They carried paired swords in their sashes, of course, but they were also armed with spears and naginata, bows, arrows, and staffs. Rust on a man's weapon indicated corrosion of his spirit, and every blade had been polished until the moonlight glinted off it.\n\nSome of the men had stuck thin poles into the backs of their sashes so that the small cloth banners attached to them waved above their heads. They had written their death names on the banners.\n\nA few men carried bamboo ladders and heavy, long-handled mallets." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Several held large, truncated cones of blackened cypress veneer with handles at the narrow ends. The cones were lanterns with gimballed candles that could direct a beam of light at the enemy while leaving the bearer in shadow.\n\nKanzaki Yogoro led the procession. He was followed by a man holding up a pole with a small box on the end of it. Cat knew the box must contain the Akō rōnin's statement of purpose." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Oishi walked behind the box bearer. He carried a battle drum by a cord loop. The drum's head was painted with the twin red yin and yang symbols, the crest of the Yamaga school of strategy. His expression was calm.\n\nAs Cat watched him approach she murmured the ancient poem." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Yamato is a land\n\nWhere the word-spirit aids us.\n\nBe happy. Fare you well!\n\nWhen she saw Oishi look around she started, even though she knew that spoken words possessed a spirit of their own. They could carry out the speaker's wishes, and perhaps Cat's words had made themselves felt." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The moonlight was so bright that the men had no need of lanterns. No one spoke. Their presence was announced only by the crunch of their straw sandals in the fresh snow and by the muted rattle of metal and wood. It was an archaic noise, an echo from the centuries of warfare that had preceded this one. It was a sound not often heard in the streets of Edo.\n\nHanshiro had been raised as a warrior, but he had never seen men march into battle." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He had thought the warrior spirit extinguished by the corrupting influence of money and the decadence of his generation. He knew the Edo had never seen the equal of this procession, nor would it be likely to again.\n\nCat and Hanshiro watched the double column move down the empty street. Then it turned a corner and was lost to sight. Cat stared, rapt, at the buildings hiding her father's men until they reappeared at the head of Matsuzaka Street." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When the procession reached the corner of Kira's wall, it divided, like a stream flowing around a boulder. Chikara and his men separated and headed for the rear of the compound.\n\nOishi and the rest walked to the front gate. The warriors crouched in the snow while those with the ladders leaned them against the eaves of the gate's wide roof. Men climbed the ladders and eased up the slope of the gate roof until they could look over the peak into the compound beyond." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As Cat watched them, the silence of their movements gave the scene the quality of a dream.\n\nA few of Oishi's men scrambled up over the gate roof and dropped into the courtyard below. Cat couldn't see them there, but they must have overpowered the night watch huddled around their brazier in the gate house, because soon the heavy doors swung slowly open. Those with the gimballed lanterns lit them.\n\nOishi raised the war drum and held it poised and silent until Cat wanted to shout to him to give the signal." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Finally he hit the drum sharply with the drumstick. A heartbeat later Cat heard the hollow report. It was followed by the faint crash of huge wooden mallets against the smaller back gate. Oishi's men crowded through the front gate. Oishi and two of his older lieutenants, Hara Soyemon and Mase Kyudaiyu, stationed themselves outside to repel reinforcements and to stop those inside from escaping." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Cat leaned out from the railing, as though she could fly to join her father's men. She heard shouting and saw Kira's guards burst from their tiny rooms along the front wall. They were barefoot and half-dressed. Their uncombed hair hung down around their shoulders, but most of them had their swords drawn. The clash of blades rang out over the men's shouts." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Long beams from the lanterns flashed and swooped. Their light caught parts of the combatants—a leg, an arm, a face contorted with rage—and froze them for an instant like some artist's depiction of war. Some of the Akō rōnin held off the guards in the courtyard while the rest charged up the steps onto the veranda. They battered down the door of the entrance hall, and women began screaming from inside the house.\n\n\"They're getting away.\" Cat pointed to two men running across the garden." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The men threw a gardener's ladder against the wall on the far side and climbed over. They dropped to the street below and raced for the Sumida River. \"We should warn Oishi.\" Cat started for the ladder, but Hanshiro held her arm.\n\n\"Remember the words of one wiser than we,\" he said. \" 'Do not fight with another's bow. Do not ride another's horse. Do not discuss another's faults... ' \" He paused to let her finish." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"'Do not interfere with another's work.' \" Her voice was low and bitter. But this is my work, she thought.\n\nShe strained to make sense of the confusion in Kira's compound, of bodies in motion, of light and shadow, flashing steel, and the high whine of bowstrings discharging their arrows. The sounds of shrieking and crashing and ripping rose and fell inside the house as Oishi's men searched for Kira. The fight spilled over the courtyard wall and into the garden beyond." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Lights came on in the nearby compounds, and soon people appeared on the roofs. Most of them were afraid a fire had broken out. Men slipped out the smaller doors set in the main gates and ran to see what was happening.\n\nOishi had unfolded a stool and sat calmly in front of the gate while his two gray-haired companions, Hara and Mase, paced. When a small crowd gathered, Hara and Mase conferred with the men sent by neighboring lords." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The messengers dispersed, scattering back to their masters' compounds and disappearing through the side doors." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Mase unfolded a stool and sat next to Oishi." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hara went back to pacing." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Cat and Hanshiro waited for Kira's neighbors to send men to aid him, but the gates of the surrounding mansions stayed discreetly shut." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "About halfway through the hour of the Tiger the noise of fighting finally quieted. Cat could see bodies scattered about the courtyard and the garden. They sprawled across the steps and the verandas. She could hear the sound of women wailing and the noise of destruction. In their search for their lord's enemy the Akō men were breaking open chests, pulling down ceiling panels, and slashing bedding." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Kira's mansion was modest, but even in a modest mansion there were lots of places for a man to hide." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The moon had almost set. In the east a band of pale light lay along the horizon, but no whistle signaled that Kira had been found. Cat thought she would go mad with the waiting. To reassure her Hanshiro allowed his sleeve to brush hers. He moved his hand so that it rested lightly against hers on the railing." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "After a long discussion Hara and Mase finally persuaded Oishi to let them go inside. They left him sitting alone on the stool in the trampled snow outside the gate. He seemed as calm as a buddha, but he looked forlorn, abandoned, left out of the vengeance he had planned. Cat wondered what he was thinking. Had Kira escaped? Had all Oishi's effort and suffering been for nothing?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"They're coming,\" Hanshiro said.\n\nCat turned to look. A bristle of bows moved across the bridge into Honjō from Fukagawa. The thirteen archers were a token force, but they were reputed to be the best in the country. And the Akō rōnin must be exhausted by now." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Cat reached for the iron rod that hung near the big bell, but Hanshiro put a hand on her arm.\n\n\"If we ring the bell, Uesugi's men and Oishi's will clash,\" he said. \"The master of the New Shadow school wrote that if your mind reaches the ultimate of swordsmanship, the sword will have no place.\"\n\n\"What do you propose?\"\n\n\"Persuasion. It would be best if you stay here while I go down and talk to them.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Cat just looked at him, and he smiled ruefully." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He hadn't really thought she would agree to stay behind." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"If they kill us, we will at least have delayed them,\" he said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Chubei's machi yakko appeared suddenly, as if on cue, on the rooftops lining the bowmen's route.\n\n\"You said Chubei promised that his men wouldn't interfere.\"\n\n\"They're not there to fight.\" Hanshiro started down the ladder. \"We'll use them as go stones, surrounding the enemy and ending the game in a draw.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He led Cat at a run through back alleys reeking of garbage and sewage. They came out on the main street a few blocks in front of Uesugi's bowmen. With their faces hidden in the shadows of their hoods, they waited.\n\nHanshiro's bow was unstrung and slung across his back. His swords were in their scabbards." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Cat's naginata blade was sheathed, and she held it vertically, with the butt resting in the snow.\n\n\"Comrades,\" Hanshiro said when the archers drew close, \"this quarrel is not with you or your master.\"\n\n\"We have our orders.\" The captain was in his middle years and obviously very well trained. He was from Yonezawa to the north, and he had little regard for city warriors." }, { "from": "human", "value": "In Hanshiro he recognized an equal, something he hadn't found often in Edo." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hanshiro approached close enough to speak softly. He nodded toward the rooftops, where almost a hundred men were clearly outlined against the pale gray sky. They stood so that their mattocks and adzes and scythes were silhouetted, too. From side streets came the creak of gates closing.\n\nThe captain knew his men could be trapped here between the unbroken facade of the buildings, with no room to maneuver while they were attacked from above." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He realized his choices would be to engage in a brawl with commoners or retreat from them. He didn't relish either alternative.\n\n\"Your orders were to come to the aid of a certain lord,\" Hanshiro said. \"Surely your master didn't mean for you to sully your weapons with the likes of them.\"\n\n\"True.\" The captain had been instructed, in fact, not to cause a disturbance in the streets." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The ignorant rabble of Honjō are an impulsive and irrational lot. And they've taken an insolent interest in this case. If you continue, I fear they'll attack.\"\n\nHanshiro knew the captain wasn't afraid of a gang of commoners, and the captain knew Hanshiro knew it. They both also knew that the government forbade interference in private disputes. And then there was the edict about the chastisement of an enemy not being attended by riot. The machi yakko excelled at riot." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I...\" The captain stopped. He sighed. He bowed.\n\nCat and Hanshiro bowed lower to lend dignity to his retreat as he spun on his heel and strode off the way he had come. His men wheeled and followed him.\n\nCat turned and ran north, toward Kira's mansion." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She was only a block away when she heard the shrill call of a whistle, then another." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A shout went up. Oishi's men had found Lord Kira." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "user starts, u write ~4 sentences more. copy Lucia St. Clair's style" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When Cat arrived at the gate, a crowd of the neighboring lords' servants and retainers stood in front of it, craning to see inside. Oishi and his stool had disappeared. Cat set her naginata against the wall and walked without hesitation through the heavy wooden doors.\n\nHanshiro started to call her back, then thought better of it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A month ago Lady Asano had set out on her journey alone." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was only right that she finish it alone." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hanshiro tried neither to stop her nor follow her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Cat stopped just inside the gate and looked around. The courtyard was quiet. It was empty except for the bodies. The predawn light revealed the dead and wounded everywhere, but she was relieved to see that none wore the black-and-white coat of the Akō men." }, { "from": "human", "value": "On the other side of the yard the offices and front reception rooms of Kira's mansion lay open to view." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The inner wall panels all had been smashed or toppled, exposing room after room, receding into the night that lingered there.\n\nA warrior-priest lay sprawled in the shadow of the gate, his sword still clutched in his hand. He must have been one of the first to die. Perhaps he had been performing his morning devotions and so had been awake at the hour of the Tiger." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Cat had no time to ponder what his relationship to Kira might have been." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She stripped off her fireman's coat and put on the man's outer robe. She took the cloth off her shaved head, transforming herself into a young bonze. She pulled the rosary from under the dead priest's sash and draped it over her hands.\n\nFingering the beads and chanting sutras for the repose of the spirits of the dead, she walked slowly across the courtyard and up the steps." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She was concentrating so intently on the interior of the house and the enemies who might be lurking there that when she passed the slain warrior on the veranda she stepped into the pool of his blood." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her sandals left crimson tracks behind her on the tatami as she walked into the devastation.\n\nShe walked around the heaps of broken ceiling panels and painted screens and powdered plaster. She surveyed the scattered account books and abacuses and the upturned writing tables of the steward's office. She saw the scroll torn from the wall of the reception hall's tokonoma." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A lacquered altar cupboard had been toppled and the articles inside smashed underfoot." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As Cat walked through the ruin of Kira's mansion, it seemed like a lovely garden to her. A paradise of retribution. It soothed her angry spirit as water running over the rocks in her mother's garden once had.\n\nShe headed toward the sound of women sobbing." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They were in the family's private quarters, and that was where Kira most likely would be." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But the corridor leading to the inner rooms at the rear of the house was empty, and Cat wondered where her father's men had gone.\n\nAt the other end of the hallway the damage was even worse. Cat waded through torn robes and mattresses and gossamer drifts of silk floss wadding. She stepped over scattered porcelain and lacquerware, smoking utensils, lanterns, and works of art." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Storage chests big enough to hide a man had been smashed and the contents strewn about." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Bedding had been pulled from the cupboards and ripped open. Draped over a broken rack was a torn purple satin quilt with arrows bristling from it.\n\nIn the next room, long smears and splatters of fresh blood glistened on the wall like the calligraphy of a death poem in an alien language. Braziers had been knocked over, but Cat noticed that someone had doused the embers in them." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Wet charcoal and floods of ash-thick water had flowed out across the floors. Oishi's men had seen to it that fire didn't destroy Kira's house before they found him.\n\nThe outer wooden shutters had been knocked from their tracks along the corridor facing the garden. Cat could imagine the Akō men kicking them out at the top so that they lay in a row, in a long uneven slope from the raised floor of the corridor down to the ground." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As she followed the hallway to the back of the mansion, she began to hear men's voices." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When she reached the end of it she stood in the shadows and looked past the family shrine with its small torii gate.\n\nOishi and his men were gathered there around a small shed near the rear wall of the compound. The shed was the sort used to store charcoal. It stood near the kitchen in the midst of the gardeners' clutter—ladders and poles, dusty baskets, mats, and heaps of straw rope." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was a contemptible place for someone of Kira's position to hide." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Cat could feel her heart pounding as she tried to see what was happening there. The men all moved back when those inside the shed came out. Someone raised a spear, and everyone cheered. Stuck onto the willow-leaf-shaped blade was a bloody head." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Cat had no doubt it was Kira's." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The ferocity of her joy was so intense, her ears rang with it.\n\nShe drew back into the darkness of the house and retraced her route through the blood and the desolation. She had seen no one inside, but she still heard women wailing in a distant room.\n\nWhen she walked out through the front gate, Hanshiro was surprised to see his beloved, who had entered as a fireman, emerge as a priest." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Her face was impassive, but he recognized the look of triumph in her eyes." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She retrieved her naginata and stood quietly next to him in front of the crowd. Together they waited for the forty-seven rōnin of Akō to appear.\n\nWhen Oishi finally led his weary men through the gate, a murmur went up from the people outside. The warriors' clothes were torn and bloody." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Several of the wounded leaned on their comrades." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Some of the older men staggered from exhaustion." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Onodera Jūnai, a blood-soaked rag wrapped around his gray hair, stepped away from the others.\n\n\"Lord Kira Kozuke-no-suke Yoshinaka is dead,\" he announced. \"We have satisfied the restless spirit of our master, Asano Takumi-no-Kami. We mean no harm to anyone else.\"\n\nHe moved to join the others, who were forming a double column behind two spearmen and a man bearing a box on a pole." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Inside the box was Kira's head wrapped in a wide sleeve torn from a silk robe." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Several warriors moved in as a guard behind the box bearer. They were followed by Oishi walking alone, then Chikara, supporting his seventy-seven-year-old comrade. The rest of the forty-seven fell in line at the rear. A bell from the nearby temple began sounding the hour of the Hare." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Oishi stopped in front of Cat." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Hime.\" He smiled at her. \"Never have I seen you look so saintly.\"\n\nThe rosary rattled as Cat reached up to touch with the tips of her fingers the soft black fuzz that covered her head. \"Where will you go now, sensei?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"If no one stops us, we'll walk to Sengakuji, to Spring Hill Temple. We'll burn incense and leave this offering on our lord's grave. We'll tell him of our insignificant efforts to repay some small part of our debt to him.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Oishi reached into his jacket and drew out two folded pieces of paper. He hadn't expected to be able to give them to her in person. \"I regret most deeply that I cannot stop to see your mother.\" He held out the letters." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"One is for you. Will you please deliver the other to her?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Cat accepted them with both hands and bowed low over them. She was still bowing when Oishi took his place in the procession and the forty-seven men began walking through the snow toward the setting moon. When Cat looked up she watched their receding backs until they were out of sight.\n\nOnly when the last man turned a corner and the crunch of sandals and the rattle of weapons faded away did she look at the letters." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The sight of her mother's name on one of them created a longing so intense, her chest ached with it. She realized she was free to see her mother and her nurse.\n\nThe tiny house where they were living seemed as great as a mansion to her now. On the way there she would buy charcoal to fill the braziers and warm every corner of it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "And she would write Kasane a message and send it to Lord Hino's upper mansion." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She looked at the second letter." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was addressed to \"One who desires flowers.\" Cat had almost forgotten the nickname, taken from the opening line of an old poem. Oishi had called her that when she was a child and used to beg him every spring to take her to see the cherry blossoms at Mukojima on the banks of the Sumida.\n\nCat opened the letter with trembling fingers and held it so Hanshiro could read it, too." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The familiar calligraphy of Oishi's poem was like a dear friend she hadn't seen in a long time but whom she could now keep with her for as long as she lived." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Remember,\" he wrote, \"that spring dwells inside the struggling buds of snow-covered hills.\"\n\n\"My lady...\" The familiar voice sounded just behind her.\n\nCat turned to see Viper and Cold Rice standing next to their borrowed kago. They bowed low. \"We're at your service to carry you anywhere.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Where do you want to go?\" Hanshiro asked softly." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 1 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Home,\" Cat said." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "writers block help pls. ill send something, u do 8 sentences. going for Lucia St. Clair vibe" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "After spending the day at Sengakuji, then being questioned by a government inspector, Oishi, his son Chikira, and fourteen of his men were put in Lord Hosokawa's care. The rest of the Akō retainers were divided among three other lords while the government deliberated their fate. They were treated as honored guests while controversy raged through Edo. Because they had acted in the true spirit of the warrior's Way, petitions were raised asking the government to spare them. Finally, after six weeks, an envoy delivered the verdict.\n\nThe government's Great Council had been lenient. It had decided that the forty-seven loyal rōnin of Akō should be granted the deaths of samurai instead of criminals. Apparently they agreed with the powerful abbot of Ueno who pointed out that if the Akō rōnin lived, they might do something later that would sully the purity of their deed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The greatest lords in the country gathered in Lord Hosokawa's garden to see the sentence carried out.\n\nCat and Hanshiro came early, before the others arrived. A bamboo screen hid them, but they could watch the sad proceedings through the latticework woven into the screen. The cherry tree nearby was white with blossoms, but their fragrance was too faint to be detected over the metallic scent of blood pervading the garden.\n\nCat wore the unadorned kimono of mourning. Hanshiro was dressed in formal robes, hakama, and winged vest bearing the crest of Matsudaira Aki-no-Kami. Lord Asano's family had been a minor branch of Aki-no-Kami's clan, and at Oishi's request he had discreetly offered Cat and Hanshiro, and their loyal servants, Kasane and Shintaro, places in his Edo household. But when Cat and Hanshiro married, they held the ceremony at Lord Hosokawa's mansion so Oishi could be there." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Beyond the screen shielding Cat and Hanshiro was a corner of bare ground. It was bordered on two sides by the raised floor of the veranda of Hosokawa's mansion. Lining the veranda and seated in rows on tatami mats on the ground were the lords. In the center of the open space three mats had been turned upside down and laid side by side. A white cloth had been spread in the middle of them, but it didn't completely cover the smears of fresh blood.\n\nBehind the low dais, a curtain of white silk hung from ropes stretched between poles. The silk billowed gently in a light spring breeze. It hid the platform from the view of the fifteen men who had approached it, one by one, this morning." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The executions had been carried out according to rank, and only one man was left.\n\nCat had bid Oishi good-bye the night before, but she wished she could have told him today that his son had died well. She saw the man who would serve as second approach the dais. He drew his sword and took his stance behind the white cloth.\n\nHanshiro glanced over at Cat. \"Victor and vanquished,\" he murmured.\n\nCat finished the poem silently. Victor and vanquished are but drops of dew, bolts of lightning, illusion." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The silent men in the garden seemed to give a collective sigh as Oishi strode out from the door of the mansion." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 5 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He turned at the end of the curtain, stepped onto the dais, bowed, and knelt. As Cat watched him through her tears, his figure seemed to shimmer there.\n\nFare you well, sensei, she thought. And she knew the ancients were right. Her thoughts and her love would accompany him on his long journey." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Team writing exercise. I start, you do four sentences in Lucia St. Clair style." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "yo hit me with five sentences more. Lady Nijō vibes in Japan, nonfiction, memoirs, 1300s genre k?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The morning mists were still lingering when all of the ladies-in-waiting at the Tominokoji palace, in their bright glossy robes, were assembling for the New Year celebrations. Naturally I was there with them. I was wearing, I remember, a dark red set of under-robes with a light green robe over it and a scarlet mantle over that, the linings showing a colour scheme of purple under red. My robe with its pattern of plum-blossoms and vine-tendrils had embroidered on it a design of plum-trees against a fence of bamboo. My father, the Dainagon, when the ceremony outside was over, all the court-ladies and maids were also invited to the party, which as time passed became much less formal as everyone was getting more and more mellow." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The wine cups had already been exchanged nine times, three-times-three, between the Dainagon and the ex-Emperor, and my father had suggested another round of three-times-three, when His Majesty insisted that their next round should be one of nine-times-three." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was then that I noticed the ex-Emperor whispering to my father as he exchanged his last cup with him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Perhaps, now, I may be able to have that which I have set my heart on for so long,\" His Majesty said, and continued in such a low voice that I could hear no more of the conversation. I certainly did not realise how much this whispering concerned me.\n\nWhen I went to my room after the ceremony, I found there a letter. \"From now on I shall not hesitate to write to you,\" it said. With the letter had been sent a present, eight sheets of tissue paper, a purple unlined gown, a light green robe, a cloak, a skirt, double and treble padded silk gowns and other robes, all folded in a cloth wrapper." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The present was quite unexpected and I could think of no reason why this lord should have sent me one. Then as I was wrapping it up to send it back, I found a poem written on thin paper attached to one of the sleeves,\n\nMy hopes appear gone\n\nOf laying my sleeves on yours,\n\nBut with faint hope still" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I send to you these dresses" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "To wear on that occasion.\n\nA great deal of loving thought had obviously gone into the preparation of this beautiful present, and I was loth to have to return it. But I finally did so, enclosing a message that I was reluctant to promise to wear the dresses on the occasion on which the writer wished me to wear them until I was assured of the sincerity of his affection,\n\nIf I should wear these\n\nWithout being sure of your love," }, { "from": "human", "value": "The time might come when" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Tears would perhaps rot these sleeves;\n\nOf your love I must be sure.\n\n\"Still,\" I added, \"I would willingly wear them as you wish me to do, if your love for me remains constant.\n\nThat night, while I was on night duty, there was a knock on the door in the middle of the night. A maid who happened to be near opened the door and was handed the same parcel by a messenger who then hurried away." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The poem with it expressed the hope that I would accept the present," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "If as you promise\n\nYour love should remain steadfast,\n\nI would wish you wear,\n\nAs you lie alone at night,\n\nThese robes I now send to you." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I thought it rather presumptuous on my part to return the present to the sender once more and so I kept the dresses." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "On the third day of the month, on the occasion of the visit of the Retired Emperor\"No,\" I answered, in as casual a tone of voice as I could manage although my heart quivered uneasily. \"I received them from my great-aunt, the Empress Dowager of Tokiwai.\"\n\nOn the fifteenth of the month, towards evening, I received word to go at once to stay at my father's mansion at Kawasaki. It was most inconvenient having to go at such short notice and for a moment I wanted to refuse but finally thought better of it and went. At the mansion, looking round, I was surprised at the magnificence of the furnishings; the folding screens, the mattings on the floor, the curtains and the hangings, all gave the impression of being more splendid than those in ordinary use." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I concluded that the house had been specially furnished for the New Year." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "By then it was sunset.\n\nNext morning there was a great deal of excitement in the mansion. People were asking what meals were to be served, where the horses of the nobles were to be stabled, and where the princes' ox-carriages were to be put. My father's stepmother and other people were bustling about and consulting my father in whispers.\n\n\"What is this all about?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I asked my father." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He laughed. \"Well,\" he said, \"we have been informed suddenly that His Majesty is going on a state visit and wishes to stay here the night before. I thought you had better come here to wait on him.\"\n\n\"But why should he wish to do that?\" I said. \"Why should he have to change his direction today? It isn't the Spring Festival yet.\"\n\nMy answer was greeted with a laugh. \"Oh, isn't she just too innocent for words!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "they said. But in spite of all this I still had not the slightest idea of what it was all about." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Even my own room had been furnished with splendid screens and curtains." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I commented on this." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Is my room also being used for His Majesty's visit?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I asked. But all the reply I received from anyone was a laugh, and no one gave me any information at all.\n\nTowards evening I was dressed in triple, unlined white robes and a dark purple skirt. Incense from hidden censers filled the air with perfume, so much so that it seemed to me to be all rather too sumptuous. After the candles were lighted, my stepmother brought in a dazzlingly bright patterned gown for me to wear. A little later my father came in with robes on hangers for the ex-Emperor to wear." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Don't go to sleep before His Majesty arrives,\" he said to me. \"And remember, a court lady is always gentle and obedient.\"\n\nI was not at all pleased at being given instruction on my duties at such a time; it seemed quite out of place. With such thoughts going through my mind, I sat there leaning against the side of the charcoal brazier and at last fell asleep. What followed I naturally do not know exactly, but while I was asleep the ex-Emperor arrived." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "My father bustled about welcoming him and arranging things. Then, when the meal was ready to be served, it was seen that I was still fast asleep.\n\n\"Wake her up,\" my father cried loudly.\n\nThe ex-Emperor heard him. \"No, no, let her sleep on,\" he said, and no one woke me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I had been reclining against the brazier which was placed just inside the doorway of the room when I had felt sleepy. I had covered myself over and gone to sleep. Now something suddenly awakened me. I found that the lights had been dimmed and the curtains lowered. I was now lying well inside the room away from the doorway, and someone was lying close to me quite at his ease." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Wondering what was happening, I jumped to my feet to run away.\n\n\"Don't run away,\" he said to me, holding me down. \"I began to love you long ago when you were only a child. For fourteen years I have been waiting for this moment...\" So he went on talking to me, saying lots of things I cannot find the words to express and which I was really too upset at the time to listen to properly. I could only weep until his sleeves were drenched with wiping away my tears. He tried to comfort me, but this led only to his becoming distressed himself." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Still he continued to act tenderly and used no force against me. \"So,\" he went on, \"as the years passed and you showed no signs that you returned my love, I wanted to take this opportunity to tell you of my affection. Now that everyone will know of our meeting in this way, if you still continue to be so cold-hearted towards me, I do not know what I can do.\"\n\nCertainly everyone now knew what was afoot even though there had been no dreamlike love meeting. I realised what mental sufferings the morning after would bring to me. As I now recall the events of this night, I am surprised at the calm and collected manner in which I thought and acted at the time." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I wondered why he had not given me any inkling beforehand of what he intended to do." }, { "from": "human", "value": "If he had done so, I could have talked the matter over with my father." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I burst out weeping again." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I am not going to be able to face people after this,\" I thought to myself. At the same time I was well aware that he must be thinking that I was talking and acting in a very childish manner. I saw too that he was hesitating as to whether he should leave or stay. All this saddened me, and the night ended without my giving one word of reply to his pleas.\n\nSoon people began to stir." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"His Majesty is leaving this morning, isn't he?\" I heard people saying to one another.\n\n\"To everyone else this will have all the appearances of a happy morning return from a love meeting,\" he murmured to himself as he rose. \"Your quite unexpected coldness towards me,\" he went on, \"has shown me how useless our friendship ever since you were a little girl has proved to be. Please do not behave in any way that people will think strange; if you hide yourself away from everyone, they will wonder why.\" I realised that he was saying this not so much to reprove me as to comfort me in some measure." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But still I made no answer. \"How helpless I am to do more than I have done!\" he murmured to himself as he rose. He put on his robes and left the room. \"Bring round my carriage,\" he ordered." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Will Your Majesty take breakfast?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I heard my father say to him, and I wished with all my heart that things between us could be as they had been on the day before when I could be in his presence all the time with the old friendly relationship between us." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I heard the carriage leave but I continued to lie in bed with the clothes drawn up over me. Then I learnt to my surprise that a letter had arrived for me from him; naturally everyone took this to be his morning-after letter. My stepmother and my grandmother came in to me.\n\n\"Why haven't you got up yet?\" they asked me.\n\n\"I have felt very miserable since last night,\" I said sadly, knowing full well that they would attribute my low spirits to our parting after the first night together." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They were highly excited about the arrival of the ex-Emperor's letter, but I refused to look at it.\n\nMeanwhile to my further distress the messenger who had brought the letter was becoming impatient, demanding that something be done about the answer and pressing my father to see me about it.\n\nHe came in to see me. \"Are you feeling so unwell that you cannot answer the letter?\" he demanded. \"How can you be so indifferent about it when everyone else is so excited about it? Aren't you going to answer it?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I heard him unfold the letter." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He read it aloud. On a thin sheet of purple paper, the ex-Emperor had written a letter bewailing the fact that it was because of the long years of our intimacy and not through any recent closer contact between us that his sleeves were now scented with the perfume of mine,\n\nWe have known each other\n\nSo long a time that your sleeves\n\nLeave their scent on mine," }, { "from": "human", "value": "Even though tonight I may have" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Failed to lay my sleeves on yours.\n\nWhen the people of the house heard the poem, they commented to one another, \"She is so different from girls of the present day, isn't she?\" But still I continued to feel hurt and stayed in bed.\n\n\"Well, there's nothing else we can do,\" they decided. \"It would never do to get anyone else to write the letter for her.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "So they gave the messenger a tip and sent him away with the message, \"The lady is still lying down in bed and refuses to answer the letter no matter what we say to her. In fact, she has not even read the letter yet.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "About noon another letter arrived." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was from the one I was not really expecting to hear from." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He wrote that he would die broken-hearted if he found that I was turning away from him in another direction," }, { "from": "human", "value": "I should die of sorrow" }, { "from": "human", "value": "If now in that direction" }, { "from": "human", "value": "You should firmly turn" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Like the top of a pillar\n\nOf smoke, blown thus by the wind.\n\n\"Until now,\" the letter accompanying this poem read, \"I have tried to keep my miserable self alive buoyed up with the hope that one day my life might be bound up with yours. But on what can I now fix my hopes?\" The letter was written on a thin sheet of pale blue paper on which there was an illustration of the old poem,\n\nFly away from sight" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ye clouds which hide the summit" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Of Mount Shinobu;\n\nThe troubles which cloud my heart\n\nMay also disappear.\n\nI tore off that part of the paper with the words \"the summit of Mount Shinobu\" and on it wrote a poem in answer,\n\nYou know not the reason" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Which impelled me to refrain\n\nFrom that step you dread;\n\nIf you did, you would know\n\nYou were the main cause of it.\n\nI could not really tell why I wrote in such a way." }, { "from": "human", "value": "So the day passed and I did not even drink the infusion which was made for me." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The people of the house began to think that I was really ill after all." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Then towards evening I learnt that the ex-Emperor had arrived." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "While I was wondering what would happen next, I heard him push open the sliding door. He came in, looking quite unconcerned.\n\n\"They tell me you are feeling ill. What is the trouble?\" he said.\n\nI did not dare to answer him, but continued to lie there motionless. He lay down with me and talked to me at length to persuade me of the sincerity of his feelings for me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Realising that the inevitable would happen, I was ready to tell him that I was willing to do as he wished if I could be certain that I could trust myself to him, but remembering the \"pillar of smoke\" I felt reluctant to make such a definite turn in another direction. I therefore kept silence. This night his behaviour was really quite atrocious and soon my thin robe was ripped at the seams. He did just as he pleased with me. I wished in very truth that the morning moon would never rise so that I would not have to conceal my face from everyone when I met them next day." }, { "from": "human", "value": "My thoughts found expression for themselves in the poem," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Not by my own will\n\nWas my girdle then untied;\n\nThis I alone know;\n\nThose who do not know, I fear,\n\nWill be slow to believe this." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I feel it strange now that my mind should have been working on those lines at such a time.\n\n\"However much the world changes,\" he said to me, \"our intimacy will remain unbroken and our feelings for each other will remain unchanged, even if we cannot meet every night.\" He went on talking in this strain until the too-short night passed and the dawn bells rang out.\n\n\"If I stay till it is light, it will inconvenience people,\" he said as he rose. \"Even though you feel no 'pang of parting,' please come out to see me off,\" he begged me earnestly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I could not feel it in my heart to be so cruel as to refuse this and went out with him, first putting on a thin unlined robe over my gown, the sleeves of which were drenched with wiping away the tears of the night." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The moon, two days after the full, leaned to the west and a bank of clouds lay across the dawn in the eastern sky." }, { "from": "human", "value": "In his yellowish-green robe over red under-robes with a light purple cloak over it and his brocade trousers tied at the ankle, to my eyes he looked a very impressive figure as he stood there." }, { "from": "human", "value": "How different he now seemed to me, I thought, and marvelled at the way one learns these things without any instruction." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "My uncle, the Zenshoji Dainagon, Shijo no Takaaki, was there dressed in pale blue robes, having had the carriage drawn up to the entrance. Another lord, Nakamikado no Tamekata, was in attendance too with two or three guards. The birds were chirping merrily as if they knew what had happened. The bell of the Kannon temple rang out, each booming clang startling me so that my sleeves waved as I trembled. I could now understand the feelings of the lady in The Tale of Genji as she expressed them in her poem," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Now with floods of tears\n\nAre my sleeves quite drenched through,\n\nThe left with sad tears\n\nOf remorse, the right with tears\n\nOf a different emotion." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The ex-Emperor still continued to linger at the entrance." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Accompany me on my lonely drive,\" he said persuasively." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But I remained standing there, my mind in a whirl. Was I doing him an injustice in believing him quite insensitive to my feelings of distress? The bright, unclouded morning moon gradually paled.\n\nThen suddenly, before I had realised what he was doing, he had caught hold of me and pulled me into the carriage which started off at once. It was all just like an episode in an old romantic story to be thus carried off without an opportunity of saying farewell." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Wondering what fate had in store for me, I expressed my thoughts in a poem," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Awake the whole night,\n\nI had no need of dawn bells\n\nTo awaken me;\n\nThe morning light saddens me\n\nBringing dreamlike memories." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "On the way, just as if I were someone he was abducting from her home, he continued to reassure me again and again of his sincerity. I could not fail to appreciate the humour of the situation, even though as we drove on and on, it seemed to me that my only comfort was in tears.\n\nSo we arrived at last at the Tominokoji palace where we went in through the main gate to a pavilion in a corner of the grounds, where we descended.\n\n\"She is like a baby who will not listen to reason,\" the ex-Emperor then said to my uncle Takaaki, \"and so I have brought her here. I want to keep her presence here a secret from everyone for the time being.\" He then went away to his own apartments." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The palace did not seem to be the same friendly place I had known from childhood." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Now I felt very shy of meeting anyone; I felt that for the future I had to be cautious and wary lest my behaviour should bring shame on myself and my family. I wept as I thought of what might happen.\n\nJust then I heard my father's voice. This moved me as I knew how anxious he was about my happiness. I heard my uncle Takaaki tell him what the ex-Emperor had said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It is not fitting,\" I heard my father say in reply, \"that she should receive any different treatment now. She should take her turn of duty just as before. The more one tries to keep this sort of thing secret, the sooner everyone knows about it.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I thought that what my father had said was quite true and was overwhelmed again by sad forebodings. Just then, however, the ex-Emperor came in and once more consoled me with soothing words as to his continued love so that gradually I became easier in mind and finally, trusting in his promises, I resigned myself to my lot.\n\nTen days or so passed in this way. Every night without fail the ex-Emperor paid me a visit. But all the time my mind was troubled with jarring conjectures as to what was happening to the one who had feared that like a pillar of smoke in the wind I was turning away from him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "My father continued to protest that no good would come of my staying secretly in the palace in this way and so at last I was allowed to go home." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There I stayed indoors the whole of the time on the pretence of being ill; the true reason was that I still found it too painful to be seen by people.\n\nThen I received a letter from the ex-Emperor. \"I am now so accustomed to having you with me,\" he wrote, \"that I miss you very much. It seems such a long time since you went home. Come back as quickly as possible.\" With the letter was a poem,\n\nYou cannot love me" }, { "from": "human", "value": "And miss me as I do you;" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "How true my words are\n\nYou would learn if you saw me\n\nWeeping now in solitude.\n\nOnly a little time before, I had found it extremely distasteful to receive a letter from him, but now I could hardly wait to open this letter. It was with a happy heart that I wrote a poem in answer to it, a poem which was perhaps in the circumstances a little affected in manner," }, { "from": "human", "value": "Though it may not be" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Because of your love for me\n\nYou weep so sorely,\n\nWhen I hear of you weeping\n\nI weep too in sympathy.\n\nSome days later I returned to my duties at the palace, but nothing seemed to go right and the other court ladies were very spiteful." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The Dainagon has brought his precious Nijo back with as much ceremony as if she were an official Imperial consort entering the palace,\" they said." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 1 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Everyone was engaged in retelling these slanders, and it was soon clear that the ex-EmpressIn the belief, however, that the present would appear a happier time when in the future I looked back on it, I passed my days in resignation to my fate until autumn came." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "make story longer like Lady Nijō would" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The ex-Empress was expecting to have a child in the eighth month in the Corner Pavilion at the palace. As she was no longer young and as her previous accouchements had all been difficult, everyone was most anxious about the outcome.\n\nPrayers and incantations with all due rites and ceremonies were offered by Buddhist dignitaries before the images of those Buddhas and saints whose aid was considered to be most efficacious in such cases." }, { "from": "human", "value": "My father performed the usual rites to Gundari in Owari province for protection against all misfortune, and at the special wish of the ex-Emperor, he also on this occasion made intercession for protection in childbirth to Kongo Doji at the palace, assisted by the High Priest of the Joju-in temple." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "About the twentieth of the month, the ex-Empress's labour pains began and all soon worked themselves into a panic. Everyone was expecting things to happen any minute now, and when nothing happened for two or three days, everyone was nearly hysterical. Then the ex-Emperor, being informed that there was a change in her condition, went to her room." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She seemed very weak, and he called the High Priest to the room to offer prayers with only a screen between him and the ex-Empress.\n\nThe Erudite Priest, Ajari, Prince Shojo, who was the ex-Emperor's half-brother and chief priest of the Ninnaji temple, was there too.\n\n\"What is there that we can do?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "the ex-Emperor said to him as he invited him inside the screen." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It looks as though the Lady is beyond our aid.\"\n\n\"The promise of the Buddha is that it is possible for us to avert even our destiny by means of intercession. Do not be anxious, therefore,\" he answered.\n\nSo the prince continued to offer fervent prayers inside the screen, accompanied outside by the High Priest making intercession before a holy picture of Fudo, the god of fire, counting his beads and chanting from a sutra the promises that one who serves the god of fire will be venerated as a saint and that one who observes his statutes will come to eternal salvation." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"From my childhood,\" he prayed, \"I have spent my nights and my days in reciting sutras and in spiritual communion with Fudo and have lived a life of penance. Can the stored-up merits of such a life of self-abnegation be of no avail?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As the critical moment approached, he redoubled his efforts until a cloud of steam from perspiration enveloped him.\n\nAll the court ladies passed out unlined under-robes and silk gauze robes from below their screens. The lord on duty took them and handed them to another lord, who passed them to the upper guards, and these passed them to the lower guards, who handed them out as presents to the priests praying outside." }, { "from": "human", "value": "At the foot of the steps some courtiers were seated waiting for the birth to take place." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In the courtyard the soothsayers had set up a table with eight legs and were repeating a purification prayer a thousand times over paper cut-outs. Courtiers then took these cut-outs from them and the court ladies spread out their sleeves under their screens and received the cut-outs on them. Votive horses were led into the courtyard by guards for the ex-Emperor to accept them with a courteous bow, after which they were led away to be sent to the twenty-one national shrines." }, { "from": "human", "value": "How fortunate indeed is the lady who gives birth to her child surrounded by such loving solicitude!" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The chief priest of the temple of the Seven Incarnations of Yakushi, the Divine Physician, had been invited to the palace to recite the Sutra of the Divine Physician, assisted by several priests with deep and impressive voices. And now while they were chanting the passage, \"All those present rejoiced at the sight of the newborn Buddha,\" the child was born. All the people inside and outside the palace shouted for joy, offering their congratulations." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Team writing exercise. I start, you do one sentence in Lady Nijō style." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "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." }, { "from": "human", "value": "After 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." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I was told to go out to see what it was." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I did so, and this is what I saw." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "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." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I shrieked with fright and rushed back inside." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Why are you making such a din?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "the courtiers in the anteroom said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"They are just death-watch fires.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Other people reported seeing something like slimy seaweed scattered about under the great willow tree." }, { "from": "human", "value": "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." }, { "from": "human", "value": "About the ninth month, the Retired Emperor Go Saga was reported to be very ill. His legs and feet were swollen." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "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." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "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." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The ex-Emperor followed him in a carriage." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I was in the same carriage." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "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." }, { "from": "human", "value": "In 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." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "This had been poured into jars which were carried by the Gon Chunagon, Yoshida no Tsuneto, and a guard, Nobutomo." }, { "from": "human", "value": "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": "human", "value": "It was a mystery where the medicine had disappeared." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "This incident added to the patient's depression and possibly aggravated his illness." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The 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." }, { "from": "human", "value": "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." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "At the beginning of the second month we were just waiting for the last moments of the Retired Emperor." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "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." }, { "from": "human", "value": "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." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Everyone was very busy." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There was no sound of music in the palace." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The Emperor and his brother, the ex-Emperor, met and wept together, all the bystanders being moved to weep in sympathy." }, { "from": "human", "value": "About six o'clock on the evening of the fifteenth day, a great column of smoke was seen rising in the direction of the Capital." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "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." }, { "from": "human", "value": "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.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "So 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." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "So 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." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The whole sky was suddenly overcast, and the whole nation overwhelmed with grief." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Gay floral dresses were discarded, and black mourning robes were donned." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "On the eighteenth, the body was removed to the Yakuso-in temple in the palace." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Fujiwara no Sanefuyu, Director of the Imperial Archives, arrived, bearing messages of condolence from the Imperial Court." }, { "from": "human", "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." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The grief expressed at the ceremony that night was beyond the power of pen to describe." }, { "from": "human", "value": "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." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "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." }, { "from": "human", "value": "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." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "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." }, { "from": "human", "value": "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." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The ex-Emperor disagreed. \"She is still very young,\" he said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"She need not go into deep mourning. She can wear just the ordinary mourning.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "And I did as he wished." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "My 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." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His grief seemed deeper than other people's and he visited the grave every day." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He renewed his appeal through his cousin, the Gon Dainagon, Minamoto no Sadazane." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Since the age of nine,\" the memorial read, \"when the Retired Emperor first took notice of me and I became a page in his household, I have received nothing but marks of favour from him. After my father died and my stepmother disinherited me, I still continued to enjoy his favour. For this I was full of gratitude and devoted my whole life to his services. I received very rapid promotion both in office and in Court rank, always being well pleased on the morning of the publication of the list of honours. I have had no cause for complaint, either public or private, and have performed all my duties with the utmost zeal. I have for many years had the joy of attending all the greater festivals, all the banquets and all the performances of sacred dances at the Court and important shrines. I am used to wearing the ceremonial robes at these celebrations with, as the poet says, 'my image reflected in the waters of the river Mitarashi' at the Great Shrine of Kamo. I am now a Dainagon in the senior grade of second court rank, the highest rank that a Dainagon can attain, besides being at the same time officially recognised as the head of the Minamoto family. I was offered the post of Minister, but I declined it on the advice of my elder brother, Koga no Michitada, General of the Bodyguard of the Right, who was of the opinion that one should have seen service in the post of General of the Bodyguard before accepting promotion to the post of Minister. Now that the Retired Emperor has passed away, I have nothing to rely on, no tree in whose shade I can rest. No further rank or post is worth striving for. I am now fifty years of age and am perhaps not very long for this world. I cannot express my gratitude for all these favours received by me in a better way than by renouncing all these honours to enter the religious life to engage in prayer for the happiness of His Majesty's soul in the other world, provided I have your permission to do so.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The ex-Emperor, however, refused to give his consent and was kind enough to reason with my father to persuade him to give up his resolve." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "So the days passed one by one and it was as if the seed of forgetfulness had been planted in men's hearts." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Soon it was the forty-ninth day after the Retired Emperor's death." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "All the religious ceremonies of that day were duly performed and the people returned to the Capital." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "From this time the ex-Emperor was kept busy with government affairs such as arranging to send an envoy to the Military Government at Kamakura. So at last the fifth month came." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "I've got a bit of writer's block. I'm gonna send you something then keep it going 4 sentences at a time, also I'm going for a Lady Nijō sorta thing in the Japan, nonfiction, memoirs, 1300s genre." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In the fifth month when the rains come to drench one's sleeves, my father in his grief for the death of the Retired Emperor drenched his sleeves with tears even more than do the autumn rains. Formerly he had always been one who hated to sleep alone, but now he had ceased to be so inclined. Formerly he had enjoyed drinking parties, but now he had ceased to find any pleasure in them. He was becoming thinner, and people were ready to attribute this to his present life of abstinence." }, { "from": "human", "value": "On the night of the fifteenth of this month, returning from a special service at the temple at Otani cemetery, he was served with food in his carriage." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He complained that it all looked yellow to him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "People wondered what was wrong and the doctors diagnosed his complaint as yellow jaundice." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He was cauterised several times with moxa, but in spite of everything that was done he seemed to be growing worse instead of better." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I was very worried over his condition when, from the beginning of the sixth month, I began to be still more worried by suspicions about my own condition." }, { "from": "human", "value": "And I could not bring myself to tell him what I suspected to be the case when he was so ill." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I know that I shall never recover from this illness,\" my father said. \"My sole wish now is to be able to join the late Emperor as quickly as possible.\" He did not, however, make this hope the subject of any special intercessions. He stayed for some time at his father's house at the Rokkaku Kushige crossing where his stepmother was still living, and then on the evening of the fourteenth day of the seventh month moved to his own mansion at Kawasaki, leaving his younger children behind at the other house so that he might prepare himself peacefully for the end." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Considering myself grown up in comparison with the others, I alone of his children went with him to Kawasaki. Believing it was because of my grief at his illness that I was unwell and had no appetite for food, he at first tried to comfort me, but soon realised from the symptoms that I was pregnant. He then resolved to cling to life a little while longer until after the birth of my child. First, he had prayers solemnly offered for seven days at the Kompon Chudo chapel at the Enryakuji temple before the image of the god of Taisan in China." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Next he had seven series of sacred music and dances performed before the seven shrines at Hiye. He had the whole of the sutra of Wisdom recited in one day at the Hachiman shrine at Iwashimizu. Among other things he had a cairn of boulders erected on the dry bed of the river Kamo. All these things he had done, not that he might recover his own health and prolong his own life, but only that he might live to see that nothing untoward should happen to me." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It made me feel very guilty that I was responsible for his not being able to prepare himself for the end by severing himself from all earthly relationship." }, { "from": "human", "value": "On the twentieth of the seventh month, as my father's condition remained unchanged, I returned to my duties at the Tominokoji palace." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The ex-Emperor was especially kind to me when he learnt of my condition, though I wondered uneasily how long this warmth of feeling would last. Lady Mikushige's death in childbirth in the sixth month came as a warning to me; I was scared that I might go the same way. I feared too that my father would not recover from his illness. It was with such fears and forebodings overwhelming me that the seventh month drew to its close." }, { "from": "human", "value": "On the evening of the twenty-seventh there were fewer people than usual about when the ex-Emperor invited me to his apartments." }, { "from": "human", "value": "No one was there as we talked over old times." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"How cheerless it is when one considers the uncertainties of this fleeting world!\" he said. \"After all, it is to a better world that your father is going. But when he goes, you will have no one to lean on. Who else beside myself will show concern about you?\" So he spoke with tears in his eyes, and his sympathy deepened my sorrow the more.\n\nThe moon had not risen yet." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was dark inside the room with only one dimly-burning light as we talked in intimate confidence late into the night, when the silence was broken by the sound of someone approaching and calling for me.\n\n\"Who is it?\" I called out. It was a messenger from Kawasaki to say that my father's condition had worsened.\n\nI had no time to make any preparations, but went just as I was, afraid all the way that I should be too late and that I should find when I got there that my father was already dead." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As in a dream I hurried along as quickly as I could, but the road seemed endless." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I seemed to be pushing my way through the dense undergrowth of some wilderness in the wild eastern province. With what joy it was that at last I arrived to find my father still alive!\n\n\"Like a dew-drop still clinging to the leaf waiting for the wind to dislodge it, I am still hanging on to life,\" my father said, weeping helplessly. \"It grieves me to think that I must now go from this world, leaving you alone and in the delicate condition in which you are.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Just then when the midnight bell was tolling, we heard that the ex-Emperor's procession was approaching. That threw us all, and my father too, into something of a panic. As I could hear the sound of the carriage coming near, I hurried to the entrance, just as the ex-Emperor was alighting from his carriage, accompanied only by one lord and two guards, as this was intended to be a private visit. He stood there in the bright light of the waning moon just rising above the rim of the mountains." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He was dressed in a light-coloured robe with a pattern of simple, darkish-purple flowers. We felt honoured by his coming to visit us thus in informal attire, obviously hurriedly put on.\n\n\"I haven't the strength to put on my formal robes,\" my father sent word to the ex-Emperor, \"and so I regret that I cannot have a personal audience with Your Majesty. Nevertheless, I am grateful that you have deigned to make me this informal visit. It has indeed given me a last happy memory of this world.\" He had hardly sent this message, however, when the ex-Emperor pushed aside the screen and came in." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "My father tried in vain to sit up.\n\n\"Lie as you are,\" the ex-Emperor said, seating himself on a cushion. He began to weep, his sleeves not large enough to stem the flood of tears. \"Since my childhood,\" he went on, \"we have always been on familiar terms with each other, and it is with great grief that I have now learnt that the end is near. I felt I had to see you once again in this world.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Your Majesty's visiting me in this way gives me more pleasure than I deserve,\" my father said with a flood of tears. \"The one thing which worries me, however, is leaving my daughter with no one to care for her. She was left motherless when she was two years of age with me alone to look after her. And now I have to leave her in the delicate condition in which she is. I have no words with which to express my pity, my sorrow, my misery.\"\n\n\"My sleeve may not be large enough to dry her tears at your going,\" the ex-Emperor said, \"but I will do my best to comfort her. Do not allow this anxiety to hinder your passage along the path to Paradise.\" He continued to reassure my father for some time in this way, and saying finally, \"I will go and rest for a while,\" he got up and left the room." }, { "from": "human", "value": "By this time day had broken and so the ex-Emperor decided to start back at once to avoid notice." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "My father gave a lute and a sword as presents to the ex-Emperor as he was leaving; the lute had been bequeathed to him by his father, the Chief Minister, Koga no Michimitsu, while the sword was one presented to the Chief Minister by the Emperor Go Toba when he went into exile on the remote island of Oki. Attached to the string of the sword was a sheet of thin, pale blue paper with a poem in which my father expressed his belief that they would certainly meet again, for the ties of relationship between master and servant did not end with death.\n\nThough we must now part,\n\nWe shall surely meet again;" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The ties which bind us" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Are not ties which end at death,\n\nBut will bind us for ever.\n\n\"Seeing you has moved me deeply,\" the ex-Emperor said in reply to this poem. \"Do not worry about anything.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He sent my father a number of comforting messages and went back to the palace from where he sent my father a poem written in his own hand." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It looked forward to that bright dawn of the rule of Miroku Buddha when they would meet again. I am sad when I recall how moved my father was by the ex-Emperor's evident pleasure at receiving these presents of his.\n\nOn the second day of the eighth month, my uncle, the Zenshoji Dainagon, Shijo no Takaaki, brought my maternity girdle. This was rather earlier in the period than was customary." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"My instructions are,\" he said to me, \"to carry out the ceremony in a formal manner disregarding any considerations of its being a period of national mourning.\" So he came in procession wearing his formal robes and with all the appropriate outriders and guards. Obviously the ex-Emperor had arranged to have the ceremony carried out earlier than usual so that my father would be able to witness it. He was indeed highly delighted and ordered wine to be served to everyone." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was most touching to see what happiness had been given to him by this last episode of his life. He gave to my uncle Takaaki a highly treasured ox named Shiogama which he had acquired from the Ajari, Prince Shojo, the chief priest of the Ninnaji temple.\n\nMy father's condition seemed to make a slight improvement during the day, and I began to wonder whether it was possible that he might recover after all. When it became very late, I lay down beside his bed and before I knew I had fallen asleep." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I was startled out of my sleep by my father's voice." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"How sad!\" he said. \"Forgetting my own sorrow at the thought of setting off today or tomorrow on my journey to an unknown country, instead I find my mind full of anxiety about your future, especially as I looked at you lying there having fallen fast asleep in spite of yourself." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ever since you were left motherless when you were two years old, I have looked after you by myself. I seem to have been more concerned about you than I have been about any one of my children. I seem to have loved you with a greater love than I could ever have given to anyone else. When I saw you smile as a child, I thought you utterly charming." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When I saw you in tears, I wept with you. Fifteen springs and autumns have passed and now the time has come when we must part. Even though you enjoy the protection of the ex-Emperor and have no cause for complaint against anyone, you must be on your guard against duplicity, for this world is a world of intrigue. And if you find cause for resentment against the ex-Emperor and against people in general for their treatment of you and lose your position at the court, then you must renounce the world to enter the Way of Truth and pray for your own happiness in the next world and for your parents to be rewarded for their loving care of you so that we may all be reunited in paradise on the same lotus leaf." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "If the ex-Emperor were to discard you, if you were then to accept the protection of some other lord or were to go to live in someone else's house, even after my death I should regard you as an unfilial daughter. The relation between husband and wifeSo he spoke, elaborating on such questions in more detail than he had ever done before. The thought that this might be the last time I should listen to my father's admonitions saddened me still further. At last the bell tolled to announce the dawn, and one of my father's retainers, Nakamitsu, the son of my old nurse, brought in newly-boiled herbs to spread under my father's bed in place of the old." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It's no use changing them,\" my father said. \"I'm too exhausted. Instead, bring the girl some food.\" I could not have brought myself to eat anything at that time, but my father went on, \"Bring her some food so that I can watch her eating. Quickly now.\" He wished to see me eating as this was the last time he would be able to do so, I thought with sorrow." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Nakamitsu brought in some boiled vegetables on an earthenware dish. \"That's not the right kind of food for her to eat in her present condition,\" my father exclaimed, looking displeased. I too thought it was not very suitable and I got rid of it unobtrusively.\n\nWhen it was daylight, my father asked that the priest be summoned." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He had already in the seventh month sent for a senior priest from the Hokanji temple at Yasaka and had had his head shaved, had taken the vows to observe the five Buddhist commandments, and had taken the religious name of Rensho." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He regarded this priest as a man of the highest virtue, but now, I do not know why, his stepmother, the nun of Sanjo, insisted on sending for Shokobo, the chief priest of one of the temples at Kawara, but he did not arrive in time although he was told of my father's critical condition." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"My last moment has come. Lift me up,\" my father said soon afterwards to Nakamitsu who had been in my father's service from childhood. Nakamitsu now supported my father from behind. There was no one else there except a gentlewoman in front of the priest's arm chair.\n\n\"Hold my wrist,\" my father said to me as I stood near." }, { "from": "human", "value": "him. While I held his wrist, he told me to put on him over his robe the stole given to him by the priest." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He then began to repeat the invocation of the name of Amida Buddha, calling on Nakamitsu to recite it with him. This went on for about half an hour. Then, as the sun rose, he dozed off, still sitting up and leaning over a little to his left. Wishing to rouse him so that he could go on repeating \"Namu Amida Butsu,\" I shook him gently by the knee." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Startled, he woke up and opened his eyes.\n\n\"How will things go?\" he asked, looking me straight in the eyes, and had hardly spoken the words when he breathed his last. It was eight o'clock on the morning of the third day of the eighth month in the ninth year of the Bun-ei era (1272), in the fiftieth year of his age." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "If he had died invoking the sacred name of Amida, he would have died with the certainty of happiness in the next world. Instead he had wakened up startled just to make a completely meaningless remark before he expired. I felt that I had acted quite wrongly in rousing him. I did not know what to think." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It seemed as if for me the sun and the moon had fallen from the sky; everything had gone dark." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I fell to the floor weeping, my tears streaming forth as if to form a river. My mother having died when I was two years old, my memories of the grief I had felt at her death were faint. Fifteen years had passed since my father had taken me on his knee for the first time, forty-one days after my birth. During all this time, when I looked at my face in the mirror every morning, I was joyful to find some likeness there to his features." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Every night when I went to bed, I thought with gratitude of his loving care of me." }, { "from": "human", "value": "How grateful we must always be to our parents for high birth and physical health!" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "How could I ever repay my father for his tender care of me, higher than the highest mountain, deeper than the deepest sea, ever since my mother's death! I recalled to my mind what he had said on various occasions. These things I would never forget. I could not bear the thought of our being parted for ever." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Yet we had to part now. For though I could have wished that I could keep his remains always with me as they were, I had to send his body away on the night of the fourth to the crematory at Kaguraoka. I wished with all my heart that I could go up with the smoke of cremation to join him, but I returned home from there with my only memento of him my tear-drenched sleeves. As I looked round his empty room, I realised then with deep sorrow that it was only in a dream that I should ever see him again." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I recollected his deep affection in urging me at the last moment of his life to eat something to keep up my strength." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "To tell of his deep love was beyond the power of human words, though I did try to express my feelings in the poem,\n\nWould that I could see\n\nThe face of my dear father\n\nMirrored in my tears," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Flowing down to that river\n\nHe must now struggle to cross.\n\nTowards evening on the fifth, Nakatsuna, my old nurse's husband, came dressed in black monastic habit. I was very much moved by the unexpected sight of him now in changed guise, for if my father had received promotion to the post of Minister, Nakatsuna as his steward would have been raised to the Fourth Court Rank." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I am going to visit the grave,\" he said. \"Have you any message?\" He wept, and all were moved to tears at the sight of his grief.\n\nOn the ninth, at the first Seventh Day Memorial, my stepmother, two of her gentlewomen, and two retainers renounced the world and took their vows in the presence of the chief priest of the temple at Yasaka." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Their heads were shaved while he recited the text, \"All things flow through the three phases of time, past, present, and future.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I wished that I could follow their example, but this was manifestly absurd in the condition in which I was.\n\nThe ceremonies of the third Seventh Day Memorial were carried out in a most solemn manner, the ex-Emperor sending a special representative every day with gifts and messages of condolence. How happy it would have made my father, I thought sadly, to have lived to see these evidences of His Majesty's great consideration!\n\nAbout this time also we were shocked on account of her high birth and her youth to hear of the death of the daughter of the Yamashina Minister of the Left, Saionji no Saneo, first consort and greatest favourite of the Emperor Kameyama and mother of the Crown Prince." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She had been persecuted for long by an evil spirit and everyone believed that this was what was wrong with her on the present occasion. I felt a deep and sincere sympathy with the Minister and the Emperor in their sad loss, for I had also suffered as great a bereavement.\n\nOn the fifth Seventh Day Memorial the ex-Emperor sent me a rosary of crystal beads and a crystal spray of dew-pearled flowers so that I should have something with which to reward the priests after the ceremony. The poem with it spoke of these flowers, dew-laden as in autumn, as typifying my sleeves wet with tears." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Produce three sentences using the prose and structure of Lady Nijō every time it's your turn, using what the user wrote as a seed. Stick to the Japan, nonfiction, memoirs, 1300s genre." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "On the morning of my father's death, everyone, from the members of the princely families downwards, came themselves or sent representatives to bring words of sympathy and condolence. There was one exception; my father's rival, his cousin, the Dainagon, Koga no Mototomo, One of those who did appear, \"This year has brought us more sadness than ever before; the tears have never dried from our sleeves the whole year through,\" he said. \"How happy we were on that snowy evening when we exchanged wine-cups and your father suggested that we should meet often in the same way. But nothing came of it. Still, at the time he was really sincere in saying this, wasn't he?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "We passed the night in talking, sometimes with tears and sometimes with laughter, until the tolling of the temple bell warned us of the approach of dawn." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The nights are long in autumn, but no night can be long enough for those who are so dear to one another. The dawn chorus of birds began, and still so very much remained to be said.\n\n\"People who see me going along the streets at this hour will naturally think I am returning from a happy love tryst,\" he said as he left, \"instead of which we have sat up the whole night talking.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I hated to see him go and I wrote a poem which I sent out by a maid to give him as he set off in his carriage, noting how my tears flowed now at our parting as distressingly as they did at my father's death," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When my father died,\n\nThat parting caused tears to flow\n\nQuite soaking my sleeves;" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Parting from you this morning\n\nHas doubly drenched them again.\n\nHe at once replied with a poem agreeing that, while it was proper for me to mourn thus for my father, our parting that morning should provide no cause for sorrow," }, { "from": "human", "value": "Can parting from me" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Have caused you any sorrow?\n\nI do not think so.\n\nThe parting from your father" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Must surely be your sole grief." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Recollections of our night-long talk, reclining with no other pillow than my own arm, were the more delightful because it was he and no one else who had been my companion. Tenderly I recalled his looks as I lived over again the events of the night. I was still engaged in such reveries when I came across a retainer in dark red robes holding a letter case in his hand near the main door of the hall." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was his messenger bearing a letter from him, a long and affectionate letter." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The poem accompanying it spoke of the possibility that he might be taken to task for his restraint in not showing his love more unmistakably during the course of the night," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Unable to hide my love,\n\nIn secrecy I met you,\n\nMy arm my pillow," }, { "from": "human", "value": "Who is he that can blame me" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "That thus I caused you sorrow?\n\nPerhaps because I was at that time at a very susceptible age when trivial things seemed to have tremendous significance for me, I was much affected by his letter. I sent a long letter to him in reply telling him of this and that and enclosing a poem excusing my tears on the plea that it was natural in autumn for our sleeves to be wet with dew," }, { "from": "human", "value": "In Autumn we see" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The trees and plants dew-laden;\n\nCan anybody wonder then\n\nIf in that season of gloom" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "My sleeves are dew-moistened too?\n\nThe ceremonies of the Forty-ninth Day after my father's death were carried out, my half-brother, Koga no Masaaki, Major General of the Bodyguard of the Left, acting as chief mourner. The chief priest of the temple at Kawara, Shokobo, preached an old-fashioned, platitudinous sermon on the conjugal fidelity of mandarin ducks and those legendary one-winged birds which are able to fly only as a couple, male with female, together." }, { "from": "human", "value": "When the sermon was over, a requiem was celebrated with the eminent prelate Kenjichi officiating for the recital of the sutra of the Lotus Flower which my father had written out with his own hand as a religious exercise on the backs of old letters." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His cousins, the Sanjo-Bomon Dainagon, Minamoto no Michiyori; Minamoto no Morochika, the Madenokoji Dainagon; and the Zenshoji Dainagon, Shijo no Takaaki, attended the requiem and burnt incense before my father's tablet before returning. I was sad to see them go.\n\nAs this was the last day of the period of mourning for him and the day when all the family dispersed, I went to stay at the house of Nakatsuna, my old nurse's home, at the Shijo-Omiya crossroads." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I felt unutterably lonesome when the ceremonies were over and everyone left and I had said goodbye to all those who had come to share my grief." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Even during the period of mourning for my father, the ex-Emperor had come to meet me in great secrecy. \"Everyone is in mourning now,\" he had said, \"and so your being in deep mourning is justifiable. Come back to the palace as soon as the Forty-ninth Day Memorial is over.\"\n\nThe seventh Seventh Day Memorial fell on the twenty-third day of the ninth month." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The chirping of insects now grown feeble in autumn filled me with sadness." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The ex-Emperor wrote again. \"You stay too long with your family. How about coming back?\" he wrote. But I was too depressed to answer; I did not feel like returning to court." }, { "from": "human", "value": "So at last the tenth month came." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "About the tenth day of the tenth month, my lover's messenger brought me another letter. \"Every day I have been wanting to write to you,\" he wrote, \"but I was afraid my messenger might encounter His Majesty's messenger at your house, and then you would blame me for lack of discretion. That is why so many days have passed without my having written to you.\"\n\nThe house I was living in was at the corner of Shijo and Omiya streets." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Part of the roof of the plastered wall at the corner on Shijo street had crumbled and fallen." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Thorny smilax shrubs were growing over the large gap up to the height of the top of the wall. At the base there were just two thick stems. The messenger, seeing this, said, I was told, \"You've placed a guard on this spot, I suppose?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He was told that it had not been thought necessary to do so. He had then cut down the stems of the smilax with his sword, saying as he went away, \"That will make a nice shortcut for His Lordship.\" I wondered what was going to happen next, but I was far from suspecting what would be the consequences of his action." }, { "from": "human", "value": "That night, about half an hour after midnight, judging by the height of the moon, there was a furtive knock at the side door." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A little girl named Chujo heard it. \"Was that the cry of a water-rail I heard?\" she said. \"It was certainly a very strange sound.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I heard her open the door and then come running back at once." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"There's someone outside to see you just for a little while,\" she said to me in a loud voice, obviously alarmed. His visit was so unexpected that I could not say a word to her. While I was still speechless with surprise, he came in to my room, guided in the dark by the sound of the girl's voice." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He was wearing a robe with a raised maple-leaf pattern and a light purple and green skirt." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His style of dress showed that he had intended to avoid being recognised on the way.\n\n\"If you have any affection at all for me,\" I said to him firmly, determined to take no risk that night in my delicate condition, \"you will wait for another opportunity for us to meet.\"\n\n\"I know that I must be careful to be on my best behaviour tonight,\" he said in answer." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I just want to tell you quietly about how long I have loved you. I just want to stay the night with you without going any further than that. The Great God of Ise would allow that as being perfectly innocent.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He seemed so sincere in his protestations and my will to oppose him was so weak that I could not say \"No\" to him and allowed him into my bedroom. All through the night he continued to tell me of his love for me. His words would have reduced even a fierce Korean tiger to tears; I was not a stick or a stone to remain unmoved by his entreaties." }, { "from": "human", "value": "In addition, although I realised that it was not a matter of life or death for me, yet I could not help having the dreadful feeling that this unexpected sharing of pillows would somehow be revealed to the ex-Emperor in a dream." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was still dark when, disturbed by some early-waking birds, he got up and left. I lay down to try to go to sleep again, but it was not so much a sleep as a day-dreaming after a happy love-meeting. I lay in bed, missing his presence not a little when, still before daybreak, a letter arrived from him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The poem with it protested that on his way home tears had blinded his eyes,\n\nAll the long way back,\n\nAs I went home from your house," }, { "from": "human", "value": "Tears so blurred my eyes," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Impossible to see was\n\nThe wan morning moon setting.\n\n\"It seems to me now,\" the letter ran, \"that I shall never be able to live till evening, so much do I long to be with you and so violent has my love for you been during all these years. How agonising it is now for me to have to dissemble my love for fear of what the world will say!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In the poem which I sent in answer to this, I asked if on the way home he had not seen my face reflected in the morning light on his sleeves wet with tears,\n\nAll the long way home\n\nWere my features mirrored there" }, { "from": "human", "value": "On sleeves moist with tears?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "My sleeves reflected your face\n\nAs weeping I missed you.\n\nMy efforts to stave off his advances while I was in my present condition had then proved fruitless." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I could see that my lot was not going to be an easy one, and I had no one to whom I could turn for advice and sympathy." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I lay and wept and wept till it was noon. Then a letter arrived; it was from the ex-Emperor.\n\n\"What do you propose doing?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "it read. \"Don't you think you have stayed away too long? At the court I have at the moment no government business to attend to and too few people here to divert my mind in my leisure hours.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I was horrified when the other man arrived again that evening, very early, just after sunset. I was as dumbstruck as if this were his first visit.\n\nEver since Nakatsuna had entered religion he had been living at the Sembon temple and usually there were no men in the house." }, { "from": "human", "value": "This evening, however, he had come home." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I've come to stay with my family for the night,\" he had said. \"It's not often I can do so these days.\" All his children had gathered at the house and were making a great deal of noise." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Now although my old nurse, Nakatsuna's wife, had been reared at the palace of the Princess Senyomon, daughter of the Emperor Go Shirakawa, where her mother was in service, she was somewhat lacking in tact and discretion, rather reminding one of the stock character of the foster mother in an ancient story." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When she came along to tell me all this, I thought it better not to tell her that I had a visitor, and so I left him in the room in the dark with no light burning while I talked to her as I sat by the brazier at the open doors as if I were enjoying the moonlight.\n\n\"My husband suggests we should pass the long autumn night by playing marbles. Do come and join us,\" she said with an appealing look which distressed me greatly. She went on to give me the names of all the children and step-children who had come to visit them and to suggest what games we should play." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We can have wine too,\" she added as a further inducement.\n\nThis put me in a quandary. How was I to cover up the fact that I had a visitor?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I am not feeling well,\" I said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You will never do what I want you to do,\" she said. \"It's always been so with you.\" And with that she left, obviously offended." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "This old nurse of mine considered herself to be a shrewd woman of the world. She believed it was necessary to keep a close watch on a girl to ensure that she did not get into trouble. My rooms had been selected so that they could easily be observed from the garden and were so close to the rest of the house that the noise of their merrymaking in their own part of the house was most distracting." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It reminded me of the episode in The Tale of Genji when the hero on his visit to the Lady Yugao was so harassed by the thunder of a mill grinding away in the house next door." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "However, although it seemed as if unfortunately it was going to be very difficult for me to have that heart-to-heart talk with him that I wished until the household had gone to sleep, I went back to bed with him. Then there was a knock on the main door of the house. Who was this, I wondered." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was one of the sons of the house, Nakayori, who was in service at the Imperial Court." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I was delayed by the preparations for the Emperor's dinner,\" I heard him tell the family." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"By the way, there's a wicker-work carriage standing on the Omiya corner, a nobleman's by the pattern of large, eight-petalled lotus flowers on the roof. When I went up to it, I found it full of retainers lying asleep, with the oxen tethered to the wheel. I wonder where the owner has gone.\" It was a great shock to me to hear this.\n\n\"Go and see whose it is,\" I heard the mother say." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Then I heard the father's voice." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What is the use of going to see?\" he said. \"If it's someone else's affair, you will do no good. And if it is someone who has come on a secret visit to the Lady because he knows she is here on home leave from duty at the palace, he will be waiting at the gap in the wall where there is no guard until everyone in the house is fast asleep. It's no use worrying yourself by trying to protect a girl from harm, whether she's high born or low, right from the time when she's a babe in arms.\"\n\n\"Isn't it provoking!\" the mother said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I wonder who it is. If it were the ex-Emperor, he would have no need to come in such secrecy.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hearing this as I lay in bed with him made me more embarrassed than ever." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"She should be careful though,\" she went on. \"She'll make herself a laughing stock if she gets involved with someone of low rank, maybe someone only of Sixth Court Rank.\" That made me feel humiliated." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Then the talk became more general with one of the sons joining in, but the loud conversation still continued to disturb me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Preparations for a drinking party seemed to be under way and the suggestion was made that I should be invited to join them. Someone came to do so, but the maid told them that I was not feeling well. Then someone else came and knocked loudly on the screen." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was my old nurse who had come again." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "My heart fluttered wildly; I was as disturbed as if it had been some stranger who had come to visit me.\n\n\"Are you feeling any better now?\" she said, continuing to beat on the bed-screen." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Look! See what I've got here.\"\n\n\"I am feeling very poorly,\" I said, for I could not remain silent any longer.\n\n\"Look! It's something white and nice you like very much. You are always asking for it when we haven't got it. And whenever we've got it, then you don't want it. As usual, you're being contrary. Well, if you don't want it, it's all right with me,\" she said as she went off grumbling." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Usually I should have been ready with some witty remark, but now I could not say a word in answer to her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I just wanted to die on the spot.\n\n\"What is it you like that's white?\" he asked jokingly, to change the subject." }, { "from": "human", "value": "If I had been a woman of refined taste, I might have answered that I liked hoar-frost or snow or hail. I felt, however, that he would think that I was being affected if I answered in this way, and so I made an honest confession. \"Strange as it may seem,\" I said, \"I like white wine\"How fortunate it is that I came tonight!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "he said with a smile." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"When you come to stay with me, I will scour the whole of China to find the rarest white wine to please you.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I shall never forget that sweet smile of his. I thought that I had never had or ever could have such a happy moment as that, coming though it did in the middle of a most embarrassing situation. I had now spent several nights with him and his love for me had penetrated deep into my heart so that I now felt less and less inclined to return to the ex-Emperor's palace." }, { "from": "human", "value": "About the twentieth day of the tenth month I heard that my mother's mother, Gon Dainagon, was seriously ill. She had been living for several years at the Ayato shrine near the Zenrinji temple at Higashiyama." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I did not anticipate that she would pass away soon, and I was much distressed a few days later to learn of her death." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was the more sorrowful to hear this just then, for her death severed the last link with my parents, even though this had withered and become weakened with the years. I expressed my grief at these two tragedies which I had suffered so close together as being like the dew of autumn and the storms of winter doubly drenching my sleeves,\n\nThe sleet of winter" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Has followed the dews of autumn" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "With its gloom and tears;\n\nThus two seasons of mourning\n\nBring bitter tears to my eyes." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I had had no communication with the ex-Emperor for some time and was beginning to fear that in some way he had got to hear of my unfaithfulness, when I received a letter from him enquiring after my health as he had not seen me for such a long time." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He was expecting to have me back at the palace by the end of the year. His letter was even more affectionate in tone than usual.\n\n\"My old grandmother died the day before yesterday,\" I wrote in reply." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I should like to delay my return until the period of mourning is over.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I enclosed a poem voicing my grief at this new bereavement,\n\nBitter tears I shed\n\nIn the season of autumn" }, { "from": "human", "value": "On my father's death," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Upon me comes new sadness\n\nNow with this new bereavement.\n\nThe ex-Emperor replied at once with a poem expressing his sympathy; he had not heard of the death of my grandmother," }, { "from": "human", "value": "I had not been told" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Of this latest bereavement" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "You have just suffered;\n\nIn deep sympathy with you\n\nI shed bitter tears with you." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "At the beginning of the eleventh month, I returned to the palace. I had a feeling that there had been many changes there, yet everything reminded me of my dead father. The ex-Empress Higashi Nijo did not seem as friendly to me as she had formerly been." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Everything at the palace oppressed me with a feeling of gloom." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And I felt embarrassed because I seemed to be carrying myself so ungracefully.\n\n\"You two must act as her guardians,\" the ex-Emperor said to my grandfather, the Minister of War, Shijo no Takachika, and my uncle, the Zenshoji Dainagon, his son, Takaaki, \"and look after her as assiduously as her father did. See that she has cloth presented to the court supplied to her for her robes.\"\n\nI felt the utmost gratitude to him for his thoughtful care of me." }, { "from": "human", "value": "All my hopes were now centred on a quick recovery from the strains of childbirth and settling down to a quiet, uneventful life so that I might offer my prayers for the happiness in the next world of my father and mother and for my own speedy delivery from the Six Worlds of Illusion I had to pass through." }, { "from": "human", "value": "At the end of the month I went on leave from my duties at the palace." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Shingambo, Abbess of the Shokutei-in nunnery attached to the Shingon temple of Daigoji at Fushimi, was a relative of mine, and I now went into retreat there to hear her give a course of religious instruction. In the sunken hearth in the hall a pile of brushwood was burning, the rising smoke making the place look less gloomy. Outside in the garden the water-pipes were frozen." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Preparations for celebrating the New Year were going forward but in a much more casual manner than elsewhere." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Then on the twentieth day, the ex-Emperor paid me a visit just as the moon was rising, coming in great secrecy in a wicker-work carriage with only my uncle Takaaki accompanying him, sitting in the rear seat.\n\n\"I am staying at the Fushimi palace,\" he said to me, \"and it suddenly struck me that it would be a good idea to pay you a visit.\" I wondered how he had learnt that I was there." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He was in no hurry to leave; he talked affectionately to me the whole night and went away when the bell rang out at dawn." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The waning moon was in the western sky, and the ridge of mountains in the east was covered with a bank of clouds. Snow flakes were falling like white petals on the partly thawed snow. The ex-Emperor's uncrested dark robes and trousers of the same dark hue with my own sombre dress made a sad picture of mourning, public and private." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As he left, the nuns were on their way to morning prayers, their stoles flung carelessly, just as a formality, over their shabby robes." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I looked at them with something of envy. They had not heard of the ex-Emperor's visit and, unconscious of his presence so close to them, were greeting each other by their names in religion as they met one another. \"Hurry, sister. I have already said my devotions.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Then at the sight of lower retainers in their dark clothes pulling the carriage round to the entrance, they gathered what was happening and shyly evaded the stares of the men.\n\n\"I'll come again,\" the ex-Emperor said to me as he went away, leaving me a fragrant memory on my tear-drenched sleeves on which his perfume still lingered where his sleeves had lain. I felt as if I were in a happy dream as I listened to the hymn of praise for Buddha's mercy which ended the devotions," }, { "from": "human", "value": "Even the mightiest of kings must take" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The path all mortals must tread.\n\nIt was all most impressive and I was sad that the service had to come to an end.\n\nBefore day had fully broken, a letter arrived from the ex-Emperor." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I have never before experienced so deep an emotion as I did this morning when parting from you under the wan morning moon,\" he wrote." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I answered with a poem,\n\nSee how I weep now\n\nTears of gratitude to you" }, { "from": "human", "value": "For your love for me," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "With tears at having to part\n\nBeneath this wan morning moon.\n\nAbout three days before the end of the year, I was feeling even more depressed than usual as I sat that evening with Shingambo." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I wonder when we shall have such a quiet, peaceful time together again,\" she mused." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "To help me pass the time more cheerfully, she had called together to her room some of the older nuns, and we sat around talking of old times. It was just like the setting of an ancient story. Outside, the water flowing from the pipe into the trough in the garden was frozen." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The blows of a woodman's axe could be heard from the opposite hill." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Inside the room candles shone here and there. The first of the evening devotions had been said at eight o'clock, and we were thinking of making an early night of it when a furtive knock came at the door.\n\n\"That's strange! Who can be visiting us at this time?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "we said. It was he." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"This is most embarrassing,\" I said to him brusquely through the door. \"Any behaviour here that is at all immodest will shock people's eyes and ears. My purpose in coming into retreat here will be frustrated if I do not keep myself pure and do not behave as a true disciple of Buddha should. It is different when the ex-Emperor comes here to visit me; we cannot do anything about that. But if you come to visit me like this in shameless intimacy, all my pious resolutions will be brought to naught. Please go away.\"\n\n\"But this is more than one can bear,\" he said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"At least allow me to shelter here until it stops snowing.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was in fact snowing heavily and a gale was blowing. It was really a blizzard.\n\nThe nuns assembled in Shingambo's room must have been able to hear us wrangling in this way." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"But this is too cruel, really too heartless,\" they said to me." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Whoever your visitor is, he must have some good reason for coming to see you, and in the bitter cold of this mountain storm too.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "With that they opened the door to him and built up a blazing fire on the hearth. And he came in, complaining bitterly of the cold.\n\nThe snow continued to fall all night as if to justify his plea for shelter and not only covered the hills all round but drifted even up to the eaves of the house." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The terrifying noise of the storm raging outside kept us huddled together in bed even after daybreak." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I hated to see the way he made himself at home, but there was nothing I could do about it.\n\nWhen it was broad daylight, he had two retainers bring in things they had prepared as presents. Up to that moment I had been rather afraid that the situation might well become very awkward and embarrassing, but when the presents were distributed among the nuns, the abbess was delighted." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We shall be able to stand the cold winds of winter more comfortably now,\" she said.\n\nI felt that his presenting the nuns with stoles and habits was truly an act of charity which would work for his happiness in the next world as being a genuine offering to Buddha. But this did not prevent my having doubts in my heart about the attitude of the nuns when I saw their evident joy at receiving his presents." }, { "from": "human", "value": "What wonderful miracles wealth works!" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Although they should have welcomed the visit of the ex-Emperor to their house as second only to the visit of a saint from Paradise, they had seen his carriage off with barely polite respect. Now instead of condemning the visit of this other as outrageous, sacrilegious, and utterly unpardonable, they were thrilled to receive his presents.\n\nI myself received from him a New Year's set of robes of a sober pale blue with a set of three white wadded-silk gowns." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Then, although I still felt considerable concern at the thought that the news of all this might become public knowledge, we spent the whole day drinking together." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The next morning he left; he thought he really ought not to stay any longer. \"Please come and see me off,\" he said. I got up and went with him to the entrance." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The snow on the hill-tops was dazzlingly white in the bright sun. It was a striking sight to see him going through the snow attended by two or three retainers in white. I yearned for him the more as I watched him go, but at the same time I realised that my inconstancy was not a very admirable trait of character." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 4 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "On New Year's Eve my old nurse sent for me. \"It is not proper for you to stay in the mountains while you are in your present condition,\" she said. She urged me so strongly that I agreed to return.\n\nSo the old year came to a close." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "lets do a Japan, nonfiction, memoirs, 1300s thing. u write four sentences bits like Lady Nijō would" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "New Year's Day came, but there were no ceremonies at the court on the first and third days as it was a period of national mourning. It had been a sorrowful year for me with my father's death continually in my mind. I usually went early on New Year's Day to worship at the family shrine, the Hachiman shrine at Iwashimizu, but this year my condition prevented me from going inside the precincts, and I had to worship from outside the gates. I will not speak further here of the subject of my prayers at the shrine at this time nor of the dream I had about my father, but will write fully about them later." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Towards evening on the tenth day of the second month my labour pains began. The ex-Emperor's time was fully occupied by political problems, and I was lonely and miserable. Everything seemed to go wrong.\n\nMy uncle Takaaki busied himself with all the arrangements." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The ex-Emperor sent to Omuro to his step-brother, Prince Shojo, who was now high priest of the Shingon temple of Ninnaji, to have incantations performed there for a safe delivery, and to the chief priest of the Bishamon temple to have other incantations performed there too." }, { "from": "human", "value": "My own family asked for petitions to be made to Kannon, the goddess of mercy, by Shingen, the high priest of the Tendai school." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "My uncle, the high priest Docho of the Ishiyama temple, had just then come back to the Capital from the mountains of Omine where he had been living an ascetic life. \"I am still mindful of your father's request to me to look after you,\" he said and offered up prayers for me.\n\nAbout midnight on that day, the pains became unbearable. Some commotion in the house was now caused by the arrival of my aunt, Lady Kyogoku, with messages from the ex-Emperor." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "My grandfather, the Minister of War, also arrived. Weeping at the thought, I wished that my father could have lived long enough to be there too. Leaning on the shoulder of a maid, I dozed off and dreamed that my father was standing there, looking just as he did when he was alive, with a worried expression on his face. He seemed to be about to go round behind me when the announcement was made that a prince was born." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I was overjoyed that things had gone so easily. But I was conscious as always of the fear of the consequences of the fault I had committed just as strongly as if I had only at that moment committed the fault.\n\nMy uncle Takaaki managed to obtain, though unofficially, a Sword of Protection for the young prince and made all the other arrangements such as giving the priests their presents. He did everything just as my father would have done at his Kawasaki home if he had lived, things like giving presents of clothes to the wet-nurses and arranging for the Twanging of the Bowstring ceremony to ward off evil spirits." }, { "from": "human", "value": "... So this whole year seemed to have passed in vain dreams, bright dreams, unhappy dreams, and dreams that had left scars; there had been a time when I had had to show myself off to crowds of visitors." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 1 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It certainly seemed as if the gods' mercy had not been enough to make up for the shame I had had to hear this year." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "writing buddy needed! gimme five sentences more in Lady Nijō's voice. stick to Japan, nonfiction, memoirs, 1300s pls" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "During the twelfth month the ex-Emperor was fully occupied with the usual religious ceremonies of that season and had little leisure time. I myself was thinking of spending the year-end in pious devotions, but my lover, taking advantage of the fact that the twelfth month was not a time for visits and social gatherings, came to spend the whole night with me, and it was almost broad daylight when we were awakened by a widowed crow's foolish croaking for her mate. It would have looked too absurd, he thought, to try to steal away unobserved at that time of day, and so to my alarm he decided to stay with me for the whole of the day.\n\nIn the course of the day a letter arrived from the ex-Emperor couched in even more affectionate terms than usual and accompanied by a poem,\n\nA dream came to me" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In the darkness of the night;\n\nIn the dream I saw\n\nSomeone to me quite unknown\n\nLying, his sleeves spread on yours.\n\n\"I wonder whether the dream has any foundation of truth,\" he added." }, { "from": "human", "value": "This made me feel very miserable indeed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I wondered exactly what it was that he had seen in his dream. I felt that I should have to make some reference to his dream in my reply and reassure him, and so my answering poem read,\n\nIn my bed at night\n\nDo I lie in solitude,\n\nNo companion" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But the moon which alone spreads\n\nIts bright beams over my sleeves.\n\nEven as I recollect it now, this evasion of the truth appears to me wholly inexcusable.\n\nSeeing us sitting there together all the day at our ease, the people of the house, especially the women, must have realised what our relationship was. In view of this, it seemed ridiculous for me to say anything to them about my visitor and so I remained silent, choked with uneasiness." }, { "from": "human", "value": "That night I had a strange dream." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In my dream he presented me with a hair-oil vessel, offering it to me on a fan with gold-lacquer ribs and a pattern of pine trees. I accepted it from him and concealed it in the bosom of my robes. And just then I was awakened by the bells tolling for dawn. Strange as this dream was, it was even more marvellous to learn from the one by my side that he too had dreamt a similar dream.\n\nThe New Year came." }, { "from": "human", "value": "In his Rokujo palace the ex-Emperor had twelve calligraphers engaged in making copies of the Lotus Flower sutra." }, { "from": "human", "value": "This he was doing, providing all expenses from his own private sources, as a religious exercise with the object of helping to find a solution to the problem which had arisen during the last year with regard to the Imperial succession." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He had begun the copying with his own hand on New Year's Day with blood taken from his own thumb, and from then till the seventeenth day of the second month, the third anniversary of the death of the Emperor Go Saga, he devoted himself to this work, observing it as a period of strict abstinence.\n\nTowards the end of the second month, I began to suspect that I was again in a delicate condition. I lost my appetite and for a while thought that I had just got a cold, but gradually I realised that the cause of it all was what had happened on the night on which I had dreamt of being given the silver vessel. How was I going to hide the fact that I was pregnant? What suffering my grave sin was likely to bring on me!" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The misery I felt was quite insupportable, and there was no one to whom I could go for help. As owing to the national mourning I was often back home, he often came to visit me and even before I told him of my condition, he said, \"That is what is the matter with you.\" After this he was even kinder and more affectionate than ever and came to see me more often.\n\n\"How are we going to prevent the ex-Emperor getting to know about this?\" he said. We had no idea how we could do this; we offered up fervent prayers continually, but we could blame no one but ourselves for our plight." }, { "from": "human", "value": "At the end of the second month, I returned to my duties at the palace, and in the fifth month I hinted to the ex-Emperor that I was four months pregnant." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Actually, of course, it was six months, and I was very worried about how I was going to fill this gap." }, { "from": "human", "value": "On the seventh day of the sixth month, I returned home." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "My lover had sent word to me pressing me to do this as soon as possible. I wondered why he was so urgent about this, but understood the reason when he presented me with a maternity belt he had had prepared.\n\n\"I had thought of having the ceremony performed at the regular time, in the fourth month,\" he said, \"but I postponed it till now in case people became suspicious. Hearing that His Majesty proposed to present you with a maternity belt on the twelfth, I decided that now was the proper time for me to present it.\" His love for me was so obviously sincere, but I still remained miserable at heart, wondering what fate had in store for me.\n\nFor three days, I kept myself secluded indoors, having him staying with me in secret." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "On the tenth day of the month I was to have gone back to the palace, but on that day I felt too ill to do so. On the evening of the twelfth my uncle Takaaki brought the maternity belt from the ex-Emperor just as he had done on the last occasion. It moved me to tears as it reminded me vividly of that time and of my father's wonder and delight when the ex-Emperor had visited him at his house.\n\nI was still puzzling over how I was going to account for the discrepancy of at least one month in my time, but still not to the extent of considering whether to drown myself. Instead I was content to let matters drift even though the problem continued to exercise my mind until the ninth month." }, { "from": "human", "value": "By this time I was beginning to get rather worried and on the second day of the month I went home on some pretext or other." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "That night he came to visit me.\n\n\"Have you got any suggestion?\" I asked him when we began to discuss the matter.\n\n\"Tell everyone that you are seriously ill,\" he said, \"and that the soothsayers have declared that it is an infectious disease.\"\n\nI did as he suggested and stayed in bed all day, allowing no one but members of the household to come near me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I told the two maids in my service to inform everyone that I was refusing to drink even plain warm water. I felt very lonely now that I had no one to cheer me up. I sent a message to the ex-Emperor asking him not to send anyone to enquire as the disease was infectious, and so it was only at long intervals that he wrote to me. All the time I was worried about what I should do if my secret was revealed. But one day after another passed, and for the present everyone seemed quite satisfied that I was really ill." }, { "from": "human", "value": "My uncle Takaaki, however, often came to see me." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Are you sure you will be all right if you let things go on like this?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "he asked. \"What do the physicians advise?\"\n\n\"The physicians have told me that the disease is infectious,\" I said. \"I am doing as they suggest and am not seeing anyone.\"\n\nSo I excused myself from seeing anyone, even my uncle. And when he seemed too anxious about me to remain outside the screens, I had the room darkened and hid myself under the bedclothes and would not say a word to him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He went away quite convinced that I was really ill, but it made me very miserable to see him go away and leave me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As I had no other visitor who was so near to me as my uncle, my beloved was now able to stay with me, lying beside me in bed. He had announced that he was going into retreat at the Kasuga shrine. He had sent someone else there in his place and had told his household not to accept any letters addressed to him. We were certainly in a difficult spot!\n\nSo the days passed and on the twentieth at dawn, I began to feel the pains." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The people of the house could not be told the true facts of the case; only the one or two maids who were in the secret bustled about making preparations." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "What a scandal I should leave behind me if I died in childbirth, I thought as I watched them doing me all kinds of services.\n\nNight fell without anything happening, but about the time when the candles were lit, the time seemed to be getting near. On this occasion there would be no twanging of the bowstrings to ward off the evil spirits. I lay beneath the bedclothes, feeling very miserable as the late-night bell tolled. Then as the pains grew worse, I sat up." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I understand that a woman has to be held from the back in someone's arms,\" he said to me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Perhaps that is what needs to be done now. How do I have to hold you?\" With that he embraced me in the proper way. I held on to his sleeves and the baby was born safely.\n\n\"Bring the Lady some thin rice-gruel. Quickly now!\" he shouted happily. The maids were touched that he should know exactly what to do to help at such a time." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The candles were lighted and I looked at the baby." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Its eyes were opened wide and its baby hair was thick and black. A glance at its eyes drew him to it with a father's love, but he took up a white robe lying near at hand, wrapped the child in it and, taking the dagger from his sword lying beside the pillow, cut the navel string. Then, holding it gently in his arms, he hurried out of the room without saying a word, and I saw it no more. Watching him do this, how I wished I had asked him to let me have just one more look at the child. But what would have been the good of that?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I did not say a word but continued to weep bitterly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "When he came back, seeing how bitterly I was weeping, he tried to comfort me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Everything is all right,\" he said. \"It's all for the best. In the course of time, if you remain alive, you'll see each other again.\"\n\nThe image of my baby's face as I saw her on that occasion would never pass from my mind. For I had seen that it was a girl. I did not know where they had taken her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I knew that it was no use my saying that I wanted to bring her up myself." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I knew that this was impossible." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "All I could do was to stifle my sobs with my sleeves so that the people in the other part of the house could not hear.\n\nWhen day broke, I wrote to the ex-Emperor. \"This morning at dawn,\" the letter read, \"I was very ill and had a miscarriage. The child was far enough developed to tell it was a girl.\"\n\nHe replied at once. \"The doctors say that a high temperature may induce a miscarriage,\" his letter read." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Take good care of yourself.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "With the letter he sent medicines and other presents. This made me the more ashamed of my conduct.\n\nSeveral days passed and no complications developed. The one who had been staying with me returned to his own home. I began to worry about having to return to my duties at the palace a hundred days after the birth." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But meanwhile I had a more pressing problem." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I remained secluded in my home, and every night without fail my lover came to spend the night with me. And he and I were both confronted by the constant fear of what would happen to us if people got to know of our relationship." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Expand the story by adding two sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The little prince to whom I had given VIII birth the year before had been brought up by my uncle Takaaki. About this time I learnt that the child was ill." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I felt certain that this had come as a punishment for the sin I had committed, and I feared that it would end tragically. Then on the eighth day of the tenth month I heard that he had died; he had passed away as the dew or as the rain-drops of an autumnal shower." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "My grief was more than I could bear, though I had been ready for the worst. It seemed to me that I was singled out to suffer the pangs of parting from loved ones, the loss of my mother in my infancy and of my father in the prime of my youth, culminating in the two more recent bereavements which had caused me such grief because those snatched out of my hands were much younger than I." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Besides these, there were the worries and anxieties arising from my relations with my lover. When I came back to bed after seeing him off in the mornings, I shed tears of longing for him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "While I was waiting for him to arrive in the evenings, I sobbed in tune with the tolling of the late-night bell. When he came to visit me, at every moment I was consumed with fears about what people would say if we were found out." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "On the other hand, when I was away from court, I longed for the ex-Emperor's presence. But when I was with him, I complained that his love was growing cold and I reproached him for spending the nights with others he loved more than me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "We all suffer from distracting thoughts; in one day, we are told by the philosophers, each one of us has It was perhaps when I was eight years old that I first read an illustrated biography of Saigyo. Scattered by breezes,\n\nThe blossoms fall in the stream;" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Halted by the scene," }, { "from": "human", "value": "The wayfarers stop and look," }, { "from": "human", "value": "Unwilling to ford the stream." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The picture gave me the desire to follow Saigyo's itinerant way of life. The austerities he practised might be too strenuous for a woman but still I had the ambition to follow his example." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 3 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I wanted to renounce the world and wander through the countryside, composing poems on dew drops under cherry trees in blossom in the spring and under the falling red leaves of autumn. I cherished the ambition to leave behind for posterity a travel book such as his. Now that I had found that I could not escape that sad destiny which is the lot of each woman, of obedience to parents when young, to her husband in marriage and to her children when old, I desired all the more to remove myself from the din and bustle of the world, realising as I did that obedience to my father and my lord and master was not a virtue which had always been in harmony with the wishes of my inmost heart." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "yo hit me with five sentences more. Japan, nonfiction, memoirs, 1300s genre k?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was perhaps in the autumn of the same year that the ex-Emperor became disgruntled at the course of events after the abdication of the Emperor Kameyama and the accession of his son, Go Uda. This had resulted in the ex-Emperor being displaced from his position of pre-eminent political influence in favour of his younger brother, the new ex-Emperor Kameyama.\n\nUpset at this loss of prestige, the ex-Emperor dismissed and paid off all the members of his household except Hisanori, thanking them for their services. All of them parted from him with tears. He then announced his intention of retiring from the world to enter religion." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The Imperial consort, Lady Genkimon, known as the Lady of the East Wing, and I were to be the only ladies of the court to accompany him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "This may have been bad news to many, but I was highly delighted at the prospect of leaving the court.\n\nThe Military Government at Kamakura, however, took steps to placate the ex-Emperor by nominating his son by the Lady of the East Wing, Prince Hirohito, as Crown Prince. The ex-Emperor joyfully selected the Sumi palace as his residence, first removing from it the portrait of the former Emperor Go Saga to the Ogimachi palace.\n\nLady Kyogoku, who had held a very high position at the ex-Emperor's court, was appointed to the Crown Prince's household. We had not been particularly intimate, but as she was my mother's sister, I had a great deal of respect for her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Now that she had been given my mother's name, \"Dainagon no Suke,\" the world seemed an even more cheerless place, and I had thoughts only of leaving it for a place of religious retreat, but still perhaps the sins I had committed in a former existence kept me bound to the things of this world." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 1 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "So I sighed away the days as the year was drawing to a close, and at the urgent pleas of the ex-Emperor I went back to the palace, still unable to renounce the world." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Mode:\nCo-writing\n\nLength:\n4 sentences\n\nStyle:\nLady Nijō\nGenre:\nJapan, nonfiction, memoirs, 1300s" }, { "from": "human", "value": "My grandfather, the Minister of War, was very helpful to me at this time in making my life at the court more comfortable, though in devious ways, when I was not provided with robes as a matter of course." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The death of my little child still depressed me a great deal as I ascribed his death to that one's crime and to my own lapse from virtue." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I remembered how pleased the ex-Emperor had been to look at his own face in a mirror and see how much the child resembled him. Such sad memories filled my mind night and day and I could find no consolation anywhere.\n\nI had also been humiliated by the ex-Empress Higashi Nijo striking my name off the list of ladies who were allowed entrance to her apartments, although I had not been accused of any sin or crime. The ex-Emperor had indeed told me that it would make no difference in his regard for me whatever she did." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Although this new twist in circumstances made me very miserable and caused me to be even more retiring in manner, I was determined to serve him as best I could in return for all the kindness and sympathy he had shown me." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The princess, daughter of the former Emperor Go Saga, who had served at the Ise shrine as Vestal Virgin, about the tenth day of the eleventh month, the princess was to go to Saga on a visit to her stepmother, the Empress Dowager Omiya, the ex-Emperor accepted the invitation." }, { "from": "human", "value": "There had been a certain coolness on the part of the Empress Dowager while the problem of the Imperial succession was in debate as she supported the claims of the new ex-Emperor Kameyama, but now that this was settled with the appointment of Prince Hirohito as Crown Prince, her attitude had become more friendly, and he also was anxious to better their relations." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The ex-Emperor took me with him on this visit, riding alone in the rear seat of his carriage, as he knew that I was friendly with his mother, the Empress Dowager, and also with the princess." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I was dressed in a set of three royal robes of yellow over light blue with a thin over-robe of scarlet over purple. Over all I wore a red cloak, as all the ladies of his court had been allowed to wear one since the appointment of Prince Hirohito as Crown Prince. No other lady was taken on the visit.\n\nWhen we had been received by the Empress Dowager, the ex-Emperor in the course of conversation with her began to speak to her about me." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Agako\"You should not give her up,\" his mother said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"If you had no one in your household who knew how things should be done, you would find things difficult.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Then, turning to me, she went on, \"Tell me about things quite frankly.\" Her kindness made me hopeful that she would prove to be a good friend always, though I had some doubts about its being permanent.\n\nThe ex-Emperor and his mother spent the evening in conversation and dined together. When it grew late, he retired to the room facing the football ground, accompanied by Lord Sanekane, Lord Takaaki, and other lords." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I was his only female companion.\n\nNext morning ox-carriage drivers and ushers and retainers were sent to accompany the Vestal Virgin Princess to the Empress Dowager's residence. The ex-Emperor devoted special care to his dress for her audience with him. He wore an ex-Emperor's formal robes of yellow over pale blue with a pale purple cloak with a pattern of gentians and light purple trousers, all highly perfumed with incense." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "About nightfall the princess arrived. The room on the south front of the hall had been cleared and a dark-coloured screen with smaller screens erected. As the Empress Dowager was going out to meet the princess, she sent word to the ex-Emperor to come and help her entertain the guest. He therefore went; as usual I accompanied him, bearing his sword." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The Empress Dowager wore a dark grey silk gauze monastic habit with a grey cloak over it; she sat with small screens of the same colour behind her. The princess was dressed in a set of three red robes over dark red with a blue, unlined robe under them, a style which, I thought, did not become her at all. Her lady-in-waiting, a relative of hers, wore a set of five purple robes with no mantle or skirt.\n\nThe Vestal Virgin was a little over twenty years of age, looking so mature that it seemed natural that she should have been called back to resume duty at the Ise shrine after the end of the period of mourning for her father." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her complexion was like the petal of a cherry flower seen, unfortunately, as if through a haze, for she was shading her face with her sleeves from too ardent an inspection. I began to feel sorry for her, for I could see that some plan was even then germinating in the ex-Emperor's too susceptible mind. A general conversation went on among the three, with the princess making only rather disjointed remarks about Ise, until it was time for bed.\n\n\"It is now late and time for bed,\" the ex-Emperor said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Tomorrow before returning you should go to see the bare leafless trees on lonely Arashiyama.\"\n\nSo, accompanied by me, he returned to his apartments. \"What am I going to do? What am I going to do?\" he said. I was amused that I had so accurately judged the direction of his thoughts." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You have been in my service since childhood,\" he went on. \"Help me to satisfy my yearning for her, and I shall know that you are really loyal to me.\"\n\nI went at once. The open message I carried read, \"I was very happy to have this opportunity of meeting you. Don't you feel it rather disagreeable sleeping in a strange bed?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But with it was a secret message in the form of a poem written on thick white layered paper which told how her face still before him in his mind's eye was preventing him sleeping.\n\nYou know not perhaps\n\nThat the face I saw just now\n\nStill haunts my mind's eye" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And drives far away from me\n\nAll thought of going to sleep.\n\nIt was so late that everyone in her apartments was fast asleep. The princess herself was asleep, protected by a small screen." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Going near, I awakened her and gave her the poem. She blushed but said nothing and made no attempt to read it.\n\n\"What answer shall I give?\" I asked her.\n\n\"What answer can I make in reply to such an unexpected message?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "she said, lying down again.\n\nThis was all most unsatisfactory. I went back and told him what had happened.\n\n\"Show me where she is sleeping,\" he said to me." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I did not know what to do, but deciding that the easiest course to take was just to show him the way and do nothing more, I led the way back to her room in silence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He was wearing just an ordinary robe and a pair of wide-bottomed trousers.\n\nI went in front and opened the screens. She was lying asleep just as she had been when I had come the first time. There was no sound or movement." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He squeezed himself between the screens and went in." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "That was all I saw. I thought it would be wrong of me to leave him there and go back to our own part of the house, and so I lay down outside the screens by the side of the lady on duty.\n\n\"Who is that?\" she whispered, waking up in some alarm.\n\n\"I am sorry there are so few people on duty and so I have come to help,\" I answered." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She appeared to be quite satisfied with this answer and tried to start a conversation with me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It's very late and I feel sleepy,\" I said, annoyed that her ladies had not foreseen things like this happening and that she apparently suspected nothing.\n\nI pretended to be asleep but listened attentively. I was lying not far from the screens, and it seemed to me from what I could hear that the princess was making little resistance even to his first tentative approaches. She would have shown more sophistication if she had continued to put up some show of resistance all through the night." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Before dawn he returned to his room." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The cherry blossom is beautiful,\" he commented, \"but the bough is easy to break and the blossom easy to pluck.\" That was just what I had suspected had been the case.\n\nHe lay in bed till the sun was high in the sky, not getting up till nearly noon, surprised to find it so late. \"What a thing to do! I've certainly overslept,\" he said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He wrote a letter to her, the answer to which simply said, I believe, that she had not yet recovered from the pleasant surprise of his unexpected visit." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Have you prepared any entertainment for our honoured guest?\" the ex-Emperor asked his mother when he saw her.\n\n\"No, we haven't prepared anything special,\" she answered.\n\nThe ex-Emperor therefore asked Lord Takaaki to have a banquet prepared and when it was ready, towards evening, the Empress Dowager and the princess were invited in." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As I knew them both, I served the first drinks to each of them." }, { "from": "human", "value": "For the first three exchanges they only made a pretence of drinking with empty wine cups." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "This did not meet with the approval of the ex-Emperor and, at the suggestion of his mother, the princess exchanged drinks with him. I was then told to take the cup to Lord Sanekane and my uncle Takaaki who were seated below the dais, separated from it by screens. I did so, handing the cup to Lord Sanekane.\n\n\"I am not in charge of the banquet,\" he said, indicating that I should offer the cup to Lord Takaaki." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It's you she's chosen,\" he replied." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I've not had a party since my husband passed away,\" said the Empress Dowager. \"Let's amuse ourselves at our ease this evening.\"\n\nHer ladies played the Japanese harp. The ex-Emperor played the lute." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Sanekane played the lute too." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Then Kaneyuki played the flageolet." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As the night wore on, the party became very enjoyable. Sanekane and Kaneyuki both sang traditional shrine songs. Takaaki sang the song of his Seryo home.\n\nThe princess resolutely continued to refuse to drink, however much I urged her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The ex-Emperor was about to fill her cup when his mother said, \"Sing us a drinking song to go with the wine.\" He therefore sang the ballad,\n\nWhat a miserable life\n\nIs the lot of these" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Old charcoal-burners!" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Thinly clad they go out\n\nTo cut wood for the winter fuel,\n\nBut sadly enough\n\nNot to warm themselves but others." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It sounded most amusing." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Give me the cup,\" said the Empress Dowager. She had it filled three times and after drinking passed the cup to the princess who drank and passed the cup to the ex-Emperor. He then returned to his seat.\n\n\"An emperor, the Chinese histories tell us, has no father or mother,\" the Empress Dowager mused aloud." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Still, it is owing to me, though unworthy, that you ascended the throne. Sing me then another drinking song.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Ever since I was born,\" the ex-Emperor said to his mother, \"I have owed everything to you; my nomination as Emperor and the grant of the title of ex-Emperor were both due to you. How then could I treat your command lightly?\" At her wish he sang,\n\nFlocks of cranes fly over Kameoka;\n\nLike them our Lord will have long life," }, { "from": "human", "value": "And all under heaven will be at peace." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He sang this through three times, filling his mother's cup three times." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He then asked her for the cup, had it filled three times and drank. He then handed the cup to Lord Takaaki.\n\n\"How jealous you must have been when the girl handed the cup first to Sanekane!\" he said.I had expected that the ex-Emperor would be visiting the princess again that night, but instead he said to me, \"I've drunk too much tonight. I don't feel at all well. Massage my back,\" and stayed in his room all night." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Next day the Vestal Virgin left." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The ex-Emperor then went to Imabashi to enquire after the health of the Titular ex-Empress of Kitayama who was suffering from a cold." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He stayed there for the night and then returned to the Tominokoji palace.\n\nDuring the evening of the day of his return, Lady Chunagon came with a message from the ex-Empress Higashi Nijo. \"Because of Lady Nijo's inexplicable behaviour,\" her letter read, \"I forbade her entrance to my apartments. Your Majesty has ignored this ban. On this last visit you have made to your mother, you allowed her to ride in your carriage in the robes of a princess so that people were under the impression that you were being accompanied by an empress. This is to be deplored as it leads to my good name being defamed. For this reason, I desire to be released from your service that I may renounce the world and retire to Fushimi or some such place.\"\n\n\"I have received your message,\" the ex-Emperor replied. \"It is not necessary for you to have to tell me about Nijo." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Her mother was a court lady of the highest rank, and when she was Nijo's age, I valued her constant services more highly than anyone else's and should have liked to have retained her in my service." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "On her deathbed she begged me to look after her child, and I promised to do so. Before he died, her father also begged me to give my protection to his daughter, and I promised to carry out these last wishes of his. It is loyalty on the part of a subject that makes a lord behave as a lord, and it is the favour granted by the lord which causes a subject to behave as a subject. Her father was able to die in peace because I had given my word to give his daughter my protection." }, { "from": "human", "value": "An emperor's word is final, and I cannot go back on the promises I made then." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Her parents are watching me from beneath the turf to see that I do not do so." }, { "from": "human", "value": "How could I drive the innocent girl away from my palace to some unknown place?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Wearing princely robes is not something she has just begun to do,\" he went on. \"When her father brought her to see me for the first time, he asked that she should receive the treatment to which she would have been entitled if she had been the daughter instead of the granddaughter of the Koga Chief Minister, as he himself was of lower rank. She was therefore given permission to use an ox-carriage with five blinds and to wear princely robes. Her mother also was a step-daughter of the Kitayama Chief Minister. It was because of this that the titular ex-Empress of Kitayama officiated at the ceremony of Putting on the Skirt for her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In the course of that ceremony it was officially announced that she was granted permission to wear thin silk robes and a white skirt. She has always been given the privilege of alighting from her carriage at the main entrance. Now all these things were decided long ago. Why have you waited till now to express your disagreement with them?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "You speak of rumours that certain low-ranking retainers have accused her of giving herself the airs of an empress." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "If enquiries were to show that she had done this, even then I could not drive her away from the court, but I would certainly reduce her in rank to the status of a serving maid.\n\n\"It is well known that her father objected to her being called Nijo, and I have instructed my house not to do so. Although her father's own rank as Dainagon was low, she entered the service of the court as a daughter of the Koga Chief Minister and her father was of the opinion that she should not be given the name of a street and wished her to be called Agako for the time being. He knew that all men were not fortunate enough to realise their ambition, but he hoped that if he should be promoted to the post of Minister a more fitting name might be given her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The daughter of a Chief Minister is officially permitted to wear princely robes. In addition, every family founded by a prince insists on its right to do the same, the Kazan family as being descended from Prince Tankai, and her own family, the Koga family, from Prince Tomohira, the seventh son of the Emperor Murakami and the younger brother of the Emperor Reizei and En-yu. This is a family which has been established at a much more recent date than the others, and daughters of the family are not as a general rule inclined to enter the service of the court, but her mother did so and afterwards left her daughter to my protection, and so she has been in my service since she was a child. I had thought that you knew all this, and your present words of disapproval have come as an unpleasant surprise. As for your wish to enter the religious life, the decision to do this depends on the merits acquired in a former life, and outside circumstances cannot influence this.\"\n\nThis letter, however, did little to improve relations between the ex-Empress and myself. My only consolation was in the ex-Emperor's continued high favour.\n\nThe ex-Emperor did not visit the former Vestal Virgin again after the one short meeting at Saga." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I felt sorry that my efforts on her behalf had not been more successful.\n\n\"Well, are you going to let the year-end pass without a visit to her?\" I asked him, and in response to a suggestion from me, he sent me with a letter to invite her to visit him when she could.\n\nHer foster-mother was distressed when I told her of the invitation." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I had hoped,\" she said to me with tears, \"that she would not get involved with anyone but would devote herself solely to the service of the Ise shrine, but His Majesty's passing whim has brought her much sorrow.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I was rather annoyed by her continual lamentation. \"I have come just to invite her to visit him sometime when she has the leisure,\" I explained with a friendly smile.\n\n\"We shall do nothing,\" she answered, \"to prevent her going when she has the time.\"\n\nI returned to tell the ex-Emperor the result of my visit." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It heightens one's love,\" he said, \"when one has to cross mountains to visit someone. But with her I always have the feeling that there are no more mountains to cross.\"\n\nNevertheless, in the twelfth month, he sent a carriage to bring her secretly to the palace. The way was long and it was already late when the carriage drew up at an entrance on the corridor to the Oyanagi house, for the Kyogoku front had been handed over for the use of the Crown Prince. He led her into the Four-Pillar room." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As usual, I remained outside the screens to serve them. Everything seemed to be happening just as one would have expected it to happen, I thought, as I listened to her complain of his having neglected her for so long since that night at Saga. So, also, were her tears predictable as she came out with him to say goodbye as the dawn bell rang out.\n\nAs the year drew to its close, my misery grew deeper." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I could find no contentment in the palace, and yet I could not bring myself to go home. One evening when the Lady of the East Wing was expected to visit the ex-Emperor, I returned to my room on the pretext of having a pain in the stomach. Late that night my beloved came to my door. Horrified at the thought of what people would say, I did not know what to do." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 5 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But everything seemed to be happening just as one would expect it to happen as I listened to his complaint of my long neglect of him. So, careful to make no noise, I let him in. The sadness with which I saw him go away at dawn was infinitely deeper than that which I felt at the passing of the old year that day. But this was perhaps only to be expected, for I always did attach too great an importance to my own private feelings. Even today when I think of these things, I am still moved to tears." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Hey can you write like Lady Nijō and use whatever i write as a jumping off point?" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The years galloped past, flowing onward like the waters of a river, disappearing never to return, and on this New Year's Day I entered my eighteenth year. But the beauty of the bright spring sunshine, gay with blossoms and the song of birds, brought no happiness to my spirit, no peace to my restless heart.\n\nThis year the Kazan-in Chief Minister, Fujiwara no Michimasa, was in charge of the New Year's Day celebrations at the Tominokoji palace and served the New Year spiced wine to the ex-Emperor." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The year before, the Chief Minister had been appointed Lord Steward to the new ex-Emperor Kameyama, an appointment which had angered the ex-Emperor as it marked a decrease in his own political influence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "This, however, had now been restored by the nomination of his son, Prince Hirohito, as Crown Prince, and friendly relations had been established once again between the Chief Minister and the ex-Emperor, who had therefore graciously consented to his taking charge of the New Year celebrations at his palace. The ladies and the maids were all present, dressed in their best, but the happiness of the occasion could not check my tears as I remembered past years when my father had served the wine at these celebrations.\n\nIt had been decided that there should be a game of Sides on the fifteenth of the month at the Crown Prince's palace." }, { "from": "human", "value": "First, there was a great deal of fuss and commotion over the drawing of lots for the teams, as this resulted in the ex-Emperor's team being composed mainly of men and that of the Crown Prince mostly of women." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Then lots had to be drawn for opponents. My opponent was the Nijo Minister of the Left, Fujiwara no Morotada, the Crown Prince's tutor, who was captain of his team.\n\n\"Get ready to give your opponent a good present,\" said the ex-Emperor." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Do them well.\" The presents we women got were things we thought we should not be called upon to endure. We did not like it either that we were beaten with a stick not only by the ex-Emperor but also by the courtiers.\n\nAfterwards I had a talk about it with the Lady of the East Wing, Lady Genkimon, and we decided to have our revenge on the ex-Emperor on the eighteenth." }, { "from": "human", "value": "That morning all the ladies assembled in the domestic quarters: Shin Dainagon and Gon Dainagon at the door of the kettle room, Betto and Kyugo at the front, Chunagon in the ex-Emperor's room, and Mashimizu and Saburo in the outside corridor." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In an adjoining room I waited with the Lady of the East Wing, passing the time talking.\n\n\"He's sure to come through this way,\" we said. Just as we thought, he did come that way, dressed in his wide-bottomed trousers only." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Why isn't there anyone on duty in my apartments?\" he was saying as he came in, all unaware of what was about to happen. \"Here, somebody, come here.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The Lady of the East Wing caught hold of him in her arms." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What's all this about? Come to me, someone,\" he shouted. But no one came to his help. It was some time before the Madenokoji Dainagon, Minamoto no Morochika, tried to come in from the anteroom but was stopped in the corridor by Mashimizu with a stick in her hand." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You cannot cross this corridor,\" she said. \"It isn't allowed.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Meanwhile I had beaten the ex-Emperor soundly until he promised he would not in future allow his courtiers to beat us. We were all highly delighted with our success.\n\nThat night when the lords assembled in the hall for dinner, the ex-Emperor addressed them." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I am now thirty-three years of age. That is an age which is generally considered a dangerous age. That is perhaps why such an outrageous thing has happened to me today. It is certainly an indignity completely without precedent that an emperor, the acme of virtue and the lord of all might and power, should be beaten with a stick. I regard it as a most serious matter that not one of you came to my assistance. Were you also in this foul conspiracy with the women?\" He continued to make one accusation after another while the lords present tried to defend themselves with one excuse after another.\n\n\"Court ladies who beat their master in this way must certainly be severely punished,\" said one." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Even those who in ancient times rebelled against the emperor never committed such a terrible deed,\" said another." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"How could people dare to take a stick to the emperor when it is forbidden even to step on his shadow!\" said a third.\n\nSuch were the opinions expressed by all the lords present: the Nijo Minister of the Left, Fujiwara no Morotada; the Sanjo Dainagon, Minamoto no Michiyori; the Zenshoji Dainagon, Shijo no Takaaki; the recently appointed Dainagon, Saionji no Sanekane; and the Dainagon, Madenokoji no Morochika.\n\nMy uncle Takaaki had as usual very definite ideas on the subject and expressed them forcibly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What are the names of these women who are guilty of this outrage?\" he asked. \"Tell us their names at once so that all the lords present may pass judgment on them.\"\n\n\"Should they alone be punished?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "said the ex-Emperor. \"Should not their families also suffer?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It goes without saying,\" said Takaaki. \"All their families, parents, brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, should be punished also.\" All present agreed that this was only right." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Well,\" said the ex-Emperor, \"the one who beat me was the daughter of the late Chuin Dainagon, Koga no Masatada, granddaughter of the Minister of War Shijo no Takachika and niece of the Zenshoji Dainagon, Takaaki, or, we might well say, his adopted daughter, his most beloved daughter. So you see it was all the work of Lady Nijo, and so it is you who are going to be the first to be punished.\"\n\nAt this, all the lords burst out laughing. \"It is going to cause a lot of complications,\" they said, \"if we banish a court lady just at New Year. Worse still if we have to banish the whole family too. Instead, the lady and her family will have to expiate their fault by offering presents. There are precedents for this being done.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I would have none of this." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I do not accept the judgment,\" I said. \"On the fifteenth not only did His Majesty beat us unmercifully, but also he allowed lords and courtiers to do the same. We did not like it, but we just had to suffer it. There was nothing a woman of my insignificance could do about it. Later, the Lady of the East Wing asked for my help in getting revenge, and I agreed to help her. I should not be the only one to be punished.\"\n\n\"That may be so but you are the one who struck the blows and should be punished.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "So it was agreed that compensation would have to be made by my family alone." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Lord Takaaki therefore sent a message to his father, the Minister of War, Shijo no Takachika, telling him of the incident and informing him of the decision that had been made.\n\n\"This is impious conduct,\" the Minister commented. \"We must certainly atone for this at once. The longer we leave it, the worse it will be for us. Hurry things along.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Compensation was therefore given in grand style by the Minister on the twentieth and splendid presents made to all concerned." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Robes and a sword were presented to the ex-Emperor." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Each of the six lords was given a sword and each of the ladies a hundred quires of fine crepe paper." }, { "from": "human", "value": "On the twenty-first, Lord Takaaki, extravagant in ideas as ever, gave a banquet in lavish style and presented the ex-Emperor with a model Japanese harp and a lute in purple brocade and a blue glass wine-cup with a silver cover round it in the form of basket-work." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The High Priest Ryuben, my uncle Takaaki's younger brother, happened to arrive at the court just as the banquet was beginning and was invited in. A carp having been brought in to serve with the wine, the ex-Emperor told the priest to carve it up. \"Show us your culinary skill,\" he said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Your family is said to be famous for it, as the High Priest of Uji temple has shown.\" The High Priest declined to do this, and the ex-Emperor repeated his order. Lord Takaaki placed a chopping-board before the priest with a carving-knife and chopsticks." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Now everything is ready for you,\" the ex-Emperor said as the wine-cup was set before him ready for him to drink. The High Priest reluctantly began carefully to cut up the fish. It was a rare sight to see him in his dark orangered robe doing this." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I can't cut off the head,\" he said, laying down the knife when he had cut a small portion.\n\n\"You can't stop there,\" said the ex-Emperor. Finally, the High Priest cut off the head in expert style and hurried out of the hall." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The ex-Emperor was so struck that he sent out the blue glass wine-cup with the silver basket-work as a present to the priest, who by this time had already reached the main gate." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Now Lord Takaaki had another suggestion to make. \"My father and I,\" he said, \"as being her grandfather and her uncle have now made due reparation for Lady Nijo's fault. We are her relatives on her mother's side. But on her father's side, she has a grandmother and an aunt. Why has it not been suggested that they should make compensation too?\"\n\n\"That is reasonable,\" the ex-Emperor said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"But they are not blood relations. We mustn't go to extremes in this matter. Your proposal is too inflexible and oppressive.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Lord Takaaki demurred, but had a further suggestion. \"Then send Lady Nijo as your messenger to the ex-Empress of Kitayama. She looked after her as a child, and her mother was a frequent visitor to her place.\"\n\nWithout replying to this suggestion, the ex-Emperor turned to the Dainagon, Saionji no Sanekane." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"In any case,\" he said, \"aren't you more responsible for her behaviour than the ex-Empress of Kitayama?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We are not such close relations,\" Lord Sanekane said. But his repeated pleas sounded extremely weak and were summarily rejected; finally he too had to make compensation. As the others had done, he gave presents, to the ex-Emperor robes and a model boat of aloe wood with three boatmen modelled out of musk, to Lord Morotada an ox and a sword, to each of the other lords an ox, and to each of the ladies a hundred quires of crepe paper diapered with gold or silver or dusted with gold or silver, or reddish purple in colour." }, { "from": "human", "value": "My uncle Takaaki thought that my grandmother should certainly be informed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He told her what had happened and how all concerned had indemnified themselves.\n\n\"Lady Nijo's father,\" she wrote in reply, \"took a great deal of trouble looking after her when she was a child after the death of her mother. She was still in diapers when she was taken over by the court where she was brought up. At the time I thought this was a great blessing for the child, far better for her than my adopting her. I never dreamt that under His Majesty's tender care she would grow up to be so mischievous. He must, I feel, realise that it is all the fault of her upbringing. Is it perhaps because she has not been taught to distinguish differences of social position? Or is it because His Majesty has spoilt her? I really couldn't say. For my own part, if His Majesty were to send his own representative to demand indemnity, I should do what I could. Until he does so, however, I do not wish to become involved in this matter. If her father were alive, I have no doubt that he would show his love for her by offering adequate compensation. But for my own part I feel no such affection for her and if His Majesty were to order me to disinherit her, I would do so quite willingly.\"\n\nWhen this letter was read publicly before the ex-Emperor, the lords present were of the unanimous opinion that my grandmother had right on her side." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She had, they thought, shown conclusively that as Lady Nijo had been brought up at the court, the fault obviously lay there." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Also, they added, a woman's first lover had most responsibility for her good behaviour; he it was that would carry her after death across the Three-Way river into the world to come.\n\n\"What do you mean?\" protested the ex-Emperor. \"Do I have to compensate you all for my fault when you have all just compensated me? Hasn't it all happened because I made a claim for damages done to me?" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Today you will be acting as a writing assistant, your partner will send something and you will write the next one sentence." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In the third month a requiem for the repose of the soul of the Emperor Go Shirakawa with a recital of the Lotus Flower sutra was held for four days in the hall of the Ogimachi palace, the hall at the Rokujo palace having been destroyed by fire just over a year before." }, { "from": "human", "value": "On the thirteenth day, the last day of the celebration, while the ex-Emperor was attending the service, someone\"I will wait until His Majesty returns,\" he said, when he learnt that the ex-Emperor had left the palace." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When he was shown into a room off the gallery, I went in to greet him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"His Majesty will be coming back soon,\" I said to him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I was getting up to go to my room, when he urged me to stay with him a little while." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I could not think of anything in particular he might want to discuss with me, but at the same time there did not seem to be any reason for me to avoid him out of shyness or fear, and so I stayed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "We talked together of this and that, of old times." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He spoke of things which my father used to say which he would never forget." }, { "from": "human", "value": "This all put me into a sympathetic frame of mind as I sat peacefully opposite to him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Then he began to talk to me in a way I had not expected at all." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Buddha would not approve of what I am going to say,\" he said, \"and would reject the devotions I offer to him as foul, unacceptable, despicable.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "At this, I excused myself, stood up and tried to leave, but he held me back by the sleeve." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Promise to meet me some time,\" he said, \"for however short a time.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He wept and I felt that the tears he was shedding genuinely showed the depth of his feelings." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I was hesitating over what to do when I heard a cry go up that the ex-Emperor was returning, and I took advantage of the opportunity to pull my sleeve from his grasp." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Whenever I looked back on this unexpected meeting, it seemed like some unreal mysterious dream." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The ex-Emperor came in to meet his brother." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It's a long time since we met,\" he said. They dined together, and as I served the wine, I smiled at my secret thoughts." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Today you will be acting as a writing assistant in the Japan, nonfiction, memoirs, 1300s genre. Your partner will send something and you will write the next three sentences." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "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.\n\nWhat has to be done?\" the ex-Emperor asked the Great Lord Konoe." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What preparations do we have to make?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"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." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "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.\n\nWhen the new ex-Emperor arrived, he found his seat placed opposite his host's." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"This is not as it should be,\" he said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"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." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It is strange that today you should have moved your seat to a lower level than your host's.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "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. The Crown Prince arrived and the ball game began." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "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." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I 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." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Next 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?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Rather was it in a dream," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A 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." }, { "from": "human", "value": "This I wrote on a sheet of pale blue paper attached to a spray of cherry blossom," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "What does it matter\n\nIf it was in reality\n\nOr a passing dream?" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "The user will write a bit then you need to write around 8 sentences continuing directly from the user's text. Try to stick to the Japan, nonfiction, memoirs, 1300s genre." }, { "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.\n\nThe 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. 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." }, { "from": "human", "value": "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.\n\nIn 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. 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. 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." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The 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." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "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. 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. 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,\n\nI find wet with dew" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "These sleeves long since drenched with tears\n\nThat my dreams have not come true.\n\nI 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. 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.\n\n\"Place it in the reading room next door,\" he said. I went into the room and found it lighted up." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Then to my surprise he followed me in.\n\n\"'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. 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.\n\nThe service proceeded uneventfully, but it was horrifying for me to think how unworthy he was to be there taking part in this solemn service." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "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. 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. The sadness of parting when we got up and left did, however, seem to be somewhat one-sided. 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." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When 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,\n\nIn sorrow gazing\n\nAt the autumn moon at night,\n\nI wonder whether\n\nIt was in reality\n\nOr in a dream that we met.\n\nI 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." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The 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.\"\n\nThis proposal showed a sad lack of worldly wisdom on the part of the prince and was really too shocking even to consider. 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.\n\nIn 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": "gpt", "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. 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\n\nPlanted now at Fushimi\n\nLive a thousand years\n\nAnd flourish, together with\n\nthe palace of Fushimi." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The ex-Emperor replied with a poem also praying for the prosperity of the Fushimi palace," }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 6 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "For a thousand years\n\nMay the Fushimi palace\n\nFlourish 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": "writing buddy needed! gimme 6 sentences more. stick to Japan, nonfiction, memoirs, 1300s pls" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Two years before, during the time when I was home for a little while in the seventh month, I had sent to be made up into a fan with camphor wood ribs a drawing on gold-dusted paper of a stream of water in pale blue with the words in white across the pale blue band, \"Smoke of smouldering fires.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The fan-maker's daughter, who was herself a clever artist, admired this fan and made a drawing of an autumn moon with the title, \"The autumn moon seen from the other shore on that unforgettable night.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I gave her my own fan in exchange for this.\n\nWhen the ex-Emperor looked at this fan, he could see that it had been painted by someone else. \"What man gave you that?\" he asked.\n\nTo avoid any trouble from any suspicions he might have, I told him the whole story. The beauty of the drawing stirred his curiosity about the girl who had drawn it, and this excited his wandering fancies. For over two years he had pressed me to arrange a meeting with her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Somehow or other I managed this, and it was settled that the girl should visit him on the tenth day of the tenth month.\n\nRestless with anticipation, he was ready, carefully dressed, when the Yamashina Chujo, Fujiwara no Sukeyuki, came to report that she had arrived.\n\n\"Let her wait in the carriage,\" he was told, \"at the Fishing Pavilion at the south end of the Kyogoku front.\"\n\nWhen the bell tolled at eight o'clock in the evening, the girl for whom the ex-Emperor had been waiting for over three years was ushered in to him. I was wearing a set of two robes with diagonal blue stripes and a pattern of ivy in purple, a light brown over-robe lined with dark red and a red mantle. Having been told to bring her into the eight-mat room adjoining the ex-Emperor's apartments, I went to the entrance where she was to alight." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She made a great deal of noise getting out of the carriage; even the rustling of her garments seemed over-loud." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The room into which I showed her had been specially prepared, furnished and perfumed with incense. Her robe was embroidered with a pattern of large fans, fully one foot long, with cypress ribs. Over this she wore a cape of white, lined with blue, and a scarlet skirt. All her robes looked too ungainly and stiff, and her collar stuck up so high and wide as to hide her face completely from the back. She was really lovely with well-shaped eyes and nose and a fair skin. Perhaps she was not exactly of the princess type, but she was plump and tall and well-built so that I felt she would look splendid as a court lady with hair done in formal style, bearing the sword at a court function on one of the greater State occasions in the Daigokuden hall of the palace." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"She has entered the room,\" I reported to the ex-Emperor, and he went in to her, dressed in a formal light-coloured robe with a chrysanthemum pattern and wide-bottomed trousers, all so lavishly perfumed with incense that it could be smelt past the screens a hundred paces away. I listened to them talking and noted that she had much more to say than he had. That would not be to his liking, I thought to myself with a smile. They lay down, and I lay down outside the screens to keep night watch. Lord Sanekane was on night watch too, lying behind the screens in the next room. Everything was quiet. It seemed to me such a great pity that it should be so quiet so early in the night." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was not very long before the ex-Emperor came out of the room and called me to him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"'The village of Tamagawa,'\" he quoted.It rained heavily during the night, and it was not until much later that I suddenly remembered the girl who had been sent away." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Her sleeves would be drenched but not by the sorrow of a morning parting." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What about the girl whom Sukeyuki brought?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I said to him.\n\n\"Oh, I'd completely forgotten about her,\" he said. \"Go and see about her.\"\n\nI went out to find that it was nearly dawn. Her carriage, which had been standing in front of the Fishing Pavilion, was in a dreadful condition through standing in the rain all the night.\n\n\"How awful!\" I thought and called to the attendants to bring the carriage to the entrance." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The men who had been sheltering under the roof of the gate came out and brought the carriage to the door. The girl was wet through, for the roof had leaked, and the design of the flowers painted on her robe could be seen through the upper robe, and all looked bedraggled. Her sleeves were doubly drenched with the tears she had shed the whole night through; her hair was as wet as if she had just washed it.\n\nShe would not get out of the carriage. \"I'm not fit to be seen in these clothes,\" she said.\n\n\"I've a new robe I haven't worn yet,\" I said, rather curtly perhaps, for I was not too pleased with the way things had gone." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Come and put it on so that you can go and take leave of His Majesty. I am sorry you were kept waiting all this time. His Majesty had some important business to attend to.\"\n\nShe continued to weep bitterly and would not alight from the carriage. It was pathetic to see her rubbing her hands together as she pleaded to be allowed to go away. It was now nearly daylight, and there was nothing I could do but let her go.\n\n\"How cruel I have been to her!\" the ex-Emperor said when I told him what had happened." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He sent her a letter, but she did not answer it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Instead she sent a present, an inkstone lid of lacquer on which were engraved the words, \"Like spiders in the confused maze of the reeds during a raging storm,\" no doubt symbolising thus the harassed state of her mind." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Inside there was a pale blue sheet of paper with the words, \"You led me astray,\" and wrapped up in this was a lock of hair and the poem," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "What story will be told\n\nOf this so humble woman\n\nWho as by a dream\n\nWas deceived and led astray\n\nWhile trusting in your kindness?\n\nThat was all she wrote." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Wondering if she had entered the religious life, the ex-Emperor tried in vain to trace her." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 3 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "No one knew where she had gone. It was not till many years later that I learnt that she was at the Hashi temple in Kawachi province, where she was held in high respect by the nuns for the asceticism of her life. Her trying experience at the palace may have set her feet on the True Way of Buddha, and for that reason she may have come finally to regard it as a happy accident which was the occasion of her conversion." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Provide five sentences as a continuation in the Japan, nonfiction, memoirs, 1300s genre." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "About this time I received an unexpected letter from \"Wan Morning Moon\"So the New Year came. The two ex-Emperors arranged a cherry-blossom party, and as we were kept busy searching in the remote recesses of the mountains for beautiful sprays of flowers for the competition, I had no leisure this spring for secret meetings with my lover. For this reason I only sent him letters expressing my sorrow at my loneliness.\n\nThis year I remained in service at the palace until the autumn. Then, about the middle of the ninth month, I received a long letter from my uncle, Lord Takaaki, in which he said, \"I have something I wish to say to you. I am at the Izumoji temple. There is a lady here who wishes to see you. Be certain to come here to see me. I will do all I can for you.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "My uncle had taken it for granted that I was just as eager for this meeting as the other party was." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "My uncle had known him since he was a child, and the prince had asked my uncle for help as he was a relative of mine. I could not but excuse my uncle's tricking me in this way as it showed his love for me.\n\nWhen we met, however, I was so disgusted, repelled, and finally horrified by his ardour that I could not say a word. \"I could do nothing but just sit upright in the middle of the bed.\" All through the night, with floods of tears, he pleaded and promised, but I remained indifferent, determined never to agree to meet him again." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"This night marks the end,\" I decided." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "At last the crowing of the cocks told us that it was time to get up. This brought fresh outpourings from his sad heart, but to me the coming of day brought the promise of a release from this most embarrassing situation. Outside the screens Lord Takaaki coughed to call him out and he left. But just before they were about to leave the house, the prince came back and, after saying this and that, begged me at least to see them off at the door.\n\n\"I don't feel well enough,\" I answered, still lying in bed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was pitiable to see him go out leaving his heart behind." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I felt I was doing him a great wrong." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Feeling that my uncle's conduct was far from praiseworthy, I excused myself by saying that I had work to do at the palace and hurried back to my duties before it was really daylight without seeing him. Lying in bed then in my own room, I recalled with horror all the events of the night, all the prince's pleas and pledges.\n\nHis letter arrived about noon, filled with protestations of his love. With it was the poem,\n\nMy great misery" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Or sadness I cannot tell;\n\nI long to see you,\n\nFor vividly your image\n\nIs impressed on my mind's eye.\n\nNow that his passion neither saddened nor horrified me, I felt I had nothing to say to him who was so consumed with love." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I made no answer to his letter except by this poem,\n\nI cannot tell if\n\nMy mind is changed or not;\n\nI care not whether\n\nYour love for me has grown cold" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Or whether steadfast remains.\n\nAfter that he continued to write to me occasionally, but I did not answer his letters, much less arrange to meet him, and evaded any approach which he made. Then, possibly because it was nearing the end of the year, he wrote again. His letter was in a sealed envelope enclosed in a letter from my uncle.\n\n\"I am enclosing a letter,\" my uncle wrote." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It is a pity things have turned out as they have. You must not let yourself become obsessed with dislike of his manner. It is perhaps by the force of destiny that he is attracted to you. You repulsed him in a very abrupt way. I regret everything went wrong. It will make me most unhappy if you reply as unkindly this time as you did before.\"\n\nThe prince's letter was wrapped in a piece of stout paper and securely sealed at both ends with rice paste. Inside it were a number of amulets and charms issued by the ancient Kumano shrine and all the great shrines and temples of Japan with the names of countless gods and Buddhas written on the backs of the amulets.\n\n\"Since I became a follower of Buddha, when I was seven years of age,\" the prince wrote, \"I have lived a life of perfect asceticism. Weaving spells with my hands over the fires of invocation on the altar, I have prayed on the one hand for long life for all the members of the Imperial house and on the other for the forgiveness of sins and the happy rebirth in the next world of all the nation committed to its charge. I was hoping, with the assistance of all the gods, the saints and Buddhas, to continue this work all my life, but by some evil destiny during these last two years my mind has to my great grief been obsessed by thoughts of you. When I opened the volume of a much-loved sutra to read before the image of Buddha, it was the words that you had spoken that came into my mind. I kept your letters on the altar as if they were the words of the sacred writings. I read them first to comfort myself when I lighted the candles on the altar. When my longing for you became unbearable, I consulted your uncle, Lord Takaaki, to find some way of meeting you. I thought that you could not but have the same longing for me as I had for you. I found I was wrong in this. I have now to abandon all hope of writing to you and talking with you. Yet as I find it completely impossible to drive all thoughts of you away from my mind, I am destined to suffer all the torments of purgatory. Penances can be of no avail to me either in this world or the next. I can only pray that the austerities I have undergone in this world may aid me in making my life here futile and help me in the next world in purgatory to which I must pass as a soul with a curse laid on it. I have no memory at all of my life before my head was shaved and I put on a black monastic habit when I took my vows at seven years of age. Since that time, though, I can swear that I have never even dreamt of sleeping with a woman or even for a moment entertained the thought of falling in love with one. You have been the only woman in my life. And now I must give you up. I regret that, thinking that he always speaks the truth, I trusted Lord Takaaki in my last effort to renew our relationship.\"\n\nI realised how deep the prince's grief was, and it saddened me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But there was nothing I could do about it. The sight of all the sacred names of gods including that of the Sun Goddess herself filled me with horror. I collected together all the amulets, wrapped them in a sheet of paper, on which I wrote, and sent the parcel to the prince. I heard nothing further from him at this time.\n\nI shed bitter tears," }, { "from": "human", "value": "As I ponder over this," }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 3 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "This sorrowful fact,\n\nThat this is the last letter\n\nI shall ever have from you," } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Today you will be acting as a writing assistant, your partner will send something and you will write the next five sentences." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Nothing else worth recording took place before New Year's Day when Prince Shojo came early to pay a New Year visit to the ex-Emperor and was entertained to wine. No one else was present, and everything was extremely quiet. I could not avoid waiting on them.\n\n\"Serve him with wine,\" the ex-Emperor ordered. I stood up to do so, and everything went black." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I felt dizzy, and my nose began to bleed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I had to leave the room, and for the next ten days I was seriously ill. I was terrified, thinking that this might be due to the curses the prince had called down on me.\n\nIn the second month the new ex-Emperor Kameyama paid a visit to the ex-Emperor. They enjoyed an archery contest together, using the short bow.\n\n\"If you lose,\" said the new ex-Emperor, \"you must show me all your ladies-in-waiting, high and low. If I lose, I will do the same.\" This was agreed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The ex-Emperor lost the match." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I will let you know about the parade of the ladies,\" he said afterwards to the new ex-Emperor.\n\nAfter the new ex-Emperor had left, the ex-Emperor consulted the Nyudo\"It would not do,\" the lords agreed when they were consulted, \"to have them all sitting side by side as they do in the ladies' apartment on New Year's Day. And it would certainly not be a happy idea to have them come in one by one for an interview; that would be too much as if they were coming in to consult a fortune-teller or a palmist.\"\n\n\"Wouldn't it be a good idea,\" the ex-Emperor said, \"to have two ceremonial barges built? Then the ladies could stand in them carrying vases, as the ladies did in The Tale of Genji.\"\n\nThe lords did not agree; it would cost too much to have two barges built.\n\n\"I suggest,\" said Lord Sukesue, \"that eight of the high-ranking ladies, eight of the middle rank and eight of the lower rank should play ball, dressed as boys, on the Mandarin Orange courtyard.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "All the lords agreed to this and so it was decided." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Each of the ladies was to have a man of corresponding rank as her adviser." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "All the ladies were to wear ordinary male robes with trousers, shoes and socks.\n\nThe ladies did not favour the idea. \"How perfectly awful!\" they said. \"All the more so as the game is to take place in the daytime.\" They all felt terribly miserable about it, but there was nothing they could do about it, and so they began to make their preparations for the game." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Lord Sanekane was my gallant." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He had prepared for me a boy's robe and trousers of pale blue with an under-robe of scarlet. On my left sleeve was a design of a miniature waterfall in white thread over rocks of aloe wood, and on my right sleeve a spray of cherry blossom with fallen blossoms scattered below it. On my trousers also there were designs of rocks and weirs with scattered cherry blossoms. This was all to call to mind the words of the poem in The Tale of Genji,\n\nThus was I moved to tears by" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The sound of the waterfall." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Lady Gon Dainagon, who had the Nyudo Lord Sukesue as her gallant, wore a robe and trousers of pale green lining. On her left sleeve was a design of a miniature castle tower and on her right cherry blossoms, with a bamboo branch on the left leg of her trousers and a lighthouse on the right. Her under-robes were scarlet. The main hall was divided off into sections by screens, and the sight of the ladies all dressed in similar style but differing in details was a most interesting one.\n\nWe ladies were all of the opinion that it would be enough if each of us in turn took the gaily decorated ball and placed it in front of the ex-Emperors, but it was decided that according to the rules the ball must be kicked and that each of us must catch the ball in our outstretched sleeves, take off our shoes, and present the ball to the new ex-Emperor." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As the ladies begged with tears to be excused from kicking the balls, it was agreed that Lady Shinemon, in the service of the ex-Empress Higashi Nijo, should do the kicking on behalf of the ladies of higher rank." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She had the reputation of being extremely skilful at this game, not that I consider this a particularly enviable accomplishment. I felt rather elated, for at the head of the eight ladies of higher rank, I was to catch the ball and place it in front of the new ex-Emperor.\n\nThe two ex-Emperors and the ex-Emperor Go Fukakusa's son, the recently appointed Crown Prince, were to sit at the southern front of the main hall with the bamboo blinds raised, princes and lords being seated on both sides of the steps with courtiers standing about here and there in the courtyard to see the ladies cross the southern courtyard, each accompanied by her gallant, all in robes of different colours.\n\nThe new ex-Emperor arrived just after noon, and the banquet started soon afterwards.\n\n\"Quickly now,\" said the master of the ceremonies, Nakamikado no Tamekata, \"Start the ball game at once.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We are going to begin right away,\" we answered. But we did not actually start until it was so dark that torches had to be used.\n\nThe new ex-Emperor had asked that all the ladies should be announced by name, and so when each of the ladies came before our guest, with sleeves folded over in front of her, her gallant, torch in hand, announced her name and rank as she passed in front of him. Too shy to say a word, first the ladies of lower rank passed by, then those of middle rank, and finally those of higher rank. All then stood in order among the newly planted trees, making a perfectly beautiful sight." }, { "from": "human", "value": "For myself, when I had placed my ball before the new ex-Emperor, I tried to hasten away, but I was told to stay awhile and serve the wine." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 3 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Still in my boy's costume, I felt very shy doing this.\n\nFor two or three days previous to the game, each lady's gallant had been constantly in and out of his ward's apartment, seeing after her hair styling, the fitting of her boy's costume and her shoes. One can easily imagine that all sorts of pleasant happenings were enjoyed in each one of the apartments." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Write 8 sentences sentences in the style of Lady Nijō spawning from what the user wrote, within the Japan, nonfiction, memoirs, 1300s genre." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The ex-Emperor having won the return match, the new ex-Emperor invited him to the Saga palaceWhen this entertainment came to an end, however, the ex-Emperor wished for more." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He issued another challenge to an archery contest and, being defeated in this, had to arrange to have a concert given by his ladies at the Fushimi palace in exact reproduction of that given at the Rokujo palace as described in The Tale of Genji.\n\nThe Lady of the East Wing was to play the part of Lady Murasaki, Genji's much loved second wife. The role of the Third Princess, intended by her father, the Emperor Suzaku, to be Prince Genji's wife, was to be taken by the young daughter of my grandfather, Takachika, the Minister of War, who had just entered service at court. She was, however, to play a thirteen-stringed harp instead of a seven-stringed one. I was annoyed, rather unreasonably perhaps, at this arrangement which had been made at my grandfather's insistence, and would have liked to have been excused from appearing in the concert altogether. The ex-Emperor insisted that I should be present, however, to play the lute in the role of Lady Akashi, Prince Genji's lover while he was in exile at Akashi. The new ex-Emperor knew me, having had some conversation with me on the occasion of the ladies' ball game.\n\nWith regard to playing the lute, I had studied under my uncle, Koga no Masamitsu, when I was seven years old, and had learnt two or three pieces." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I am afraid, however, that I was not a particularly diligent student at that time. Later, when I was nine years of age, I took up the lute again with the ex-Emperor as my teacher. I could play a few simple pieces but was not good enough to tackle the three classical compositions for the lute. When I was ten, I did take part in a recital of court dance and music at the Shirakawa palace at the celebration of the fiftieth birthday of the Retired Emperor Go Saga. On this occasion he made me a present of a lute of Chinese quince wood with four rosewood tuning pegs in a red brocade bag. Still, although I had practised on the lute from time to time, it was never with any great enthusiasm, and I was rather embarrassed at the ex-Emperor's insistence, but I went on with preparations for the concert.\n\nI was instructed to wear just what Lady Akashi reportedly wore, a white under-robe with blue lining, a scarlet robe with an over-robe of light green, and a cloak of pinkish yellow lined with light green.\n\nI wondered why it was that I had been given the part of Lady Akashi, who was not one of the principal characters in the story, while one of the main roles went to the Lady of the East Wing, who was actually not much better than a beginner in playing the six-stringed harp, for she had never made it a rule to practise every day." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Obviously everything had been arranged by the War Minister so that his young daughter would have the opportunity of playing the thirteen-stringed harp.\n\nThe part of the Princess of Akashi, Lady Akashi's daughter, was to be played by the Lady of the West Wing, a daughter of the Kazan-in Chief Minister, Fujiwara no Michimasa, who was therefore entitled to sit side by side with Lady Murasaki. I was told to sit in the highest position on the opposite side, actually in the same place in which I had sat at the ball game. I did not agree with this decision, for it appeared to me that the newcomer, the Minister of War's daughter, should have had a higher seat than mine, as she was playing the part of the Third Princess. There was, however, nothing that I could do about it as this was the ex-Emperor's decision.\n\nI went to Fushimi in the carriage with the ex-Emperor, while the newcomer drove there in her own basket-work carriage, adorned with her family crest and attended by her father's retainers. Recalling happier days, I was most unhappy to see her arrive in such a stately fashion.\n\nThe new ex-Emperor arrived and the banquet began in another room while the ladies took their places for the concert, each with her own instrument in front of her, just as in the scene described in the chapter \"Young Herbs,\" of The Tale of Genji." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The ex-Emperor was to take the part of Prince Genji, the hero of the story, while the new ex-Emperor had the role of General Yugiri, his son." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Lord Kanetada and the Toin Chujo were to play the flute and flageolet below the steps. The ladies' seats had all been checked again and all was ready for the ex-Emperors to come in from the banquet, when my grandfather, the War Minister, came in and looked over to where the ladies were sitting.\n\n\"This is all wrong,\" he shouted. \"My daughter is playing the part of a princess. The girl's part is that of a mere gentlewoman; she should not be sitting in a higher position than my daughter. My daughter is actually that girl's aunt; a niece should never take precedence over her aunt. And I hold a higher rank than her father ever did. They will have to change seats.\"\n\nLord Takaaki and Lord Sanekane tried to intervene. \"The ex-Emperor suggested this arrangement,\" they said.\n\nThe Minister would not listen. \"In any case, there's no sense or reason in this arrangement,\" he said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "No one else would venture to express any further opinion." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The ex-Emperor was away in another room where no one could disturb him in the middle of the banquet. I was therefore obliged to move down to a lower position. I was utterly downcast as I thought of the grand style in which the newcomer had arrived in her own carriage with her father's retainers attending her, and now she was supplanting me. I could see no reason why the order of seating should depend on who was whose aunt. Some aunts have mothers of low birth. I could see that there was nothing to be gained by staying at an entertainment which would bring disgrace upon me. I got up and went out of the hall.\n\nWhen I reached my room, I wrote a letter for the maid to give to the ex-Emperor if he came to look for me with a message that I had returned to the Capital." }, { "from": "human", "value": "In the letter I enclosed the first string of my lute cut into two pieces and a poem on thin white paper," }, { "from": "human", "value": "Now I have been shown" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "How worthless I am indeed;\n\nAnd in this knowledge\n\nI vow that henceforth never\n\nWill I play the lute again.\n\nFrom Fushimi I went to Kobayashi nearby to the home of my old nurse's mother, Lady Iyo, who had been in the service of Princess Senyomon and who on the death of her mistress had taken vows and settled down near her tomb at the Sokujoin temple.\n\nI was told later that, when the ex-Emperors left the banquet to come to the hall and found no one there to play the lute in the part of Lady Akashi, they inquired the reason and the Lady of the East Wing explained just what had happened.\n\n\"It is natural that Agako would take offence at that,\" the ex-Emperor said. He went to my room, where he received my message." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Much displeased to hear that I had left the palace, he showed my message to his guest.\n\n\"A very pathetic message,\" commented the new ex-Emperor. \"Well, this has spoiled the evening's entertainment. Still, there's nothing we can do about that. May I keep this poem?\" He was given the poem and returned to his own palace.\n\nAnd the outcome of it all was that the newcomer completely lost her chance of playing the harp to the distinguished company. People's reactions were generally sympathetic to me. \"The War Minister was crazy to act like that,\" people agreed when they discussed the incident. \"Or can we say that it was due to an old man's silly prejudices? In any case, Agako did the right thing.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Early the next morning the ex-Emperor sent his men to the house of my old nurse at Shijo-Omiya and to the house of my father's stepmother at Rokkaku Kushige, but they had to report that the people there had no knowledge of my whereabouts." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He then sent his men to other likely places, but no one could tell him where I had gone." }, { "from": "human", "value": "For myself, it was in my mind all this time to take this opportunity to renounce the world, but already in the twelfth month, feeling unwell, I had realised that I was pregnant again." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I had therefore to postpone once more taking this step." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I did, however, make a vow not to play the lute again, and presented the lute given me by the late Emperor Go Saga to the Hachiman shrine at Iwashimizu. With it I presented a copy of the Lotus Flower sutra which I had copied on the backs of my father's letters to me. A poem on the sutra explained the reason for this gift,\n\nAs now I have vowed\n\nNever to play it again,\n\nI present my lute,\n\nTogether with the sutra\n\nI have copied, to the shrine." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I reflected that it was just two years before this time that Prince Shojo had first confessed his love for me, and that it was a year and a half later, in the twelfth month, that he had sent me that terrible letter laying all those curses upon me." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 6 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Soon after that, on the twelfth day of the third month, I had left the palace where I had lived so long, and had also given up the lute I so much enjoyed playing. I had also lost at the same time the affection of my grandfather whom I had regarded as my guardian after my father's death. \"She left the concert because she disagreed with my instructions,\" he would explain to all. \"Consequently she will never come back as long as I live.\" It frightened me to death to think that there was now no way in which I could restore the old friendly relations between us.\n\nThe ex-Emperor went on searching for me, and Snowy Dawn" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "ur a writing helper. partner writes, u do next 3 sentences." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Soon afterwards I learnt that the War Minister was having a stand erected for a party including the two ex-Emperors whom he was inviting to view the Aoi festival procession." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In the same month initiation ceremonies were to be held for the Emperor Go Uda and the Crown Prince, Prince Hirohito, on their attaining manhood. A noble of mature age of the rank of Dainagon was required to preside over the rites, and the War Minister, in his anxiety to demonstrate his loyalty to the throne, arranged that his son the Zenshoji Dainagon Takaaki should temporarily relinquish his title in his own favour so that he could take this lower rank in order to preside at the ceremony, an action which called forth high praise from everyone. When the Minister relinquished the post, however, instead of it being restored to Lord Takaaki, it was given to Yoshida no Tsuneto." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Lord Takaaki was understandably very bitter about this transaction, ascribing this loss of the office to his father's underhand tricks." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It appeared to him that his parent was working for the eventual promotion to the post of his son by his second wife, Takayoshi." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Feeling that it was impossible for him to continue living in his father's house any longer, he went to live in his wife's family home, that of the Kujo Chunagon, Fujiwara no Tadataka, and confined himself to the house there." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When I heard it, the news came as a great shock to me. I thought at first of going to see him, but, realising that the news of my reappearance would soon get abroad, I sent him a letter telling him where I was and asking him to come to visit me.\n\n\"Ever since I heard the news that you had disappeared so completely,\" he wrote in answer, \"I have been very depressed. How happy I am now to learn that you are safe and well. I will come to you this evening to talk over the unhappy events that have occurred to us recently.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "My uncle came as soon as it was dark. It was the end of the fourth month. The cherry trees were green with leaves." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Only the last of the blossoms gleamed white in the moonlight. In the dark shade of the trees, deer could be seen, some lying down, others wandering slowly about. It was a picture I should love to have painted." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And over this peaceful scene, from the neighbouring temples the evening bells rang out.\n\nWe were in the anteroom of the chapel from where we could hear the constant repetition of the invocation of the sacred name of Amida Buddha. The sight of the nuns in their hempen habits coming out of the chapel in solemn procession affected my uncle deeply." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A big burly man, he was not easily moved by such things, but now he wiped away his tears with his silk sleeve.\n\n\"I am resolved,\" he said, \"to cut myself free from all the ties of human affection and, renouncing all the things of this world, enter upon the True Path. The only consideration which has delayed me thus far has been your father's fervent request to me on his deathbed that I should not be negligent in my duty as your guardian. He would be right to reproach me if I failed him in this.\" Though weeping at the thought of parting from him for good, I could not but approve of his resolution to renounce the world." }, { "from": "human", "value": "My thin sleeves were damp with my tears." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"When my time is over,\" I said, \"I too will retire into the depths of the mountains. Then I will put on the same sombre habit as you.\" Thus we talked on, expressing to each other the sad thoughts of our hearts.\n\n\"Prince Shojo's last letter,\" my uncle went on, \"was really horrible, wasn't it? Even though I knew that I was not to blame for my part in the affair, my hair stood on end as I read it. I cannot help feeling that all the misfortunes which have come upon us recently are all due to his curse. While I was searching for you, I came across him one day as he was coming back from the palace. He asked me whether it was true that you had disappeared completely. I answered that at the moment your whereabouts were unknown. I do not know what kind of impression this made on him, but he stood for a moment at the main gate, hiding with his fan the tears streaming down his face, and then recited the words of the sutra in a low voice: \"In the raging fire of this world there is no peace.\" I feel a deep compassion for anyone who so yearns, who is so sad, wretched, and woebegone. How much more does it grieve me to see him suffer thus! One can hardly imagine the frame of mind in which he returns to his temple to offer up his worship to Buddha.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "While I listened to my uncle, I recalled that night when the prince and I had met amicably for the last time." }, { "from": "human", "value": "In his poem he had expressed his doubt, as he looked up at the autumn moon, as to whether it was in dream or in reality that we had met." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I wondered why it was that at our last meeting I had resisted him so stubbornly. Filled with vain regrets, I wept bitterly.\n\nAt last day broke." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What will people think?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "my uncle said as he left." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"They will be sure that I am returning from a love tryst.\" Then, changing his tone, he added, \"As a motive for taking your vows, you must never forget the emotions we have shared this night and those with which we part this morning.\" He expressed in a poem his feelings about the uncertainty of life and his grief at his own misfortune," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "How easy it is\n\nTo forget life's uncertainties,\n\nAnd forgetting this," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "How bitter the tears we weep\n\nWhen forced to encounter this!\n\n\"We all know we must expect to suffer in this life,\" I said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"And yet we grieve when misfortunes overwhelm us. I am sadder still when I realise that this is so.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "This thought, that the bitterest thing in life is the difficulty of persuading ourselves that life is really uncertain, I expressed in a poem," }, { "from": "human", "value": "All men are agreed" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 4 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "That this life is uncertain;\n\nSurely sad it is\n\nHow difficult we find it\n\nTo force ourselves to believe it!" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "user starts, u write ~two sentences more. copy Lady Nijō's style" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Worried because he could find no trace of me, Snowy Dawn had gone into retreat at the Kasuga shrine for two periods of seven days to pray for my safe return. On the eleventh night of his vigil, he dreamt that he saw me standing in front of the Second shrine there, looking just as I used to look before I went away." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He immediately went to the Second shrine as quickly as he could, and at Fujinomori he met a servant of my uncle's carrying a long narrow letter case." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Wondering why the servant was there, he surmised that he was returning from delivering a letter to me from my uncle." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Feeling quite sure that this was the case, he spoke to the servant before he could utter a word.\n\n\"You are on your way back from the Shokutei temple, aren't you?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "he said. \"Have you heard when Lady Nijo is taking her vows?\"\n\nIt seemed to the servant that this lord was well informed about my whereabouts." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Last night Lord Takaaki came from Kujo to visit her,\" he said. \"He went home this morning and I am just coming back from taking a letter to her. I have not heard when she is entering religion, but it seems certain that she will be doing so sooner or later.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Overjoyed at getting news of me, he took the horse his servant was riding and presented it to the Kasuga shrine as a token of his gratitude." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Then, fearing that to visit me in the daytime might cause some scandal at the temple, he went, as I learnt later, to the house of a priest at Upper Daigo to wait for dark.\n\nMeanwhile, knowing nothing of this, I was nearby at Lower Daigo, enjoying the view of the summer foliage in the garden and listening to the Abbess Shingambo speaking on the teachings of the Great Teacher of Jodo Buddhism, Zendo." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Towards evening, without any warning, there was the sound of someone stepping up on to the verandah." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "At first I took no notice of this, thinking that it must be one of the nuns. Then I heard the rustle of silk robes." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I turned and saw Snowy Dawn closing the sliding door." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You have shown your spirit of independence by hiding yourself away here,\" he said to me, \"but the god of the Kasuga shrine has guided me to you.\"\n\nMy heart fluttered in my alarm." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But there was no way for me to escape." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I was caught. \"I felt bitter against everyone,\" I said, \"and so I left the court. I felt I could make no distinction between one person and another.\" I went on talking at random in this way, saying what was in my inmost heart, things I would really have preferred to have remained unspoken." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Realisation of this made me all the more sad and confused." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Still, I thought, I had now taken the decisive step of leaving the court, and I had no intention of returning there." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Yet, on the other hand, I could not help wondering who would take tender care of me in my delicate condition.\n\n\"His Majesty's affection for you,\" he said, \"was not something you could discard as being half-hearted. It was not very clever of you to run away just because the War Minister acted in a senile fashion. Just for this once, trust His Majesty to see that justice is done to you and return to the palace.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "So he continued to urge me, staying with me for the night and all the next day." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "During the day he sent a letter to my uncle. \"By chance,\" he wrote, \"I discovered that the Lady was here, and so I came to see her. I should like to see you too.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "In response to this request, my uncle came to see me again that evening." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Just to kill time, as they said, they drank together the whole of the night.\n\nAs he was leaving early next morning, my uncle stopped for one last word with Snowy Dawn." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You had better tell His Majesty that in the course of your search for her, you found her here,\" said Snowy Dawn." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "So they talked things over, and Snowy Dawn decided to go home too this morning, leaving me alone and feeling very miserable.\n\nI went out to the entrance to see them off." }, { "from": "human", "value": "My uncle left while it was still dark." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I don't want to be seen on the way back,\" he said. He was wearing a robe of figured silk crepe with a pattern of gourd vines climbing over a basket-work fence." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Snowy Dawn, dressed in a light orange robe, left towards daybreak just as the bright full moon was setting over the hill top." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "While his carriage was being brought round, he walked along the verandah to talk to the abbess. \"I am glad I have had the unexpected pleasure of meeting you again,\" he said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It is our faith,\" she replied, \"that through our constant invocation of the sacred name of Amida, the Buddha will appear attended by two saints to lead us to Paradise. We live in a remote spot here, and it is because of the Lady's chance stay that nobles such as you, still wearing the dress of the people of the world outside, bring a certain brightness to our lives.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"In spite of a diligent search everywhere in every corner of the countryside,\" he said, \"we could find no trace of the Lady, but by the guidance in a dream of the god of the Kasuga shrine at Mikasa, we found her at last with you.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The whole incident was, I felt, just like the story in The Tale of SumijoshiThe tolling of the dawn bell was urging his departure, and, as he hurried out, I heard him murmuring to himself. I asked him to speak up and he repeated the poem," }, { "from": "human", "value": "Now I have found you," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "My worries for you are gone,\n\nYet sad is the bell" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Warning me to part from you" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Under the wan moon of dawn.\n\nI was also sad to see him go, and whispered to myself the poem," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The sound of the bell\n\nReminds me of the sorrows" }, { "from": "human", "value": "And troubles of life," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And the moon makes me all the more\n\nUnwilling to have you depart." }, { "from": "human", "value": "All the resolutions I had been making during this long period were that day utterly destroyed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The abbess agreed with me that I must go back to the court. \"The advice which the two lords have given you is reasonable,\" she said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"When messengers from the ex-Emperor came and asked for you, I was able to say quite truthfully that you were not here. Now that they will report that they have found you here, it will make things easier for us if you return to the house at Kobayashi.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "This appeared to be the best course to take, and so I went there in the carriage I had asked my uncle to lend me. \"This is certainly a very pleasant surprise,\" my old nurse's mother Iyo said to me that evening as we talked after an uneventful day with her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Since you left we have had several visits from messengers of the ex-Emperor. Lord Sugawara no Kiyonaga often came.\"\n\nListening to her, I was sadly reminded of my troubles, so aptly expressed by the words quoted by Wan Morning Moon, \"There is no rest in the raging fire of this world.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hearing amid the showers of the fourth month the first call of the cuckoo from the greenery of the Otowa hills, I composed the poem," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ask me, dear cuckoo,\n\nWhy I weep so bitterly," }, { "from": "human", "value": "And I shall reply," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Because the sky is gloomy\n\nThough the moon is shining above.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was still dark when the nuns arose to sing their matins. The bells of the Sokujoin temple wakened me with a start, and I got up to recite a sutra." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Later that morning I received a letter from Snowy Dawn, enclosing a letter from his retainer who had cut down the thorny smilax bushes.I wondered what to do." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "My love for the child and my desire to see her again were not unbearably strong, but still the memory of her had not entirely gone from my mind. Sometimes, indeed, I could recall clearly what she looked like, and I wondered how she was growing." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I considered that it was quite possible that her illness was caused by our separation, and decided I ought to go and see her soon.\n\n\"Your news alarms me,\" I wrote in reply." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Please let me see her as soon as it is convenient.\" The child was on my mind all the day; I dreaded to think that I might soon be hearing bad news about her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "That evening the early evening service was being held, and I was in the chapel where an ancient nun was reciting from a sutra something about \"an opportunity of salvation,\" when, the folding doors being open, there was a sound of people entering the courtyard." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I had no curiosity as to who it was, nor did I particularly care; I was not expecting a visitor. Then the sliding doors of the chapel were opened, and I saw a palanquin escorted by warriors and officers." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was the ex-Emperor who had arrived. His visit was so unexpected that I just stood there feeling like a fool." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Our eyes met. We gazed at each other." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was no longer possible for me to run away and hide. I could only stand there motionless while the palanquin halted before me, and the ex-Emperor got out." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I have had much trouble getting here,\" he said to me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I could make no answer. Then turning to the officers, he went on, \"Have the palanquin sent away and get the carriage ready.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He turned to me, and while we waited for the carriage, he said, \"I came to fetch you because you seemed determined to renounce the world. You may have good reason for feeling offended with the War Minister, but you have no cause for complaint against me.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "This was true enough, and I could not but agree. I explained, however, that feeling this world to be full of miseries, my grandfather's spiteful action was only the occasion and not the cause of my resolution to renounce the world." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I was on a visit to Saga palace,\" he went on, \"when I learnt that you were here. Thinking that there was sure to be some slip-up if I left it to someone else, I decided to come here myself, telling them I was going to Fushimi palace. Whatever you feel about the depressing things that have occurred, let us talk them over quietly together in the carriage.\"" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 3 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "So, listening to him justifying himself in this way, I found myself getting into the carriage with him, just as weak-willed as I had always been.\n\nSitting in the carriage throughout the whole of that night, he protested his innocence of any complicity in the War Minister's action, and swore by the Sacred MirrorAt the palace, all things in my own apartments had been sent home, and I went to the house of my aunt, Lady Kyogoku. On my return to court, I found that life there rather jarred on me, but about the last day of the fourth month my maternity belt was presented to me by the ex-Emperor, an episode which brings back several memories." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "NarrativeBot: Extend text by seven sentences sentences. Replicate Lady Nijō's style. Maintain Japan, nonfiction, memoirs, 1300s genre." }, { "from": "human", "value": "At last I was able to see the baby girl who up to this time I had seen only in my dreams." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I saw her in a strange house, as it was not convenient to do so in the place where she usually lived." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I had suggested that I see her on my way to visit my mother's tomb on the anniversary of her death, the fifth day of the fifth month. But this date was inconvenient, and it was also pointed out that it would in any case be most unlucky to see her on my way to visit a tomb. So on the thirtieth day of the fourth month, I went to the appointed place. The child wore a white silk robe with a raised pattern, lined with dark red. Her hair had been allowed to grow for the last three months; I was much moved to note that it looked just as I remembered it to have been on the day she was born.\n\nJust about the time that my child was born, Snowy Dawn's wife had given birth to a child which had died soon after birth. My child had therefore been taken into his family, and no one but those directly concerned knew of the circumstances." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They were thinking of allowing her to enter the service of the court and were obviously bringing her up with the greatest of care." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 3 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In these circumstances it would have been perverse for me to feel anything but happiness that the child was so fortunate in her life simply because she was now regarded as someone else's child. The ex-Emperor still knew nothing of this rather discreditable episode and firmly believed that I was dependent solely on his protection. For myself, I could not feel otherwise than shocked at my duplicity." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "writing exercise: 4 sentences sentences, channeling Lady Nijō, Japan, nonfiction, memoirs, 1300s genre. go!" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "About the eighth month the Great Lord Konoe visited the ex-Emperor. The late Emperor Go Saga had on his death bed begged him to give the ex-Emperor the same support as he had always given him, and consequently he often visited the ex-Emperor, who invariably showed him great hospitality. That day he was entertained informally to drinks in the usual hall.\n\n\"In what remote mountain then did you hide yourself?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "he asked when he saw me." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I was told that you couldn't be found anywhere.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Even a miracle-working mountain hermit would have had difficulty in finding her,\" said the ex-Emperor. \"I found her on the mountain-island of Eternal Youth.\"\n\n\"Certainly,\" said the Great Lord to the ex-Emperor, \"the War Minister's exhibition of senile jealousy was really inexcusable. Also, Lord Takaaki's enforced retirement was quite absurd. It appears to me to show faults in the court administration.\" Then he turned to me." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"By the way, have you entirely given up playing the lute?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "he said. I remained silent." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"She has sworn a solemn oath to the guardian-god of her family, Hachiman, on behalf of herself and all her descendants, to give up playing the lute in perpetuity,\" said the ex-Emperor." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Well,\" the Great Lord said to me, \"in spite of your extreme youth, you have succeeded in causing a great scandal by what you have done. The members of your family, the Koga family, have on the whole had a high regard for the reputation of their family. They can claim to have had an unblemished record since the foundation of the family by the Emperor Murakami. The family of your old nurse's husband, Nakatsuna, has furnished loyal retainers for the Koga family for generations. I recall that my elder brother, the Imperial Adviser, Konoe no Kanetsune, at one time wished to have Nakatsuna in his own service, but when he was asked, Nakatsuna replied that he could not do so as he was a retainer of Koga no Masatada. In answer to this, it is said, the Imperial Adviser replied in a letter in his own handwriting that the Koga family was an exceptional one and that there could be no objection to his being at the same time in the service of the Imperial Adviser. It was really quite absurd also for your grandfather, Lord Takachika, to argue that, as his daughter was your aunt, she should therefore take precedence over you. When my son, the former Imperial Adviser, Tadatsukasa no Mototada, visited the new ex-Emperor, in the course of conversation the new ex-Emperor expressed the opinion that the writing of poetry was the best accomplishment for a lady to cultivate and that he had been much impressed by your poem composed in the difficult circumstances brought about by your grandfather's actions. While it was true, he admitted, that the study of poetry had been traditional in the Koga family for eight generations, it was indeed remarkable that a lady as young as you are should have mastered the art so completely. The conversation having now turned to the question of your disappearance, the new ex-Emperor informed him that at that moment your old nurse's son, Nakayori, was out searching for you at every shrine and temple throughout the country and that he himself was greatly distressed because no trace of you could be found.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Then, changing the subject, he went on, \"By the way, my son, the Chunagon Chujo, is very talented in singing Imayo popular songs. Would Your Majesty please initiate him into the mysteries of this accomplishment?\"\n\nThe ex-Emperor agreed to do this. \"The Capital is not a suitable place for this, however,\" he said. \"Perhaps Fushimi palace would be better.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The ex-Emperor therefore gave orders to move there in two days' time. It was not an official visit and few people would be accompanying him to Fushimi. Only picnic meals would be served and only one cook taken. I had been travelling a good deal from place to place recently, and my clothes, I felt, were very shabby." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I could not now depend on my grandfather, the War Minister, for help in this, and I was therefore more highly delighted than usual when Snowy Dawn made me a present of a set of two yellow under-robes, lined with blue, a red mantle with a pattern of dewy autumn flowers on the sleeves, together with a skirt and a tight-sleeved gown of raw silk." }, { "from": "human", "value": "At Fushimi palace, the ex-Emperor, Lord Sanekane and two of my cousins, Gon Chunagon Minamoto no Michiyori and Gon Chunagon Madenokoji no Morochika, met the Great Lord Konoe and his son, Chunagon Chujo, Takatsukasa no Kanetada, and his brother, the former Imperial Adviser, Takatsukasa no Mototada." }, { "from": "human", "value": "No one else was there." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "At Kujo nearby, Lord Takaaki was staying at his father-in-law's house. The ex-Emperor sent to him several times, asking him to join the party as no one was present whom he would wish to avoid meeting, but he refused on the plea that he was now living in retirement. At last Sugawara no Kiyonaga was sent and he persuaded him to come. He brought with him two Shirabyoshi dancers but told no one of this, leaving them in his carriage where he had left it outside the Upper House during the ceremony of initiation into the secret of Imayo singing." }, { "from": "human", "value": "After the ceremony Lord Takaaki called the girls in for the drinking party in the Lower House." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The ex-Emperor took a great deal of interest in the girls and made them sit near him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They were sisters, the elder, named Harugiku, just over twenty years of age, wearing a set of two purplish-red robes and skirt." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The younger, Wakagiku, wore a blue-striped boy's robe lined with bluish green and wide-bottomed trousers with a bushclover pattern. After they had sung a few Shirabyoshi songs, the ex-Emperor wished to see them dance, but they had brought no hand-drum player. They searched round and found a hand drum, which Lord Takaaki played and Wakagiku danced. Then the ex-Emperor wanted to see the elder girl dance, but she refused at first as she was out of practise." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Eventually after further pressing she agreed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She first put on her sister's boy's-robe over her own clothes." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "This looked rather singular but quite attractive. At the ex-Emperor's wish, she danced several long dances suitable for a wedding celebration. All this time the ex-Emperor continued to drink heavily and the girls were not allowed to leave the party till quite late. All were told that they should stay the night and go back to the Capital together the next day." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "While the ex-Emperor was asleep, I had occasion to slip over to the Tsutsui annex on some little business or other of my own. \"If you scream like that at night,\" my captor said in a low voice, \"the monster who lives in the tree will come and get you. It's very unlucky to scream like that.\"\n\nI knew who he was by his voice, \"What are you doing?\" I cried.\n\n\"I have been waiting for a long time to get more friendly with you,\" he said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His method of approach was such a hackneyed one that I did not feel constrained to listen to what else he had to say in pledging his undying love. I just kept on trying to pull away.\n\n\"The nights are long at this season of the year,\" I said. \"His Majesty will be waking up and looking for me.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Promise to come back to me when you can,\" he said, and in order to get away from him, I promised to do this, swearing it by the names of all the gods of the shrines in all the four quarters of the land, though, as I swore the oath, I shivered with horror at the thought of having to break it. So I escaped.\n\nThen, when I got back to the ex-Emperor's apartment, he woke up and had everyone get up to start drinking again. This they did with a great deal of noise. Wakagiku had gone home and there could be no more dancing." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The ex-Emperor therefore decided we should all stay another day and have another party that night. When he had got everyone to understand that, he felt free to concentrate his mind on the drinking until he fell fast asleep. For my own part, however, I could not get to sleep for thoughts of what had happened at the Tsutsui house. I knew it must really have happened; I couldn't have slept and dreamed it all; the memory was too vivid." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was daybreak before I finally fell asleep.\n\nAs the ex-Emperor was to be the host at next day's party, Fujiwara no Suketaka was put in charge of the arrangements, which were on an elaborate scale. The two dancers came, and everyone was merry. Many dances were performed, the elder sister being rewarded for her performances with a metal wine cup and three lumps of musk on a wooden tray, and the younger one being given a blue glass vessel and a lump of musk on a metal tray." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The party lasted till the dawn bells rang out.\n\nWhile Wakagiku was dancing, the ex-Emperor had sung, \"When the priest So-o offered his worship before Fudo, the god of fire, the god's image split down the middle,\" and when he had come to the lines, \"So even after his death, the infatuation of Shinsai, when the ex-Emperor had retired to his room and I was massaging his hips, the person who had confronted me the night before came to the room.\n\n\"I've something to say to you,\" he called out to me. I could not get up and leave, and I made no attempt to do so." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"At least come while His Majesty is asleep,\" he said, urging me to go to him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Get up and go quickly,\" the ex-Emperor whispered to me." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I don't mind your going.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I was ready to die with shame at his thoughtfulness for me." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He put out his hand to help me to get up from where I was sitting behind him, and I did get up, but most unwillingly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We had better stay just outside the room in case you're wanted,\" said the man outside the room. I was ashamed, for I knew that the ex-Emperor was not asleep, as the man thought, but was listening to all this conversation. Sad at heart, I continued to weep. He was very drunk, but he did not free me finally till daybreak." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Though I could not blame myself in any way for what had happened, I continued to weep bitterly. Then, when completely exhausted, still sobbing, I lay down beside the ex-Emperor, he was as kind as ever and completely unruffled.\n\nThe ex-Emperor was to have returned from Fushimi that day, but Lord Konoe persuaded him not to do so. \"The two girls are still here. They don't want to leave yet,\" he said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We should all like to stay another day. I will be the host.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The ex-Emperor agreed to stay and, fearful of what might be said to me, I thought it expedient to stay in my room to rest, though it was not in any way the sort of apartment I was accustomed to." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The usual letter came to me in the course of the morning,\n\nYour face that I saw\n\nIn last night's short dream of love\n\nLives in my mind's eye," }, { "from": "human", "value": "And your scent still on my sleeves" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Rouses me to greater love." }, { "from": "human", "value": "To this he added the note, \"I did not write to you earlier in case the one sleeping near you should be awakened.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "My answering poem read,\n\nSad of heart am I,\n\nI cannot think our meeting\n\nAught else but a dream;" }, { "from": "human", "value": "In proof of this see my sleeves," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "All drenched with tears of sorrow.\n\nDuring the day I went to the ex-Emperor's room only when he called for me. He seemed to want to show his sympathy for me in my wretchedness by being as cheerful as possible, but these signs of his affection only grieved me the more.\n\nIn the evening the party started up again." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Today we went before it was quite dark to the Fushimi Lower House to have the boats prepared." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Later, when it was dark, the cormorant fishermen were called and their boats tied up to ours." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They then started to catch fish. Afterwards the three cormorant fishermen were each presented with under-robes that I had worn. When we got back to the hall, the drinking party began. The ex-Emperor was drunker than usual that night, and late at night the same person came again to where we were in bed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It's very trying being away from home for several nights,\" he said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Fushimi is always spoken of by the poets as a place where people find it difficult to sleep. Light a torch to keep away these troublesome insects.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His importunity made me feel utterly miserable especially as the ex-Emperor had suggested the night before that I should consent. \"Forgive the selfishness of an old man,\" he went on, now lying down beside us. \"Won't you consent to my pleas? You must, if I am to be your guardian. Whatever you may think of it, there have been many similar cases from olden times.\" I need not say how wretched, how grieved, how horrified I felt." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I shan't be happy sleeping by myself,\" the ex-Emperor said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Still I shan't mind if you are not far away.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "So it was that I spent the rest of the night in the same place as I had the night before.\n\nThe next morning, preparations for our departure began while it was still dark. We two got up and parted at once as if nothing but remorse was left. I rode in the rear seat of the ex-Emperor's carriage with Lord Sanekane by my side." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "CONTINUE STORY. PARAMETERS: 4 sentences sentences, Japan, nonfiction, memoirs, 1300s genre." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "My relations with other people had become increasingly difficult for me with the same kind of vexing situation continually recurring. This all made me wish that I could abandon this kind of life to live in peace in a cottage beyond the mountains. But this yearning was in vain. It was proving very difficult for me to give up my life at court, and I could blame no one but myself for everything that had happened to me." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I had an uneasy feeling too that a break with the ex-Emperor was imminent." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I had been striving my utmost to avoid this, but it seemed as if all my efforts were to be in vain.\n\nIt was about the middle of the second month. The trees were beginning to come into flower, and the scent of the plum blossom was brought on the breezes. Yet all this gave me no pleasure." }, { "from": "human", "value": "More than ever before, I felt depressed, dispirited, sorrowful, troubled." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hearing the ex-Emperor call for me, I hurried to his apartment, wondering what he wanted. He was standing in the kettle room, alone.\n\n\"Most of the ladies have gone on leave,\" he said. \"I am being left alone. And you stay cooped up in your room the whole of the time. What is the attraction there?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "This was his usual attitude towards me at the time and I could make no answer." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Just then the arrival of Wan Morning Moon was announced, and soon afterwards he was shown into the room. I sat there, taking no notice of him, apparently unconcerned. I did not see what else I could do.\n\nAt this time the ex-Emperor was very worried about the state of health of his daughter, the one later to become the Empress Yugimon, who was then about twelve years of age." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She had been suffering from a painful disease for some time, and prayers had been offered for her recovery at the palace and for the ex-Emperor's well-being at the Narutaki temple." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The two brothers conversed together for some time in an even more unhurried fashion than usual, though I was a little disturbed, having an uneasy feeling as to what was going on in the prince's mind. Then a message came that the princess appeared to be worse. The ex-Emperor got up immediately to go to see her.\n\n\"Stay here till His Majesty returns,\" I said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "There was no one else there at the time, and the prince began to talk of all the sad times he had had to live through, beginning with his unhappy boyhood right up to the present time." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He tried in vain to hide his tears with his sleeve. There was nothing I could say; I just listened in silence. What I did not realise was that the ex-Emperor had come back and was listening outside the door to his brother's complaints. Unaware of this too, the prince continued to plead for my love." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Unusually quick to grasp any situation, the ex-Emperor could have been in no doubt about the intimacy of our relations." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When the ex-Emperor came back into the room, the prince put an innocent face on our conversation, but I was worried that his damp sleeves would reveal our secret.\n\nWhen the candles were lighted that evening, the prince left the palace. No one was with us, and the ex-Emperor seemed even more friendly than usual as I massaged his legs.\n\n\"I heard something this afternoon that I was not expecting to hear,\" he said to me, friendlily enough." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"How did all this happen? How did you two get into this situation? He and I have been very close to one another ever since we were boys together. I did not think he was the sort of man to get involved in any kind of scandalous behaviour.\"\n\nAs it was obviously no use my telling him that there were no grounds for his suspicions, I made a clean breast of everything that had happened from the first night of our meeting to the night when we had quarrelled and parted. I did not hide a single detail.\n\n\"What a marvellous bond of love has tied you together,\" said the ex-Emperor. \"And he was so infatuated with you that he enlisted Takaaki's aid in forwarding his suit." }, { "from": "human", "value": "And then you refused him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He must be very bitter against you for the heartless way in which you have treated him. He will make you suffer for it. There have been many instances of this all through the ages. Love is blind. That is true not only of laymen but also of priests." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Shinsai, the High Priest of the Kakinomoto temple, who fell in love with the Empress Somedono, was because of this turned into a fiend, and in spite of all her devotion to the saints, she fell a victim to his lusts." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "On the other hand, when the Chief Priest of the Shiga temple declared his love for the Empress Kyogoku, she calmed his passions by the poem she composed,\n\nGuide me to Paradise,\n\nFor there pure lovers will meet\n\nOn one lotus leaf," }, { "from": "human", "value": "And then to you I shall feel" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "An eternal gratitude.\n\n\"My brother seems to be utterly deranged. Deal warily with him. So long as I keep silent, no one will learn anything about this matter. When he has to come here to hold a service of intercession, try to make him forget his resentment against you. You may think it is wicked to use such an occasion for this purpose, but I have a deeper plan in mind. Do not then worry yourself about what I shall think of what you are doing.\" His voice took on an even more affectionate tone as he went on, \"You have kept nothing secret from me. And I am glad that, in your bewilderment as to what you should do, you have asked for my help. That has cleared away completely from my mind any suspicions that I might have had.\" It is no wonder that his sympathy made me feel all the more wretched." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I fell in love with you first,\" he went on. \"Many years have passed since that day, but never, whatever happened, have I treated you with anything but the highest respect, even though something always happened to prevent my realising fully my plans for you. Oh, how I wish I could make you understand the depths of my feelings for you. It was your mother who first initiated me into the pleasures of love in bed when she was in my service.Next day the service of intercession was to begin. People crowded round the artificial mound that had been erected for the ceremony." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I felt wretched whenever anyone looked at me, wondering whether my secret anxieties showed in my face." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The prince's arrival was announced. I sat by the side of the ex-Emperor, apparently unconcerned but wretched at heart at the thought of what the prince was thinking.\n\nAs usual, I was sent with a message to the prince. I always had a guilty conscience on these occasions, but this time I felt guiltier than ever, yet there was nothing else that I could do but to go." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was still early in the evening. The message was an enquiry on some doubtful point of doctrine of Shingon Buddhism. There was no one else in the room with the prince, a rather unusual thing. In the dim light of the hazy spring moonlight, leaning on an armrest, he was reciting from one of the sutras." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He interrupted his devotions to talk to me." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I vowed to Buddha,\" he said, \"to put out of my mind forever every remembrance of the sorrowful events of that moonlight night when you rejected my proffered love. But I have not been able to keep my vow. Is there no way in which I can give up my love for you except by sacrificing my life? I have prayed to the gods to transplant me to a land where you are not, but they give no heed to my prayers. What am I to do?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He went on to beg me to stay with him for a little while, and though I feared that this might lead to the spread of malicious rumours about us, I could not but share with him a momentary dream of love, which was cut short by calls outside that the service was about to begin. I escaped by the back door, but not before he had pleaded with me again and again not to leave but to stay in the room and wait for him until after the midnight service. He spoke as urgently as if he feared some barrier might rise up to prevent our meeting ever again if I went away then. I was afraid, however, that I might get involved in trouble if I stayed any longer, and so I returned to my own apartments." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I felt more in love with him that night than I had done on that evening when we had first met and he had given me the poem beginning" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In sorrow gazing\n\nAt the autumn moon at night.\n\nIt seemed to me that I could not hope to escape from that affinity which drew us together, those pledges of love we had made to one another in a former life. I lay down to sleep, but no dream came to me." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The day dawned, and having nothing else to do, I went to serve the ex-Emperor's breakfast." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "No one else happened to be there.\n\n\"He didn't know that I had sent you to him with a message so that he could talk to you, did he?\" the ex-Emperor said. \"Don't let him find out that I know all about his secret passion. I should be sorry if he had to conceal his feelings because he learnt that I knew all about this.\" I felt too ashamed to say a word in reply." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I felt also a deep compassion for the prince who was having to officiate at these solemn services while feeling himself impure in mind and body." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "On the sixth day of the services, on the eighteenth day of the second month, the ex-Emperor was sitting up late, admiring the crimson plum blossoms in front of the great hall of the palace which were especially beautiful that year both in colour and fragrance.\n\n\"Tonight is the last night of the special intercessions,\" the ex-Emperor said to me when we heard the late night service ending. \"It is already very late. Go to him at the first opportunity.\"\n\nI was surprised at this suggestion, but when the midnight bell tolled the Lady of the East Wing was invited to join the ex-Emperor in the anteroom off the Mandarin Orangery." }, { "from": "human", "value": "When the ex-Emperor left to go there, I went to the prince's room, not because it was what the ex-Emperor had suggested that I should do, but rather because I felt something of a longing for him on this last night of his at the palace." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He was obviously waiting for me, expecting that I should come. I knew well what remorse might follow if I did not resolve to give up meeting him, and yet I had to come. The voice of the ex-Emperor still remained in my ears, and the perfume of his incense-scented robes still permeated my sleeves. How could I allow another to cover those sleeves with his own?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Yet I had come, and if anything went wrong, I had only myself to blame." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The prince wept as if this night was to be our last, and our parting at the end of it a parting forever. My mind was in a whirl. How much better it would be, I thought, if we had parted then forever than that we should meet again and have to part with our love for each other unsatisfied. But for the moment such thoughts had no relevance." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The short night passed quickly, and I was left in the morning to wonder whether the evening would ever come." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I waited all the day for his coming after parting from him at dawn with still unsatisfied longings. Alas, that day had little chance of coming, I thought, as I composed this poem to express my thoughts,\n\nYour face, quite unchanged\n\nSince the night when we parted" }, { "from": "human", "value": "In bitter discord," }, { "from": "human", "value": "Is reflected in the tears" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I shed when we met tonight.\n\nNext morning the little princess seemed rather better, and the prince went away from the palace after the early evening service, leaving me feeling rather lost without him.\n\nA strange thing had occurred that morning. I was lying down in my room after having come from the prince's room just before dawn, when the ex-Emperor sent Lord Kiyonaga to call me to him at once." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I knew that the Lady of the East Wing had spent the night with him and wondered why he had sent for me so early." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Somewhat uneasy, I hurried to his room.\n\n\"It was very late when I let you go to his room as I thought he would be waiting anxiously for you,\" he said to me. \"If it hadn't been something out of the ordinary, I would not have sent for you so early in the morning, when your face still shows the emotions he has aroused. Forgive me for doing so. It is all due to my being so anxious about your well-being." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Last night I had a very strange dream about you. In my dream the prince gave you a five-pointed mace which you put in the bosom of your robes to hide from me. I caught hold of you by the sleeve and asked why you had hidden it from me when I knew everything about you. Weeping, you showed me the mace." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I saw that it was a silver one that had belonged to my father." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I said that I would take it, and just as I took hold of it, I awoke to find it was a dream. I am sure that the mace is a symbol of something you have received tonight. If that is so, it seems to me to indicate that I shall have to take charge of Iwane no MatsuAt the beginning of the third month, one evening when there were few people about and I had noticed that the ex-Emperor had eaten hardly anything for his supper, he called me into his own little private room. I wondered why he was doing this, and was overjoyed to hear him pledge his unchanging affection for me." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I have not called you to me since I had that strange dream,\" he said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I was waiting for one month to pass. I have been very sad and lonely waiting for the time to go.\" I was surprised to hear that this was the reason why he had not sent for me. There was now no doubt at all about my being pregnant again; that short dream of love had brought a new source of trouble on me.\n\nThat one whom I had always regarded as my first real lover," }, { "from": "human", "value": "With longing for you," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Missing you always so much\n\nSince I saw you last,\n\nTill now unceasingly still\n\nI weep in bitter sorrow." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The letter accompanying the poem was very touching and ended, \"If no barrier has been erected to bar my approach, I should like to visit you at your home, if only to stand and look.\"\n\nI replied with a poem expressing my sorrow that circumstances had prevented our meeting,\n\nAgainst my own will,\n\nChanges have befallen me," }, { "from": "human", "value": "To my great sorrow;" }, { "from": "human", "value": "So that through all these changes" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I weep unceasingly still.\n\nTo this I added, \"I am sure that our love for one another will endure for ever.\"\n\nI was afraid that our former intimate relations would never be resumed, but he did come late that night. We began to talk over the unhappy incidents that had happened, but before very long, there was a noise of shouting and we heard that fire had broken out on the corner of Sanjo and Kyogoku streets at Tominokoji." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He thought he ought to go to the palace in haste." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The nights are short at that season of the year. It was soon daylight and then it was too late for him to come back to me. As soon as it was broad daylight, I received a letter from him. \"Last night's unexpected incident,\" he wrote, \"appears like a warning that our attachment for each other is likely to grow weaker and weaker. I fear that the future course of our love will be like that of a boat pushing its slow way through the reeds that impede its progress.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "With the letter was the poem," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Has this long absence\n\nCaused the current of our love\n\nNot to end in one,\n\nLike two converging streams, but" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Disappear into the sand?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was indeed unfortunate that, when after a long interval I had seen him again the night before, we had been prevented from spending a happy night together. In answer to his letter, I sent a letter,\n\nAlthough it may seem\n\nThat our love for each other" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Has come to an end," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Still will my eyes be always\n\nFilled with sad tears of longing.\n\nIf I had been allowed to stay at home a little longer, we might have found another opportunity of meeting, but that evening the ex-Emperor sent a carriage with a message that he wanted me back at the palace at once, and so I returned.\n\nAt the beginning of autumn, I was getting over my morning sickness." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You are getting to the stage now,\" the ex-Emperor said to me jocularly one day about this time, \"when you should have a sacred rope hung round you to warn people that you are taboo. Have you told the prince anything about it yet?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No, I haven't. When have I had an opportunity of telling him?\" I answered." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You do not need to hesitate about doing anything because of what I might say. He may try to conceal from me his relationship with you, but I shall tell him that it is useless for him to try to hide things from me and that he cannot escape from what is so obviously his destiny.\"\n\nThere was nothing I could say in answer to that, but I could imagine what the prince's feelings would be if the ex-Emperor spoke to him in such a way. If I had suggested to him, however, that he should not do this, it might have led him to accuse me of taking the prince's side against him. I could therefore only say, \"You must do as you think best,\" and say no more." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Soon afterwards a course of instruction on the doctrines of Shingon Buddhism was organised at the palace, the ex-Emperor drawing up a list of questions to be answered." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The prince attended and stayed four or five days. When the course of lectures was over, a drinking party was held. I waited on the prince and the ex-Emperor.\n\n\"I have made enquiries far and wide,\" the ex-Emperor said to the prince, \"and I am deeply convinced that sexual relations are not sinful in themselves. Force is powerless against the love one man is predestined to feel for a certain woman. History provides many notable examples of this. The ascetic Jozo, convinced that he was fated to enter into a love relationship with a woman from the northern province of Michinoku, tried to kill her. He failed, and eventually he became her lover. The Empress Somedono tried to persuade the High Priest of the Shiga temple to give up his love for her. She failed, and he became a deep blue demon. A woman whose husband had died was changed by her love for him into a rock which was later called Bofuseki, Yearning-for-Husband Rock. People may even be forced, as a result of the deeds of a former life, to fall in love with an animal, wild or domestic. These things are impossible for us fully to comprehend.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I had a feeling that he was referring to me and the prince in all this." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Tears were in my eyes, and I was in a cold sweat with fear." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "People were going out quietly, and Wan Morning Moon was about to leave also, when the ex-Emperor prevented him going.\n\n\"Stay a little longer,\" he said. \"Let us talk further about religion in these quiet midnight hours.\" I do not know what was said, for, thinking their conversation would involve me, I left and went back to my room." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was well after midnight when the ex-Emperor summoned me to his room." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I took the opportunity,\" he said, \"to tell him everything I had been thinking about you. Parents are blinded by their love for their children, and no parent could dote on his child as I do on you.\" I could not say a word in answer. I could only weep. He was speaking even more affectionately than usual." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You heard what I said to everyone about how impossible it is for anyone to avoid the person he is fated to love. After you had left, I told my brother that I had by accident overheard what he had said to you. I quite understood, I told him, how afraid he might be of what I might say to him, but that he should even at the cost of his life continue to pledge his love for you. He and I should have no secrets from one another. I pointed out to him that it would be most unfortunate if people discovered his secret. No doubt it was due to his actions in a former life that he could not repress his love. I told him that I did not blame him in the slightest for the way in which he had acted. I informed him that you had been in a delicate condition since the spring. At that time I had had a dream in which you had tried to hide from me a silver mace. This dream appeared to me to have a meaning and I had patiently refrained from approaching you until I was absolutely certain that I had understood the meaning of the dream correctly. I told him that I had done this so that I could assure myself of the sincerity of his feelings for you and of his concern for your future. I warned him not to hide anything from me, or he would lose the divine assistance of the protectors of the country, the gods who are worshipped at the Ise, Iwashimizu, Kamo, and Kasuga shrines. If he did this, then my attitude towards him would never change. He remained silent for a time, and then brushing away his tears, he told me that after what I had said he wished to hide nothing from me. It was sad, he told me, that his deeds in a former life had led to his present unhappy situation. He would never cease to be grateful to me for my advice and help not only for the rest of his life but also in the world to come. His remorse for having formed such a strong attachment to you had been utterly unendurable, and he had for three years struggled to free himself. He had prayed to the gods and Buddha for no other thing than this, and he had written out for you a solemn oath. Even then he had not been able to free himself, and now at the end found himself just where he had been at the beginning, like a wheel that had turned full circle. Now that the lady was pregnant, he would retire from his post at the temple in favour of my son who has already taken his vows and go into the mountains to live as a black-clad hermit. He thanked me for my kindness all through the years, but especially for the great consideration I had shown on this occasion. He would be indebted to me through many worlds to come. Then still weeping bitterly, he left me. I felt very sorry for him, for I realised how deeply he loves you.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "For myself, my feelings as I listened to the ex-Emperor's story were mixed; my tears were tears of gratitude as well as of resentment. I realised again the feelings so well expressed in the poem in The Tale of Genji,\n\nBoth my sleeves were drenched\n\nEqually with bitter tears," }, { "from": "human", "value": "But the one with tears" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Of bitterest resentment,\n\nThe other tears of longing.\n\nAs I felt I would like to hear from the prince himself what his feelings were, since he was leaving the palace the next day, I went to his apartment late that night under the pretext that I was taking a message to him from the ex-Emperor. There was no one there with him except a young page who was sleeping in the same room." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He took me into the room where we usually met." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I had hoped,\" he said, \"that the bitterness of our parting that dreadful morning would have led to a happier and more pious life for me. That it has not proved to be so must be because I still long for your love. I am sorry for myself at finding myself still in this quandary.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Reminded by this of the look on his face on the morning we parted with so much bitterness, I felt impelled to run away from him at once. Realising at the same time, however, that we should be parting when he left the palace at the conclusion of the study sessions, as is usual at such times, I came to feel more and more drawn to him and finally spent the night with him. His tears fell on my sleeves the whole night through, and I had no thought to spare for what would become of me afterwards. I listened to his story and heard all over again what the ex-Emperor had told him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It shows how much I love you,\" he said, \"that now that His Majesty knows all about our relationship with one another, my only worry is whether we shall have an opportunity of meeting each other in the future. Now that you are bearing my child, it does not seem as improbable as it did formerly for me to hope that we can marry and I can bring up the child as my son and not have to leave him to the care of others.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "On hearing this, my joy and my love were unbounded. \"The coming baby,\" he went on, \"is already the cause of a great deal of concern to me.\" So we talked, weeping and laughing in turn, till dawn broke. Choked with tears, he asked when we could meet again and I expressed my hope for such a meeting in the poem," }, { "from": "human", "value": "Would that the image" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Now of the wan morning moon\n\nMirrored on my sleeves\n\nCould show a face as loving\n\nTomorrow as it does now." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His tender love for me had roused in me a love for him as tender as his." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I was still lying down in my room, continuing to ponder over the manner in which I had been caught fast in the foreordained chains of love, when the ex-Emperor summoned me. He was still in his bedroom.\n\n\"I was expecting you last night,\" he said abruptly. \"I lay awake waiting for you all the night.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I made no answer." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You must be missing him and bewailing the fact that the night has passed so soon,\" he went on." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I still had no answer to make. I wondered why I should have to be so torn between two men when so many women in the world could devote themselves solely to one man. I could not help bursting into tears. What kind of tears did he think them to be, I wondered." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Were you lying in bed living over at your leisure the events of last night's happy meeting?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "he enquired. How wrong he was! Listening to him thus cruelly criticising me, saying things which hurt me more than anything he had ever said before, I realised that things were turning out just as I feared they would. The future seemed very black. I tried in vain to hold back my tears." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He took them for tears of yearning perhaps." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You are still missing the one from whom you have only just now parted. You are offended because I sent for you.\" He broke off what he was saying, looking very angry, and I left him to go back to my room.\n\nFeeling very wretched and miserable, I kept away from him all the day, but fearing that he might be even more angry with me if I continued to do so, I went to him in the evening, wishing with all my heart that I could get away from life at court which had brought so much sadness to me and hasten to the peaceful life on the other side of the mountains. The old poem says," }, { "from": "human", "value": "I wish I could find," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Beyond Yoshino mountains\n\nClad now with blossom,\n\nA lodging and a refuge\n\nFrom the world's annoyances." }, { "from": "human", "value": "After the study session had finished, the prince had stayed on and was still there with his brother." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They were chatting more pleasantly together than usual, but I did not feel comfortable sitting there talking with them, and I soon left. Coming out through the kettle-room, I met him.\n\n\"I have come to the palace today as I am on duty from tomorrow,\" he said to me. \"I'm sorry I've not had a chance lately even to hear the sound of your voice.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I was listening to him with the feeling that there seemed to be no place where I could feel at ease, when the ex-Emperor called me back." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I went in, wondering what I was wanted for this time, and found that he was going to have a drinking party in the quiet, matted room. There were one or two ladies-in-waiting there, but he obviously thought this was not enough. Hearing the voices of Lord Morochika and Lord Sanekane in the main hall outside, he called them in too. There was a great deal of noisy merrymaking, but it was all over before I was ready for it to end, and when the prince left for the early evening prayers in the room of the little princess, I missed him very much." }, { "from": "human", "value": "This evening I had put on the maternity belt which had been given to me without any ceremony by the ex-Emperor, but I could not help feeling forlorn as I wondered what attitude he was going to take about me and the child." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I was on duty that night and he talked to me all through the night in a most affectionate manner. That made me feel all the more wretched.\n\nThe ex-Emperor had requested that the annual ceremony of offering flowers to Buddha should be carried out in an even more solemn manner than usual. Everyone was busy with the preparations, but I asked for leave of absence as I felt in my condition it would be better for me not to be there." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The ex-Emperor, however, refused his permission; among the crowd present no one would notice, he said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I was attending on him in a pale purple robe, a green over-robe, a scarlet mantle and an under-robe of reddish-brown lined with yellow, when I heard that Wan Morning Moon had arrived. My heart fluttered agitatedly when at the end of the ceremony he came into the hall to make the offering, but I do not think he knew I was there.\n\nAt this moment a court lady came to me. \"His Majesty has noticed a fan left behind in the hall. He wishes you to take it to him.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I felt that there was something rather suspicious about this request." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Nevertheless, I opened the middle door and looked into the hall. There was no fan to be seen. I closed the door and turned to the lady. \"There's no fan there,\" I said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The lady then went back to report to the ex-Emperor.\n\nInside the hall, the prince had seen me when I opened the door. Knowing now where I was, he opened the door a little way.\n\n\"It is amazing how much I have missed you,\" he said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I've been more wretched than ever since I left you. Don't be cruel to me. Go to your home, and we'll get someone who can keep a secret to arrange for me to meet you there.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I had not the heart to refuse him, although I was frightened that our secret should leak out and the prince's reputation be ruined." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 5 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"If we can be certain that our secret will not be discovered, I agree,\" I said, and closed the door.\n\nWhen the ceremony was over and the prince had left the palace, I went in to the ex-Emperor. \"What did you do about the fan?\" he said to me with a laugh. Then for the first time I understood that he had had his usual kind purpose in sending me the message." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "ill start, then u do 7 sentences in Lady Nijō's voice ok?" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In the tenth month, with the gloomy overcast sky and the frequent showers making me sadder than ever before, I left for my stepmother's house at Saga and went into retreat at the Horinji temple. At Arashiyama, the winds were blowing as if they would blow away all my sorrows; the autumn-tinted leaves were falling into the waters of the river Oi until it seemed a wonderful brocade. The sight reminded me of many episodes of the past, private as well as public. I remembered especially the ceremony when the late Emperor Go Saga had recited the Lotus Flower sutra from the copy he had written out with his own hand. How splendidly all the lords and ladies were dressed! What extravagant offerings they had made! Now all these people had gone, never to return; only to my envy the river Oi flowed on just as it had done that day." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I wondered sadly with whose lament the belling of the deer now harmonised. The poem I wrote as I listened to them expresses something of my feelings,\n\nIt is I alone\n\nWho sorrow-laden must weep.\n\nWhat then ails the deer\n\nWho continue ceaselessly\n\nTheir melancholy wailing?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was on an evening even more melancholy than usual that a visitor of high rank was announced." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was the Yamamomo Chujo, Fujiwara no Kaneyuki. He was ushered into my room, and I went to meet him. I found something rather strange in his attitude towards me.\n\n\"The Empress Dowager Omiya has suddenly fallen ill,\" he said. \"His Majesty came to the Saga palace this morning to visit his mother and is staying at the Oi mansion there. Before his departure he enquired where you were and when he learnt that you were here, he asked that you should join him at Oi. He asked me to inform you that as he had undertaken this visit at such short notice he had brought no lady with him. If you were in retreat as, he knew, you had intended, he would like you to interrupt it in order to join him.\"\n\nIt was the fifth day of my retreat and my conscience was rather disturbed at the prospect of not being able to complete the last two days. I could not, however, easily refuse and so I went to join him in the carriage which had been sent for me." }, { "from": "human", "value": "At the Oi mansion I found, as Lord Kaneyuki had said, that there were no ladies in attendance; most of them had been sent home on leave, the ex-Emperor relying on my being available." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The two ex-Emperors had come in the same carriage, no one accompanying them except Lord Sanekane who rode in the rear seat. Just as I arrived, dinner was being brought over from the palace.\n\nThe Empress Dowager, they had found, had been suffering merely from a slight attack of beri-beri, and the ex-Emperors, relieved to find that their mother's illness was not very serious, decided to hold a party in celebration, the ex-Emperor to act as host and Lord Sanekane to make the arrangements. Ten lunch boxes decorated with paintings and filled with rice and fish and relishes were placed in front of each guest. Wine cups were exchanged three times, the boxes exchanged for fresh ones, and the wine cups exchanged nine times.\n\nThe Empress Dowager was presented with a model harp and a model lute of red and purple cloth with a plectrum of silver. The new ex-Emperor was presented with a miniature shrine covered in purple with curtains of various colours on the four sides and a piece of crystal set in a wooden stand in a bowl to represent the ashes of Buddha." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The ladies of the house received a hundred quires of letter paper and dress-lengths." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The lords were presented with saddle-cruppers and dyed leather harness." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Everything was done without consideration of the expense, and the merrymaking went on all through the night.\n\nI served the wine as usual. The ex-Emperor played the lute, the new ex-Emperor the flute, Lord Kimmori and the princess who was being brought up by the Empress Dowager the harp, Lord Sanekane the lute, Lord Kinhira the pan-pipes, and Lord Kaneyuki the flageolet. As the night wore on, the wind among the pines of Arashiyama sounded louder and louder and the bell at the Jokongo-in temple could be heard. The ex-Emperor recited part of the poem by the tenth-century scholar, Sugawara no Michizane, \"Looking out at the tiled roofs of the Capital.\" Everyone admitted his performance surpassed all the rest.\n\n\"Who has the wine cup now?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "said the Empress Dowager." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It's in front of me,\" said the new ex-Emperor." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She expressed the wish to drink to the accompaniment of the new ex-Emperor's singing. He agreed. The ex-Emperor took the cup and the wine bottle, went in to her behind her bamboo screen and offered her one cup of wine. He then began to recite an old Chinese poem, and his brother joined in to make it a duet.\n\n\"Listen to what an old woman has to say to you both,\" their mother said to them. \"It must always be a source of sorrow to me that I was born in such an age of decadence and corruption as this is. Yet I have been fortunate enough to attain to the dignity of an empress. As the mother of you two ex-Emperors, through your two reigns I was Empress-Mother. I have now reached the age of three score years and can look back on my life with no regrets and can look forward to a rebirth in Paradise in as exalted a rank. My pleasure this evening is a foretaste of the pleasure of that dawn on the exalted Lotus Flower, your voices as beautiful as those of the immortal birds of Paradise itself. Sing to me a ballad, and I will take another cup of wine.\"\n\nThe new ex-Emperor was invited inside her screen, Lord Sanekane being asked to put up a small screen behind her while the bamboo blind was wound half up. The two ex-Emperors then sang charmingly," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I recall those evenings\n\nWhen I waited patiently\n\nFor her at the trysting place.\n\nWith what emotion\n\nI remember those pledges\n\nAnd those sweetly sad partings\n\nUnder the morning moon." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The singing of this ballad brought all those present to maudlin tears and tipsy talk of old times. Finally, not so full of spirits now perhaps, the Empress Dowager left the hall, and the two ex-Emperors went to the Oi mansion, two or three courtiers accompanying them. Lord Sanekane, saying that he had caught cold, did not go with them.\n\n\"As no one else is here,\" the ex-Emperor said to me, \"you will have to stay on duty with us.\" The two brothers went to bed. I was told to massage their legs, but I was a long time about this as I was alone and had no one to help me.\n\n\"Lie down by our side,\" the younger brother said to me repeatedly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No,\" said the elder, \"she is in a delicate condition. She has been on leave of absence until I asked her to come here as there was no lady on duty with us here. She is already finding it difficult to move about easily. It would be different if she were not like that.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The younger brother persisted. \"There is no reason for worry as long as you keep her close to your side. In The Tale of Genji the Emperor Suzaku gives even his daughter to his younger brother, Genji. Why should just this lady be forbidden me? I have told you that any lady in my service is at your disposal.\"\n\nJust then it was time for the new ex-Emperor to go out to welcome the former Vestal Virgin who had come on a visit to Lady Azechi and had been invited to stay at the Oi mansion. While his younger brother was absent, the ex-Emperor, who was really very drunk, went to sleep without calling me to him.\n\nOn his return the new ex-Emperor, seeing that no one was in the room with his brother, brought a screen behind him over to me. To my misery, his brother knew nothing of what was going on.\n\nWhen it was nearly dawn, the new ex-Emperor went over to his sleeping brother and shook him until at last he woke up." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I was so sound asleep that the Lady got up and left me,\" said the elder brother." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"She was here till just this minute,\" the younger one said.\n\nWhat had happened was not my fault, I thought, as I waited for the ex-Emperor to call me to him. But there was no call.\n\nThat evening the new ex-Emperor was the host at the entertainment, and Kagefusa, Lord Sanekane's father's retainer, was in charge of the arrangements.\n\n\"Yesterday Lord Sanekane made the arrangements. Today his father's retainer does it. There's no balance,\" a carping critic might have said about this, but in reality everything was quite up to the standard of the evening before. The Empress Dowager was presented with a sleeve ornament of rocks made of cloth on a background of waves on which was a wooden boat containing cakes of clove powder. The ex-Emperor was given an agilawood pillow in a silver basket-work case." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Each of the ladies was presented with an embroidered miniature landscape with hills and waterfalls. The lords each received a persimmon of dyed leather. Probably because the new ex-Emperor had suggested to his elder brother that I should be the only one of his ladies invited to accompany him, I was given a special present of a book of ten pages of figured satin and ten of purple silk with the titles of the fifty-four chapters of The Tale of Genji written on them. The party was quite uneventful; perhaps that of the previous night had exhausted all the merriment. Lord Sanekane was not present. He had a cold, he said; but some thought that this was just an excuse.\n\nThat night, too, the two ex-Emperors stayed at the Oi mansion." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They had a meal after the party, and I waited on them." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They slept in the same room and I found it very distasteful to have to sleep with them, but there was nothing I could do about it. This was one of the reasons why I wished so heartily to be completely finished with life at court.\n\nThe two ex-Emperors left for the Capital together. I excused myself from accompanying them because I had interrupted my retreat at the Horinji temple and also because of my condition. I would like, I said, to stay on at the Oi house and then return home. Lord Sanekane accompanied the ex-Emperor, and Lord Kimmori the younger brother.\n\nIt was very lonely when they left with a great deal of noise and laughter." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I stayed on for the day at the invitation of the Empress Dowager." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 8 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "During the day a letter arrived for her from the ex-Empress Higashi Nijo. I wondered what this could be about. I was soon to learn.\n\n\"What's all this?\" the Empress Dowager muttered to herself as she read the letter. \"She must be crazy.\"\n\n\"What do you mean?\" I asked.\n\n\"She says I favour you too much, that at some party or other I spoke of you as the ex-Emperor's greatest favourite. She's jealous of you because you were brought to my party. She says that although she is no longer young, having been married to him for twenty-five years, she is sure that he still thinks more of her than any other woman.\" The Empress Dowager wanted me to read the letter, but I was unwilling to do this and left the palace to go to the home of my old nurse at the corner of Shijo and Omiya streets." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Mode:\nCo-writing\n\nLength:\ntwo sentences\n\nStyle:\nLady Nijō\nGenre:\nJapan, nonfiction, memoirs, 1300s" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Soon afterwards I had a letter from Wan Morning Moon. He was staying in the neighbourhood at the home of his much-loved page boy." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I was much afraid that my frequent visits to him there would cause malicious rumours about him to spread and wished he would cease coming into the neighbourhood." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was not that I feared any misfortune which might come to me. He did not mind either; as he said to me, \"If the worst comes to the worst, I can always go and live in a hut in the mountains.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Towards the end of the tenth month, I felt very sick, much worse than the last time, as well as feeling helpless and lonely." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The ex-Emperor had asked my grandfather, the War Minister, to see to everything for me, but I felt as if no one really cared what happened to me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "One night, very late, I heard a carriage draw up stealthily. There was a knock on the door." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The Lady Kyogoku has come with a message from the Tominokoji palace,\" a voice called out." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "With some misgivings I opened the door to find to my amazement that it was the ex-Emperor himself, heavily disguised, in an ordinary, simple basket-work carriage. His visit was quite unexpected." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He had something particular to discuss, he told me, speaking in a most affectionate manner." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Everyone seems to know about your relations with Wan Morning Moon,\" he said to me when he had come in to my room. \"Some people are falsely accusing me of being responsible for it all. I shall have to resign myself to that. Now I happen to know that a lady with whom I have been intimate for some time gave birth to a still-born child this evening. I have told the family to keep this secret and to pretend that the birth has not yet taken place. I want you to let her have the child and pretend that your own child was still-born. In this way, I hope, people's criticism of you both will be scotched. I have been extremely worried about the scandal that might ensue if it became known that you had had a child by him and I thought out this plan to avoid it.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Surprised by the songs of the birds at dawn to find it so late, he hurried away. I was grateful to him for his thoughtfulness, but it all reminded me too much of the old tales of such exchanges of babies at birth." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I was sad to think that for the third time I was to lose my baby to someone else." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "While I was still sunk in such dismal thoughts, a letter arrived from the ex-Emperor. \"This night's visit had an uncommon purpose,\" he wrote, \"and will remain memorable for long.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He added the poem," }, { "from": "human", "value": "Now for the first time" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Have I stayed in such a house,\n\nRustic and shabby;" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Yet because it is your home," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It will remain dear to me.\n\nHow long would his affection for me endure, I wondered, and felt uneasy at the thought." }, { "from": "human", "value": "My poem in answer read," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Sadly I wonder,\n\nAs I sit in this garden" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Overgrown with weeds," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "How long you will continue\n\nTo come here to visit me." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Towards evening I heard that Wan Morning Moon was in the neighbourhood, but feeling unwell, no doubt because I was getting near to my time, I did not feel like going to see him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "After midnight, however, I was surprised to have an unexpected visit from him. There were only two or three people of the house there, all of them trustworthy, and so I let him into my room." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I told him what the ex-Emperor had arranged on his visit the night before." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I realise how impossible it is for me to keep the child,\" he said sorrowfully. \"It must be a great blow to you not to be able to do so when so many people in the same situation can do so. Still, now that His Majesty has kindly arranged all this, we can but fall in with it.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "And as he was saying this, with the dawn bell beginning to toll, a baby boy was born." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I could not say which of us he took after, but he was certainly very lovely." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The prince took the baby on his lap and talked to him. \"You were so devout in your previous life,\" he said to him, weeping bitterly and speaking to him as if he were a grown-up person, \"that you have had a safe and easy birth.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Then as dawn was breaking, he left the house reluctantly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I gave away the child as the ex-Emperor had arranged and heard no more of him. People may well have believed my story that the child was still-born; in any case no unpleasant rumours spread about the prince." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Task: Cooperative storytelling\nMy role: Provide a brief opening\nYour role: Expand upon my opening with 4 sentences, emulating the writing style of Lady Nijō in the Japan, nonfiction, memoirs, 1300s genre." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The child was born on the sixth day of the eleventh month and the prince continued to visit me every night." }, { "from": "human", "value": "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." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"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. 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. 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." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He was therefore quite at his ease sitting with me, undisturbed by any fear of discovery. As for me, I could not understand how he could be so unperturbed; my heart was in a flutter all the day.\n\nWe talked on and on all through the day. He told me what he had done when we parted in bitterness under that morning moon." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "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.\"\n\nThe 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." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But 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": "human", "value": "He dozed for a little while and then he awoke with a startled look and broke into a perspiration." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"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. 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. He went away as the dawn bells rang out, and I missed him much more than ever before." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Soon the page who lived in the neighbourhood brought me this poem," }, { "from": "human", "value": "Now that I have left" }, { "from": "human", "value": "My 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?\n\nI 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,\n\nThen tell me which one of us" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Misses 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. Then to my great distress I heard that he was dangerously ill.\n\nOn the twenty-first I received a letter from him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"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,\n\nMy body may die\n\nBut my longing heart is left" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Behind with you here," }, { "from": "human", "value": "My last prayer that my smoke may" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Turn towards the place where you are.\n\nHow could I possibly describe my feelings on reading this letter? My grief was unbearable when I realised that our parting the other morning was in all probability for ever. I wrote a poem in answer to his," }, { "from": "human", "value": "If I live till then," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I hope I shall see the smoke\n\nRise 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. I did not know what to do, because perhaps my whole life had been such a life of sin." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I 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." }, { "from": "human", "value": "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. His perfume still lingered on my sleeve which he had used as a pillow." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "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. I felt thwarted and frustrated.\n\nAt daybreak next morning I was told that the page boy had come." }, { "from": "human", "value": "More or less in a trance I hurried out myself to see him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "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." }, { "from": "human", "value": "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.\n\n\"Have my body cremated with this gown on,\" he said to the grieving page boy." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "At the same time he handed him a letter for me with a present.\n\nThe 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": "human", "value": "I felt that I was being washed away by the same swift current as he, and my thoughts expressed themselves in the poem," }, { "from": "human", "value": "If to the next world" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I could go to meet him there\n\nAt the Three-Way Stream,\n\nThen would I willingly go,\n\nSacrificing my own life." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It seems that even at such a time and stricken with grief, my mind was still capable of composing poems. 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": "gpt", "value": "The prince's death must have grieved the ex-Emperor very much, for the two brothers had been very close to each other. \"How are you taking the news of his death?\" he asked in a letter to me. It was obviously difficult to give a simple plain answer to such a question as that." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The poem accompanying his letter read,\n\nNow that from your sight\n\nHe has faded completely,\n\nStill to the mind's eye" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The face of Wan Morning Moon\n\nMust 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;\n\nIn my mind's eye though" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Not alone seen clearly is\n\nThe face of Wan Morning Moon.\n\nFinding 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." }, { "from": "human", "value": "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": "gpt", "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. 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": "AI writing task: user input -> eight sentences sentences. style: Lady Nijō. genre: Japan, nonfiction, memoirs, 1300s." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I passed New Year's Day immersed still in grief. The fifteenth day was the forty-ninth day after the prince's death. On that day I went into retreat at the temple at Higashiyama, whose High Priest I respected greatly. I attended a special service and conference and made an offering to the temple of some of the gold dust from the bag which the prince had left me. On the outside of the wrapper, I wrote the poem,\n\nThough we are parted,\n\nBe thou my guide on the way\n\nTo the world to come," }, { "from": "human", "value": "That we may meet on that dawn" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When the Buddha greets the saved.\n\nThe High Priest was a preacher of some renown, and I wept as I listened to his sermon, for it seemed it was the prince's voice I could hear preaching.\n\nI stayed in retreat until the fifteenth day of the second month, the anniversary of the death of S'akya Buddha. My mourning on this sad commemoration was increased by my own recent sorrowful bereavement. Afterwards in the private apartments of the High Priest there was held a series of lectures for fourteen days to follow the week of special services for the spring equinox. It was a happy occasion for me, spending the days reciting the sutras. At the same time it was sad, for I had to keep secret the name of the person for whose intention I was reciting them and could write down each time only the words, \"Unforgotten pledge of love.\" On the last day of these devotions I wrote this poem on the last page of the prayer book," }, { "from": "human", "value": "The setting of the sun" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Has renewed my sorrow;\n\nI must wait so long\n\nFor the rising of the moon\n\nHeralding that glorious dawn.\n\nI had no letter from the ex-Emperor while I was staying at Higashiyama. It was just as I had feared that it would be. I was so depressed that I decided I would return to the Capital on the day following the end of the devotions. On the last night, services continued throughout the night, none of the priests going to sleep." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I lay down in the lecture theatre and just as dawn was about to break, I dozed off and dreamed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In my dream the prince appeared to me, looking just as he did when he was alive.\n\n\"Life in this sad world is one long, dark road,\" he said, clutching me tightly.\n\nI awoke to find myself feeling really ill. I was near to fainting.\n\n\"It would be better for you to stay here today and continue your devotions,\" the High Priest said, seeing how ill I looked.\n\nI had, however, already ordered a carriage and it would have been inconvenient to cancel it. I therefore set out for the Capital. When I came to the western end of the Kiyomizu bridge, I felt that the prince's spirit was with me in the carriage just as I had seen him in my dream." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I was so upset that I fainted away." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The maid who was with me took care of me and brought me safely to my old nurse's home. I was seriously ill, not even being able to drink water, remaining in this condition until after the middle of the third month, by which time it was obvious to me that I was again pregnant. Since my last meeting with the prince, I had kept myself absolutely pure, refraining even from the exchange of meaningful glances with anyone. There could be no doubt about the prince being the father of my child. Our relationship had left me with many sad memories, but now I had a precious and lovely memory because it was one unknown to anyone else. Now I began to be anxious, perhaps immoderately so, about the future of my child, now my dearest memory of the prince.\n\nAbout the tenth day of the fourth month, the ex-Emperor sent for me, saying he had some special business he wished to discuss with me. I was reluctant to go as I did not wish to be seen by people in my delicate condition." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I excused myself, saying I was too ill." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He replied with the poem," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Why is it that still\n\nYou so occupy yourself\n\nWith his memory\n\nWho has now cut himself free\n\nFrom all the ties of this world?\n\nTo this he added the note, \"Believing that you had no time for anything but mourning your loss, I have refrained from intruding on your grief now that I have no other claim on you but that of an old, old friend.\" He was obviously offended with me. At the time I believed it was because he thought I was still obsessed with my longings for Wan Morning Moon." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I learnt later, however, that while Kameyama was still the reigning emperor, my old nurse's son, Nakayori, one of the most trusted of the emperor's officers, had told the ex-Emperor that Kameyama and I had, by his help, become lovers and that I was contemplating leaving the ex-Emperor for Kameyama. The ex-Emperor suspected that the liaison was still continuing, although at the time I knew nothing of his suspicions.\n\nI gradually recovered from my illness and at the beginning of the fifth month, I decided to return to my duties at the court. I considered it was better not to leave it till later or my condition would be too obvious. The ex-Emperor appeared to avoid talking to me, though when he did, his attitude did not appear to be unusually cold. I continued to feel depressed day and night, but I stayed on at the palace until I was able to leave on the excuse of going into mourning for a relative who had just died.\n\nFrom this time I particularly wished to hide the fact that I was going to have a child, and so I secluded myself at the house of a relative near Higashiyama. There were very few visitors to the house, and I felt I was living in a totally different world." }, { "from": "human", "value": "About the twentieth of the eighth month my labour pains began." }, { "from": "human", "value": "On the previous occasions, however much I had had to hide myself from people, there were always a few visitors who came to see me." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Now there was no one; I had no friend save the sad belling of the deer on the hills night and day." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Still there were no complications and the boy was born. How can one help loving the child one has borne? Especially when the child is a son, just as his father's dream of a mandarin drake had foretold. It was a strong tie that united the three of us. I had always felt it sad that, as I lost my mother when I was two years of age, I could not remember her face. This child would grieve too that his father had died before he was born. With this thought in my mind, I always kept him at my side. As there was no one in the neighbourhood who could act as his nurse, I fed him myself, fondling him tenderly as I did so." }, { "from": "human", "value": "When his bed next to mine was wet under him, I would take him into my own where I kept him in my arms and for the first time in my life experienced the joys of motherhood." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 4 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "For more than forty days I looked after him on my own because I could not bear his leaving my side. Even when I had a suitable nurse come from Yamazaki, he still had his little bed next to mine. I could not bring myself to leave him to go back to my duties at the court, but it would soon be winter and the ex-Emperor urged me not to remain away any longer. I therefore went back at the beginning of the tenth month and so the end of the old year came." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Provide 4 sentences as a continuation in the Japan, nonfiction, memoirs, 1300s genre." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "At the New Year I felt extremely miserable for several reasons. For one thing, I was not happy about having no suitable clothes to wear for the celebrations. Also, although the ex-Emperor said nothing to me that I could reasonably object to, yet he seemed rather distant with me. Only the one who was my friend of bygone days came to see me.In the second month there was a series of sermons at the equinox at the Saga palace with the two ex-Emperors present." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "While I was there, I could not forget the image of the one who had attended the sermons one year before. In my misery, I prayed for help to Buddha, \"In accordance with your pledge to save all souls, graciously lead into Paradise the soul of my dear one who may still be wandering in the nether world.\" My thoughts found expression in the poem,\n\nThe tears shed for you" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Flow onward like a torrent," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As this Oi river;\n\nI would I could drown in it\n\nSo might I see you again.\n\nWhatever I thought of made me unhappy." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ties of love made me disgruntled." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "What I wanted to do was exactly what I had suggested in my poem, to drown myself. I set about destroying old letters and keepsakes. But then I thought of my child. If I abandoned him, he would have no one to look after him with loving care." }, { "from": "human", "value": "My resolution weakened. One's ties with one's child, I realised, are the most formidable obstacles to one's renouncing the world." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I expressed my thoughts in the poem," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Why was it his fate\n\nThus to be born fatherless\n\nAnd left to stand\n\nLike a solitary pine" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "On a long-deserted shore?\n\nWhen the ex-Emperors returned to the Capital, I got leave to go to see my child. He had grown quite a lot. He prattled, smiled, and crowed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It moved me to tears to watch him, and I felt I ought really not to have come." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Then, at the beginning of autumn, I received a letter from my grandfather, Lord Takachika, the Minister of War. \"Vacate your room immediately,\" he wrote, \"and come here prepared to stay permanently. I will send to fetch you this evening.\"\n\nI could not grasp the full import of this letter and went to see the ex-Emperor. \"What does he mean by this suggestion?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I asked. He made no answer.\n\nI could think of no cause for this. I went to Lady Genkimon, who was perhaps called Lady Third Grade then, the Lady of the East Wing. \"What has caused my grandfather to make this suggestion?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I said. \"I have already asked the ex-Emperor about it, but I could get no answer from him.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I don't know either,\" she said.\n\nIt seemed impossible for me, however, to persist in remaining at the palace.\n\nAs I got things ready that day for my departure, I could not help recalling bygone days. It was in the ninth month, when I was only in my fourth year, that I had come there for the first time." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Since then it had been my home, and I had thought of it in that way even when I was away from it on home leave. Now that I was seeing it for the last time, I was moved to tears by the sight of every familiar plant and tree.\n\nWhile I was packing, it happened that the lord who had most cause for being distant with me\"What is the matter?\" he asked, for he could see by my tears that something was wrong." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I could not say a word for my sobs and showed him my grandfather's letter of that morning." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"That is why I am weeping,\" I said.\n\nI invited him into my room, and we talked about the letter, but he had no idea what was the matter. Those ladies whom I had known for a long time also tried to comfort me, but they had no idea of the reason for the letter either. I could do nothing but weep." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Although I was now convinced that the ex-Emperor did not wish me to remain any longer in his service, that evening I ventured to go in to see him, in spite of the fact that he might resent my intrusion." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It might be for the last time, I thought.\n\nIt was a great mistake to have gone. I found him chatting with two or three lords. I was dressed in a thin glossy silk robe embroidered in blue with a design of arrowroot and pampas grass with a red mantle." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Well, you're leaving us tonight, aren't you?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "he said, glancing at me. I remained silent, not knowing what to say. \"People say that the meaning of Arrowroot' is 'come.' By wearing a robe with that design, I hope you're not implying that you are coming back.\" Then he went off, perhaps to the apartments of the ex-Empress, humming the tune, \"How hateful to me is this arrowroot!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "How could I feel anything but bitter hatred for him?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "We had pledged everlasting love for each other many, many times over the years, vowing that nothing should ever separate us from one another. How could he be so unfeeling now? I wished I could die on the spot. What had caused him to be so callous?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Still, there was nothing I could do." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I thought of hiding myself somewhere, but I wished to know for certain what the real reason was. The carriage was waiting, and I went off to the Minister's house on Nijo street.\n\nMy grandfather came out to welcome me himself. \"It's just old age that's the matter with me,\" he said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I don't know when I shall get over it. I've got so weak and tired lately that I wanted you to come here. I felt anxious about you as you have no father and Takaaki is no longer alive. Also I have had a letter from the ex-Empress which made me consider that it would not be wise in the circumstances for you to continue in the service of the ex-Emperor.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He took out the letter and I read it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I disapprove of your granddaughter's behaviour in continually belittling me,\" the ex-Empress had written. \"Recall her from the ex-Emperor's service at once and look after her. As her mother is dead, that is your responsibility.\" She had written the letter in her own handwriting. After reading it, I could not but conclude that the wisest course for me was to leave the palace when the ex-Empress showed such hostility." }, { "from": "human", "value": "All through the long autumn nights the cloth-beaters' mallets brought to my sleepless pillow from every direction their melancholy thuds while the wild geese flying high in the sky dropped tears of dew on the bush clover shrubs in the garden." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 1 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "So the days passed, and the year was coming to an end." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Expand the story by adding 7 sentences in the Japan, nonfiction, memoirs, 1300s genre." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As I was not looking forward with any anticipation of pleasure to the New Year, I decided to go into a thousand-day retreat at the Yasaka shrine, thus fulfilling a vow I had been prevented from performing by this circumstance or that for a number of years.\n\nOn the second day of the eleventh month, it being the first day of the Hare, there was to be a performance of Sacred Dance and Music at the Hachiman shrine at Iwashimizu. I went there to worship, remembering the words of the old poet who wrote,\n\nTo the worship of the gods\n\nHave I devoted my soul.\n\nI wrote at the time this poem,\n\nCeaselessly I pray" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "For the favour of the gods,\n\nYet must I bewail\n\nMy fate that my prayers always\n\nRemain still unrewarded.\n\nAfter seven days of retreat at the Yasaka shrine, I went back to Iwashimizu where I offered up this prayer to the god, \"Having no wish to continue my life in this world, I pray you deliver me from the raging fire of this world that I may enter the gate of salvation.\n\nOn the anniversary of the death of Wan Morning Moon, I had the Lotus Flower sutra recited for seven days at the temple at Higashiyama. I attended the service every day, returning each evening to the Yasaka shrine." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The recitation came to an end on the anniversary of his death on the twenty-fifth day of the eleventh month. The ringing of the bells moving me to tears, I wrote,\n\nWhy am I afraid\n\nOf leaving this present world\n\nSo full of sorrow\n\nWhere I weep to the ringing\n\nOf the peals of mourning bells?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I now took over the care of my child whom I had kept hidden away in the hope that he might prove to be a comfort to me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I was touched to see him full of vigour, walking about or running, and talking, free from all anxiety and worry.\n\nMy grandfather had passed away during the year before with the dews of autumn in a year full of saddening incidents. I ought to have described his death in more detail perhaps, but my mind had been too preoccupied with my having left the court. Now that I had nothing else to occupy me during the long days and nights, I had more leisure to see him as being the only relative I had had on my mother's side on whom I could rely after my mother's death. It must have been because I was at heart deeply conscious of this that I now mourned his death with such grief.\n\nGradually the different varieties of cherry trees came into blossom in the garden of the shrine, recalling to my mind the divine oracle ascribed to the shrine's god which foretells prosperity to those who plant a tree when at last a thousand trees are planted,\n\nWhen the time comes that" }, { "from": "human", "value": "In the garden of the shrine" }, { "from": "human", "value": "A thousand trees bloom," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Then those who have planted them\n\nWill enjoy prosperity.\n\nI thought, therefore, that I ought to present at least a branch to the shrine in the belief that, whether it was a root or just a branch, it would bring prosperity to me. Through the favour of a cousin of mine, the High Priest Shingen, I was able to present a cherry branch in front of the Amida-in temple which is a chapel of the Danna-in temple on Mt. Hiei in charge of the High Priest Kin-yo.\n\nThis I did on the first day of the Horse in the second month, the ceremony being conducted by the High Priest En-yo, administrator of the temple, to whom I made a present of a thin silk robe and a white one lined with red. To the branch I attached a pale blue label with the poem," }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 8 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Come into full bloom,\n\nEven though no root you have,\n\nFor the god knows well\n\nHow sincere the petitions\n\nI have entrusted to you.\n\nThe branch did take root and bloom, and I was certain my piety would be rewarded. I then began the recitation of one thousand volumes of the sutras, but feeling it rather a presumption to occupy a room at the temple any longer, I moved into the eastern one of the two hermitages at the rear of the Hoto-in temple. So I continued with my retreat until the old year came to an end." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "i'll kick things off by writing a bit, then you'll take over and write the next one sentence in the distinctive voice of Lady Nijō." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In the first month of the new year, I received a letter from the Empress Dowager Omiya, the mother of the two ex-Emperors." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The titular ex-Empress of Kitayama has attained the ripe old age of ninety,\" she wrote." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I have been busy since the beginning of the year with preparations for the celebration. I am not concerned at all with the reasons why you have been away from the court for a long time and would like you to join the other ladies-in-waiting on this occasion. Please come to the ex-Empress's residence.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I thank you for your kind invitation,\" I wrote in answer." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I have been away from court because the ex-Emperor appears to think ill of me. Although I should have been pleased to accept your kind invitation, I am afraid that in these circumstances it would not be advisable for me to join the other ladies.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You need not worry about these difficulties,\" the Empress Dowager wrote in a letter in her own handwriting." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You must bear in mind that from the time of your childhood you and your mother stood high in the favour of the ex-Empress of Kitayama. You are in a different position from any of the other ladies. In the circumstances you cannot absent yourself from the celebration.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "So, fearing that any further refusal on my part might seem to be unaccommodating, I accepted the invitation." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As I intended to return to complete my retreat, I had a substitute there to represent me for the period of my absence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A carriage was provided for me and all the arrangements made by Lord Sanekane." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As I already thought of myself as a countrywoman, I was afraid that I should mar the brilliant atmosphere, but I went to the palace in a set of three white robes lined with dark red and a cloak of yellowish green lined with pink." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As I had expected, preparations had been made for the celebration to be carried out on a lavish scale." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The two ex-Emperors, the ex-Empress Higashi Nijo, and her daughter Princess Yugimon, who later became consort of the Emperor Go Uda, had already arrived." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The new ex-Emperor's consort, Shinyomeimon, was present, though incognito." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "On the twenty-ninth day of the second month the Emperor and the Crown Prince arrived for the celebration which was to begin the next day." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The Emperor came in a procession of three palanquins, his own palanquin being halted outside the main entrance where to the sound of court music he was greeted with divine honours by the appointed official." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Lord Kinhira, Commander of the Gate Guards of the Left and Steward of the Household of the Empress Dowager Omiya, having reported the Emperor's arrival to her, had the Emperor's palanquin brought round to the middle gate where the Chujo Nijo no Kanemoto took charge of the Imperial regalia, the Sacred Sword, and the Sacred Jewels." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The Crown Prince arriving then, straw mats were laid up to the gate for him to walk to the main entrance." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "At the temporary pavilion erected for the reception of the Emperor were Fujiwara no Akiie, who was in charge of the arrangements; the Imperial Adviser, Takatsukasa no Kanehira; the General of the Left, Takatsukasa no Kanetada; and Chujo Nijo no Kanemoto." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The Minister of the Left, Nijo no Morotada, had accompanied the Crown Prince as his tutor." }, { "from": "human", "value": "On the day of the celebration a dais was erected in the middle room on the south side of the main hall with a picture of Buddha hung above the dais and a bamboo blind behind it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "In front of the dais was a stand for a censer and flowers with candlesticks on either side." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Before the stand was a rostrum for the priest with a stand in front of it with holders for the two sutras, the Longevity sutra and the Lotus Flower sutra." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The prayer to Buddha was composed, I heard, by Fujiwara no Mochinori, the Emperor's tutor, and written out by the Imperial Adviser." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Each of the pillars of the room was decorated with a streamer of various colours and an ornamental tablet." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In the room on the west behind a bamboo screen was a cushion of Chinese brocade for the Emperor's seat on two mats bordered with red figured brocade." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "On the north of the room two mats bordered with Korean brocade were placed for the ex-Emperor and in the next room two mats of the same kind for the new ex-Emperor." }, { "from": "human", "value": "In the room on the east was the Empress Dowager Omiya's seat with its screen." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It gave me real pain to see the silk robes of the ladies in the service of the ex-Emperor, as I now saw them from the outside." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In the same western room there was a seat for the ex-Empress of Kitayama on two mats of red and white brocade." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The Titular ex-Empress of Kitayama was the wife of Saionji no Sadauji, Chief Minister, and was the mother of the Empress Dowager of Omiya and of the ex-Empress Higashi Nijo." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As the grandmother of the two ex-Emperors and the great-grandmother of the reigning Emperor Go Uda and of the Crown Prince, it was natural that she was held in the highest respect and that everyone should wish to make this a happy occasion for her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She herself was the granddaughter of the Washino-o Dainagon, Shijo no Takafusa, and a daughter of the Dainagon Shijo no Takahira." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She was therefore a close relative of mine on my mother's side." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "My mother had been brought up by her as a child and I had myself often stayed with her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I had asked if I might attend the celebration in ordinary dress but had been advised by the Empress Dowager to wear purple robes shaded from dark to light." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Upon further consideration, however, she had ask me to come over to her residence first to consult about the matter." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Her ladies were all wearing red robes shaded from dark to light with a scarlet mantle." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Finally, at Lord Sanekane's suggestion, I wore a set of eight red robes lined with dark red with a dark red under-robe, a yellow cloak lined with pale green, and a blue mantle, all in most brilliant colours." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It made me feel rather wretched, however, that I was not dressed in the accustomed garb of a lady-in-waiting." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The ceremony began; the two ex-Emperors, the Crown Prince, the Empress Dowager Omiya, the two ex-Empresses, and the young princess of Imadegawa entered in procession to the sound of chants and bells." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "To the east of the rostrum sat the Imperial Adviser, the Ministers of the Left and Right, with many other high officials and officers of the guards, all the officers of the guards wearing on their backs their bows and arrows." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The Emperor, the two ex-Emperors, and the Crown Prince, all simply robed, sat within the bamboo screens." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The musicians and dancers began to perform classical music led by the hand drums, halberds swinging in time with the music." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Then, to the music, the musicians, dancers, and priests entered in two files and passed to their seats, entering the middle hall, moving on either side of the rostrum, and climbing the steps." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The preacher, the High Priest Kenjichi; the reader, the High Priest Shujo, brother of the Empress Dowager; and the leader of the prayers, his elder brother, the High Priest Doyo, took their seats, and the stone gong was struck." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The temple pages were waiting in two groups, and when a hymn had been sung by the choir of priests, they scattered flower petals while the music played." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "At the conclusion, the musicians made their reverence to the Emperor and their chief received their fee from the official in charge." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The priests' rostrum was then removed and a dance performed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A steady drizzle was falling, but the people standing round in front of the hall took no notice of this." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "For myself, however, I soon got bored with the whole expensive but rather tasteless performance and wondered how long I was going to have to endure it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The right group of musicians played, and then the left group of musicians played." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ono no Hisatada danced \"The Emperor's Reward,\" and the Minister of the Right left his seat, summoned the dancer Chikayasu of the left group, and gave him honours and rewards for his group." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Chikayasu then retired; he should have made another reverence to the Emperor as he did so, but as the dancer Hisasuke and the musician Masaaki of the right group were called up then to receive their honours and rewards, this was not necessary." }, { "from": "human", "value": "When Masaaki, flute in hand, made his reverence, Their Majesties praised his skill." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When the High Priest Kenjichi left his seat, music was played while the priests received their rewards." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The guards officers, Fujiwara no Kinatsu, Kyogoku no Tamekane, and Lord Yasunaka, wore military dress with their quivers, but most of the attendants wore wadded formal robes and carried service swords, though mainly of the lightweight pattern." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The priests left the hall, and more music followed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Then the musicians and the dancers left." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Dinner was then served to the Empress Dowager and the ex-Empresses, Shijo no Takayasu serving them while the Commander of the Left brought in the trays." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The next day was the first day of the third month." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Breakfast was served to the Imperial party." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The dais for the dancing had been removed and curtains hung round the hall with a screen to the west." }, { "from": "human", "value": "In the centre hall there were large Chinese brocade cushions for the Emperor and the ex-Emperors on two mats with edgings of various shades." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In the room to the east there was a cushion of Togyo brocade on a similar mat for the Crown Prince." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The Imperial Adviser raised the bamboo blind for the Imperial party to come out, and Lord Sanekane raised the blind for the Crown Prince, Lord Morotada being late in arriving." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Breakfast was served to the Emperor and the ex-Emperors, who wore red wadded silk robes, and the Crown Prince, who wore an unwadded robe, each served by a high official and an officer of the guards." }, { "from": "human", "value": "My uncle Takayoshi bore the dishes for the Crown Prince, wearing a white formal cloak lined with red, a pale purple robe, trousers of the same colour, and a scarlet under-robe, with a quiver and a head dress with ear flaps, a dress eminently suiting the occasion." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Afterwards there was a concert of wind and string instruments." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "For the use of the Emperor, the famous flute Katei was brought in its case by Taira no Tadayo." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The Imperial Adviser received it and placed it before the Emperor." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The famous flute Genjo was brought in by Minamoto no Chikasada for the Crown Prince." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His Lord Steward Sanekane received it and placed it before him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Flutes for the other players were brought in another box." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A concert then began with various lords playing the flute, the harp, and the lute, the Dainagon Tokudaiji no Kintaka beating time with the wooden clappers and Lord Munefuyu singing." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Next a poetry competition was held." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Officials set out a desk and round straw seats." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Poems already written were collected in order of rank beginning with those of the lower ranks." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "First, Nijo no Tamemichi, Lieutenant Commander of the Bodyguard of the Left, dressed in formal garb wearing a leather-thonged battle sword and quiver, went up to the desk with his poem and his bow together in his hands and placed the poem on the desk." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The poems of the other officials were then collected." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Earlier, Fujiwara no Akiie had placed the Crown Prince's seat to the east of the desk where he stayed throughout the contest." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "People commented on how much it reminded them of contests in former days." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was announced that poems had been handed in by all the high officers of state from the Imperial Adviser and the Ministers of the Left and the Right down." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "All these officials were in court dress and wearing a sword except my cousin, Koga no Michimoto, General of the Right, who wore the full dress of a general, reddish-brown lined with yellow." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He presented his poem holding it in his hands with his mace." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The other lords all wore bows and arrows on their backs." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The Kazan-in Dainagon summoned those who were to recite their poems, and the judges, the Vice-Director of the Imperial Archives, the Ministers of the Left and the Right, the War Minister, and the Chunagon Fujiwara no Kinyasu, went to the desk." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Lady Gon Chunagon, in the service of the Empress Dowager, handed out her poem written on thin scarlet paper from behind the screen." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She had some reputation as a poet." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Why hasn't Lord Masatada's daughter\"She is not feeling well and doesn't feel like composing a poem today,\" was the answer he received from the ex-Emperor." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Why haven't you handed in a poem?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Lord Sanekane said to me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I was told that the ex-Empress Higashi Nijo had asked the Empress Dowager not to accept a poem from me,\" I answered." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I had, however, composed a poem and, as I could not enter it in the contest, I kept on repeating it to myself," }, { "from": "human", "value": "When I have been told" }, { "from": "human", "value": "That today I do not rank" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Among the poets," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "How then can I bring myself" }, { "from": "human", "value": "To hand in a poem now?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The Imperial Adviser, Takatsukasa no Kanehira, recited the poems of the Emperor and the ex-Emperors, while the Crown Prince's poem was recited in the ordinary course of the readings." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "These were repeatedly commended as the best by the judges." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When the contest was over, the Imperial party left, the Crown Prince first, and the prizes were awarded." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The Emperor's poem written out by the Imperial Adviser read," }, { "from": "human", "value": "The poem composed by the Emperor at the celebration of the ninetieth birthday of Fujiwara no Teishi, a noble vassal of the Junior First Court Rank." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(This Emperor is now living in religious retreat at the Daikakuji temple, his name in religion being Zenjosen-in.)" }, { "from": "human", "value": "With the lengthening" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Of the day as spring goes on," }, { "from": "human", "value": "We see the promise" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Of a further lengthening" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Of your days in this our world." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The new ex-Emperor's poem was written out by the Minister of the Centre, Fujiwara no Iemoto." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The introductory remarks were exactly the same except for the reference to \"Teishi\" which was omitted." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Now that you have seen" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Of your life these ninety springs" }, { "from": "human", "value": "In this present world," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The nightingale is singing" }, { "from": "human", "value": "To welcome your hundredth year." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The Crown Prince's poem was written out by the General of the Left, Fujiwara no Kanetada, the Imperial Adviser's son," }, { "from": "human", "value": "Following the Emperor's example, this poem was composed by the Crown Prince during his stay at the Mansion of Kitayama in spring on the occasion of the celebration of the ninetieth birthday of Lady Fujiwara of the Junior First Court Rank. (The words Respectfully presented\" were added to the introductory remarks in accordance with ancient precedents.)" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Having now passed this stage" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Of ninety long years of life," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "We may boldly say," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "You will now go on to live" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "To see a thousand more springs." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "All the other poems I will give in some other place, but I must add here the poem of Lord Sanekane which was praised by all present, both high and low, as being the most interesting of all," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "You now take your place" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Among those famed for long life;" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The reason for this—" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Till today you have lived on" }, { "from": "human", "value": "To welcome His Majesty." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Some years before, Lord Sanekane's grandfather, Saionji no Saneuji, at that time Chief Minister, had invited the Retired Emperor Go Saga and the two ex-Emperors to a recital of the complete collection of sutras." }, { "from": "human", "value": "All then present had praised the poem which the Retired Emperor had composed at that time which ends," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The cherry blossom and I" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Are both in our prime today." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "as well as that of the Minister which speaks of," }, { "from": "human", "value": "The eternal praise" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Of these three generations" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Of the great Imperial House." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But everyone said that Lord Sanekane's poem on this occasion was not surpassed by either of these." }, { "from": "human", "value": "After the poetry contest there was a ball game." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was a sight to remember to see the Emperor, the new ex-Emperor, the Crown Prince, the Imperial Adviser, and the other lords taking part in the game, displaying their many-coloured sleeves." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Following the precedent of Emperor Go Toba, the new ex-Emperor kicked off." }, { "from": "human", "value": "After the game, the Emperor left for his palace." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He was reluctant to go, but the Spring Appointments list was due to be published, and he could not spare any more time." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The next day, the Emperor having left, things were less formal." }, { "from": "human", "value": "About noon, straw mats were laid down along the path from the North Hall to the Saionji temple." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The two ex-Emperors in their formal robes and headgear and the Crown Prince in his formal robes with trousers tied at the ankles paid little visits to all the chapels in the grounds of the temple." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Finally they reached the Myo-on chapel where they found one cherry tree still in blossom as if it had been waiting for the honour of this royal visit." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Looking at these blossoms, with the old poet I wondered who had taught it" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Thus to keep its blossom still" }, { "from": "human", "value": "While all the rest theirs had shed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A musical entertainment was held in the Myo-on chapel." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Many of the common sort had gathered outside to hear the music, the women with their heads covered over with a garment." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I stood among them to listen." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The royal party was inside the chapel, while in the porch one lord played the flute, another the pan-pipes, another the flageolet, the Crown Prince the lute, Lord Sanekane the harp, and two other lords the drums." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They played several pieces, and Lord Kaneyuki recited part of the Chinese poem \"The cherry blossom in the courtyard holds the eye\" in perfect time with the music." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His recitation was so enjoyed by everyone that he had to repeat it a second time." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Then the ex-Emperor recited, with the new ex-Emperor and the Crown Prince accompanying him in chorus, part of Sugawara no Michizane's Chinese poem, \"Resenting the weaver's lack of sympathy.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The effect was truly marvellous, and everyone was sorry that the concert had to come to an end and the royal party leave." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Seeing that life in the scintillating world of the court was so pleasant only deepened my gloom, and I could not bring myself to go to see that day's ball game which was just beginning." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I was sorry that I had come to the celebration at all." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The sound of the ex-Emperor's voice as he recited the poem in the Myo-on chapel still rang in my ears and saddened me with memories of former happy days." }, { "from": "human", "value": "In such a pensive mood was I when my uncle Takayoshi brought me a letter." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Haven't you brought this to the wrong person?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I asked him. He assured me that the letter was for me and insisted that I should open and read it. I did so." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It contained a poem from the ex-Emperor," }, { "from": "human", "value": "I had hoped I might" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "By keeping away from you" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Cease to long for you." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Do you not need to tell me" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Your resentment against me?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "To this he added, \"I can't forget you. I can't change my feelings for you. Let us meet again tonight and end the wretchedness of the past months.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "My poem in answer read," }, { "from": "human", "value": "What bitter feelings" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Can I have had about you" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "For these two long years?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "What of those you feel, learning" }, { "from": "human", "value": "My vows I have not taken?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I was much surprised that evening about eight o'clock when the ball game was over and I was lying down to rest to receive a visit from the ex-Emperor." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We are just this moment going for a boat trip. Come with us,\" he said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Wondering if I dared to face all that company again, I just lay there." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Your ordinary clothes will do,\" he said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I got up and he helped me to tie the strings of my skirt." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I was astonished to find him so affectionate, and wondered when it was that he had begun to feel this way again about me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But, I felt, two years of bitter suffering and resentment were not going to be so easily smoothed over." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Still,\" I thought, \"I must do as he wishes,\" and wiping away my tears, I went with him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was getting dark as we boarded the boat at the fishing pavilion." }, { "from": "human", "value": "First, the Crown Prince and the Ladies Dainagon, Uemonnokami, and Kononaishi, all in the ceremonial dress, went aboard." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The two ex-Emperors went on board a small boat with me accompanying them in my ordinary clothes." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Then I was told to go on board the Crown Prince's boat." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The musical instruments were taken on the small boat where the same lords as before played much the same kind of music as they had played in the chapel during the afternoon, and just as enjoyably." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Lord Kaneyuki recited the Chinese poem \"Mountain on mountain,\" and the ex-Emperors followed with \"The complexity of these ever-changing scenes.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It seemed that their lovely voices raised in harmony must astonish the spirits under the water." }, { "from": "human", "value": "When the boat had rowed far out from the pavilion, the sight of the old pine trees with their branches interlaced over the water of the pool was indescribably beautiful." }, { "from": "human", "value": "We felt as if we had rowed far, far away over the wide ocean." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The new ex-Emperor began a poem," }, { "from": "human", "value": "Our boat comes cutting" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Straight through the clouds and the spray" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Of the bounding waves." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You have stubbornly vowed never again to make music,\" he said to me." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I hope you won't refuse to finish my poem.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I did not wish to do so, but I capped his lines with," }, { "from": "human", "value": "To view the wide open sea—" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Which is our Emperor's reign." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Lord Sanekane began," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Greater tribute now" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Does the Emperor receive" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Than in olden times," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Lord Tomoaki completed the verse by," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His brighter glory is due" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "To the favour of the gods." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The Crown Prince began," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The journey goes on" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Passing these ninety milestones" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Slowly one by one" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The new ex-Emperor capped this with," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "On life's wearisome journey" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Of everyday worries." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I started another poem," }, { "from": "human", "value": "With all my sorrow" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Pent up in this heart of mine," }, { "from": "human", "value": "Heartbroken I feel," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I know exactly what is pent up in that heart of yours,\" said the ex-Emperor, and capped my verse," }, { "from": "human", "value": "As blinded with tears, I look" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Up at the Wan Morning Moon." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Is there anything particular implied in the reference to the wan morning moon?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "the new ex-Emperor asked his brother." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was quite dark by this time, and it was strange and interesting to see the park keepers going about making fires here and there on the bank to guide the boat back to the pavilion." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There we reluctantly disembarked, all feeling unsatisfied perhaps." }, { "from": "human", "value": "For myself, I wondered why no one could spare a thought of compassion for me, so tossed about on a restless sea, the sport of all the winds of fortune." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "That lake was certainly in no sense the heavenly beach of Yasu where the gods meet in perfect harmony, for no one spoke a word of kindness to me; in this world men and women are not allowed to become intimate with one another with impunity." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "During the day the personal appearance of Kiyokage, one of the Crown Prince's guards, attracted a great deal of attention." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His carriage and behaviour and dress were all much admired; he was wearing reddish blue silk robes with a pattern of wistaria against pine branches." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A messenger was sent to court while at the same time the Finance Minister, Taira no Tadayo, was coming from the court, but they missed each other on the way." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A lute was presented to the Emperor, and a Japanese harp to the Crown Prince." }, { "from": "human", "value": "On the recommendation of the ex-Emperor, the grade of senior fourth rank was conferred on Fujiwara no Toshisada, and on the recommendation of the Crown Prince that of senior fifth rank on Taira no Koresuke." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Junior fourth rank was conferred on Fujiwara no Tamemichi in return for the prize that was to have been presented to Lord Sanekane who had played the harp so well." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Other ranks were conferred, but I do not need to note them here." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "On the departure of the party, I settled down to a cheerless life. The ex-Emperor sent me many messages asking me to accompany him to Lord Sanekane's residence, but I felt no inclination to go; it seemed certain that I should find no happiness wherever I went." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Provide 4 sentences as a continuation in the Japan, nonfiction, memoirs, 1300s genre." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In the latter part of the second month, I left the Capital before daybreak, the moon being still high in the sky. I had thought that it would be easy to leave now that there was nothing to detain me there, but when I considered that fate might prevent my ever returning, I wept afresh, and the reflection of the moon on my wet sleeves showed a tearful face. I had become very faint-hearted by the time I arrived at the Ausaka barrier. This reminded me of the old poet and lute player, Semimaru, who settled near here, and his poem," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Whether our home is\n\nIn a humble thatched cottage\n\nOr in a palace,\n\nThe world appears just the same;" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In both we find life too short.\n\nThere was no trace to be found now of his thatched cottage.\n\nIn the water of the spring at the barrier my figure was reflected, that of a nun in a travelling habit. The sight disheartening me, I found myself more and more disinclined to go on with my journey and felt my steps becoming slower and slower." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Here there was only one cherry tree remaining in full bloom. That by itself made it an attractive subject to me for a poem, the more so because there were four or five persons on horseback, country folk but quite respectably dressed, resting under the tree, presumably with much the same feelings as myself. The beauty of the scene expressed itself in my poem,\n\nAt Ausaka" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The beauty of the blossoms\n\nHalts the traveller.\n\nDoes it not seem the blossoms\n\nAre the real barrier keepers?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I went on to the post station at Kagami\n\nAs drawing nearer,\n\nI gazed at you, O mirror,\n\nYou could not know" }, { "from": "human", "value": "What a lasting impression" }, { "from": "human", "value": "A person left in my mind." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Several days passed before I arrived at the post station of Akasaka in Mino province." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Exhausted and depressed after so many days of unaccustomed travel, I stopped for the night at the inn. The landlord's two daughters who worked at the inn, soliciting custom, serving as prostitutes, and playing the lute and harp, seemed to be of a rather romantic turn of mind. Thinking of my own childhood in the service of the court, I decided to have a little drinking party of my own with the sisters serving the wine. The elder sister seemed to be very pensive." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She appeared to be trying to cheer herself up by playing the lute, but her eyes often filled up with tears." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I was attracted to her, for I felt that she had much the same outlook on life as I had had as a girl." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She must have thought it strange that I in a nun's black habit should weep in sympathy with her, for she wrote a poem on a slip of paper and passed it to me on a salver," }, { "from": "human", "value": "Would I could know" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Where goes the smoke which passes\n\nOut from Mt. Fuji—\n\nAs why, renouncing the world,\n\nYou come here on pilgrimage." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She showed in this poem a feeling so akin to my own that I answered," }, { "from": "human", "value": "Smoke from Mt. Fuji" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Comes from the fierce flames within;" }, { "from": "human", "value": "So, I must confess," }, { "from": "human", "value": "My action stems from the flames" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Of passion deep in my heart.\n\nIt was then with a feeling of tearing myself away from friends and a place I did not wish to leave that I went on from there to Yatsuhashi, a place I knew from The Tales of Ise, in perplexity\n\nI wandered by the river,\n\nNowhere could I find" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Eight bridges said to be there\n\nCrossing over the eight streams.\n\nI visited the shrine at Atstlta in Owari province. As I stood in front of the sacred fence, my mind was full of memories for my father who had been in charge of this province." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Every year at the festival of the shrine in the fifth month, he had always presented a sacred horse to the shrine as an offering for his own intention." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "During his last illness, he had made such an offering of a sacred horse as well as of robes, but at the post station, Kayatsu, the horse had suddenly died. Shocked at this, the local officials had presented another horse in its place. I heard of this at the time and considered it an omen of my father's death. All this coming back to my mind at this time to my great grief, I stayed for one night at the shrine." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was now the beginning of the third month. I had left home after the twentieth of the second month and ought to have made much better progress. I was, however, not used to travelling; it was my mind alone that was hurrying on. The evening moon was shining brightly in the sky, just as I remembered it shining in the Capital." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I felt as if the ex-Emperor were by my side looking up at it as we had so often done together." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The cherry trees within the confines of the shrine were then in full bloom. For whom were they showing their beauty? Looking at them, I expressed my impressions thus,\n\nFor how short a time" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Will they retain their beauty," }, { "from": "human", "value": "These cherry blossoms," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Among the cedars under\n\nThe spring sky of Narumi!\n\nI had the board on which I had written this nailed to a cedar tree in front of the shrine. Then, as I had long wished to worship at this shrine, I went into retreat there for seven days." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Afterwards as I left the shrine, walking along the beach at Narumi at ebb tide, I looked back towards the shrine, seeing its vermilion fence indistinctly through the haze." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Thinking of former days, my eyes filled with tears as I murmured,\n\nHave mercy on me,\n\nGod of the Atsuta shrine,\n\nI beseech you now," }, { "from": "human", "value": "Though I am now but a nun" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Clad in this sad black habit." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As I passed through the barrier at Kiyomi by the light of the moon, my heart was sad with memories of the past and forebodings of the future, my misgivings about the future as numberless as the grains of sand on the white glittering beach.\n\nWhen I walked along the beach at Ukishima at the foot of Mt. Fuji, the high peak still seemed deep in snow. That was as it should be, for I remembered how The Tales of Ise describes the summit dappled with snow even in the fifth month." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "How profitless it was, I thought, to pile up anguish on anguish; all this would disappear the moment I died. The priest Saigyo had written,\n\nBlown on by the wind,\n\nThe smoke trail from Mt. Fuji" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Is dissipated,\n\nJust as my tender passion\n\nDisperses I know not where.\n\nBut now no smoke rose from the summit." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As I went on, I was on the lookout for the maple and the ivy of Mt. Uzu as described in The Tales of Ise, but I went over the pass without noticing it and was much surprised when I learnt that I had already crossed the mountain,\n\nIn what state of mind\n\nCan I have been that I now" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Have crossed Mt. Uzu" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Without noting the ivy\n\nSo far famed in poetry?\n\nI visited the shrine at Mishima in Izu province. The custom there of offering sacred paper streamers is just the same as at the Kumano shrine." }, { "from": "human", "value": "In both shrines, too, models of serpents were much on display." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Just as in the story told by the late General of the Bodyguard of the Right, Minamoto no Yoritomo, it was well past the middle of the month and the moon did not rise until after midnight. It was interesting, if not particularly exciting, to watch the strange gestures of the girls dancing before the shrine, going to and fro and passing and repassing each other. I was sufficiently amused, however, to sit up all night watching them. Then, to the sound of the chirping of the birds at dawn I went on my way." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I arrived at Enoshima after the twentieth day of the third month. The scenery here is indescribably beautiful. There are many caves on an island a good distance out to sea, and in one of these cave dwellings, Senju, I stayed with an old hermit who lived there all alone, practising asceticism and cultivating holiness. His fence might be the sea fog and his gate a humble bamboo trellis, yet he lived a gracious life." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He was most hospitable to his guests, serving them with shellfish from the sea round the island." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I made him a present of a fan from the Capital which my travelling companion had carried in a basket." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"As I live in this kind of house,\" he said to me when he thanked me for it, \"I have no contact with life in the Capital and in fact this is the first time I have ever seen such a thing as this. Meeting you tonight makes me feel as if I am meeting an old friend.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "At the time it seemed to me to be quite natural that he should feel about me in this way." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Nothing particular happened during the evening. At night everyone seemed to be drowsing peacefully, but I could not get to sleep in that strange cave and lay awake, thinking over incidents on my pilgrimage. After trying for some time to stifle my sobs, I got up and went outside. The clouds merged with the spray of the waves, and all was blurred with the haze." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Then the sky cleared gradually and the moon appeared, standing almost still in the cloudless sky, which seemed to widen as I looked up at it until at last I felt as if I had journeyed five thousand miles away from this world." }, { "from": "human", "value": "From the hills at my back monkeys chattered." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Still, my sadness remained: I was heartbroken, my grief seemingly as fresh as when I had felt it for the first time. I had left the Capital on this long pilgrimage so that I might meditate alone and might dry my tears in solitude. My efforts were in vain, for misery had accompanied me even here. I expressed my thoughts in a poem," }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 5 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Would that I could dwell\n\nIn a hut thatched with cedar,\n\nAnd with bamboo blinds\n\nBetween corner posts of pine,\n\nAnd forget this world's sadness!" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "keep the story goin for like 3 sentences more. make it Japan, nonfiction, memoirs, 1300s-y and Lady Nijō-esque" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Next morning I went on to Kamakura and visited the Gokurakuji temple. The priests were going about their duties just as they did in the Capital. This made me realise how much I was missing the life there." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When I had looked towards Kamakura as I crossed Kehaizaka hill, it had all seemed so different from the view of the Capital from Higashiyama. Here the people lived in houses built on the hills in terraces which went up like steps one after another, the houses standing in scattered clusters that seemed to be separate from one another like little parcels each in its own little bag. They looked so wretched that I felt I should never be able to settle contentedly in Kamakura." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I went to the beach at Yui where there is a large torii. In the distance I could see the new shrine dedicated to the Emperor Ojin. The god of the Hachiman shrine is said to have promised to be the special guardian of the prosperity of the Genji clan." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Although it was my destiny to be born in this clan, still for some reason or other this divine protection had certainly not saved me from misfortune." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When I prayed at my father's family shrine, the Hachiman shrine at Iwashimizu, that he might receive his just reward by being reborn in this world in an honoured family, the oracle revealed that this would be at the cost of my own happiness in this world. I could have no reason for complaint against this decree of divine providence, for my written petition had expressly stated that I would not complain even though this would entail my being reduced to beggary, just as it is told of the famous poetess of ancient times, Ono no Komachi, that though she was a descendant of Princess Sotori, she was in old age reduced to begging, wearing a straw cloak and carrying a bamboo basket to receive food given as alms. I doubt whether even then her grief was as great as mine." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Thinking of these things I went to pay my visit to the shrine." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The site is far superior to that of the chief shrine of Iwashimizu Hachiman at Otokoyama in the Capital, for here the shrine looked out over beautiful views of the sea." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was startling, though, to see feudal lords paying visits to the shrine dressed in robes of all sorts of colours instead of being dressed all in white.\n\nI also visited the Egara Tenjin shrine, the Eifukuji temple at Nikaido, and the Shochoju-in temple. Lady Komachi, a relative of my cousin, the Chief Minister, Tsuchimikado no Sadazane, had come to Kamakura in the train of the Generalissimo, Prince Koreyasu, and was living at Okuranoyatsu." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When I informed her of my arrival in Kamakura, she wrote that the news of my coming was a pleasant surprise and invited me to stay with her. I replied that I did not wish to inconvenience her and would rather stay at the inn nearby. She wrote again, sending me various things I might need and expressing her concern about my not being comfortable at the inn, but hoping I would be able to rest awhile to recover from the hardships of the journey." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Then about the middle of the fourth month, the one who was to be my guide on the journey to the Zenkoji temple in Shinano province fell seriously ill, sometimes becoming completely unconscious." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I was at my wit's end with anxiety." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Then when she was a little better, I had to take to my bed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "With two patients seriously ill, the people of the house were much alarmed.\n\n\"Don't worry,\" said the physician whom they had called in. \"It's just the exhaustion of a long journey causing a chronic constitutional weakness to become more pronounced.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The illness, however, caused me to be very depressed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Formerly, if I had a cold in the head or a runny nose or some other trivial ailment, within two or three days all the resources of medical science and fortune-telling would be tapped for me. Some treasured heirloom or a nationally famous horse would be offered to an especially sacred shrine or temple with a petition for my recovery, while oranges and pears from far-off countries would be sought for me. Now, though I lay on a bed of sickness day after day, no prayers were made at any shrine, no petition at any temple; no one was anxious about what I could manage to eat or what medical treatment I ought to have." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I just lay there night and day, feeling as if I had been reborn in this present world in a lower station of life. Still, life or death is a matter of predestination. I was destined to live longer, and by the sixth month I was feeling much better but still not well enough to consider going on another long pilgrimage for some time." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I killed time by taking pleasant walks in the neighbourhood until the eighth month.\n\nOn the morning of the fifteenth of that month, I received a letter from Lady Komachi. \"Today is the day when in the Capital they hold the ceremony at which they set free birds and fishes at the Iwashimizu shrine,\" she wrote." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Wouldn't you like to see how the ceremony is carried out here in Kamakura?\"\n\nI replied with the poem,\n\nTo me this custom" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Now seems profitless to see," }, { "from": "human", "value": "For am I not now" }, { "from": "human", "value": "In a quite different stream" }, { "from": "human", "value": "From that which flows from that source?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Lady Komachi's poem in reply was," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Be not faint of heart,\n\nBut with single-minded faith,\n\nLook up to the god" }, { "from": "human", "value": "And rely on his mercy" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "To preserve you in safety.\n\nCurious to see how this ceremony was carried out at Kamakura, I went to the Tsurugaoka shrine, a daughter shrine of the Hachiman shrine at Iwashimizu. In this remote spot I saw the Generalissimo making a great display of his dignity." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The feudal lords all wore their official robes and the rest of the officers theirs." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 4 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was a rare sight to see them all in their varied dress. When the Generalissimo alighted from his carriage at the red bridge, only a few court nobles were with him, all looking rather mean and shabby. Taira no Sukemune, heir to the Nyudo Taira no Yoritsuna, the Governor-general, attended on the Generalissimo as Vice-Minister of the Samurai-dokoro and behaved in much the same manner as the Imperial Adviser did in the Capital, having a magnificent warlike appearance. I did not wait to see the exhibition of archery on horseback and the other shows, thinking I should be rather bored watching them, but went back early to my lodgings." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Hey can you write in the Japan, nonfiction, memoirs, 1300s genre and use whatever I write as a jumping off point?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Not very long after this there were whispered rumours that events were moving towards a crisis in Kamakura. Then, while I was still wondering who would be involved in this, I learnt that the Generalissimo was to return to the Capital." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Next, I heard that the Generalissimo was just about to leave." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I hurried off to his palace to see him go." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A shabby-looking palanquin with rush mats hanging at the sides was standing by the entrance. A lieutenant named Nikaido no Yukisada was in charge of the affair." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Taira no Sukemune came along with orders from the Regent, Hojo no Sadatoki, that the palanquin should be reversed so that the occupant would face Kamakura as he left. This, he said, was according to precedent.As the prince's palanquin was carried away, his ladies-in-waiting came out in twos and threes with no veil to screen their faces from the public gaze." }, { "from": "human", "value": "There was no means of transport for them." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Where has His Excellency gone?\" they said, weeping. Those who had formed ties with feudal lords had an escort to take them back to the Capital, but the rest had to make their own way back, individually, as best they could." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "No words could describe their grief.\n\nThe Generalissimo went first to Sasukenoyatsu where he stayed five days before going on to the Capital." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As I wished to see the prince's final departure from the eastern provinces, I went to the temple near this place where the miracle-working image of Shoten Buddha is enshrined. There I was told that the time fixed for his departure was two o'clock in the morning." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It had been raining steadily since the previous evening, and about the time of his departure there was a violent storm. It seemed as though it was the work of devils." }, { "from": "human", "value": "In spite of this the palanquin was got ready so that his departure might not be delayed, and was covered over with matting." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The prince was already in the palanquin, it seemed, but for some reason or other they did not start on their journey but put it down again in the courtyard where it was left for some time." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I heard the prince blow his nose several times, and I could imagine that he was weeping bitterly.\n\nPrince Koreyasu was not a member of a warrior family who had come to power by quelling the barbarians." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His father was Prince Munetaka," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ise's great goddess\n\nWill surely have compassion" }, { "from": "human", "value": "On the fallen prince," }, { "from": "human", "value": "For he belongs to a branch" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Of the stream that flows from there." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He doubtless shed many tears on his journey back to the Capital, though there is no record of any poem he wrote on this sad experience; his father, his predecessor in the office, had in a similar situation written,\n\nLooking forward now" }, { "from": "human", "value": "To receiving special grace" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "At Kitano shrine,\n\nOn this bright sunny morning" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Virgin snow still blocks my way." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It is a thousand pities that his son did not so express his thoughts for us.\n\nSoon we heard that Prince Hisaakira, sixth son of the ex-Emperor Go Fukakusa, was to come to Kamakura as Generalissimo." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The palace of the Generalissimo was splendidly redecorated, and seven feudal lords were to leave to meet him and escort him to the city. Among these was the lord of Iinuma, Taira no Sukemune, second son of the Governor-general of the Military Government, Taira no Yoritsuna." }, { "from": "human", "value": "This feudal lord, who had adopted the title of Lieutenant of the Gate Guards of the Left without being formally raised to the rank by Imperial order, is said to have refused on this occasion to go by the ordinary route through the Hakone barrier as he did not wish to follow in the tracks of one who had been exiled." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Instead he was to cross over Mt." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ashigara. Everyone considered his action in doing this pompous and quite uncalled for." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As the date of the Generalissimo's arrival drew near, everyone was busy making elaborate preparations for his reception." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Early in the morning two or three days before his arrival, I had a message from Lady Komachi." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I could not think what this could be about and found it was a most unexpected request." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The ex-Empress Higashi Nijo had sent to the household of the Governor-general's wife a present of a set of five robes which had been cut out but not sewn up. I was asked to help them to do this properly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I replied that I was not in a position to do so.\n\nLady Komachi would not listen to any excuses." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Now that you have taken your vows,\" she wrote, \"you are free to do as you wish. Besides, I have told no one who you are. I have said only that you are 'someone from the Capital.'\" I still continued to beg to be excused, but she insisted." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She even enclosed a letter from the Regent, Hojo no Sadatoki, supporting her plea. Finally I consented and went to the Governor-general's residence, thinking that it would not be difficult to limit myself to just making suggestions and that to do otherwise would be to incur their displeasure and make my stay in Kamakura unpleasant." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "While the Generalissimo's house was very ordinary-looking, the residence of the Governor-general was lavishly decorated. Everything was costly, inlaid with gold and silver and studded with jewels." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Everything glittered, the rings and fringes worn by the ladies, their dresses of silk and brocade, the screens and furnishings.\n\nThe Governor-general's wife came in." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She was tall and stately with a proud bearing, a truly magnificent figure in a set of two robes of pale blue Chinese material with a raised design of maple trees in violet, dark and light, with a white skirt." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Then the Governor-general, Taira no Yoritsuna, came tripping in, dressed in a white formal robe, the sleeves of which looked too short for him, and stood beside his dignified-looking wife." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I was most disappointed to note the contrast." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The robes sent by the ex-Empress consisted of one dlue under-robe and a set of five of purplish red deepening inwards in colour, piece by piece. They had been tacked up, but I was surprised to see that the pieces were all reversed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Why have you put them together in this way?\" I asked, for it looked very strange to me to have the darkest part put next to the lightest part." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The people in the dressmaking department told us that they hadn't the time to do it and so we have had them tacked together by people who have very little experience.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I suggested which pieces should be reversed, though I had really begun to think that it would have made the dresses look very attractive to have them sewn up as they were." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Then she had a message from the Regent. \"The authorities will make themselves responsible for the outside decoration of the Generalissimo's residence with the help of the records. The person from the Capital will inspect and report on the progress of the work of interior decoration,\" it said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I was afraid that my further cooperation with the Kamakura authorities might lead to trouble in the future, but I had already gone so far that I could not very well refuse to continue to help them without offending them." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I therefore went to the mansion, which I found had been furnished fairly well. I made no criticism, however, and confined myself to a suggestion as to where the miniature Buddhist shrine should be placed and how the robes should be hung on the dress hangers and went back to my lodgings." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The day of the new Generalissimo's arrival came. The Wakamiya road was crowded with spectators." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The vanguard of his party came in sight, accompanied by the seven feudal lords who had gone as far as the barrier at Ashigara to welcome him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Twenty or thirty horsemen passed in an imposing procession, and then forty or fifty servants and retainers in variously coloured robes ran past in groups of twenty. Then came the procession of the feudal lords, crowding together, all splendidly dressed, stretching half a mile in length." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "At last the Generalissimo passed by in his palanquin, the train of his under-robe of blue and yellow silk lined with blue showing below the half raised bamboo blinds. The new Lieutenant of the Gate Guards of the Left rode just behind the palanquin dressed in an ordinary court robe of pale green lined with white." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 3 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Everything looked most solemn. At the Generalissimo's mansion, all the high officials present, including the Regent and Ashikaga no Sadauji, on the third day after his arrival, the Generalissimo visited the Regent's villa at Yamanouchi where, I learnt later, a great banquet was held. This touched me, for it reminded me of my old life at court." } ]

[ { "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 Japan, nonfiction, memoirs, 1300s genre." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The year drew to a close, and to my sorrow I had still not yet had an opportunity of visiting the Zenkoji temple in Shinano province. Lady Komachi..." }, { "from": "human", "value": "This deeply mortified me as the days passed by." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The lord of Iinuma, Taira no Sukemune, the son of the Governor-general, often sent Wakabayashi no Jirozaemon to me inviting me to be present at verse-capping and other entertainments, having heard possibly that I had some reputation as a poet and a person of cultivated tastes, and at last I accepted one of his invitations. Surprisingly enough, I found him to be a man of culture and wide sympathies, and from this time I often went to his house for contests in poetical composition.\n\nIn the last month of the year, I moved to Kawaguchi in the province of Musashi, where the widow of a man named Kawagoe was living in religious retirement. Her message inviting me to visit her had delighted me, as it had held out the hope that early in the new year we might make the pilgrimage to Zenkoji together. Snow was falling as I went there, and it was difficult to find the way over the moors deep in snow, but I eventually got to the house after two days of travel from Kamakura. It was a remote spot on the bank of the river Iruma, with the post station of Iwabuchi and the usual prostitute quarter on the other side of the river." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There are no mountains to be seen in the province of Musashi. The plain is a wilderness overgrown with miscanthus grass, a sad wintry sight at this time with stems and leaves bent down with the weight of hoar frost. Through this wilderness I had pushed my way, my sadness at the passing of yet another year, so natural to all of us, heightened by the fact that I was ever removing myself to secluded spots more and more remote from the brilliant life of the Capital.\n\nWhenever I look back over my past life, it is always of my mother that I think first. I was parted from her at the age of two, so early that I do not know what she looked like. I had grown a little and was in my fourth year when on the twentieth day of the ninth month I was taken into his service by the ex-Emperor." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "From that time on, I enjoyed his special favour. I learnt to hold my own among people and after some years I came to hold a position of considerable influence at the court. I had hopes of attaining the highest position of all there and of becoming the pride and glory of my family, but I realised at last that it was my destiny to renounce this gracious way of life to enter religion, heeding the warnings of Buddha that no one can take with one the treasures in this life, one's spouse, one's wealth, one's rank. In spite of this, however, I could not but feel regret sometimes that I had left the life at court to which I was so accustomed. Thoughts of the ex-Emperor's love and affection often came to me, and I had nothing to allay my grief but the tears that dampened my sleeves.\n\nSnow fell heavily from the dark wintry sky and deeply covered the moors and roads." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I felt that I should never be able to find my way back, and, when my hostess asked me how I felt on being snowbound, I replied with the poem,\n\nTake pity on one\n\nWhose griefs piling up on her\n\nLike high drifts of snow\n\nPrevent any of her friends\n\nFrom making a call on her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Words of sympathy unlock the floodgates of tears, but I controlled my feelings lest people should think my outbursts of sorrow very strange." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 1 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Thus came another year." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Today you will be acting as a writing assistant, your partner will send something and you will write the next four sentences." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The New Year came, and the nightingales sang their spring songs among the branches of the plum trees under the eaves, but sad memories of the happy days gone beyond recall continued to fill my eyes with tears." }, { "from": "human", "value": "About the tenth day of the second month, I started out on my pilgrimage to the Zenkoji temple." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The steep slopes of the Usui pass are well known as being as dangerous to cross as the hanging bridge over the Kiso gorge. \"Who can accompany one on the path through the dark shadows of death?\" I said when members of the party expressed anxiety about leaving me on my own. \"One comes into the world all alone. One leaves it alone. All meetings end with a parting. All births end with death. However beautiful the peach blossom, it returns at last to the earth. The autumn foliage, beautiful as it is, is scattered when the winds blow. The emotion we feel when reluctantly we part from one another is only a temporary one.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "So I remained there all alone. But there is nothing much worth seeing at Zenkoji except the image of Buddha which is believed to be a real incarnation of Amida Buddha. With a firm belief in this, I devoted my mornings and evenings to reciting a million times daily the invocation of the sacred name.\n\nNear the town, there was living a former provincial governor, Takaoka no Iwami, who had a great reputation as a man of wide sympathies, well read in poetry and fond of music." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Introduced to him in the first place by someone in the party, I often went to his residence which I found furnished very tastefully, much more so than one usually finds in country districts." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 1 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Feeling the place soothing and attractive, I stayed at Zenkoji till autumn." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Produce four sentences using the prose and structure of Lady Nijō every time its your turn using what the user wrote as a seed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "At the beginning of the eighth month, I started back on my journey to Musashi province, with the feeling that it was to enjoy the scenery of the moors of that province in autumn that I had delayed my return until then.\n\nAt the temple at Asakusa there is a much venerated image of Kannon, the goddess of mercy, portrayed with eleven faces, which I felt I ought to visit.\n\nThe way there was across moors where nothing grew but bushclover, yellow scabious, rushes, and pampas grass, tall enough to hide a man on horseback. From this you can imagine the wildness of the scenery." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I pushed my way through this wilderness for three days to reach Asakusa." }, { "from": "human", "value": "If I had gone along the main roads, I could have found post stations, but the way I went, there was nothing in front of me or behind me but this wilderness." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The Kannon temple stands high above the plain on an open, treeless moor." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As I arrived there, the moon was rising over the plain, reminding me of the old poem," }, { "from": "human", "value": "Where the earth at last" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Merges into distant sky,\n\nLo, the moon rises\n\nOut of the waving grasses\n\nOf the plain of Musashi." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was fall moon, and the sight reminded me of that party at the palace when we had gone out to enjoy the sight of the harvest moon. I no longer had the ex-Emperor's robe which he had given me on that occasion as a souvenir, for I had presented it to the Hachiman shrine at Iwashimizu when I had copied out the Lotus Flower sutra. If I had kept it till now, no doubt the smell lingering on it would have reminded me of the ex-Emperor just as the robe given him by his emperor had brought back memories to Sugawara no Michizane.The moon shining over the wilderness was growing brighter and brighter with the passage of the night, the dew on the leaves of the bushes glittering like jewels.\n\nHard to forget is" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The glory of that bright moon\n\nI viewed at the court;\n\nBrightest in my memory\n\nTonight's moon will ever be." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I felt as if the moon and I were both floating in the flood of my tears," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Through a cloudless sky\n\nThe moon rides in majesty,\n\nThe sight reminds me\n\nOf his as gracious image," }, { "from": "human", "value": "His presence I miss so much." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "At last dawn broke and I started on my way back to Kawaguchi, for there was no place to stay at in that barren plain.\n\nAs I was crossing a long bridge—which could be compared with the Kiyomizu and Gion bridges in the Capital—over the grassy bed of a river which I thought might well be the river Sumida, I met two fairly well-dressed men.\n\n\"I was told that I should have to cross the river Sumida. Is this it?\" I said to them." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"This is the river Sumida,\" one of them said. \"And this is the Suda bridge. Before the bridge was built, people crossed over here by ferry boat, but as that was not very convenient, a bridge was built. The local people, thinking the name 'Sumida' rather too high-flown a name, call it the Suda bridge. The village on the other side of the river was formerly called Miyoshino, Beautiful Wilderness, but the farmers so often found the ears of their rice plants empty that the governor of the province, hearing of this and thinking it quite natural that it should be so when the village had such a name, changed the name to Yoshida, Happy Field. Since then they have had good harvests.\"\n\nHearing that this was the river Sumida I recalled the poem of Arihara no Narihira in The Tales of Ise when he saw miyako-dori flying about here,\n\nMiyako-dori," }, { "from": "human", "value": "If Birds of the Capital" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "You really are,\n\nTell me how does she fare now\n\nFar away in the Capital.\n\nI looked round but could see no birds there." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Certainly there were no miyako-dori about." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Vain it was, I found,\n\nFor me to come to this place,\n\nThe river Sumida,\n\nIn search of Capital Birds" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Reputed to haunt this spot.\n\nAs I murmured this poem to myself, the river mist, as well as my tears, prevented me from seeing clearly the way I was going. Then I heard, seeming to be in sympathy with my feelings, the call of the wild geese flying high in the sky above the clouds,\n\nHow sorrowful now" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Seems to my ears the loud cry" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 5 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Of the wild geese\n\nAs they seek to console me,\n\nTearful and solitary.\n\nAt Horikane there was no trace of the well, famed in poetry, and no ruins, only one dead tree.\n\nI had wished to continue my journey north to Mutsu province, but I abandoned the project, being afraid that the keepers of every barrier which I came to would try to obstruct my wandering any further, and so I returned to Kamakura on my way back to the Capital." } ]

[ { "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 stick to the Japan, nonfiction, memoirs, 1300s genre." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The time soon passed, and on the tenth day of the ninth month I started on my way back to the Capital. The friends whom I had made during my previous stay in Kamakura were all reluctant to see me leave. During the evening of the day before my departure, Taira no Sukemune, the lord of Iinuma, the Governor-general's second son, brought me several presents and invited me to join him in one last verse-capping party. On some previous occasion, I had asked him where Namidagawa, the river of tears, was. He had told me then that he had no idea.\n\n\"Are you bent on leaving tomorrow?\" he said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We cannot stop halfway on our journey through life,\" I answered." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Just before he went away, he wrote on the salver on which our wine cups had been served this poem,\n\nYou asked me where\n\nFlows the river of tears;\n\nNow I know it flows\n\nDown my sleeves because I have\n\nNo right to ask you to stay." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I was just about to write a poem in answer to this, when he returned with a present of travelling robes and a poem," }, { "from": "human", "value": "Short-lived our friendship," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But I hope that you will wear\n\nThese robes on your way\n\nTo bring me back to your mind\n\nWho am sad to see you go.\n\nI had often suspected that our frequent meetings for poetical composition had led malicious rumour-mongers to insinuate that our friendship for one another went deeper, and my answering poem read,\n\nOnce my eyes were filled" }, { "from": "human", "value": "With tears of indignation;" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "From their evil speech\n\nI did not defend myself;\n\nNow I weep with tears of yearning.\n\nThere was little reason for me to hurry on to the Capital, but there was just as little reason to remain any longer where I was, and so at sunrise I left Kamakura for the last time. By the kindness of the people at the various post stations on the way, I was carried all the way by palanquin. At last I reached Sayano-nakayama, a place which reminded me of Saigyo's poem," }, { "from": "human", "value": "How could I have known," }, { "from": "human", "value": "When in youth I crossed this pass," }, { "from": "human", "value": "That in my old age" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I should cross it once again?\n\nSo is our life ruled by fate.\n\nMy own poem written at this spot was,\n\nMy heart beats sadly\n\nAnd my endless tears flow down\n\nAs I cross this pass," }, { "from": "human", "value": "For I know that I shall never" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Pass along this way again.\n\nI arrived at the Atsuta shrine, where I kept vigil for the night. There were some itinerant priests there who told me that they were from the Grand Shrine at Ise. When I asked them about the way to the shrine, they informed me that it was easy to cross over to Ise by boat from the port of Tsushima. I was happy to learn this and decided to make the trip.\n\nBefore I went to Ise, however, I wished first to copy the remaining thirty volumes of the Kegon sutra and present them to the Atsuta shrine." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I therefore collected together the few remaining travel robes I had been presented with in Kamakura, intending to sell them to pay the expenses of copying the sutra, but the Chief Priest of the shrine raised objections to my staying there." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In these circumstances it was obvious that I should have to give up the idea. Just then also I had another attack of illness, and so, there being no hope of my being able to continue my devotions at the shrine, I went on my way to the Capital." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "STORY CONTINUATION REQUIRED:\nLength: 5 sentences sentences\nStyle: Lady Nijō\nGenre: Japan, nonfiction, memoirs, 1300s" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Back once again in the Capital at the end of the tenth month, I could not seem to settle down to life there and I therefore decided to go to Nara, a place I had very seldom visited, not being a member of the Fujiwara family.That night I kept a vigil in a room off the corridor at the Lesser shrine. All night I could hear people who were keeping their vigil by singing songs all the night through. Humorous recitations are, I knew, one method by which the great masses of the ordinary people are brought to spiritual enlightenment, but it was not until this occasion, I believe, that I fully realised what a potent force for good they are in the work of divine providence for the salvation of souls, and I found my faith much deepened and strengthened.\n\nThere was, I have heard, a High Priest named Shinki, a disciple of the High Priest Rinkai, the High Priest later went into retreat at the Kasuga shrine. \"I have no further aim in this life,\" he said, in explaining his reasons for this step." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I will so devote my service to Buddha that I may attain happiness in the next world. In this retreat I will make an offering to the god of all that I have learnt of the mysteries of Buddhism.\"\n\nThe god appeared to him in a dream. \"I have left high heaven,\" he said to the priest, \"to descend to the world of mortals so that I may bring happiness to all in the next world. Your officiousness in prohibiting to pious people the enjoyment of the music of drums and bells has angered me, for this stupid action has deprived them of a means of salvation. I refuse to accept your offering to me of what you consider to be the soul of Buddhism.\"\n\nSince that time, music and dancing have been permitted at all the temples of the district, and no petition to the god to prohibit these popular amusements has been allowed. When I heard of this episode, I realised how gracious divine providence is." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Next morning I went to the Hokkeji temple where there was living in Number One quarters the nun Jakuembo, a daughter of the Minister Fujiwara no Fuyutada, and we spoke together for a long time on the stern Buddhist doctrine of the frailty of human life." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "How calm and peaceful it would be, I thought, to live in such a temple as this. Still, I was not endowed by nature, I concluded, to live a serene life of Buddhist scholarship. So, lured on by my blind search for spiritual enlightenment elsewhere, I found myself on my way back to the temples of Nara.\n\nOn my way there I happened to stop at the house of Nakatomi no Sukeie, the priest in charge of the Kasuga shrine. Passing by a house and not knowing whose it was, but supposing from its splendid ridge-roofed gate that it was a part of a temple, I went into the garden." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "At once I saw that I had made a mistake; it was not a temple but the house of a well-to-do family. Beautiful chrysanthemums were growing along a rough woven fence. They were perhaps a little past their best, but they quite held their own with any growing in the palace gardens.\n\nOne or two young men came out of the house. \"Where are you from?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "one of them said to me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"From the Capital,\" I said.\n\n\"I am ashamed,\" he said to me in a rather formal manner, \"that you should see the chrysanthemums when they are really past their best.\" The young men were, I learnt later, the sons of Sukeie: Sukenaga, his father's deputy at the shrine; and his younger brother, Suketoshi, deputy-governor of Mino province.\n\nAs I left the garden, I wrote a poem on a card and fixed it to the chrysanthemum fence,\n\nWandering about" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Far from the city, I find" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "My perfect delight\n\nIn things soon passing, the dew\n\nOn flowers in your garden.\n\nThen I went on my way, but soon a man came running to call me back. They had no doubt found my poem on the card." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I had to go back to the house and they were most hospitable, urging me to stay with them for some time." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And, as usual, I did so.\n\nThe Chuguji temple was founded by the great prince Shotoku, I went on from the Horyuji temple to the Taimadera temple. There is a tradition here which tells that when the abbess, Lady Chujo, a daughter of the Minister Fujiwara no Toyonari, prayed that she might have a vision of Buddha, a nun appeared to her.\n\n\"I will weave a cloth,\" the apparition said, \"which will show you all the peace and splendour of Paradise, if you will provide for me a hundred horse-loads of lotus stalks.\"\n\nAs she wished, the fibre was extracted from a hundred loads of stalks and dyed in five colours in specially dug dye pits." }, { "from": "human", "value": "When this was prepared, the nun appeared again and asked for oil for a lamp." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She then began to weave a picture of Paradise, working from ten o'clock at night till four o'clock next morning, until, having finished the picture, she prepared to leave." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"How can I see you again?\" the abbess asked. In answer, the apparition, as it flew away to the west in the form of a Buddha, recited the verse,\n\nIn ancient times when the Buddha preached,\n\nHis disciple Kasho was transformed into a Buddha;\n\nIn Japan En no Ozuno did the same." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 6 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "At your petition I have come to explain\n\nThat, if you believe in what the picture represents,\n\nYou will be free from mortal agony.\n\nPrince Shotoku's tomb at the Eifukuji temple is worthy of him, with an impressive stone wall round it. I had the good fortune to be present at the ceremony of copying the Lotus Flower sutra at this temple when I presented a tight-sleeved gown.\n\nSo the New Year came round." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Today you will be acting as a writing assistant, your partner will send something and you will write the next 8 sentences." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "On my way back to the Capital in the second month, I visited the shrine of Hachiman at Iwashimizu. It is a long distance from Nara to Yawata where the shrine stands, and it was already sunset before I climbed up the Inobana slope and arrived at the forecourt of the main shrine.\n\nI had made the journey with a woman of Iwami province, a hunchbacked dwarf, and we had talked together on the way about such things as the cause of her deformity and her fate in being so afflicted.\n\nWhen we got to the Riding Pavilion, we saw that the main door of the pavilion was open. I took no particular notice of this at the time and went on walking towards the two-storeyed gate, for no one had told me when I had been in retreat here earlier that the opening of this door showed that an Imperial visit was taking place. Then a man who seemed to be a porter approached me.\n\n\"Please go to the Riding Pavilion,\" he said to me.\n\n\"Who asked you to call me back?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I said. \"Has he mistaken me for someone else? Is the message for the short lady over there?\"\n\n\"No, I haven't made any mistake. The message is for you. The ex-Emperor of Tominokoji has been in retreat here since the day before yesterday.The news struck me dumb. His image had always filled my mind and would not be banished from it, but I had thought I had seen him for the last time two years before when I had paid my farewell visit to him from the apartment of Lady Kyogoku on the occasion of my taking my final vows. Now I wore a nun's habit, moss-grown, travel-stained, weather-beaten, threadbare. I had been certain that no one would recognise me. I wondered who it could have been that had done so, for I never dreamt that it was the ex-Emperor himself who had seen me; I decided that perhaps one of the ladies-in-waiting had thought it was possibly me that she had seen and had asked me to come to her so that she could make certain that I was really the person she thought I was." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I therefore continued to walk on quite undisturbed, when a warrior came along and urged me to go with him at once." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There was no way to escape. I went with him to the side door on the north side of the hall.\n\n\"Come in. You'll attract people's attention standing out there.\" I recognised the ex-Emperor's voice, sounding to my ears just as it had always done. This was something I had not expected at all, and his voice came as such a shock to me that I could not move a limb. \"Hurry up,\" he went on, and without much hesitation I went in.\n\n\"It was pretty sharp-eyed of me to pick you out in such a crowd, wasn't it?\" he said. \"It shows how much I still love you even though such a long time has passed since we met last.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "From this we went on to talk of former days and of the happy chance that had brought about our present meeting." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Love affairs have not the charm nowadays that they used to have,\" he said. So we passed the whole of the short night talking together without going to bed, not leaving each other till dawn came.\n\n\"I shall spend the period of my retreat in purity and with a religious frame of mind. Then, when my retreat is over, we can meet with peaceful happy hearts.\" As he was leaving, he took off three of the tight-sleeved gowns he was wearing and gave them to me. \"This is my secret keepsake to you. Wear them always,\" he said. My heart was ready to break with love and sorrow. I thought no more of what had happened to me in the past or what would happen in the future or even of what would be my lot in the next world. All such thoughts passed from my mind." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Inexorably, day came. The ex-Emperor said goodbye, and I left. Only the scent of him on the gowns he had given me remained to remind me of him. I was afraid that the perfume of incense still lingering on my black habit would betray me, for everyone would be able to recognise it, and this made me even more reluctant to wear the gowns under my habit.\n\nMany years have passed\n\nSince with throbbing hearts we laid\n\nOur sleeves together;\n\nMeeting again once more now,\n\nHis sleeves are wet with my tears." }, { "from": "human", "value": "So I expressed my thoughts as I left the hall as if in a trance, with his beloved features reflected in my tear-drenched sleeves." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 9 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I longed to see him again, even if only once more in the course of that day, just to talk quietly together. Yet I could not put the thought from me that he might already be regretting that he had brought about our meeting together now that we had both taken our vows. It would be most imprudent, I thought, for me to stay on in the hope of meeting him again. My feelings can easily be imagined as, stifling the desires of my heart, I made ready to leave at once for the Capital. Even then, however, I could not resist waiting around the shrine in the hope that I might catch another accidental glimpse of him as he was making his tour of the sanctuaries within the precincts of the shrine; in order not to attract his attention by my black habit, I put on one of his tight-sleeved gowns over it and stood among the court ladies as he came past. His appearance now that he wore a monastic habit was quite different from what it had been in the old days, and my heart was filled with sorrow at the sight of him being helped up the steps of the shrine by Lord Fujiwara no Suketaka, who was at that time perhaps a chamberlain. I recalled how he had said to me the night before, \"I am delighted that we are both wearing these habits.\" I remembered how he had spoken of this and that innocent episode of our early days together.\n\nSo, with the sound of his voice still making music in my ears and his beloved features still reflected in my tear-drenched sleeves, I left the shrine and went northwards to the Capital with the feeling that I had left my soul behind me." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "STORY CONTINUATION REQUIRED:\nLength: 7 sentences sentences\nGenre: Japan, nonfiction, memoirs, 1300s" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Thinking that I ought not to make a long stay in the Capital, I decided to do what I had planned to do the year before and visit the Atsuta shrine. On the very night I kept vigil there, a fire broke out. Naturally there was a great deal of noise and shouting as the people of the shrine tried to extinguish the flames. It was the will of the gods, however, that they could not control the conflagration. Soon clouds of smoke were rising to the sky, and by morning the buildings of the shrine were reduced to ashes.\n\nAs soon as it was daylight, the builders and the carpenters were busy with plans for rebuilding. The chief priests and the soothsayers of the shrine then found among the still smouldering offerings a box one foot wide and four feet long lying beside the undamaged foundation-stones of the Never-opened Hall, the door of which, tradition says, Prince Yamato Takeru himself walled up in ancient times." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Everyone was amazed at this strange find." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As he lived in closest contact with the god, the chief of the soothsayers ventured to pick up the box and make a small opening in its side." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 8 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They looked through this crack and found that the box contained a scarlet brocade bag which they guessed held a sacred sword. They opened the Hakken shrine and offered the sword there.\n\nThe strange point about this story is that Prince Yamato Takeru, who was born in the tenth year of the reign of the Emperor Keiko to whom the shrine is dedicated, was sent to the eastern provinces by the Emperor's orders to quell the barbarians. On his way he worshipped at the Ise shrine, where he received a red brocade bag with this divine oracle: \"In a previous existence you were born as Prince Susano-o who took a sword out of the tail of the Serpent with Eight Heads and Tails and gave it to me. Now in return for all you did for me then, I give you this brocade bag. When you are attached by the enemy and are in gravest danger, open it.\"\n\nLater on, when he was surrounded on all sides by a fire started by the enemy on the hunting moor in Suruga province, his sword unsheathed itself and cut the grass round him. He opened the brocade bag, and with the flint and steel that he found inside he started a fire which spread in the direction of the enemy, blinded them, and finally destroyed them. For this reason the district was named Yakitsuno, Burnt Moor, and this sword Kusanagi, Grass Cutter.\n\nI listened with reverence to the reading of this episode from the part of the records that had escaped burning and was once more deeply impressed by the mystery of the divine power of the gods as revealed in dreams." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Add five sentences to continue story" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The noise and commotion consequent on the rebuilding of the shrine at Atsuta made me disinclined to stay there to continue with my task of copying the sutras." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I therefore decided to go to the Grand Shrine of Ise, crossing over from the port of Tsushima. It was the beginning of the fourth month and the leaves of the trees were beginning to show a greenish tinge, giving a delightful impression of the stirring of new life.\n\nI went first to the outer shrine. Just as Saigyo had done there, I would have liked to have stayed at the cedar grove of Yamada to wait there for the first song of the cuckoo. At the shrine office I found two or three ritualists and other shrine officials." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Knowing that the wearing of Buddhist monastic garb was frowned on, I asked them how and where I should worship." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You may go as far as the third courtyard to the second torii,\" they said.\n\nThis courtyard is certainly a most awe-inspiring spot. I was standing there when two or three men, probably shrine officials, came along.\n\n\"Where are you from?\" one of them said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"From the Capital,\" I said. \"I have come here to learn more about religion.\"\n\n\"Your black habit is not welcome here,\" he said, \"but you look so tired and exhausted that the gods will look on you with compassion and forgive you.\"\n\nThey invited me inside and were most hospitable. \"I will be your guide,\" one of them said, \"and show you where you may worship, for you are not allowed to enter the main shrine.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He took me past the thousand-branched cedar tree to the sacred pool where I could worship." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I bowed my head as he wafted the staff with paper streamers over me in purification and blessing. What purification, I wondered with sad doubtings, could ever cleanse my soul from its impurities?\n\nReturning from the shrine, I found lodging nearby. I enquired there about the kind official who had been my guide and found that his name was Watarai no Yukitada, a ritualist of the third grade and chief of the office where I had called. Another of the officials who had been so kind to me was Watarai no Tsuneyoshi, son of the first-grade ritualist." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I expressed my gratitude to them for their kindness in this poem, attaching it to a sprig of the sacred sakaki tree," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Gods and the Buddha\n\nBoth mingle with men to bring\n\nHappiness to them;\n\nMost kind were you who serve here\n\nTo me though in black habit." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The answer came back in this poem,\n\nWe humble servants\n\nOf the great shrine of Ise\n\nIn the cedar grove\n\nAre taught thus to show kindness" }, { "from": "human", "value": "To all without distinction." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I had thought of going into retreat for seven days at the outer shrine to pray for spiritual enlightenment, but various priests sent me poems and sometimes joined me in poetical contests so that for the moment my time was fully taken up." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Unlike ordinary shrines, this one forbids recitation of the Buddhist sutras there except at the Horakusha temple half a mile away. I therefore spent my days there in devotions. On the first evening I went to the Kannon temple nearby and asked the nuns for lodging for the night. I met with a flat refusal: \"It is impossible,\" I was told abruptly. I therefore wrote this poem and sent it to the abbess attached to a branch of the nandina tree," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "My robe is surely\n\nOf the same colour as yours,\n\nOf what colour then\n\nDid you think it to be when\n\nYou turned me away just now?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She did not send me any poem in reply but invited me to stay with them, and we became good friends.\n\nMy seven days of retreat were over and I was preparing to visit the inner shrine when my earliest friend here, Tsuneyoshi, sent me a poem,\n\nHow much I wish now\n\nThat I had not made friends with\n\nOne on her travels;" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I would not feel this sorrow\n\nWhen a fellow poet leaves.\n\nI replied with the poem,\n\nThere is no meeting\n\nWithout a parting follows," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Even for those who\n\nDo not travel. In this world\n\nOne's friends stay not forever.\n\nQuite a few persons with artistic interests seem to have been waiting eagerly for me to go to the inner shrine, having heard that a nun with some skill in poetry was in retreat at the outer shrine and would be coming there later. It was therefore with a certain reluctance that I went on there." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I stayed at a place called Okada next to a house where a lady of some elegance lived." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She was the widow of a second-grade ritualist, Arakida no Nobunari." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She sent a young girl to me with a letter. \"Hearing that you are from the Capital,\" she wrote, \"I long to meet you. I do so wish to have a friendly talk with you.\"\n\nMy reply was the poem,\n\nYou would wish to hear\n\nFrom me of the Capital," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But this reminds me\n\nOf things I cannot forget\n\nBut too sad to tell in words.\n\nThe moon rose late in the night on which I went to visit the inner shrine. I was wearing my black habit, and so I had to look at the shrine from the other side of the river Mimosuso." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The sanctuary looked as if it stood a great distance beyond the sacred fence, evergreen trees with dense foliage clustered round it. The ends of the ornamental cross-beams on the gables are cut horizontally as a symbol, it is said, of prayer for the glory and prosperity of the Imperial throne. The sight recalled the ex-Emperor to my mind, and I uttered aloud a prayer for his health and safety, my heart softening with a feeling of pure devotion. This I expressed in the poem,\n\nWhatever changes," }, { "from": "human", "value": "Love and devotion for you" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Remain unaltered;" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I offer a fervent prayer\n\nThat you live a thousand years.\n\nThe wind blew gently, the river Mimosuso flowed calmly, the moon rose up from behind the hills shining with a brighter light over the sanctuary and from it spreading out, it seemed to me, far beyond the confines of our own country.\n\nMy act of worship over, as I was passing the shrine office on my way back, I thought the house of the first-grade ritualist, Arakida no Hisayoshi, looked most desolate in the bright moonlight, for all its doors and windows were firmly shut. I wrote a poem, attached it to a small branch of sakaki, and left it on the verandah of the house," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Even though it is\n\nThe Great Goddess of the Sun\n\nThat all of you serve,\n\nHow can you so shut out thus\n\nThe clear bright light of the moon?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "My poem must soon have been found and read, for a reply came at once to my lodging, also attached to a sprig of the sacred tree,\n\nHow could I shut tight\n\nThe doors of my lowly house\n\nAgainst the moonlight\n\nExcept for this one reason—" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Profound is an old man's sleep?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"In which direction is FutamiThe god to whom the shrine of Ko Asakuma is dedicated is, if I remember rightly, the patron of bronze mirror casters, the object of worship being the sacred mirror in which the Sun Goddess looked at her own reflection." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Though the mirror was stolen and thrown into the sea, it restored itself to the altar here. As a result the oracle declared, \"It is my desire to save from suffering the denizens of the scaly kingdom,\" the mirror moving itself from the altar to appear on the top of a nearby rock. Near the rock there was a cherry tree where the mirror lodged on a branch at high tide, returning to the rock at low tide.\n\nAs this story interested me much, I decided to remain a day or two at Shioai, staying at the house of the chief priest of the shrine, who treated me with great hospitality and made me extremely comfortable.\n\nAfter two or three days, hearing that it was most enjoyable to see Futami Bay by moonlight, I went there with a party of women." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Words fail me to describe how impressive, how beautiful, how touching the scene was." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "We spent the whole night on the beach, and as we left at daybreak I composed the poem,\n\nI cannot forget\n\nThe clear beauty of the moon\n\nStanding in the sky\n\nWhich has shone the whole night through" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "On the white sands of the bay.\n\nWhile I was at this place, a relative of the chief priest of the Ise shrine named Terutsuki who served in the kitchen at the Tominokoji palace heard that I was there and sent me a letter supposedly from one of the ladies-in-waiting whom I knew. Feeling that it was rather strange to receive a letter from her, I opened it. It was from the ex-Emperor.\n\n\"Are you so much in love with the moon at Futamigaura,\" he wrote, \"that you have forgotten the court and me? I hope that soon we may have another friendly talk together like the one we had when we met accidentally at Yawata.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The letter was so affectionate in every way that I was quite undecided as to how I should answer it, but eventually I sent this poem in reply," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "How could I ever\n\nForget the splendid beauty\n\nOf the midnight moon\n\nWe loved to watch together\n\nWhen I was still there with you?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I felt it was time I was leaving and decided to go back first to the outer shrine at Ise and then, as the commotion after the fire seemed to be over, return to the Atsuta shrine where I could finish copying the rest of the sutra. At the outer shrine I felt so sad at having to leave that I recorded my feelings in the poem,\n\nO God of the shrine,\n\nGuide me, I beseech you, as\n\nI go on my way" }, { "from": "human", "value": "For the rest of my journey" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Through this world of suffering.\n\nThe following morning as I was leaving, I received a letter from the chief of the priests of the shrine, Arakida no Hisayoshi. \"Thank you for all your good wishes,\" he wrote. \"Do not fail to come back here for the annual festival in the ninth month.\"\n\nI thought that it was most kind of him to give me this invitation and replied with the poem," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "For the festival\n\nI will certainly return\n\nTo offer up prayers\n\nThat this benevolent reign\n\nWill continue for ever." }, { "from": "human", "value": "No one could know, however, with what great sincerity I should make my prayer for the continued well-being of the ex-Emperor." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hisayoshi wrote in answer thanking me for my prayers for himself and his family and sending me two rolls of silk made, as he emphasised, in Ise province and including the poem," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A long, long time\n\nIt will appear unto me\n\nUntil you fulfil\n\nYour promise of returning\n\nIn the ninth month to Ise." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "That evening I spent at Ominato in a fisherman's hut near the salt-pans so that I might catch the ferry at high tide next morning, as I thought of the old song,\n\nHappy I could be\n\nEven among rocky cliffs,\n\nResorts of cormorants,\n\nOr on a whale-haunted beach," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "If he I love were but there.\n\nI could not help wondering what would become of me in the future. It was no comfort to look forward to seeing the ex-Emperor again some day. Happy should I be if I were now on my way to join him beyond the mountains!\n\nJust as I was leaving well before dawn, a letter arrived from the priest of the outer shrine, Tsuneyoshi." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"This is the poem I intended to send to you before you left here,\" he wrote,\n\nAs you go away\n\nAcross the stormy billows,\n\nI weep as I think\n\nThat you have become again" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A stranger and lost friend.\n\nI replied with the poem,\n\nFated to become\n\nA stranger to you again,\n\nAs I leave I weep" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Narrative Extension Protocol:\nQuantity: 8 sentences\nAuthor Emulation: Lady Nijō\nGenre Classification: Japan, nonfiction, memoirs, 1300s" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Not even after my death, I thought, should I ever be able to forget my unexpected meeting with the ex-Emperor at the Hachiman shrine at Iwashimizu. Since that meeting he had often sent messages to me by a relative of mine asking me to meet him. I had thought it better, however, to continue not to consent to do this, and so the days and the months passed by uneventfully until the ninth month of the following year.\n\nEspecially whenever he was at the Fushimi palace, the ex-Emperor would write to me telling me how quiet and peaceful Fushimi was and how nothing could ever leak out about anything which happened there. Obviously my love for him must have been stronger than my devotion to the life of piety which I had adopted. I saw nothing unreasonable or sinful in what he suggested, and finally I went in secret to the vicinity of the palace. My relative came out to meet me and took me in. It was quite amusing to be thus shown in to a place which I had known so well of old." }, { "from": "human", "value": "While I leaned on the balustrade of the Kyutaido sanctuary waiting for the ex-Emperor, the babbling of the waters of the river Uji seemed compassionate and soothing, for I was reminded of the words of the ancient poem," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Nothing seemed to be friendly\n\nSave the rippling of the stream.\n\nA little after eight o'clock in the evening, the ex-Emperor came in. His appearance now in monastic garb in the bright moonlight was so different from the image I had treasured in my memory that tears came to my eyes and blurred my vision of him. We talked of various incidents of our old life together from the time when I had sat on his knee as a small child of four years of age until the time when I took my vows. They now seemed to me to be events of an infinitely remote past, but still it filled me with grief to hear him speak of them. \"I am sure,\" he said finally, \"You have continued to have many troubles while you have gone on living in this sorrowful world. Why have you let such a long time elapse without telling me of them?\"\n\nActually there was very little I had to complain about except that, having had to leave his service, I had had to live the life of a nun on constant pilgrimage." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He himself was the only person against whom I had the slightest cause for complaint, but, I thought, it would be extremely impertinent of me to tell him so now." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I listened and remained silent. The call of the deer on the Otowa hills urged me to tears, and the bell from the Sokujoin temple told of the coming of dawn. I whispered to myself,\n\nAll night I listen\n\nTo the sad call of the deer\n\nOn the distant hills;\n\nThen the bell tolling at dawn\n\nComes to soothe away my tears." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Too soon it was broad daylight; my sleeves still wet with tears, I left the palace, treasuring in my mind's eye the memory of his form.\n\n\"I should like to meet you again,\" he had said in the course of our conversation the previous evening. \"I hope it will be on a bright moonlight night like this. But you, whenever you talk of our next meeting, never speak of our meeting again in this life but only of our reunion in the world to come, when in I believe that in asking these questions he was sincerely anxious to learn the truth about my experiences. \"Since the moment when I left the court,\" I said, \"and took my vows and began my wanderings through the provinces, I have had no place to call my own. I have found it true that, as the Lotus Flower sutra says, 'There is no rest in the burning house of this world.' To this fate I am fully resigned, regarding it as the inevitable consequence of my sins in a former life. I realised too that when the bonds of love between a man and a woman are broken, there is no way of restoring them to what they were before. Though I come of the line of the Genji clan which is under the special protection of Hachiman Bosatsu, I do not believe that I should rely solely on his protection. Yet it was to his shrine that I went to worship before I started out for the east, praying that my pilgrimage might in the first place assist in my spiritual development and also incidentally serve in expiation of my sins in this life." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The old proverb says that an honest person's conscience is the sole divine arbiter of good and evil." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "If that is true, then my conscience is clear. I have no doubts about this, for if during my travels as far to the east as the river Sumida in Musashi province, I had had relations with a man even for one night, then I should consider that by doing so I had consigned myself to the darkest depths of hell from which I could not hope to escape, notwithstanding the pledge of the three Buddhas who are reincarnations of Hachiman Bosatsu that they will save all souls from eternal destruction. I went to the pure waters of the river Mimosuso, but if I had relations with a man at Ise and left my heart there with him, Dainichi Buddha who rules over the Worlds of Wisdom and Mercy would deal sternly with me for my sins. The autumn chrysanthemums at the house at the foot of Mikasa hill did nothing for me but free my mind for the writing of poetry. If I had had relations with a man there at that time and gone on from there down the southern slope of Nara to worship at the Kasuga shrine, I should rightly have forfeited the favour of the gods of the shrine and rightly suffered the eight agonies of remorse.\n\n\"I lost my mother when I was in my second year,\" I went on. \"I have always grieved that I could not remember her at all. My father died when I was in my fifteenth year. I have always tried to do what he would have wished me to do and even now weep when I recall his great love for me." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Your love and compassion for me when I was a little girl assuaged my grief at the loss of my parents." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When I grew up, you favoured me above everyone else. How can I cease being eternally grateful to you for that? Animals who have no power of reasoning can feel gratitude and try to show it to those who are good to them. How can I as a human being help being grateful to you who have done so much for me? In the old days when I was a little child, your love for me seemed to me to be as natural a thing as the light of the sun and the moon, and when I grew up, I was just as grateful to you for your love and care as I was to my parents.\n\n\"Then,\" I went on, \"I had the unexpected misfortune to lose your favour and be sent away from the court. Months and years passed, but whenever I happened to see you go by in procession, I wept as I recalled the former happy days. When, at the New Year investitures, I heard of honours and court ranks conferred on former friends and learnt of the success and prosperity of other families, my heart ached with envy." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It was to free myself,\" I said, \"from such vain tears and sinful envy that I decided to go on pilgrimage to this place and to that in order to gain spiritual enlightenment. Sometimes I stayed in priests' quarters at temples, and sometimes there were men sleeping in the same room. Sometimes I stayed at the same place for many days and nights in succession practising the writing of poems and engaging in other romantic pursuits. It may be that people who never move far away from the Capital may think this kind of conduct extremely eccentric. I know that wandering nuns often do enter unthinkingly into casual guilty relationships with hedge priests and flute-playing mendicants and other undesirables. It was, to say the least, my good fortune not to do so. Instead I lay alone, my own sleeves as my pillow, throughout the whole of my journeyings. If it had been otherwise, then at least I should have been protected against the mountain blasts on frosty nights by four thicknesses of sleeve. Also, unlike Saigyo, I had no friend in the Capital waiting for my return to secular life. So I idled away my days under the cherry blossoms and my nights on the open moor, with the frosts of autumn as my covering and the grass as my pillow, listening to the chirping of the insects growing feebler and feebler as winter approached and comparing their fate with my own.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The ex-Emperor listened intently to my story but continued to press me with questions. \"I can quite believe,\" he said, \"that you have remained pure and chaste during your pilgrimages, for all that time you were worshipping at various shrines and temples wherever you went. You have not said anything, however, about your life in the Capital after your return, when you were not going round from one temple to another. This must be because you have allowed someone whom you loved formerly to return to your affections.\"\n\n\"I am not expecting to live a long life,\" I said. \"Still, I am not yet forty years of age, and I can promise nothing about what kind of life I may live in the future. All I can truthfully say is that up to the present moment I have entered into no secret relations of this kind with anyone whether he is an old friend or a new one. If what I have said were a lie, then my two thousand days of skimmingHe was silent for some time. I could not guess what impression my story had made on him. \"I see now,\" he then said, \"how unreasonable it is for me to have worried so much about you. After the death of your parents, I took upon myself complete responsibility for you, but circumstances eventually prevented my continuing to do so. I thought at the time that the break was due to the weakness of the ties of love which bound us together. I realise now, however, that in spite of my coldness and indifference towards you, your affection for me has remained warm and steadfast through all your troubles. It must have been by the special favour of Hachiman Bosatsu that I was fortunate enough to notice you when you visited his shrine.\"\n\nThe moon set behind the western hills and the sun rose in the east and lighted up the landscape as I hurriedly left the palace to avoid being seen there in my nun's habit." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Let's meet once more without fail as soon as possible,\" the ex-Emperor said as I left." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 5 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His voice seemed to me a beacon that would guide me along the dark path of my life thereafter.\n\nWhen he returned to the Capital from his tour, he sent me presents brought to me by a stranger. I felt grateful to him for his kindness at Fushimi and for the presents he had sent in secrecy. The favours I had received from him during my time in his service, though they seemed to no one either scandalous or over-indulgent, showed his true and undeviating affection for me. The old days were well worth remembering after all, it seemed." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "I've got a bit of writer's block. I'm gonna send you something then keep it going one sentence at a time, also I'm going for a Japan, nonfiction, memoirs, 1300s genre." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "So the years rolled on, and I decided to make another visit to Futamigaura, so called, I believe, because the goddess of Ise returned there for a second look, though earlier I have explained the derivation of this place name in a different way." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I wished to pray at Ise for a happy life and a happy death." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "On my way there from Nara by the pass over the Iga range of mountains, I passed by the Kasaoki temple..." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Having made up my mind to travel the route of the Emperor Takakura on his voyage to the Itsukushima shrine after his abdication [in 1180], I took the boat at the usual port of Toba on the river Katsura, changing to a larger boat at the mouth of the river." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I did not find life at sea at all pleasant." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Passing along the shore of Suma, I recalled Chunagon Arihara no Yukihira, elder brother of the more famous poet Narihira, who composed this poem while he was in exile here," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Should any person" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Happen to make enquiries," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Tell them of the life" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "That I lead at the salt-pans" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "On the lonely Suma shore." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Where was it, I asked the wind blowing off the shore, just where was it that the poet lived?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was the beginning of the ninth month when we landed, and the chirping of the insects in the frost-withered bushes was growing feebler and more intermittent." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Lying in my berth on the ship, I listened throughout the long cold night to the melancholy thud of the cloth-beaters' mallets in the village against the background of the sound of the rolling waves." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was a touching sight to see early next morning the fishing boats appearing and disappearing in the morning haze among the islets off the town of Akashi." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was easy to imagine the feelings of Shining Genji as he wrote," }, { "from": "human", "value": "Gallop on quickly," }, { "from": "human", "value": "Dappled grey horse of fancy," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Gallop on with me" }, { "from": "human", "value": "To the court—and I shall see" }, { "from": "human", "value": "My darling in one moment." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "So at last we reached the port of Tomo, in Bingo province, seemingly a very prosperous post station." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Off the shore, on the tiny solitary island of Taika in a row of cottages, there lived far from the vulgar world a group of nuns who had formerly been prostitutes in the town." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Before, it had been their custom to perfume their garments heavily with incense the better to attract the men they accosted." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They would smoothe down their hair, wondering the while on whose sleeve it would become dishevelled, and wait in the evening in lively expectation for those from whom in the morning they would part with no regrets." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "These women belonged to families whose business it was to provide sensual pleasures and whose inescapable destiny it was never to be able to rise in the after-life above this degraded existence." }, { "from": "human", "value": "All this they had abandoned to live more honourably in seclusion on this island." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What about your daily services?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I said to one of these nuns." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What was it that impelled you to make this great change in your lives?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I was once the owner of a brothel,\" she said, \"where there were many women. Dependent on travellers, we were glad to see boats arrive at the port and sorry to see them pass without stopping. I had these women paint their faces and pledge eternal love to men whom they had never met before, forcing them to drink heavily under the cherry blossoms in spring and in the dews of autumn. Before I realised it, I was fifty years of age, and it was then that I recognised what I was destined to discover—how illusory are the things of this world. I came here and have never since been back to the town. Every morning I climb this hill to gather flowers for an offering to the Buddhas of the past, present, and future in our daily service.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I envied the woman her peace of mind." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Our ship was in port for one or two days." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The nuns hated to see me going away and asked me when I expected to return there on my way back to the Capital. I replied," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "On this pilgrimage" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As I wander aimlessly," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "How can I tell you" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When I shall return this way" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Going to the Capital?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The ship arrived at Itsukushima, or Miyajima as it is also called, where in the open sea stands a large torii joined to the land by a causeway that seems to float on the surface of the sea and to which a large number of boats were moored." }, { "from": "human", "value": "At the temple, preparations were being made for a Buddhist festival." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Maidens in the service of the shrine would dance and sing on a stage erected over the sea that could be reached from the land by a bridge." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A rehearsal was held on the twelfth day of the ninth month when eight maidens danced, dressed in tight-sleeved gowns of various colours with white silk skirts." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The music was not of a high standard, but I recognised it as being a composition by Lady Yang-kuei, wife of the Emperor Hsuan-tsungOn the day of the festival two groups of dancers, one on the left in red brocade and one on the right in blue, represented the Buddhas, and a dancer in a crown and large hair ornament played the role of Lady Yang-kuei." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As evening approached, the sound of the music grew louder, especially in the rendering of the classical \"Music of Autumn Winds\" which touched me deeply." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When it was quite dark, the music and dancing ceased and most of the audience went home, leaving the shrine deserted, for very few people remained to make a vigil. The thirteen-day-old moon rising from behind the mountain at the back of the shrine seemed to be coming up from the middle of the shrine itself. The tide had risen to the shrine's steps. The bright moon reflected in the water appeared to be lying at the bottom of the sea. Such miraculously beautiful sights as this are said to be one of the forms in which is manifested the mind of Buddha freed from all the appetites of the flesh, having attained the full wisdom of the universe. Admiring the beauty of the scene, I found myself reciting the words of the sutra, The wisdom of Buddha radiating from his person will shine through the whole world; and the peoples of the world repeating the sacred name of Buddha will be redeemed.\" At the same time I was much perturbed by the thought that real happiness could come to me only if my heart were cleansed of all sin." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Mode: Collab writing\nAmount: 3 sentences\nVoice: Lady Nijō" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I did not stay long at Itsukushima, but came back towards the Capital by sea through the Inland Sea of Seto. On the boat I got into conversation with a rather nicely dressed woman.\n\n\"I come from the town of Wachi in Bingo province,\" she said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I always wanted to visit the shrine at Itsukushima. Won't you come and see my house?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'm on my way now to Cape Ashizuri in Tosa province,\" I answered. \"I understand it is a place worth visiting. But on my way back, I will call and see you.\"\n\nOn this cape there is a temple dedicated to Kannon, the goddess of mercy." }, { "from": "human", "value": "There is no resident priest in charge, and the main building is not divided off into rooms for different classes of visitors, travellers, and pilgrims staying there all together without any distinction of rank." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The reason for this is to be found in the following story: Formerly there was living in this temple a priest who was attended by a page with a very compassionate nature who was in the habit of sharing his meal with another page who came to the temple every day.\n\nThe priest warned him against such indiscriminate hospitality. \"It's all right to do this once or twice,\" he said, \"but you must not share your meal with him any more.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Next day the unknown page arrived for the meal." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I should like to be able to share my meal with you,\" the page of the temple said, \"but the priest does not approve of my doing so. Please don't come again. This must be the last time.\"\n\n\"I shall never forget your kindness,\" the other page answered. \"Come with me to my own house.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The page accompanied him, followed by the suspicious priest, who saw them take a boat and row away to the south." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Where are you going?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "he shouted. \"Are you going to leave me?\"\n\n\"We are going to the island of the goddess of mercy,\" they replied. Then the amazed priest saw the two pages transfigured, and there stood in the boat, one in the bow and the other in the stern, the figures of the goddess of mercy and the god of wisdom." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The forsaken priest wept and stamped his feet in vexation and disappointment." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And so the cape is called Cape Ashizuri, Foot-stamping, from the two footprints which the priest left when he stamped on the rock. Realising that it was his own lack of compassion that had caused him to be thus humiliated, he made the rule that henceforth there should be no discrimination of class or rank at the temple. For myself, I learned from the story that I could rely confidently on the aid of the goddess of mercy, who has revealed that she will manifest herself in thirty-three different ways to redeem the human race." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Like the Yasaka shrine in the Capital, the shrine of Akinosato is dedicated to the ox-headed god who is the keeper of the monastery founded by Gautama Buddha." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 1 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Feeling a certain amount of devotion to the shrine because of this connection, I stayed for the night there in peaceful meditation and worship." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "NarrativeBot: Extend text by eight sentences sentences. Replicate Lady Nijō's style. Maintain Japan, nonfiction, memoirs, 1300s genre." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Our ship stopped near Shiramine at Matsuyama in Sanuki province, the burial place of the Emperor Sutoku and a place I had for this reason longed to visit. Besides, I had friends in the province. I went to the Hokkeji temple in Matsuyama where the devout manner of their services encouraged me to believe that by their prayers they had freed the Emperor from the punishment he deserved for his evil deeds and would finally bring him to salvation. I recalled Saigyo's poem which he composed here,\n\nAlthough formerly\n\nIn exalted splendour you dwelt,\n\nNow that you have died,\n\nYou must resign yourself that" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The end of your power has come." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I remembered too the poem of the Emperor Tsuchimikado who was also in exile here,\n\nIt is destiny\n\nWhich has forced me to lead here\n\nSuch an unhappy life;\n\nUnreasonable is it then\n\nTo shed tears of repining.\n\nFor my own part, I mused,\n\nIf you remember" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Those sorrowful nights and days" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "You spent in weeping,\n\nYour compassion let me have\n\nEven from the under-world.\n\nI decided to stay here to copy some of the five Mahayana sutras which to my sorrow still remained to be completed. I went to a small hermitage near Matsuyama where, finding it a very suitable spot for my devotions, I set to work on my task and to occupy myself with regular acts of penance.\n\nIt was the end of the ninth month and the songs of insects had grown feeble, depriving me of even this small comfort in my solitude. Reciting the Lotus Flower sutra morning, noon, and evening with the prayer for absolution from sins committed through the six senses, I yet could not banish from my mind the ex-Emperor's words of love. Though I had vowed never again to play the lute, I still kept on the stand before the image of Buddha his bone plectrum which he had given me as a present when he was teaching me as a child to play the lute." }, { "from": "human", "value": "With the thought in my mind I wrote," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Treasuring this yet\n\nAs my one keepsake of his,\n\nStill are my eyes filled\n\nWith bitter tears as I think\n\nThat we are young no longer.\n\nOn this occasion I wrote out twenty of the forty volumes of the sutras which I had not yet copied, and presented them to the temple at Matsuyama, being dependent during this time on the help given me by friends who lived in the province. One of the three tight-sleeved gowns which the ex-Emperor had given me the year before at the Iwashimizu shrine I had presented to the Atsuta shrine as a reward for the help given me while I was copying the sutras there. Now I presented one of the others to the temple here in thanksgiving for the dedication service which I had asked them to hold when the completed sutras were presented." }, { "from": "human", "value": "With this in mind I wrote," }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 6 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When we parted there,\n\nWhy did he not ask me then\n\nTo keep these three gowns\n\nUntil, at that bright dawn, we\n\nMeet again in Paradise?\n\nDoubtless it was a sinful attachment to his love that caused me now to resolve never to part with that one remaining keepsake, the one tight-sleeved gown that I still had which he had worn next to his own body." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Write six sentences like Lady Nijō would, using user's text as beginning" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Before I realised it, it was the end of the eleventh month. Then I was overjoyed to hear that a ship would be leaving soon for the Capital. I travelled by this ship but unfortunately it ran into a severe snow storm with high wind and waves, and the ship had to put into a port in Bingo province. I landed there and discovered that fortunately it was near the house of the lady I had met on the ship on the outward voyage. With the help of the note she had given me, I was soon able to find the house and had a very happy stay with her for a few days.\n\nI saw, however, that the master of the house had four or five men and women brought to the house every day and had them beaten unmercifully as a punishment for various offences." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I was shocked and horrified by his cruelty, for there seemed to be no excuse at all for it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He was also a great hawker and hunter, killing off large numbers of birds and animals. He was a thoroughly wicked man.\n\nA near relative of this man, the Nyudo Hirosawa no Yoso, a man of some influence in the service of the Military Government, was expected on a visit on his way from Kamakura to the Kumano shrine, and not only the household itself but the people of the village and the whole district were in something of a panic preparing for his visit. At the house they had silk-covered sliding doors made, and these had to have pictures painted on them.\n\n\"I'll paint them if you like,\" I said unthinkingly, \"if you'll get the paints for me. You'll be able to get them at Tomo.\" They sent off for them at once, and it was then too late for me to repent of my impulse to help." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The colours arrived, and I decorated the doors." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The people of the house were highly delighted with them." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Please stay with us as long as you can,\" they said to me, to my amusement." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Before long the Nyudo arrived and was very hospitably entertained. \"These pictures haven't been painted by any country artist,\" he said when he had looked at the sliding doors, and admired them. \"Where did you get them done?\"\n\n\"The artist is staying here with us,\" they said.\n\n\"Artists usually have good taste in poetry. I presume he has too. I should like to meet him.\"\n\nI was puzzled as to what I should do, but knowing that he was on his way to the Kumano shrine, I decided to make this my excuse." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I think it would be better,\" I said, \"if we arrange a meeting when he comes here on his way back.\" This was agreed to, and the Nyudo left for Kumano. Two or three ladies-in-waiting had come with him from Kamakura.\n\nOne of them was a daughter of the elder brother of the master of the house at which I was staying, who lived at a place called Eda nearby. She invited me to go to stay there for a time, as the scenery was quite interesting. I was in fact finding my life at the Wachi house not very pleasant owing to the behaviour of the master of the house." }, { "from": "human", "value": "So, as the snow prevented my going back to the Capital for the moment, I went to Eda, not giving the matter very much consideration, but expecting that I should be able to continue my journey back to the Capital from there later on in the year." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The master of the house was, however, very angry when he learned that I had gone to Eda." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "This was a development I had not anticipated, nor had I expected him to take the line he did. \"It was a very lucky thing for me,\" he said to people when speaking about my departure, \"that I was able to find her again at Itsukushima. I had had her in my service for a long time before she ran away that time. And now I have had her stolen away from me by my brother. I'll kill her when I get my hands on her.\"\n\nI could not understand how he could have the audacity to claim that I was a servant of his. \"Take no notice of what he says,\" his brother said soothingly. \"That's the sort of senseless thing he's always saying.\" I was really quite happy at the house at Eda." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There were many young girls in the house and the atmosphere was extremely friendly and cheerful. Comfortable as I was, however, I was not sufficiently attracted to the place to want to stay there for good.\n\nWhen the Nyudo arrived at Wachi on his way back from Kumano, the brother there complained to him that his elder brother had enticed his servant away from him. \"What is the matter with you two?\" he said to the brother at Wachi, as I learned later. \"Your complaint about losing your maidservant is really absurd. You claim she is your servant. She doesn't seem to me to be of the servant class. Her skill in painting shows that. It is quite a usual thing for persons of high social position to go on pilgrimages. I wonder what family in the Capital she belongs to. It is really disgraceful that you should speak about her as you do. I'll see your brother at Eda about it.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The news that he was intending to do this naturally put everyone there in a panic of preparation." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We two brothers are at enmity with each other,\" the elder brother said to his uncle on his arrival at the Eda house, \"and all because of some stranger from the Capital on a pilgrimage.\"\n\n\"It is really an absurd quarrel,\" said the uncle. \"Send her away to Bitchu province with someone to be company for her.\"\n\nI was very grateful to him for the decision which he had made, and when I saw him, I told him my story.\n\n\"Talent often makes enemies for one,\" he commented. \"You are so talented an artist that he couldn't bear to part with you!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The Nyudo was extremely interested in poetical composition, and we began to amuse ourselves together, versifying and verse-capping." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As we did so, I watched him closely and realised that he had been one of those present at Kamakura when I had attended such poetry meetings with the lord of Iinuma." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "We went on to speak of those meetings and of his sad fate and that of his father, Taira no Yoritsuna. After a few days the Nyudo left for Ida. There had been a heavy fall of snow, and the scenery with its snow-laden bamboo fences looked strange to me, but all the more beautiful because,\n\nWhen winter snow falls,\n\nAgainst the drifts the fences\n\nAre our protection," }, { "from": "human", "value": "Just as against earthly sins" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 1 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Our defences are our vows." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Task: Cooperative storytelling\nMy role: Provide a brief opening\nYour role: Expand upon my opening with eight sentences, emulating the writing style of Lady Nijō." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The turn of the year came while I waited in vain, hoping to return to the Capital, but it remained very cold, and since the voyage was still considered very risky, I could not make up my mind to leave. It was therefore already the beginning of the second month before I finally decided to start. The Nyudo came from Ida to say goodbye to me, and we enjoyed another session of verse-capping. He gave me a number of presents when he left. It was perhaps because he was the guardian of a daughter of the former Generalissimo Prince Munetaka who was being brought up by the Lady Komachi that he showed such friendship for me.\n\nAt Ebara in Bitchu province where I went first, seeing a cherry tree in full bloom, I broke off a branch and sent it back to the Nyudo by the man who was seeing me off from there on his behalf with this poem,\n\nThe mist now descends\n\nTo hide us from each other;" }, { "from": "human", "value": "But yet these blossoms" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Remind me of you, and take\n\nYou my message on the wind.\n\nIt was a two-day journey from there to Ida, but the Nyudo sent back the man at once with his poem in answer to mine,\n\nNot blossoms alone,\n\nYour poems also give me\n\nMessages from you,\n\nAnd on the wind my heart flies\n\nBringing a wordless message." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As the Kibitsu shrine was on my way, I paid a visit there and found the inside of the shrine furnished in an unusual manner, being provided with screens and furniture more suitable for a noble's residence than a shrine." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 6 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As the days were long and the winds favourable, I was soon back in the Capital.\n\nWhat an unexpected and perilous adventure I had been through! How should I have been able to escape from this dangerous situation if the Nyudo had not chanced to go down there at that particular moment? Who would have taken my part when I declared that I was not that man's maidservant? What would have happened to me in the end, I wondered. As a result of this incident, I lost all my enthusiasm for going on pilgrimages and did not stir out of the Capital for a very long time." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "yo hit me with five sentences more. Japan, nonfiction, memoirs, 1300s genre k?" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "At the beginning of the next year, I heard in the course of general conversation that the ex-Empress Higashi Nijo was ill. Although I was most anxious to know about her condition, there was no one to whom I could go for more definite news of her than I could get by hearsay. I did learn in this way that she was critically ill and that she had left the Tominokoji palace. This struck me as being very odd. Death comes to all of us, it is true, but still I could not understand why she should have had to leave the palace where she had lived so long." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Seated on the throne to which so few are raised and only through their virtues in a former life, she had helped His Majesty in the affairs of government by day and kept him company at night." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was therefore only just that she should breathe her last in the surroundings to which she had been accustomed for so long. I was still puzzling over the reasons for her having had to leave the palace when I heard she had passed away.\n\nAs I was living near the Capital, I went to the palace to find out if it were possible to catch a glimpse of the ex-Emperor. While I stood outside, it was announced that Princess Yugimon would be leaving, and retainers brought her carriage round to the steps. Then it was moved away again, and it was announced that Lord Kinhira, former Minister of the Right, was leaving." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Next, the princess was going to leave at once, and her carriage was brought up to the entrance again." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Then her departure was once more delayed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "So she came out and then went in again several times. It was sad indeed to see how reluctant she was to go away without just one more sight of her mother. Standing near to the carriage among the crowd of onlookers, I heard people commenting on this, \"I thought she was going to get into the carriage, but she's gone back in, hasn't she?\" Finally, the princess did get into her carriage, looking quite out of her mind with grief. The bystanders wept in sympathy, and, however insensitive they might be, all those who were told about the incident wept too." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As she was the only surviving child of the ex-Empress, all the others having died young, there was an unusually strong bond of affection between mother and daughter." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "My memory of my own grief at my father's death enabled me to understand her feelings at that sad moment. I wondered what would have been my feelings at this time if I had remained at the court and had been there to see the ex-Empress leave the palace for the last time, and expressed my thoughts in the poem,\n\nA sad world it is\n\nWhere I see the Empress leave\n\nOn her last journey" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The palace where long she lived" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 1 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "While a bystander am I!" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Job: User writes start, you add ~four sentences sentences. Style: Lady Nijō" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The funeral service for the ex-Empress Higashi Nijo was held at the palace of Fushimi, attended by the Retired Emperor1and Princess Yugimon. I sympathised deeply with them in their loss, but I had no relative now through whom I could offer my condolences. I could only spend my days and nights in vain anxiety about them. In the same year in the sixth month, I was distressed to hear that the Retired Emperor was ill, of ague, it was said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In a few days he was reported to be better, and then it was said that he had had another attack. Then I heard that prayers for his recovery were to be offered to Emma, the King of Hades. I went to the palace, but there was no one there from whom I could get any information, and I returned from the palace knowing as little as when I went there, expressing my frustration in the poem,\n\nHow can he learn" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Except maybe in a dream\n\nThat my eyes are dimmed\n\nWith the tears shed night and day\n\nIn my so sore grief for him?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Then I heard that he was suffering daily attacks, and then several attacks a day. People were all expecting to hear of his death. I was frantic, for I feared that I should never be able to see him again. I went into retreat at the Hachiman shrine at Iwashimizu from the first day of the seventh month and offered up prayers a thousand times for his recovery and for long life at the Takenouchi shrine in the precincts there." }, { "from": "human", "value": "While I was there, on the fifth day, I dreamed about an eclipse of the sun..." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "(Here the rest of the page has been cut away and we cannot conjecture what the rest of the story was and can only continue the story when it is resumed.)\n\n... Thinking that he might be able to tell me more of the Retired Emperor's condition, I went to the Kitayama residence of Lord Sanekane.\n\n\"I once served at the court,\" I said to the men on duty at the entrance of his house. \"I should like to see the Nyudo.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They perhaps did not like the look of my black habit, and no one was in any hurry to take in my message. Anticipating, however, that I might get such a reception, I had brought with me a letter in my own handwriting. I still continued, therefore, to call out for attention asking that this letter might be taken in to the Nyudo, but no one took any notice until late at night when a retainer named Haruo came out to me and took my letter to his master.\n\nThe Nyudo sent out an answer." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Perhaps because I am getting old,\" he said, \"I don't remember you very clearly. Be certain to come back the day after tomorrow.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I was overjoyed at getting at last some answer and went back to the Nyudo's residence on the evening of the tenth. There I was told that the Nyudo had gone to the palace as the Retired Emperor was critically ill. The news deepened my distress and I hurried back home. While passing along the side of the Guards' Riding Ground, I worshipped at the Kitano and Hirano shrines." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Take my life for his,\" I prayed. Yet, if my prayer were granted, I thought, and his life were saved by the sacrifice of my own, he would never know this.\n\nIf his life be saved\n\nBy sacrificing my own," }, { "from": "human", "value": "Grant me this, O God," }, { "from": "human", "value": "That in a dream he may learn" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I offered my life for his.\n\nEvery day, all through the day and all through the night till dawn, I grieved for the Retired Emperor in his sufferings. When I went to Kitayama on the fourteenth, the Nyudo himself came out to see me, and we talked affectionately over the old days. He told me that the Retired Emperor was really dangerously ill." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I had known this, but yet it came as an added shock when it was confirmed personally by the Nyudo. I had come in the hope that I might be granted permission to see him just once more, but I hesitated now, wondering how I could best phrase my request that the Nyudo should help me in this.\n\nThe Nyudo, however, realised what was in my mind. \"His Majesty often spoke to me of the affection between you and him,\" he finally said to me in a very kindly manner." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"If you go to the palace and tell them what I have just said, you will be allowed to see him.\"\n\nI returned home, trying to hide my tears from the eyes of the people on the streets going to and from the Toribeno crematory and burial ground to visit the graves of their relatives, for it was the Festival of the Dead. I was sad as I thought it would not be long before I was buried there too, and I expressed the thought in the poem,\n\nAll these who go now" }, { "from": "human", "value": "To visit the graves and pray" }, { "from": "human", "value": "For those whom they love—" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "How long will it be before\n\nThey are lying there too?\n\nOn the evening of the fifteenth I went from my home by way of the Nijo-Kyogoku crossroads to the palace, and by the kindness of the Nyudo was able to see the Retired Emperor from a distance.\n\nOn the sixteenth about noon, I learned that he had died." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I was expecting the news, but my grief was the greater as I had no one with whom to share my sorrow. When I could bear it no longer, I went to the Tominokoji palace. I wept to see that they were already dismantling the altar where prayers for his recovery had been said. There were many people about, going to and fro, but all very quietly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The candles in the main hall had been extinguished. The Crown Prince left before dark to avoid the death-pollution and gradually the whole place was deserted. Towards evening the two High Commissioners resident in the Capital as representatives of the Kamakura Military Government came to present their condolences. A troop of warriors in the service of Hojo no Sadaaki, High Commissioner of the South, stood along Tominokoji street, a torch burning at the door of each house." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Another troop of warriors in the service of Hojo no Tokinori, High Commissioner of the North, sat on stools in two lines in front of a bonfire on Kyogoku street, looking most imposing." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It grew late, but I had no thought of going home, and so I remained alone in the courtyard thinking of the past." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I pictured to myself his features changing with the mood just as clear to my mind's eye as if I had only that moment looked up at them in the flesh." }, { "from": "human", "value": "No words can express the grief I felt." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The moon rose in splendour, and I expressed my feelings in the poem,\n\nThe unclouded moon\n\nShining in all its splendour\n\nSaddens me the more;" }, { "from": "human", "value": "How happy now would I be" }, { "from": "human", "value": "To see the moon cloud over!" }, { "from": "human", "value": "When Gautama Buddha died, the sun and the moon and even the unfeeling birds and animals were sunk in grief." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It gave me unbearable pain to see that this moon at which I vacantly gazed had not clouded over." }, { "from": "human", "value": "This thought seemed to indicate to me how deep and strong my love for him still was." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Day broke and I went home, but my mind would not rest. I was told that a relative of the Taira Chunagon was in charge of the funeral arrangements. I therefore went to a lady-in-waiting of my acquaintance who knew him and asked her if she would get permission for me to see the Retired Emperor's coffin even if only from a distance. She replied that this could not be allowed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I did not give up hope, however, and stood beside the entrance all day with my head veiled with a tight-sleeved gown so that I might have a chance of going near his coffin, but I found no opportunity to do this." }, { "from": "human", "value": "At last the time came for the lattice windows to be closed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I then went quickly towards the place between two bamboo screens where I believed the coffin had been placed. I peeped in and saw by the light of the candles what I took to be the coffin. At the sight, my eyes were blurred and my mind disturbed. At that moment it was announced that the procession to the funeral pyre would set out." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The carriage was drawn up to the steps, and the procession started, the ex-Emperor Fushimi accompanying the carriage as far as the gate and then returning to the hall. It was most pathetic to see him wiping away his tears. I followed the carriage immediately out on to Kyogoku street. I was barefooted, for I had been waiting all the day on the verandah and then, when I stepped down from the verandah, I was so confused that I could not find my sandals." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When the procession turned west at the Gojo-Kyogoku crossing, the carriage collided with a bamboo pole erected in the main street, and one of the bamboo blinds was nearly torn off, one of the servants accompanying the carriage having to climb up to try to mend it. It was while the carriage was standing there that I noticed that one of the lords accompanying the carriage was a relative of mine, the Nyudo Chunagon, Yamashina no Sukeyuki. His obvious grief increased my own sorrow.\n\nHesitating all the time whether to turn back now or whether to go on, I could not bring myself to stop following the carriage." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "My feet were hurting me badly and my steps grew slower and slower, until at length I was left a long way behind all alone.\n\nI went on as far as Fujinomori, where I met a man. \"Is the funeral procession far ahead?\" I asked him.\n\n\"It ought not to have passed in front of the Fushimi Inari shrine,\" he said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It must have gone some other way. I haven't seen a single person on the road. It is now after one o'clock in the morning. How do you think you're going to catch up with the procession? Where is your home? Be careful about how you go, or you might meet with an accident. Would you like me to see you home?\"\n\nNot wanting, however, to return home without having witnessed the cremation, I declined his kind offer and went on alone, helplessly weeping. It was already day when I got to the crematory. There, to my great grief, I saw that it was all over; only a thin whisp of smoke rose up from where the funeral pyre had stood." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I had never imagined that I should live long enough to see the day when I should look on that sad sight." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When the ex-Empress had died that spring both the ex-Emperor and their daughter Princess Yugimon had mourned her at the Fushimi palace. Now she remained alone. I could well imagine her grief, expressing my thoughts thus,\n\nLike a drop of dew" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Fleetingly he passed away," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Leaving me to weep\n\nAs bitterly as if we\n\nWere still young and lovers still.\n\nI would have liked to have talked to the princess so that we could have consoled each other in our loss, but the gate of the Fushimi palace was closed for the period of national mourning, and, thinking it silly to wander about aimlessly any longer, that evening I returned home." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Thinking of the princess, now doubtless dressed in deepest mourning as I should have been had I remained in his service, I recalled how, when the late Emperor Go Saga died, my father had insisted that I wear deep mourning, but how the late ex-Emperor had decided that I need not do so, but that I could wear coloured robes if these were not too showy." }, { "from": "human", "value": "In the eighth month of the same year, my father had died, and then I had had to wear the deepest mourning for him," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Garbed always in black\n\nIn the habit of a nun,\n\nI wear no mourning,\n\nThough my grief is just as deep" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As the nearest of his kin.\n\nThinking to assuage there the grief I could tell no one of, I went to worship at the Tennoji temple, attracted to it by the general belief that this temple is Gautama Buddha's chosen vehicle for the salvation of mankind. There, in peace and quiet, I recited the sutras, praying for the repose of the soul of the late ex-Emperor, constantly thinking of him and of the deep grief which the princess must be suffering, a feeling I expressed in the poem,\n\nIn deepest mourning" }, { "from": "human", "value": "You are garbed; over that robe" }, { "from": "human", "value": "You put on in spring," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "You donned yet another robe\n\nOf deep mourning in autumn.\n\nAs the forty-ninth day after the ex-Emperor's death approached, I went back to the Capital, and on the day of the celebration at the beginning of the ninth month I went to the Fushimi palace for the requiem. No one in the large congregation present felt such bitter sorrow and grief as I did." }, { "from": "human", "value": "After the service, all made their offerings, but they did so, it seemed to me, as if they felt a happy relief that that day saw the end of their mourning." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It grieved me sorely to think of the princess sitting there behind her bamboo blinds inconsolable, shedding bitter tears like dew drops falling on the grass.\n\nHearing that the ex-Emperor Fushimi was to move into his father's palace at Tominokoji, I was reminded of the time when I was at the court and he, just then appointed Crown Prince, had moved into the Corner house. Since that time he had suffered so many misfortunes in his private as well as his public life that I felt deep sympathy for him, even though my own lot had been immeasurably more unfortunate than his had. My greatest misfortune had undoubtedly been that, in spite of my prayer that the ex-Emperor's life might be spared at the cost of my own, my prayer had been rejected and I still remained in this world of sorrow to keep now the seventh Seventh Day Memorial of his death." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A tradition of the Joju-in chapel at the Mii temple tells how, when the High Priest Chiko was at the point of death, his disciple, the Erudite Priest Shoku, prayed before the image of Fudo, the god of fire, enshrined in the temple." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He asked that he might die instead of his teacher in return for the great spiritual help Chiko had given him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Shoku enlisted the aid of the soothsayer, Abe no Seimei, in offering this." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The god of fire, however, answered him in an oracle." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You have prayed,\" the god said, \"that you should die in your master's stead. I will die in your place.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "So it was that Chiko recovered from his illness and Shoku also continued to live. What then had prevented me from repaying the ex-Emperor's favour with my life when I owed so much more to him than Shoku did to Chiko? The god of the Iwashimizu shrine to whom I had made this vow was given the title Hachiman Bosatsu because his object is the salvation of mankind. My prayer to him ought to have been granted, in spite of my own insignificance and the fact that the ex-Emperor's favour towards me was really only a very small matter." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Obviously it was impossible to change what had been predestined in a former life, I thought as I went back home, where, unable to sleep, I mused," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In the autumn months\n\nThe chirping of the insects\n\nKeeps the old awake;\n\nIt sounds as though they too have" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Sad thoughts that keep them from sleep." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Tears shed at memories of bygone days are too much for one person's sleeves to dry away, and I had no one to weep with me. My father had died in autumn, I recalled, and my tears had vied with the autumn dew. Now the smoke of the ex-Emperor's funeral pyre had risen to the sky to merge with the autumn mists and clouds and turn them to rain, while his spirit journeyed on to its unknown goal,\n\nWhy, O why is it" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "help a writer out? five sentences more sentences, Lady Nijō-style, Japan, nonfiction, memoirs, 1300s genre thx" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Twenty volumes of the Great Collection of Sutras still remained to be copied. I had wished to finish writing these out before the hundredth day after the ex-Emperor's death, but now I had only the clothes I wore and so had none to sell to cover the cost of the copying. I could only afford to buy just enough food to live on and certainly could not save anything in that direction. These things upset and vexed me. Yet I still had two keepsakes given me by my parents." }, { "from": "human", "value": "On her death bed my mother had asked that I should be given a flat, gold-lacquered toilet case with a circular design of a couple of mandarin ducks, all the toilet articles inside it, including the mirror, having the same pattern on them." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The other keepsake from my father was a writing case, with a lid of embossed gold lacquer with a diamond pattern of cranes and an inscription on the back in gold in my father's own handwriting, \"A day of good fortune and never ending happiness.\" I had intended never to part with them until the end of my life when I hoped they would be cremated with my body. When I had gone on pilgrimage, I had put them into someone's safe keeping with as much care as if they had been my children, and when I returned, it had been my first care to go and see them again as if they had been my parents themselves. I had had the writing case for thirty-three years and the toilet case for forty-six years. I had never thought that I should be able to bear parting with them." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Still, nothing is as valuable to a person as his own life, and this priceless gift I had offered to the gods in return for the ex-Emperor's life." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In any case, I had no childrenThen I happened to hear of a girl who was going to the eastern provinces to get married and who was looking for a toilet case like mine and did not mind paying much more than I was thinking of asking. I was sad to part with it but I was glad to have my prayer answered, perhaps through the mercy of Buddha, his faith, and its guardians,\n\nHow sad it is now\n\nI must part with these cases,\n\nMy parents' keepsakes," }, { "from": "human", "value": "Which I have cherished so long" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Through fortune and misfortune!\n\nOn the fifteenth day of the ninth month, I began to recite the Lotus Flower sutra at the Sorinji temple at Higashiyama as an act of contrition for my sins. When I had been engaged in copying out the first twenty volumes of the Great Collection, my mind had been preoccupied with thoughts of my old happy relations with the ex-Emperor and of my sad separation from him at that moment. No such thoughts distracted my mind now as I concentrated with all my heart and soul, night and day, on my recitation with the prayer, \"May all departed souls attain the supreme goal of eternal light.\" I was grateful that it had been my destiny to come to this life of piety in this place, with the belling of the friendly deer on the hills behind the Seisuiji temple, the sad chirping of the insects in the hedgerows moving me to tears, and the moon, rising in the east or declining in the west, as I sat up late at night after attending the midnight service." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Then, when the midnight services in all the nearby temples appeared to have finished, still the solitary voice of the Virtuous Priest of the Sorinji temple on the summit of the hill could be clearly heard invoking the sacred name of Amida." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "My feelings then I expressed thus,\n\nMay I so traverse\n\nThe steep mountain path which leads\n\nTo the world to come\n\nThat on my way I may seek" }, { "from": "human", "value": "And find some lost soul straying." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I had the Virtuous Priest go with me to the Yokawa chapels on Mount Hiei to obtain paper and ink for my copying work. We went as far as Higashi Sakamoto, and I visited the Hie shrine, much frequented by my grandmother in gratitude for many favours received from the god enshrined there... (The next section has been cut away with a sword. Nothing is known of the contents. )...\n\n\"For whose intention are you offering this service?\" the priest asked. The question moved me deeply." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As it would seem strange, I was afraid, if I offered the sutras I had copied before the tomb of the ex-Emperor, I was presenting them at the Kasuga shrine for which he had so deep a veneration during his life." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 6 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "At the time I wrote the poem,\n\nThe deer in the hills\n\nAll around me are belling,\n\nAnd the insects chirp\n\nShowing their deep sympathy\n\nAnd weeping with me as friends." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "writing buddy needed! gimme 2 sentences more in Lady Nijō's voice. stick to Japan, nonfiction, memoirs, 1300s pls" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Now this year was the thirty-third anniversary of my father's death, and I had a memorial service held, conducted as usual by the Virtuous Priest." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "To the written address I had asked him to deliver, I added the poem,\n\nInexorably" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Time moves onward, on until" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ten years of parting\n\nAre repeated a third time" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And three more years are added.\n\nI went to the crematory at Kaguragaoka, the site of my father's funeral pyre, where I was grieved to find that ancient lichens wet with dew and a blanket of dead leaves half buried the stone tablet which marked the resting place of his ashes." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As I stood there, I thought with deep sorrow that none of my father's poems had been included in the recently published anthology of poems collected by command of the Emperor Go Uda.\n\nSeries, a thousand pities" }, { "from": "human", "value": "That now our family fame" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Should thus end with me" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Whose boat drifts so helplessly\n\nOn this sea of poesy." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Having voiced my complaint in this way, I returned home.\n\nIn a dream that night I saw my father looking just as he used to look while I felt just as I used to feel in those far-off days." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I spoke to him of my anxieties." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Your grandfather, Koga no Michimitsu,\" he said to me, \"had a poem included in the Shin Kokinshu anthology," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Patience has its limits;\n\nMount Shinobu" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The dew may hide them," }, { "from": "human", "value": "But at last the autumn hues" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Of fallen leaves are revealed.\n\n\"I myself,\" he went on, \"had a poem included in the next anthology," }, { "from": "human", "value": "Why, O you wild geese," }, { "from": "human", "value": "Do you fly back to the north" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When spring hazes come?\n\nDo you not know that even" }, { "from": "human", "value": "To the north the spring will come?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The poem which your mother's father, the War Minister Shijo no Takachika, wrote in honour of the visit of the ex-Emperor Go Saga to his house at Washino-o was also included in this anthology,\n\nMy humble villa" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Has many times been so honoured\n\nBy such a visit," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But never have the blossoms\n\nSo glorified the welcome." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"So,\" he continued, \"whichever of the two families you take after, you are well qualified to carry on the poetical tradition which has never weakened all through the family's long history since its foundation by Prince Tomohira.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Gazing at me steadfastly as he was leaving, he recited the poem,\n\nBe of good courage;" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Guard well the poems you write," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "For the day will come\n\nWhen once again good poems" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "By low or high are treasured.\n\nI woke up startled as he disappeared, but his image remained only as it was mirrored in my tears, and his voice lingered only on the pillow of my dreams." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "From this time I devoted myself more and more to poetical composition and went into retreat at the tomb of the great poet of ancient times, Kakinomoto no Hitomaro. During my vigil on the seventh day of my retreat, I composed this poem," }, { "from": "human", "value": "Of a family" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "So renowned in poetry,\n\nSad is it to find" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I leave to posterity" }, { "from": "human", "value": "No poem worth remembering." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As I voiced in this way my disappointment at the poor results of all my efforts, the figure of an old man stood before me." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 3 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In accordance with his directions I decided to hold a memorial to him in front of the sketch I had made of him, honouring him as the greatest of poets. By this I hoped that I should be able to further my ambition of creating poems worthy of the poetical tradition of the Koga family.\n\nActually, however, the sketch I made of the poet and the outline of the memorial service I planned to make remained unheeded for months at the bottom of my letter case until, in the third month of the next year, I did at last make the memorial in front of his picture." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Add seven sentences to continue story" }, { "from": "human", "value": "In the fifth month I began to prepare for the first anniversary of the death of the ex-Emperor Go Fukakusa." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I had thought of celebrating it by completing what I had so long wished to do, the copying of the five Mahayana sutras. I had completed three of them, and I was afraid that at any moment I might die leaving them uncompleted. I had already sold one of my parents' keepsakes to defray the cost of the service of intercession I had arranged. I now began to wonder whether it was worthwhile keeping the other. I should not be able to take it with me when I died. At first I wondered whether it would not be better to let one of my relatives have it. I was afraid, however, that this might cause people who did not know that I wished to use the money for a service of intercession to suppose that I was having difficulties in making ends meet." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Soon after this a high official of the Kamakura Military Government on his way to Tsukushi heard of my intention of selling the writing case and bought it from me. So my mother's keepsake went to the east, and my father's as far away to the west. Sadly thinking of the opposite courses taken by their treasures, I prayed that they themselves might be reunited in Paradise, and murmured this poem as I handed it to the new owner,\n\nThough from this inkstone\n\nThe ink may flow down like tears\n\nInto a river,\n\nThere in the ocean of bliss" }, { "from": "human", "value": "It will join that other stream." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 1 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I planned to copy the remaining sutras by the tenth day of the fifth month, and, finding lodgings near the tomb of Prince Shotoku, I copied the twenty volumes of the Hannya sutra, offered them at the shrine at his tomb, and returned to the Capital at the beginning of the seventh month." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "I'll kick things off by writing a bit, then you'll take over and write the next five sentences in the distinctive voice of Lady Nijō, keeping within the Japan, nonfiction, memoirs, 1300s genre." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "On the anniversary of the ex-Emperor's death, I visited his tomb and went to the Fushimi palace to attend the memorial service. When I arrived, I found it had already started, with the High Priest Shakusen presiding. The ex-Emperor Fushimi as chief mourner read a sutra he had copied on the back of his father's letters. No doubt he had set about this task with the same single-hearted purpose as I had, and my heart was filled with sorrow and gratitude. Next Princess Yugimon read a sutra she had copied on the back of her father's letters, the brother of the High Priest Kenki presiding." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Her reading touched me more than anything else in the service." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The period of national mourning ended with this day's services. As the heat of the day moderated, I stood in the courtyard alone, while around me people bustled about with preparations for ex-Emperor Fushimi's departure at the end of the service. I had no one with whom to share my sorrow,\n\nThough today now ends\n\nNational mourning for him," }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 6 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I know that not yet\n\nWill end my mourning for him,\n\nMy tears for him never dry.\n\nThrough the bamboo screens I could see the ex-Emperors Fushimi and Go Fushimi sitting in the Sermon Hall. The ex-Emperor Fushimi's robes seemed more sombre in colour than the ordinary mourning dress, and I thought sadly that after this day of mourning all these signs of sorrow would be discarded. The ex-Emperor Go Uda was also present, and seeing there assembled three ex-Emperors—the son, the grandson, and the son-in-law of the ex-Emperor Go Fukakusa—caused me to marvel at the continued prosperity of his line of the succession." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "writing buddy needed! gimme seven sentences more. stick to Japan, nonfiction, memoirs, 1300s pls" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "About this time also I heard that the Retired Emperor Kameyama was ill. I thought that it was possibly nothing serious as one does not expect tragedies to follow so closely on one another and also because it was not at all uncommon to hear that he was ill. I did not anticipate that this was going to be the last in the long series of his illnesses. Soon afterwards, however, I was told that this time it was really serious and that he was being moved to the Saga palace. It was sad that he should die only a year after his brother, but still if it had to be, there was nothing that could be done about it. I had decided to carry out this year my plan of copying the remaining twenty volumes of the Hannya sutra at the Kumano Nachi shrine before it became cold enough to freeze the ink on the inkstone, and started for Kumano about the nineteenth day of the tenth month. The Retired Emperor was still critically ill, and I now feared that the next news I received of him would be of his end." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Still, it was with not too heavy a heart that I left the Capital." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Was I so heartless? Or was it because I did not feel such a sense of impending bereavement as I had felt at the final parting from his brother, the Retired Emperor Go Fukakusa, my grief for whom in his last days had prevented me from sleeping?\n\nFor the sake of convenience in making my ritual ablutions in cold water morning and evening while I was copying the sutra, I stayed near the Nachi waterfall. It was the end of the tenth month. Chill winds blew over the summits of the surrounding mountains, and the melancholy sound of the waterfall moved me to tears,\n\nIn such pensive mood\n\nI weep till my sleeves are drenched" }, { "from": "human", "value": "With tears of sorrow;" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ask me the question how often I,\n\nA stranger, weep bitterly.\n\nIt must have been because the god enshrined there was well pleased with the earnestness I had shown in sacrificing my parents' keepsakes and my perseverance in copying the sutras that I had made such good progress in the task and would soon be ready to leave. I was sorry to leave the shrine, and on the night before my departure, I kept vigil there. Then, in a dream at daybreak, I saw my father standing beside me. He told me that the ex-Emperor was arriving. I looked up and saw the ex-Emperor Go Fukakusa in a reddish-brown robe with a pattern of two birds with long tails facing each other come in, his body bending over to the right as he walked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I came out from behind the bamboo blinds on his left to face him. He went into the Shojo Hall at the main shrine, and looking very happy smiled at me from under the half-raised bamboo blind.\n\n\"Princess Yugimon is arriving also,\" my father said. I looked up and saw her in the West Hall, dressed only in a narrow-sleeved gown and a white skirt.\n\n\"I was much moved,\" she said, \"by your devotion in parting with your parents' keepsakes, the one to the east and the other to the west, so that you might find the money for these memorial services for your father and my father. Please accept these,\" and she presented me with two white robes from under her half-raised bamboo blind. I accepted them with thanks and returned to my seat.\n\n\"It was doubtless because he refrained from walking in the way of the ten deadly sins in a former life,\" I said to my father, \"that the ex-Emperor was predestined to be born of the Imperial line and to ascend the throne. What fate was it then which caused this deformity of his?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"He had a swelling on the right side which caused him to be lame,\" said my father." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"This was not due to any fault of his but was brought on by his compassion for us, the ignorant masses of the people who are dependent on him.\"\n\nWhen I looked at the ex-Emperor again, he smiled happily and appeared to want me to approach him. I got up from my seat and knelt before him. He then gave me two sticks of nagi wood, the thicker ends of which were shaved slender and white like chopsticks with two leaves remaining on each.\n\nI woke up from my dream, startled to find that the service of contrition for the sins of the six senses had begun in the chapel of the goddess of mercy. Unthinkingly, I stretched out my hand and touched a fan with white cypress ribs lying on the matting. It was strange to find a fan there, for it was no longer summer." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I picked it up and took it with me to the scriptorium." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"A fan is a symbol of the thousand-handed goddess of mercy,\" commented a priest of the shrine from Bingo province named Kakudo when I told people of this dream. \"It is a great blessing to receive such an omen.\"\n\nThe ex-Emperor's features as I had seen them in my dream remained vividly with me as I went on with my task, and when I had finished the copying, I offered to the shrine the last of the tight-sleeved gowns which he had given me when we met accidentally at the Iwashimizu shrine. I quite realised that sooner or later I should have to do this, but I could not help weeping as I parted with this last link with him, expressing my regret in the poem,\n\nHow sad I find it\n\nTo part with this last keepsake\n\nWhich I have treasured" }, { "from": "human", "value": "All these long years until now," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Long years of separation!\n\nI returned home from the shrine, having now given up everything I had, saying,\n\nWhen I awoke from\n\nDreaming of His Majesty,\n\nI shed tears as I\n\nLooked up at the morning moon\n\nAnd heard the sad waterfall." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I returned to the Capital taking with me the fan I had found." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 5 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "That was now the only reminder of him that I had to comfort me. The first news that I had on reaching home was of the passing of the Retired Emperor Kameyama. This meant national mourning for another year. Though I realised well enough that nothing can escape the perpetual changes and chances of this world, this knowledge did not alleviate the bitter sadness of my heart, and amid this change, I alone remained unmoving, like a column of smoke rising up, never changing, never fading.\n\nAnd so at last the year came to an end." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "AI writing task: user input -> 8 sentences sentences. style: Lady Nijō. genre: Japan, nonfiction, memoirs, 1300s." }, { "from": "human", "value": "At the beginning of the third month, I went, as was my custom, to visit the Hachiman shrine at Iwashimizu." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I had been at Nara since the New Year and had had no news of what was happening in the Capital, the only sound coming to my ears being the belling of the deer." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As I went up the slope of Inohana as usual, I had no idea that a member of the Imperial family was making a visit until I saw that the doors of the Riding Pavilion were open." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I remembered that this was so when I had accidentally met the ex-Emperor there, and I could also see that preparations were under way in front of the shrine for such a visit." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Who is coming?\" I asked.\n\n\"Princess Yugimon,\" I was told.\n\nI felt that this was a strange coincidence. I remembered how she had looked in my dream the year before. I lay awake that night, and early next morning I spoke to a very gentle-looking woman, a servant it seemed, who was engaged in preparing for the visit. I greeted her and asked her name. She replied that her name was Otoranu. She had been specially selected from the maids at the court to go there." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was a great pleasure for me to meet someone from the court, and I casually asked her how things were there." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Those who used to work there have all left,\" she said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"There are only young girls there now.\"\n\nI wondered how I could attract the attention of the princess for her to recognise me. Perhaps, I thought, I could get a glimpse of her as she was making her round of visits to the smaller shrines within the precincts. I waited for a chance to do this without returning to my quarters for breakfast, as it was said that the princess would arrive soon. I hid myself as her stately-looking palanquin halted in front of the shrine. There she was welcomed and blessed with the sacred staff and paper streamers by Lord Kanesue, whose appearance reminded me vividly of his father—the former Chief Minister, the Nyudo Saionji no Sanekane—when he was young and was Commander of the Gate Guards of the Left. Many and varied were the emotions that crowded my heart at the sight of this man.\n\nIt was the eighth day of the third month." }, { "from": "human", "value": "In accordance with established custom, the princess first visited the Togano-o shrine." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As her visit was not a formal one, her party consisting of two basket-work palanquins only, I expected that they would not clear the precincts of ordinary people and that I should be able to get a view of her at her worship from a distance. I therefore went forward to the shrine in company with two or three court ladies who had come on foot. Standing behind her as she made her act of worship at the shrine, I could not help weeping, my heart being so full of deep emotions. I found it impossible to move away, and when she stood up at the end of her worship, she spoke to me.\n\n\"Where do you come from?\" she said.\n\nI would have liked to have told her everything about myself right from the very beginning up to the present, but could only answer, \"From Nara.\"\n\n\"From the Hokkeji convent?\"\n\n\"Yes,\" I answered, very briefly, for I was afraid that she might suspect something from my tears." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I wanted to move away, but I could not make up my mind to do so. I remained standing there and felt an unbearable pain as she turned to leave. I saw her hesitating before going down the steep steps. I hurried to her.\n\n\"Lean on my shoulder. You will feel safer,\" I said. She looked rather puzzled. \"Long ago, when you were a child,\" I went on, my tears still flowing, \"I was in service at the palace.She asked me several questions in a very kind manner. \"Come and see me often in future,\" she said finally as she left.\n\nI recalled my dream about her and also reminded myself that it was at this shrine that I had accidentally met her father." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I was glad that my faith in the god of the shrine, though unexpressed, had not been in vain even though there was no one but my tears to whom I could tell the story." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I had been accosted by one of the ladies who had come to the shrine on foot." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Her name I learned was Hyoenosuke." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The princess was to leave next day, I heard, and that evening she was entertained with sacred music and dances." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "During the evening I broke off a spray of cherry blossom and sent it to Hyoenosuke with the message, \"I will call on you at the palace before the cherry blossom is over.\"\n\nI had intended leaving before the princess was due to start, but thinking that I ought to render grateful thanks to the god for granting me this opportunity of seeing the princess, I went into retreat at the shrine for a further three days before continuing on to the Capital. There I sent a letter to the princess, \"What has become of the cherry blossom I sent you through Lady Hyoenosuke?\" With the letter was the poem,\n\nI promised to come\n\nTo visit you before this;\n\nI am late and fear\n\nBy now the cherry flowers" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Have been scattered by the wind." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 6 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The princess answered,\n\nThough you may be late\n\nIn coming to visit us\n\nAs you promised me,\n\nDo you think I should allow\n\nWinds to scatter the blossom?" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Narrative Extension Protocol:\nQuantity: 6 sentences\nGenre Classification: Japan, nonfiction, memoirs, 1300s" }, { "from": "human", "value": "From this time I often visited Princess Yugimon, not so frequently as to make myself a nuisance to her but often enough to make me feel as if I were back in the old days and once more in service at the palace." }, { "from": "human", "value": "At the beginning of the seventh month the princess spoke of going to Fushimi for the third anniversary of her father's death." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I too wished to attend in order to see the impressive manner in which the requiem was to be carried out, or at the very least to go near to the palace and learn by hearsay of what took place." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I had no longer any keepsake of the ex-Emperor's to give as an offering, and it would have been impossible to complete in time the task of copying the last remaining sutras." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I felt very sad that I had nothing to offer for the repose of his soul.\n\nEarly on the morning of the fifteenth day, I went to the Hokkedo chapel where a newly carved image of the ex-Emperor had been placed by the side of the altar. I bowed in prayer before it and then sat gazing at it, my hands still folded in prayer. To him now, I thought, our relations must seem to have been a very trivial thing. Seeing my tears, those who sat in front of the altar, probably priests who were to officiate, thought it strange and invited me to come closer to the image. Joyfully, I went near and gazed at it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "My tears again began to flow. I wondered that I still had tears to weep, as I expressed in a poem my feelings on seeing this newly carved image of him.\n\nIt was the night of the full moon, and that evening I had a long talk with Lady Hyoenosuke in her room about past days as well as things of the present. At the end, feeling unsatisfied even after all this long conversation, I went out into the courtyard and stood near the Sokujoin chapel.\n\n\"It's arrived at last,\" I heard people say, and wondered what was happening. I found that what was arriving was the image which I had seen that morning at the convent." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was being carried by litter on the shoulders of four men, probably lower officials, superintended by two men in dark robes whom I took to be Buddhist-image carvers, a clerk, and one or two retainers. In a dreamlike state I watched them carry in the image concealed by a paper covering.\n\nI had been too young to understand things when he was the reigning Emperor, served by all kinds of government officials of high rank and of low, but I remembered him as ex-Emperor, surrounded by a crowd of high-ranking court nobles, helped up and down steps, even on a private visit, by a lord. Now I thought of him with love and compassion as I pictured him wandering alone and desolate on his journey through the other world. I grieved for him as bitterly as if he had only just that moment passed away.\n\nNext morning I received a letter from my father's cousin, the Madenokoji Dainagon, Minamoto no Moroshige." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I have just heard that you are here,\" he said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What do you think of the memorial service?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I sent a poem in answer,\n\nChirping of insects\n\nTogether with the moonlight\n\nMade deeper my grief\n\nAs I saw his new image\n\nBright and perfect as the moon." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "On the sixteenth, a service was held when the Lotus Flower sutra was recited in front of the images of Gautama and Taho Buddhas on the one pedestal. Memorial services then followed one after another. The ex-Emperor Fushimi had already arrived, and strict security measures were enforced. The common people were cleared from the hall and the courtyard. People in black monastic habit were declared taboo, and to my sorrow we were prevented from approaching the hall. I managed to slip through, however, and get as far as the eaves, from where I heard the service." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I wished now with all my heart that I had not renounced the world, that I was living the life still which once I had lived. I wept without ceasing from the moment when the written prayer-petitions were read until the end of the act of contrition for sins committed through the six senses.\n\nA priest was standing near me, obviously a dignitary of some rank. \"Who are you?\" he asked. \"Why do you weep so bitterly?\"\n\nI felt that I ought not to reveal the secret of my relations with the ex-Emperor, even now when he had become just an image in a temple." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"My father has died,\" I said, going away from him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The mourning has just ended. That is why I grieve so much.\"\n\nThe ex-Emperor Fushimi and Princess Yugimon left Fushimi that evening. When they had gone, the palace looked so deserted that I was reluctant to leave, and I continued to stay in the neighbourhood for a few days.\n\nI had kept up a correspondence all this time with a cousin of mine, a former minister, Koga no Michimoto. In answer to one of my letters from Fushimi, he sent a poem,\n\nAutumn comes and brings" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Melancholy thoughts to all" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Even here in town;\n\nSadder, sadder still to you\n\nFushimi's wan moon at dawn.\n\nThe kindly sympathy of others seems somehow to make one's own grief more intense and harder to bear. I answered him with the poem,\n\nThree autumns have passed" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Since I suffered that great loss;" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Three days here I stayed" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Made so much more sorrowful\n\nBy hearing his requiem.\n\nHe replied with another poem,\n\nThe past must have seemed\n\nTo have returned to the present\n\nFor you at Fushimi," }, { "from": "human", "value": "Its desolate autumn scene" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Making your grief the deeper.\n\nOn the day previous to the requiem I had presented some fans to Princess Yugimon so that she could use them as presents to the priests after the service. With the parcel I sent the poem,\n\nDid I ever dream\n\nThat on this, the third year's mind\n\nOf his passing on," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I should still be alive to shed\n\nFresh tears as bitter as these?\n\nI had thought that after the passing away of the ex-Emperor Go Fukakusa I should have no further cause for grief.\n\nOn the eighth day of the third month of the last year, I had held a memorial service before the picture of the great poet Kakinomoto no Hitomaro. On the same day of the same month this year, I had met Princess Yugimon. I had seen the ex-Emperor and the princess earlier in a dream at Kumano, but now on this day I had seen his image, and the princess I had seen in person." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I had been anxious too about not being able to complete the task I had long wished to perform, the copying of the sutras, fearing that by not completing this, my piety through so many years should prove to be in vain." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 4 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It had, however, seemed profitless to me to stay fixed in one place and worry about myself. Besides this, the pilgrimages of the priest Saigyo in search of spiritual enlightenment had attracted me so much as a child that I had tried to follow his example. These are the reasons why I have continued to note down all these trifling details of my life, even though I cannot aspire to having left to posterity anything worth reading.\n\n(The rest seems to have been cut away with a sword.)" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "help a writer out? 1 sentence more sentences, Susan Spann-style, mystery, historical fiction, Japan, historical mystery, 1500s genre thx" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro opened his eyes in darkness." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Night enveloped the room like a shroud, broken only by the beam of moonlight streaming through the open veranda door." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The still air and the moonbeam's angle told Hiro that dawn was still an hour away." }, { "from": "human", "value": "In most Kyoto houses an open shoji represented a dangerous oversight." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "For Hiro, a shinobi assassin turned bodyguard, the door was an early warning system that had just paid off." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He strained his ears, listening for the sound that woke him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He heard only silence." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A weight shifted atop Hiro's feet as his kitten, Gato, twitched in her sleep." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The shinobi found that reassuring." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Gato's ears were sharper than his own, and the cat never slept through sounds she didn't recognize." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro yawned and closed his eyes to weigh the merits of early-morning exercise against two more hours of sleep." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A board creaked outside the veranda door." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro's eyes flashed open." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The kitten raised her head, ears pricked toward the sound." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The loose board sat between Hiro's door and the one to the adjacent room, where Father Mateo slept." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The Jesuit had wanted to fix the squeaky timber, but Hiro insisted the board stay loose to help the shinobi protect his Portuguese charge." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro slipped out from beneath his quilt and pulled on a pair of baggy trousers." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As he tied the ankle straps to keep his cuffs from tangling in a fight, he listened for the second creak that would tell him when the intruder stepped off the board." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He heard nothing." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A surge of adrenaline loosened Hiro's muscles." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Only another shinobi could move with sufficient stealth to prevent the board from creaking a second time." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He wasted no time wondering why an assassin had come." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro's clan, the Iga ryu, had ordered him to defend the Jesuit's life at any cost, and Hiro would not allow himself to fail." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He grabbed a dagger from his desk and scurried up the built-in shelves on the southern wall of the room." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He was glad he had reinforced them to hold his weight." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The wall ended at rafter height, leaving plenty of space for a man to crouch beneath the peaked thatch roof." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro crawled onto the nearest rafter and glanced over the wall into Father Mateo's room." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The Jesuit slept soundly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A shadow blotted out the moonlight as a human form appeared in Hiro's doorway." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The intruder paused only a moment, then stepped inside." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Gato arched her back and hissed before vanishing into the shadows." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The assassin wore a cowl that hid his face." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He moved across the floor with an inward twist of the toes that Hiro recognized as a hallmark of the Iga ryu." }, { "from": "human", "value": "This killer had not come for the Portuguese priest." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro gripped his dagger and readied himself to jump." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As he drew a final, preparatory breath he caught the faint but unmistakable scent of expensive wintergreen hair oil." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Betrayal seared through Hiro's mind like flame." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Only one Iga shinobi used that scent, and until this moment Hiro had considered the man a brother." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Plunging a knife into Kazu's heart would hurt Hiro almost as much as suicide." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Almost, but not quite." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro leaped from the beam as, below him, Kazu whispered, \"Hiro? I need your help.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was too late to arrest the fall." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro flung his arm to the side to stop the knife from striking a fatal blow." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Kazu jumped away, stumbled, and pitched forward onto the futon." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro landed in a silent crouch, knife ready." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He would give Kazu a chance to explain, but didn't let down his guard." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Kazu raised his empty hands." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Hiro, wait! It's me.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I almost killed you,\" Hiro hissed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What were you thinking, coming here unannounced and at this hour?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Kazu pushed his cowl back onto his shoulders." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His worried eyes reflected the moonlight." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"There's been a murder at the shogunate.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The shogun?\" Hiro's expression softened as he realized why Kazu had taken the risk." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Shogun Ashikaga supported the Jesuits' presence in Kyoto, despite his opponents' demands that he expel the Portuguese missionaries or execute them as spies." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The shogun's death would threaten both Father Mateo's life and Hiro's assignment to protect the priest." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Not the shogun,\" Kazu whispered, \"his cousin, Saburo.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Your supervisor?\" Hiro's gratitude splintered into anger." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He barely managed to keep his voice a whisper." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Have you lost your senses? You risk exposing us both by coming here.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Please.\" The catch in Kazu's voice reminded Hiro that Kazu had only twenty years to Hiro's twenty-five, and although the younger shinobi had come to Kyoto first, Hiro had been an assassin for years before Kazu even received his first official orders—an assignment to spy within the Ashikaga shogunate." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Someone murdered Saburo with my dagger,\" Kazu continued." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The shogun will think I killed him.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"That doesn't excuse your acting like a fool.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro inhaled slowly to calm his fury." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It didn't work. \"Have you forgotten your training completely? If something compromises your cover, you leave Kyoto. Even a novice knows not to put others at risk.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'm sorry.\" Remorse flooded Kazu's voice. \"I panicked.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Why come here?\" Hiro asked. \"Why not run?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I couldn't leave the city. No one passes the outer barricades at night without a travel pass and a good excuse.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Kazu raised his hands, palms up." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I don't have either.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Kazu's fear didn't soothe Hiro's anger." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Still, the damage was done, and further scolding would not undo it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The shinobi code required Hiro to help a clansman in need unless doing so would compromise his mission." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Since Kazu's arrest might expose both men as shinobi, the choice seemed clear." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Are you sure no one followed you?\" Hiro asked." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Kazu nodded.\n\n\"Then tell me what happened, in detail—but first, get off my futon.\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Expand on the story like Susan Spann would, staying true to the mystery, historical fiction, Japan, historical mystery, 1500s genre." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Kazu knelt on the woven tatami that covered the floor.\n\nHiro sheathed his knife.\n\n\"I was working late,\" Kazu said, \"updating the schedule for the shogun's personal bodyguards.\"\n\n\"You work in the records bureau,\" Hiro said, \"not shogunate defense.\"\n\n\"True, but a month ago Saburo persuaded the shogun to transfer the bodyguards away from military command and under Saburo's personal control. He said it wasn't wise to trust a man from another clan with the shogun's personal safety. The shogun agreed.\"\n\n\"The military officials aren't Ashikaga retainers?\" Hiro asked.\n\n\"Not all of them,\" Kazu said, \"and with Lord Oda eager to seize the capital and the shogunate, Saburo's concern makes sense. The shogun thought so, anyway.\"\n\n\"Is Lord Oda advancing on Kyoto?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro felt a surge of concern." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Not openly,\" Kazu said, \"but he's sent an embassy to the city. Officially, it comes bearing gifts for the emperor and the shogun.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"And unofficially?\" Hiro asked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Everyone knows Lord Oda's intentions. Saburo feared an assassin among the ambassadors.\"\n\n\"Apparently not without reason,\" Hiro said. \"When did Lord Oda's men arrive?\"\n\n\"They're not here yet,\" Kazu said.\n\n\"Then how did Saburo die?\"\n\n\"I don't know exactly.\" Kazu shook his head. \"I went to Ginjiro's brewery for a drink, and when I returned to the office I found Saburo dead.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Killed with your dagger.\"\n\n\"But not by me,\" Kazu said. \"I accidentally left the weapon on my desk. Anyone could have picked it up and used it.\"\n\n\"Did you alert the shogunate guards?\"\n\n\"They would have killed me on the spot!\"\n\n\"You had just returned from Ginjiro's,\" Hiro said. \"The gate guards could have vouched for your innocence.\"\n\n\"I didn't use the gate.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Kazu paused. \"Saburo ordered me not to leave the compound until I finished my work, but that could have taken all night. I slipped out over the wall and returned the same way. I've done it before. No one's ever noticed.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro shook his head." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You have to leave Kyoto at once.\"\n\n\"I can't,\" Kazu said. \"I left my travel pass at the shogunate, and there's no way to get through the checkpoints at the city exits unnoticed. The shogun has every barricade guarded because of Lord Oda's embassy.\"\n\n\"Go back to the shogunate and retrieve the pass,\" Hiro said.\n\n\"Someone will have discovered the body by now. They'll have guards in the office.\" Kazu shook his head again. \"I can't risk it. Not even over the wall.\"\n\nHiro thought for a moment." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Itinerant monks don't need papers to travel. I have a komusō's robe and hat you can borrow. If you're careful, the disguise will get you all the way to Iga.\"\n\nHe opened his clothing cabinet and retrieved a dingy robe and a pair of fraying sandals, along with a woven basket-hat that smelled faintly of reeds and disuse.\n\nKazu gave Hiro a grateful smile. \"I'm sorry I put you in danger.\"\n\n\"Don't mention it,\" Hiro said, \"especially to Hanzo.\"\n\nHiro lifted the lid of his ironbound weapons chest and withdrew a bamboo shakuhachi flute. He offered it to Kazu. \"There's a dagger hidden inside.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "A loud knocking echoed through the house." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro froze. Someone was at the Jesuit's front door." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You were followed!\" Hiro hurried across the room and threw open the large wooden chest that sat on the floor beside the clothing cabinet. \"Get in.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Kazu wrapped the monk's robe around his kimono and climbed into the chest. Hiro pulled the quilt off his futon and laid it over the younger man. It wasn't a great disguise, but they had no time for anything better.\n\n\"If anyone finds you,\" Hiro whispered, \"you're on your own.\" He pulled the quilt over Kazu's face and closed the chest.\n\nThe knocking increased in volume.\n\nHiro shoved the basket-hat back into the cabinet, slipped on a long-sleeved tunic, and slid open the paneled shoji door separating his room from the oe, or common room, beyond.\n\nFather Mateo had just emerged from the adjacent room." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His shoulder-length hair stuck out at odd angles, mussed from sleep. He bit his lower lip in concentration as he tied an obi sash around his hurriedly donned kimono.\n\nEven after three years in Kyoto, the Jesuit had trouble dressing quickly.\n\nFather Mateo looked up as he tightened the sash. \"Who could it be, at this hour?\"\n\nHiro shrugged and forced a smile. He didn't want to guess.\n\nA little over a year before, a predawn visit had summoned the men to a teahouse where an entertainer stood accused of murdering her samurai guest." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When Father Mateo intervened to save the girl, the dead man's son had forced them to find his father's killer or share the condemned entertainer's fate.\n\nHiro hoped this visitor wouldn't make a similar demand.\n\nHe followed Father Mateo into the tiny foyer that opened off the southern side of the common room.\n\n\"Who is there?\" the Jesuit called through the carved front door.\n\n\"God's peace be with you, Father Mateo,\" a voice called, \"it is Izumo. Father Vilela sent me.\"\n\nHiro breathed a silent sigh of relief. Izumo was an acolyte at the official Jesuit mission in central Kyoto. Since Father Mateo's work among the commoners would alienate the samurai elite whose support was requisite for the Catholic Church's presence in the capital, the Jesuits kept their missions separated." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro had never met Gaspar Vilela, the senior Jesuit in Kyoto and Father Mateo's nominal superior." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "However, the shinobi knew Izumo, and he recognized the acolyte's voice and accent.\n\nHiro withdrew to his room as Father Mateo opened the door for Izumo. The shinobi left his shoji slightly ajar to ensure the Jesuits' words would carry clearly through the air. Father Mateo considered eavesdropping sinful, but Hiro considered himself exempt from the priest's religious rules.\n\nThe shinobi shed his jacket and trousers in favor of a smoke-gray kimono cut in the latest samurai style. As he dressed, he listened to the conversation taking place in the common room.\n\n\"I apologize for waking you so early,\" Izumo said.\n\nThe acolyte sounded uneasy." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro knew why. The Japanese considered an unplanned predawn visit exceedingly rude." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"No need for apologies,\" Father Mateo said. \"What's happened?\"\n\n\"There has been a murder,\" Izumo said, \"and the shogun requests your help in finding the killer.\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "help a writer out? 8 sentences more sentences, mystery, historical fiction, Japan, historical mystery, 1500s genre thx" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro froze, stunned by Izumo's words.\n\n\"Hiro!\" Father Mateo called.\n\nThe shinobi grabbed his swords from the weapon stand.\n\nAlthough trained as assassins, Hiro's family descended from samurai, which gave Hiro the legal right to wear two swords—an exclusive privilege that also provided quite an effective disguise. He thrust the shorter wakizashi down the left side of his obi and pushed the katana's longer scabbard upward through the same side of the sash. Only then did he answer Father Mateo's call.\n\nHiro returned to the common room and bowed to Izumo, who seemed undisturbed by Father Mateo's voluble breach of manners. Either the other Jesuits also yelled like overexcited children or the Japanese convert had learned to ignore their rudeness." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro guessed the latter." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"There has been a murder,\" Father Mateo said.\n\nHiro feigned ignorance. \"One of the foreign priests?\" He caught a whiff of incense from the visitor's faded robe.\n\n\"No.\" Izumo shook his head. \"A senior clerk at the shogunate—a man named Ashikaga Saburo. He was also a second cousin to the shogun.\"\n\n\"Most unfortunate,\" Hiro said.\n\n\"The shogun requested Father Mateo's assistance in solving the crime,\" Izumo added.\n\n\"I don't understand,\" Father Mateo said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I've met the shogun only once, and that was years ago. I didn't think he even knew my name.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"When the body was discovered, the shogun summoned Father Vilela to pray for the dead man's soul,\" Izumo said.\n\n\"When did the shogun become a Christian?\" Father Mateo asked.\n\n\"He isn't,\" Izumo said. \"After the prayers, Shogun Ashikaga mentioned hearing that you had captured Akechi Hideyoshi's killer a year ago. Father Vilela was summoned so that the shogun could politely ask for you.\"\n\nThe acolyte's tone suggested that he—and, by implication, Father Vilela—was not entirely pleased with this turn of events.\n\nHiro wasn't either. \"I am very sorry, but Father Mateo must decline.\"\n\n\"Hiro!\" Father Mateo turned to Izumo. \"We would be honored to assist the shogun.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I apologize,\" Hiro said, \"but I must insist. Father Mateo is a priest. I am a translator. We are not qualified to investigate murders.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Izumo smiled, but his shifting feet betrayed discomfort.\n\n\"My translator speaks out of turn,\" Father Mateo said in perfect Japanese. \"Please tell Father Vilela that Hiro and I will obey the shogun's command.\"\n\nIzumo smiled stiffly. \"While I appreciate your willingness, the shogun requested you... and you alone.\"\n\n\"But I did not solve the Akechi murder alone,\" Father Mateo said. \"I require Hiro's assistance.\"\n\nIzumo looked from Father Mateo to Hiro as if wishing the shinobi would renew his objection. Hiro said nothing.\n\n\"If there is no alternative,\" Izumo said at last, \"but please explain to the shogun that the Jesuit mission delivered his request without alteration.\" He bowed. \"When you reach the shogunate, ask for Matsunaga Hisahide." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He will supervise your investigation." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Now, if you will excuse me, I must return to Father Vilela.\"\n\nFather Mateo and Hiro escorted the visitor back to the door. Izumo stepped outside, slipped on his sandals, and hurried away.\n\nThe Jesuit closed the door and spun around quickly. Hiro jumped back to avoid a collision.\n\n\"Why did you refuse him?\" Father Mateo demanded.\n\nThe Jesuit's rare but genuine frustration startled Hiro, and it took the shinobi a moment to recover.\n\n\"We are not in the business of solving murders,\" Hiro said at last." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The Akechi incident almost got us killed, and that was only a teahouse. The shogunate is infinitely more dangerous.\"\n\n\"The shogun requested our aid,\" Father Mateo said, \"and Father Vilela seconded his request. Refusal is not an option.\"\n\n\"Father Vilela seconded it unwillingly,\" Hiro countered. \"Not even you could have missed Izumo's discomfort—and neither Vilela nor Izumo understands the danger fully. I will not allow you to risk your life in this manner.\"\n\n\"Fortunately, your consent is not required.\" Father Mateo paused. \"What makes you think my life is at risk?\"\n\n\"Have you forgotten the details of the Akechi murder? The dead man's family tried to hold you responsible.\"\n\n\"That was different. My converts aren't involved this time.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Father Mateo stepped backward warily." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Hiro, what haven't you told me?\"\n\nBefore the shinobi could answer, a woman's scream echoed through the house." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Write 1 sentence like Susan Spann would, using user's text as beginning" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro ran to his room with Father Mateo close behind." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They paused in the doorway, seeking the source of the sound." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The Jesuit's aging housekeeper, Ana, stood beside Hiro's futon chest with her back to the door and her hands in the air." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A rumpled quilt lay on the floor at her feet." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She shrieked again and bent to pummel Kazu, who cowered inside the chest, eyes wide and arms raised in self-defense." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He noticed the other men in the doorway." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Hiro, please!\" he called." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The housekeeper whirled. A scowl added even more lines to her wrinkled face." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her black eyes glittered with fury and uncomfortable surprise." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Hiro,\" she said. \"I should have known.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The shinobi opened his mouth to deny involvement, but changed his mind." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It's Kazu,\" he said, then added, \"you know Kazu.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I know he does not belong in the futon chest.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ana gave Hiro a sideways look and waggled her finger as if at a naughty child." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You put him there to scare me, didn't you?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"He did not.\" Kazu stood up and straightened his robe." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"He put me there so I wouldn't.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Hm.\" Ana gathered up the fallen quilt and muttered, \"Didn't work.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She started toward the door and paused directly in front of Hiro." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Your kimonos need airing too. Will I find a pair of dancing girls in your wardrobe?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Only if he's lucky,\" Kazu quipped." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ana shot a glare over her shoulder and bustled from the room." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Father Mateo looked from the departing maid to Hiro." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Why was he hiding in the futon chest?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"A foolish prank,\" Kazu said, \"for which I apologize. I stopped by to see if Hiro had a message for his family in Iga. I am heading there this morning.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You work at the shogunate.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Father Mateo's gaze shifted from Kazu to Hiro." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"This is why you don't want us involved.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro nodded once in silent admission." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The Jesuit looked at Kazu." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Did you kill Ashikaga Saburo?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No,\" Kazu said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"But the shogun thinks you did.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "It wasn't a question." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro admired the priest's quick inference but hoped Mateo wouldn't ask why Kazu had chosen the Jesuit's house to run to." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The priest didn't know that Kazu was also shinobi, and Hiro had no intention of explaining." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The murderer used my dagger,\" Kazu said, \"but I swear—by all the kami in Japan—my hand did not wield it.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"There is only one God,\" Father Mateo said, \"in Japan or otherwise. But if you are innocent, as you claim, His truth will set you free.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Kazu laughed. \"The shogun doesn't care about your god's truth.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Father Mateo bowed. \"Forgive my rudeness. I would like to speak with Hiro—alone.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The Jesuit backed out the door." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When Hiro followed, Father Mateo closed the shoji that separated Hiro's room from the common room and crossed to the central hearth." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A smell of dead ashes rose from the sunken pit where the fire usually burned." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Father Mateo lowered his voice and switched to Portuguese." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"God's house does not shelter murderers.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Kazu claims innocence,\" Hiro replied in the Jesuit's native tongue, \"and I didn't offer him shelter. He arrived unannounced and will leave the same way, at dawn.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"This is serious.\" Father Mateo raised his right hand but stopped just short of running it through his hair." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He returned the hand to his side, refusing to give in to the nervous habit." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The shogun permits me to live in Kyoto and preach God's word because I abide by Japanese law. If he learns I harbored a fugitive he will banish me from the city, and probably banish Father Vilela as well.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"He won't banish you.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro switched back to Japanese. \"He'll kill you.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Before the Jesuit could reply Hiro continued, \"I understand the danger. I would not have consented, had Kazu asked, and I would have prevented him from coming here if I could.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I didn't think you invited him,\" Father Mateo said, \"but you let him stay. I begin to suspect he is more than merely a friend from the sake shop.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The door to Hiro's room slid open." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Kazu emerged, still wearing the dingy robe and carrying a pair of fraying sandals." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A wicker basket-hat covered his head and rested on his shoulders." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The narrow slit at the front of the basket allowed him to see but completely obscured his features." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Hiro,\" Father Mateo said, \"your friend has a basket on his head.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"A hat,\" Hiro corrected." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The komusō monks of Fuke Zen wear such things to distance themselves from the world.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Thank you for your hospitality,\" Kazu said, his perfect Kyoto accent slightly muffled by the basket." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I will not impose upon you again.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Father Mateo bowed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro escorted Kazu out." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When they reached the front door Kazu said, \"You should help the Jesuit solve this murder.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro raised an eyebrow in surprise." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You really didn't kill Saburo?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The basket shimmied as Kazu shook his head." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"No, but Hanzo will want to know who did.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro didn't answer. Kazu was right." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The head of the Iga ryu demanded an explanation for everything that impacted an Iga shinobi's mission, and he wasn't known to suffer failures well." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Besides,\" Kazu added, \"you will need to solve the crime to prove you didn't help me escape.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro had thought of that too." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Samurai justice often condemned a guilty man's friends and family if the criminal escaped the grasp of justice." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "No one in Kyoto knew that Hiro and Kazu shared more than a casual friendship, but the two were well-known as friends and drinking companions." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Since Kazu had no family in the capital, his friends would bear the brunt of the shogun's anger." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Travel safely,\" Hiro said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Give my regards to everyone at Iga.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Kazu paused as if wanting to say something more, but after a moment he set down the sandals, slipped them on, and headed for the street." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The sky had lightened, though clouds prevented a visible sunrise." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A bird chirped in a nearby tree, and Kazu's sandals crunched an accompaniment on the gravel path." }, { "from": "human", "value": "At the narrow earthen road the young shinobi turned east, away from Kyoto." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Angry barking erupted from the yard across the street." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "On the narrow strip of grass beside the house, a huge akita strained at the end of a braided rope secured to a wooden stake." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The dog weighed almost as much as a man and stood three feet high at the shoulder." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It barked ferociously at Kazu, barely pausing to draw a breath." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro found it odd that the dog was home." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The woodsman who lived across the street usually left before dawn and always took the akita with him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "After watching long enough to ensure the dog would not break free, Hiro shifted his gaze to Kazu's retreating form." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He hoped that Kazu hadn't killed Saburo." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "If the investigation proved otherwise, the shogun would execute both Hiro and Father Mateo the moment he learned that Kazu had slipped away." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro didn't want to get involved in another murder, but no man could easily refuse a command from the shogun." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Father Mateo had to find the killer, and Hiro—sworn to protect the priest—had no choice but to follow him into danger." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "An unexpected rush of excitement struck the shinobi as he turned back into the house and closed the door." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Although he wouldn't have chosen this assignment, solving a murder allowed him to use his special training in a way his bodyguard duties seldom offered." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro found himself looking forward to the challenge, even though accepting it went against his better judgment." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He returned to the common room as Father Mateo emerged from his bedroom wearing a formal kimono.\n\nBefore Hiro could speak the Jesuit said, \"You might as well skip the protest. I'm solving this murder and you're going to help me do it.\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Expand the story by adding 6 sentences in the mystery, historical fiction, Japan, historical mystery, 1500s genre." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro and Father Mateo walked west along Marutamachi Road past Okazaki Shrine, the Shinto temple that marked Kyoto's official eastern boundary.\n\nThey crossed the wood and stone bridge that spanned the Kamo River. As they entered the elite residential ward on the opposite side, Father Mateo said, \"I'm glad Luis is out of town. If he'd heard Ana scream...\"\n\nHe didn't need to finish the sentence. The Portuguese merchant whose weapon sales financed Father Mateo's mission kept a secret about as well as a toddler—and not even that well if he saw an advantage in talking.\n\nA few blocks past the river, Hiro and Father Mateo turned north onto the road that led to the shogunate." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The shogun's compound lay a block ahead on the western side of the street.\n\nTwenty-foot walls of wood and stone surrounded the shogun's compound. A roof of curved black tiles surmounted the walls, punctuated at intervals by surveillance towers that jutted into the air like curling fangs from the mouth of a boar. The massive perimeter wall stretched two city blocks on every side. At the base of the wall lay a water-filled moat too broad for most men to jump.\n\n\"Such a large compound for only one man,\" Father Mateo said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The shogun is the most powerful man in Japan,\" Hiro answered, \"more powerful than the emperor in every way that matters. And the shogunate isn't large just for the sake of display. It also houses the bakufu—the government offices.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Yes, in the mansion,\" Father Mateo said. \"That's where the shogun received me when I first arrived in Kyoto. The grounds are spectacular, too.\"\n\n\"Shogun Ashikaga has an eye for beauty,\" Hiro said, \"though some men worry it blunts his martial edge.\"\n\nHiro fell silent as as they reached the eastern entrance to the compound. A wooden bridge spanned the moat and a black tile roof arched high above the massive wooden gates that stood open for shogunate business from dawn until dusk.\n\nHalf a dozen armored samurai stood guard around the entrance." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They snapped to attention as Hiro and Father Mateo approached." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The Jesuit paused at the eastern end of the bridge and bowed to the guards." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They returned the greeting in kind. Hiro noted with approval that the guards bowed deeply, from the waist, a more respectful greeting than samurai usually offered foreigners.\n\n\"I am Father Mateo Ávila de Santos,\" the Jesuit said. \"I have come to see Matsunaga Hisahide.\"\n\n\"Greetings, Father,\" the tallest guard said. \"Please wait here. I will inform Matsunaga-san of your arrival.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He disappeared into the compound as Hiro and Father Mateo crossed the bridge. While they waited for the guard to return, Hiro looked at the shogunate compound—or at least, at the portion visible from the gate.\n\nThe entrance opened onto a graveled courtyard. To the north and south, the yard was lined with stands of delicate maple trees interspersed with taller pines and cedars. On the western side, opposite the gates, lay the entrance to the massive government mansion.\n\nThe building rose higher than a normal one-story structure, creating a dramatic appearance and also allowing room for the shogun's spies to move beneath the rafters." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Heavy cedar beams supported the tile roof, while decorative carvings adorned the woodwork, much of which was painted blue and gold.\n\nThe trees surrounding the mansion were carefully trimmed. Hiro smiled grimly. Not even he could leap that distance onto tiles without making noise and raising an alarm.\n\nThe gate guard emerged from the mansion with a young samurai at his side. At the edge of the veranda they slipped on their sandals and started across the yard.\n\nFather Mateo leaned toward Hiro and whispered, \"Is that Matsunaga Hisahide?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The samurai wore a stylish black kimono with a black and white mon on the upper left side of the chest." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro recognized the symbol. The small white diamond within a larger black one was the crest of the Miyoshi samurai clan.\n\n\"He's too young,\" Hiro replied in Portuguese, then added, \"Most likely a son of Daimyo Miyoshi.\"\n\n\"The lord of Yamato Province?\" Father Mateo asked.\n\nHiro nodded. \"One of the shogun's strongest allies.\"\n\nThe young man stopped in front of Father Mateo and dismissed the guard with a nod." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He let the priest bow first, but returned a deeper bow than Hiro expected and held it long enough to show sincere respect.\n\n\"I am Miyoshi Akira,\" he said as he straightened, \"second cousin to Daimyo Miyoshi of Yamato. I am assisting Matsunaga Hisahide with the murder investigation.\"\n\nAs an afterthought he added, \"Welcome to the shogunate.\"\n\n\"I am Father Mateo, from Portugal,\" the Jesuit said in Japanese, then added, \"Although I speak your language a little, I often require assistance to understand the finer points. This is my translator, Matsui Hiro.\"\n\nThe simple introduction, which stated no clan or province of origin, implied that Hiro was ronin, a masterless samurai forced to adopt a trade. As such, Hiro could claim no rank or privilege in the company of other samurai." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The shinobi bowed as deeply as possible." }, { "from": "human", "value": "To Hiro's surprise, Akira nodded respectfully and without any visible disdain." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I am pleased to make your acquaintance, Matsui-san.\"\n\nAkira's gaze returned to the priest. \"Matsunaga Hisahide sends his apologies. He wished to greet you himself but was unavoidably detained. You will follow me?\"\n\nHe turned and led them across the courtyard.\n\nHiro inhaled the musky scent of cedars and a dampness in the air that promised rain. The clouds that obscured the sunrise had gathered and darkened." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro doubted his kimono would get home dry and wondered whether Ana would decide to forego the airing of quilts and clothes." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The maid would be in a foul mood if showers spoiled her work." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Hisahide mentioned your previous work on behalf of the Akechi clan.\" Akira stepped out of his sandals and onto the wooden veranda encircling the mansion. \"The shogun requires similar assistance, though I trust you understand that this situation requires even greater discretion.\"\n\nHe looked from Hiro to Father Mateo, awaiting confirmation. They left their sandals beside the veranda and joined him.\n\n\"I give you my word,\" the Jesuit said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I will reveal nothing, and my translator is entirely trustworthy.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Akira led them into the mansion and through the six-mat room where petitioners waited for an audience with the shogun or one of the government officials. At that early hour, the room was empty except for a pair of sleepy-looking guards, who let the three men pass without comment.\n\nHiro and Father Mateo followed Akira through a maze of tatami-floored rooms separated by sliding shoji doors. The larger spaces functioned as audience chambers and meeting rooms, while the smaller ones were little more than passages with sliding doors on either side leading to private offices beyond. Low slatted ceilings, intended to hamper the use of swords, made even the largest rooms feel oppressively small for Hiro's taste.\n\nAfter several minutes they entered a ten-mat audience room with renovations in progress." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The tatami flooring was stacked in the southeast corner and covered to protect the woven mats against damage and dust. An assortment of brooms and carpentry tools lay neatly against the western wall beside an elaborate but unfinished transom screen and a waist-high pile of wooden ceiling slats.\n\nNearby, wooden props supported a thick cedar beam. A section of missing ceiling indicated the place where the beam would become a rafter.\n\nAkira paused as if embarrassed. \"I apologize for the mess. The shogun wants this work completed before... as soon as possible.\"" } ]

[ { "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." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I do know Ito Kazu,\" Hiro said, \"but I consider him an acquaintance, not a friend.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Akira gave Hiro a look that neither accepted nor denied the shinobi's statement." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Touch nothing in Ashikaga-san's office,\" Akira said as he led them across the room and into a narrow hall with doors on either side." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"His family has not arrived.\"\n\nAkira drew open the right-hand door and waited for the other men to enter.\n\nHiro stepped back to let Father Mateo lead, but not before his sensitive nose caught the mingling odors of documents, jasmine, and blood. The Jesuit entered the room and moved aside, giving Hiro his first clear view of the murder scene.\n\nThe six-mat room had a built-in desk and cabinet on the southern wall, to the right of the entrance. Piles of parchments lay on the desk, some neatly stacked and others spread out as if for examination. A monochromatic landscape scroll adorned the tokonoma, or decorative alcove, on the wall beside the desk." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The room was otherwise empty of furniture and adornments.\n\nAn oblong pool of congealing blood the size and shape of a fallen man spread across the center of the room. A trail of bloody spots and streaks led from the pool to an open shoji in the northern wall. Rusty drops and elongated bloody spatters marked the floor and wall to the left of the door.\n\nJudging by the size and location of the stains, the killer surprised Saburo in or near that northern entrance.\n\nHiro looked at the pool on the floor. The edges were crisp and linear, with very little smudging." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Saburo hadn't moved much after falling, though Hiro felt fairly certain the victim had bled to death on the floor." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A single set of bloody footprints led from the pool to a sliding door in the eastern wall of the office. Judging from the natural light that streamed through the paper panels, the door opened onto some kind of garden or courtyard.\n\nFather Mateo pointed to the door. \"Where does that lead?\"\n\nHiro wished the Jesuit would remember that samurai considered pointing rude.\n\n\"Nowhere,\" Akira said. \"That is, it leads outside, but nowhere in particular. There's a veranda and a garden with a path that leads across the grounds. We think that's how the murderer escaped.\"\n\n\"So it seems.\" Father Mateo eyed the smudges of rusty blood around the door." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Do the tracks continue outside?\"\n\nAkira shook his head. \"The killer must have removed his tabi.\" He looked at Hiro. \"The priest understands the word 'tabi,' socks?\"\n\nHiro nodded. \"Were the tabi left behind?\"\n\n\"Unfortunately, no.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro glanced at the desk. The document on top of the pile was a handwritten list of names. Elaborate characters flowed down the page with a rare precision that Hiro recognized as Kazu's. He examined the desk and the floor around it but saw no sign of blood.\n\nAs he turned, he noticed something in the bloody pool. He crouched and squinted, trying to identify the object without touching it.\n\n\"What room is that?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Father Mateo indicated the open door at the northern end of the room." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "This time, to Hiro's relief, the priest remembered to gesture like a Japanese.\n\n\"Saburo's private office,\" Akira said.\n\nHiro returned his attention to the floor.\n\nA hair pin lay near the center of the pool of congealing blood. The pin resembled a chopstick with a spray of delicate silver flowers attached to the thicker end. The wood appeared to be lacquered, and possibly inlaid, but the blackening blood obscured the finer details.\n\nHiro leaned in for a closer look." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Father Mateo joined him. \"What is that?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"A kanzashi,\" Hiro said, \"a woman's hair pin.\"\n\n\"Don't touch it,\" Akira snapped. \"We're not to move anything before the family arrives.\"\n\nExcept the body, Hiro thought.\n\n\"Was Ashikaga-san lying faceup or facedown?\" Hiro asked. \"Who found him here?\"\n\nThe lack of a body made it hard to reconstruct the murder scene, though Hiro hadn't really expected to find the corpse in place." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Murder dishonored the victim, and leaving Saburo where he fell would embarrass the shogun's clan." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"A maid discovered the body,\" Akira said. \"I didn't see it before it was moved and didn't ask about the position.\"\n\n\"Didn't the shogun order the scene preserved?\" Father Mateo looked confused.\n\n\"That wouldn't include the body,\" Hiro said. \"Respect for the dead takes precedence.\"\n\n\"Where did they take him?\" the Jesuit asked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro gestured toward the opposite side of the room." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"To his private office.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"How did you know that?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Akira's eyes widened with surprise." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"A guess, but it seemed the logical place until his family arrives.\" Hiro stood up. \"May we see the body?\"\n\n\"If you wish.\"\n\nHiro crossed the room, taking care to avoid the rusty drops on the floor. He could only imagine Ana's wrath if he stained his socks with blood.\n\nSaburo's inner office also measured six mats, large for a clerk of Saburo's rank but consistent with his relationship to the shogun. A free-standing wooden desk near the eastern wall meant Saburo could face the veranda or the inner door, depending on the weather and his mood." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A wooden back rest sat on the far side of the desk, indicating Saburo had faced the inner office the night he died.\n\nA bloody tanto lay on the near side of the desk. Dark smears encrusted the dagger's blade and stained the lacquered wooden handle.\n\nEven at a distance, Hiro recognized the weapon as a perfect match to Kazu's custom swords.\n\nSaburo lay on his back beside the desk with his arms at his sides and his feet toward the door. The front of his torn kimono was drenched in blood, while more blood crusted the right side of his face. His hair had come loose from its samurai knot, presumably during the struggle." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The crusty strands clung to his face like leftover noodles inside a dirty bowl.\n\nSomeone had closed Saburo's eyes, but the gesture didn't do much to improve his appearance.\n\nHiro knelt beside the body to confirm the cause of death. The amount of blood suggested exsanguination, and the tanto appeared to confirm it. The shinobi saw no injuries to Saburo's head or neck, but the three wounds in the samurai's chest all could have proven fatal. At least one, and possibly two, had pierced his heart.\n\nA heavy metallic odor rose from the corpse, along with a faint, sickly sweet smell that Hiro recognized as the scent of death." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He looked over his shoulder." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"May I touch him?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Akira blanched. \"Why would you want to?\"\n\nHiro laid his thumb on Saburo's left cheek. The mottled skin had cooled to match the surrounding air and the muscles resisted pressure. They felt tense and hard beneath Hiro's thumb. Several hours had passed since the samurai's death.\n\nThe flesh beneath the bloody side of Saburo's face looked purple, though not very dark. Hardly surprising, given the copious blood loss." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"How long do you think he's been dead?\" Father Mateo asked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro looked up, surprised that the Jesuit guessed—correctly—what the shinobi was trying to discern." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"At least nine hours, maybe more. I'd say he died after dark, but before midnight.\"\n\n\"You didn't have to touch him.\" Akira sounded disgusted. \"We already know he was killed last night. Besides, how does a translator know so much about death?\"\n\nHiro forced the bitter smile of a ronin. \"I was not always as I am now.\" He indicated Saburo's ragged and bloody sleeve. \"See the slash marks? He fought his killer.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Why would a killer strike the arm?\" Akira asked.\n\nHiro raised his hand to cover his face. \"Ashikaga-san was protecting himself.\"\n\nFather Mateo pointed to a sheath at Saburo's side. \"Why didn't he draw his sword?\"\n\n\"Because he had nothing to grip it with.\" Hiro reached across the body and raised the corpse's rigid arm." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Three of the right-hand fingers were missing. The last one dangled from the hand like a fish on a line, attached by only a paper-thin flap of skin.\n\nFather Mateo paled and ran a hand through his hair. \"How did that happen?\"\n\nHiro nodded to the desk. \"I'm guessing the tanto.\"\n\n\"That is the murder weapon,\" Akira confirmed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It was lodged in Saburo's back.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Father Mateo closed his eyes and looked away." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 8 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Would you put that arm down please?\"\n\nHiro shrugged and laid the arm at Saburo's side. \"Did someone recover the fingers?\"\n\nAkira nodded. \"The family will want them for the funeral.\"\n\nHiro took hold of Saburo's bloody kimono. \"Let's turn him over.\"\n\n\"Stop,\" Akira protested, \"You shouldn't—\"\n\nBut the objection came too late." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "AI writing task: user input -> 3 sentences sentences. genre: 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.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Saburo's back looked cleaner than his chest." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The single wound between his shoulders had barely bled enough to stain the surrounding fabric.\n\n\"That's where the dagger was found?\" Hiro indicated the wound." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I don't know,\" Akira said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"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?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Men don't bleed after death,\" Hiro said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Blood drains from the wounds, but only for a little while and only in the direction of the ground.\"\n\n\"Which means Ashikaga-san died facedown,\" Akira said. He straightened as if remembering that death defiled everyone who came in contact with it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"How can you stand to touch him?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro 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." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They rolled the corpse back to its original position." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Saburo's blood-drenched kimono left smudges on the pale floor, but Hiro doubted anyone would notice. With all the blood, some stains would be expected.\n\nHe 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." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Saburo's desk looked equally in order." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "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. The seal represented Saburo's official signature, and Hiro found it interesting that the murderer didn't steal it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A tray of dirty dishes sat on the floor beside the door to the outer office." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"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.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro noticed some tiny particles on the floor between the desk and the doorway." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He picked one up and rubbed it between his fingers as he raised it to his nose.\n\n\"What are you doing?\" Akira asked.\n\nHiro 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.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro remembered the spotless floor around the construction site." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Before he decided whether to mention it, Father Mateo asked, \"How often are these offices cleaned?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Every evening.\" Akira frowned. \"Someone must have tracked that in last night, or this morning when they moved Saburo.\"\n\n\"We would like to speak with the carpenters,\" Hiro said, \"and also with the maid who discovered the body.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The carpenters should be here soon,\" Akira said, \"but Hisahide sent the girl to spend a few days with her parents.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro 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." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I believe they live in Kyoto,\" Akira said.\n\n\"Would it be possible to send a messenger for her?\" Hiro asked. \"I would like to know exactly what she saw.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"A wise request,\" said a voice from the outer office." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A 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." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His confident posture and slender but muscular build suggested unusual fitness, especially in a man of middle age." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro bowed. Father Mateo followed. The samurai merely nodded in return.\n\n\"Greetings, Matsunaga-sama,\" Akira said, using the higher honorific expected of an assistant addressing a master." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"May I introduce the foreign priest, Father Mat-teo Avilo, and his translator, Matsui Hiro.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro bowed again, an unnecessary gesture but one that obligated Hisahide to speak first." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You are the man who captured Akechi Hideyoshi's murderer.\" Hisahide looked at Hiro as he spoke.\n\n\"Father Mateo solved the crime,\" the shinobi said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I am merely his translator.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hisahide 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." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He was glad to know his cover story had fooled the Miyoshi spies." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"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.\"\n\n\"We would be honored to assist your investigation,\" Father Mateo said.\n\nHisahide turned to Akira." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You may leave us and send a messenger for the maid who found Saburo.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Frustration flickered across Akira's face, but the man bowed and left the room without a word." }, { "from": "human", "value": "When 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.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He looked at Hiro. \"I also know that Ito-san is a friend of yours.\"\n\nHiro returned Hisahide's stare." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He suspected the Akechi investigation was just a convenient excuse to get him to the shogunate." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "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.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I am told you drink together often,\" Hisahide said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Sometimes,\" Hiro said. \"We reminisce about Iga. All men miss their ancestral homes.\"\n\nHisahide's face revealed nothing. \"Where is Kazu this morning?\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Provide five sentences as a continuation." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro admired Hisahide's resistance to distraction. \"I do not know where Ito Kazu is this morning,\" he said.\n\nIt was technically true. He hadn't seen Kazu since dawn.\n\n\"Forgive my ignorance,\" Father Mateo said, \"but if you know who committed the murder, why did you ask for our help?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro suspected the ignorance was feigned." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Father Mateo knew enough about samurai justice to recognize the danger.\n\n\"The shogun requested you, not me,\" Hisahide said, \"and I believe he wanted you more for your connection to Kazu than anything else. But since you are here, I see no reason not to utilize your skills.\"\n\nHisahide glanced toward the outer office. \"Many people—Akira included—agree that the evidence leaves no room for doubt, but I am not completely convinced of Ito-san's guilt. He is known for competence, yet no competent man would leave his weapon behind. This troubles me, even though I cannot question the shogun's interpretation of the evidence without proof to the contrary.\"\n\n\"I understand,\" Hiro said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A seed of doubt about Kazu's innocence sprouted in his mind." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A shinobi assassin might leave his weapon as a distraction, precisely because no samurai would do so. Hiro might have chosen to do the same in Kazu's place—assuming Kazu was the killer, which suddenly seemed more likely than Hiro wanted to admit.\n\n\"The shogun wants me to question Ito-san,\" Hisahide said, \"and I will do so when he arrives for work this morning. In the meantime, you will make no assumptions about his guilt or innocence. Can you do this, despite your familiarity?\"\n\n\"We can and we will,\" Father Mateo said.\n\nHisahide's gaze fell on Hiro." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We will uncover the truth, however unpleasant,\" Hiro said, though he wouldn't promise what he would do with the information once he had it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You have three days to identify the killer,\" Hisahide said.\n\n\"Three days?\" Hiro repeated.\n\n\"It was sufficient to find Akechi Hideyoshi's killer,\" Hisahide said, \"or so I am told.\"\n\nThat crime had taken place a year before. The investigation hadn't been public, but the Akechi clan had ties to the shogun and information traveled well in Kyoto." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Three days is a very short time to catch a murderer,\" Father Mateo said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Then you will work quickly,\" Hisahide replied. \"Daimyo Oda has sent an embassy to Kyoto. His men will arrive by the eighteenth day of the month—four days from now—and Saburo's killer must be caught and punished before they arrive. The shogunate cannot seem vulnerable to attack.\"\n\n\"What if we cannot solve the crime so quickly?\" Father Mateo asked.\n\n\"A murderer will die before Lord Oda's men arrive,\" Hisahide said. \"One way or another.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro understood the threat." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Innocence wouldn't save Kazu if the guilty party escaped. Unfortunately, with Kazu gone, Hiro and Father Mateo were next in line and equally viable candidates for punishment. The law would hold Hiro liable because he was Kazu's friend. But the chain of responsibility extended upward too, and Father Mateo was Hiro's official employer. If anyone suspected Hiro of helping Kazu escape, or decided to punish him in Kazu's absence, the Jesuit would share the shinobi's penalty." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Father Mateo frowned. \"We will not help you kill an innocent man.\"\n\nHiro glanced at the priest in surprise. He hadn't expected Father Mateo to catch Hisahide's meaning.\n\nThe samurai looked equally startled, though the surprise left his face as quickly as it appeared.\n\n\"Foreigners do not set conditions for obedience,\" Hisahide said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I will forgive your ignorance once, but you will not repeat this mistake.\"\n\nHiro hoped the priest would apologize, or at least retract his objection, but he doubted Father Mateo would do either. The Jesuit had a dangerous dedication to moral truth.\n\nThe shinobi had almost decided to make an apology on Father Mateo's behalf when the priest bowed deeply and said, \"I apologize for my lack of discretion.\"\n\nHiro's momentary relief disappeared as the Jesuit continued, \"I mistakenly believed the Bushido code required a samurai to seek justice rather than executing an innocent man merely to ensure that a crime is punished.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Father Mateo held Hisahide's gaze without faltering." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hisahide smiled but his eyes were cold. \"If I wanted empty justice, Ito Kazu would already be dead. That said, I will keep the shogunate out of Lord Oda's hands at any price. One innocent life means nothing when compared with the cost of war.\"\n\nHiro spoke up to keep the Jesuit silent. \"We will find the real killer in three days' time, provided you place no restrictions on our movement.\"\n\n\"Impossible,\" Hisahide said. \"The shogun cannot be disturbed, and this murder must not be made a public spectacle.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We will use discretion,\" Hiro said, \"but we must have sufficient freedom to investigate.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He hoped Hisahide would deny his demands and relieve them of the duty to solve the crime.\n\nInstead, the samurai nodded. \"I understand. You may investigate the bakufu mansion and grounds, but the shogun's personal quarters remain off limits. You may speak with servants and guards without restriction. I will schedule interviews with officials upon request." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Will that suffice?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yes,\" Father Mateo said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We will abide by those constraints.\"\n\nHiro still wished Hisahide had sent them away.\n\nAkira appeared in the doorway and bowed. \"A messenger has gone to fetch the girl.\"\n\n\"Thank you, Akira,\" Hisahide said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You will assist Father Mateo and Matsui-san with their investigation.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And report to Hisahide on our progress, Hiro thought.\n\nAkira struggled to hide his dismay. Hiro didn't blame him. A daimyo's cousin was not a servant, but the order effectively made him one, at least for the next three days.\n\n\"If you will excuse me,\" Hisahide said, \"I have business to attend to.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He departed without awaiting a response.\n\nAkira forced a smile. \"Where would you like to begin?\"\n\n\"Could we speak with the carpenters while we wait for the maid?\" Hiro asked.\n\n\"The carpenters?\" Akira sounded surprised. \"Not Ito Kazu?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Matsunaga-san intends to conduct that interview himself,\" Hiro said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"He did not ask us to join him.\"\n\n\"What could a carpenter know?\" Akira shook his head, suggesting typical samurai disdain for the lower classes.\n\n\"There is sawdust on the floor,\" Hiro said. \"A samurai might have tracked it here but the carpenters may have seen or heard something useful.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Akira's mouth opened slightly in surprise." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It apparently hadn't occurred to him that workers might listen to samurai conversations." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He led Hiro and Father Mateo back through the outer office and into the audience room beyond.\n\nA carpenter stood beside the sawhorses, plane in hand, surveying the cedar beam. He wore baggy trousers instead of the usual loincloth, doubtless a concession to shogunate formality.\n\nWhen Akira entered the room the workman knelt and pressed his forehead to the floor.\n\nOn the opposite side of the room a second carpenter stood high on a ladder, measuring the transom space above the southern entrance." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He had his back to Akira and didn't notice the samurai right away." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Like the other workman, he wore trousers and a long-sleeved tunic. He had his voluminous sleeves pulled high on his arms and tied out of the way with a strip of cloth.\n\nAkira had barely started across the room when the second carpenter lowered his measuring stick and descended the ladder. When he reached the ground he turned and bowed. He did not kneel or lay his head on the floor." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As he straightened, his face became an expectant mask, though Hiro noted unusual intelligence in his eyes." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The shinobi had little doubt this man noticed everything that went on around him.\n\nThe only question was whether he would reveal it." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Hey can you write in the mystery, historical fiction, Japan, historical mystery, 1500s genre and use whatever I write as a jumping off point?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Samurai owed no courtesy to commoners, and Akira wasted no time on greetings. \"Introduce yourself.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The carpenter bowed again." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I am Master Carpenter Ozuru.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He gestured to the kneeling man on the other side of the room." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"My assistant is called Goro.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"This is Father Mateo of Portugal,\" Hiro said. \"I am his translator, Matsui Hiro.\"\n\n\"These men are investigating a murder,\" Akira said. \"You will answer their questions honestly and tell the entire truth. The foreigner has captured many criminals. He can recognize a lie before you speak it.\"\n\nOzuru's face remained a mask.\n\nAkira bristled at the carpenter's lack of reaction, but before he could threaten the man again Father Mateo said, \"Thank you for speaking with us.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ozuru glanced at Goro." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We do not require your assistant at this time,\" Hiro said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ozuru gestured to the kneeling man." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Up. I want the beam ready to hang when the others arrive.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Goro stood up, bowed, and retrieved his plane. He tried not to stare at the foreigner, but his eyes kept darting to Father Mateo's face, reminding Hiro how strange the Jesuit's pale skin and Western features appeared to Japanese eyes.\n\nAkira's lips twitched in an unwilling smile. \"Please excuse me. I must check on the messenger's progress.\"\n\nHe disappeared through the southern door before anyone could respond.\n\nHiro turned his attention to Ozuru." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The lines around the carpenter's eyes were caused by sun, not time. His wiry, muscled arms revealed strength, and although his hands were gnarled by work they lacked the darkened spots of advancing age.\n\nA samurai would see only a peasant in stained and dusty trousers, but Hiro understood that carpentry demanded precision, artistic talent, and physical prowess at least as great as those required for swordplay. Only men with impeccable skills would achieve a master's title, and few of them would achieve it by middle age.\n\nThe shinobi knew, if Akira did not, that Ozuru deserved respect.\n\nHe was still deciding how to approach the interview when Father Mateo said, \"Please tell us anything you know about Ashikaga-san's murder.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro looked at the priest in disbelief." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Directness was anathema to the Japanese." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I know only that he was killed,\" Ozuru said, \"and learned that only when I arrived for work this morning.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Did you work yesterday?\" Hiro asked.\n\n\"Yes, from dawn until two hours after sunset. I stayed late to work on the transom carving.\" He pointed to the wooden screen that rested against the wall. When complete, the elaborate transom panel would cover the gap between the top of the doors and the ceiling while also allowing air flow between the rooms.\n\n\"You are skilled,\" Father Mateo said.\n\nOzuru bowed his head humbly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Thank you, Father-Mateo-sama.\" He pronounced the name and honorific as a single word. \"My father was a carpenter, my grandfather a master carver. They trained me in both disciplines.\"\n\nHe spoke carefully, and with simple words, to ensure the priest understood.\n\n\"Would you like to see the screens more closely?\" he offered.\n\nFather Mateo seemed inclined to agree, but Hiro had no intention of letting the carpenter distract them from their objective.\n\n\"Do you work late often?\" Hiro asked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ozuru paused before answering, as if he no longer remembered the previous topic. At last he nodded in understanding. \"Yes, quite often. My assistants leave at sundown and I stay to work in silence.\"\n\n\"Most artisans have a workshop,\" Hiro said.\n\n\"As do I,\" Ozuru replied, \"but the shogun demands that I do my work on the premises. He believes it leads to faster completion, and I am in no position to argue with samurai.\"\n\n\"The shogun wants the work finished quickly?\" Father Mateo asked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yes,\" Ozuru glanced at the ceiling, \"because of the rats.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Rats?\" the Jesuit looked up quickly.\n\n\"They live above the ceilings, under the roof,\" Ozuru said. \"It would be most inconvenient for a rat to jump down on a passing samurai.\"\n\n\"Does that happen?\" Father Mateo's eyes widened.\n\nOzuru shrugged. \"It depends how long the roof goes unrepaired.\"\n\nOnce again the conversation had drifted away from the murder." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Where did you go when you left last night?\" Hiro asked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Home, as always.\"\n\n\"Did you stop on the way?\"\n\n\"No,\" Ozuru said, \"and I live alone, so no one can tell you what time I arrived or confirm that I went directly to sleep, though I did.\"\n\nHiro heard no defensiveness in the carpenter's voice. If anything, Ozuru seemed amused.\n\n\"How long have you worked here?\" Hiro asked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"For the shogun? Or in this room?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro didn't answer.\n\n\"This project began a month ago,\" Ozuru said, \"but I've worked in this compound off and on for several years. I succeeded the previous master when he retired.\"\n\n\"Do you know why someone would want to kill Ashikaga Saburo?\" Father Mateo asked.\n\n\"Walls have ears,\" Ozuru said with a smile, \"but intelligent workmen have none.\"\n\n\"What about you?\" Hiro asked. \"Did you argue with Ashikaga-san?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ozuru's smile faded. \"What makes you ask?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The question had been instinctive, but it seemed to have hit a mark.\n\nHiro hazarded a version of the truth. \"I understand Ashikaga-san did not appreciate independent men, particularly those who fail to grovel.\"\n\nOzuru gave Hiro an appraising look. \"You have guessed correctly. I will not hide the truth. Last night Ashikaga-san complained about the noise of my chisel and ordered me to leave. I refused, and he grew angry.\"\n\n\"You refused?\" Father Mateo started to raise a hand to his hair, but lowered it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro took the averted gesture as a sign of the priest's surprise." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 7 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The shogun imposed strict deadlines on this work.\" Ozuru indicated the open ceiling. \"My job depends on completing this room within the next three days.\n\n\"I have never missed a deadline. I won't miss this one, despite the shortened time. The shogun gave me permission to work as many hours as necessary. Ashikaga-san had no right to countermand that order.\"\n\n\"Did you tell Ashikaga-san about the shogun's instructions?\" Hiro asked.\n\nOzuru's lips raised in a humorless smile. \"Ashikaga-san was not a man to whom carpenters explain anything.\"\n\nAkira strode into the room. \"The maid has arrived. She is waiting for you in the kitchen.\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Continue with the same vibes in the mystery, historical fiction, Japan, historical mystery, 1500s genre." }, { "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." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"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." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Tatami covered the floor, though the mats were of lower quality than the ones in the bakufu mansion." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The paneled wooden walls did little to muffle the chopping and clattering from the adjacent kitchen.\n\nA 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." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She smiled and clasped her hands in supplication.\n\n\"Do not stare!\" Akira ordered.\n\n\"I apologize.\" She ducked her chin and looked at the floor.\n\n\"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." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro knew Father Mateo could persuade the girl to speak, but only if Akira left the room." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Few maids had the courage to speak in front of highly ranked samurai, and the girl's initial reaction wasn't encouraging." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro bowed to Akira." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"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?\"\n\n\"Every one?\" Akira asked.\n\n\"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.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The Jesuit seemed unaware of the insult in his words." }, { "from": "human", "value": "No samurai could accuse another of weakness or incompetence without consequence." }, { "from": "human", "value": "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." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A quavering smile flickered over her face.\n\n\"May I offer you tea?\" 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." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Few enough would bother to ask a servant's name at all, though Hiro knew the Jesuit always would." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I am called Jun,\" she said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You serve the shogun?\" Father Mateo asked.\n\n\"I am a maid at the shogunate.\" 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." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"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.\"\n\nShe bit her lip.\n\n\"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." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "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. Her shoulders heaved with her efforts to keep from crying.\n\nFather Mateo waited while she regained control." }, { "from": "human", "value": "At last she lowered her hands and continued, \"I screamed. Someone came and pushed me out of the room.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"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.\n\nHiro became impatient. The interview wasn't proceeding as effectively as he hoped." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 8 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "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": "CREATIVE WRITING ASSIST:\n2 sentences sentences\nGenre: mystery, historical fiction, Japan, historical mystery, 1500s" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The shogun's guards report no visitors yesterday evening,\" Akira said. \"All business was concluded and all petitioners left the compound more than an hour before they closed the gates for the night.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He narrowed his eyes at the maid." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Did she tell you everything you need to know?\"\n\nJun looked at the floor." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"She was most helpful.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Father Mateo stood up and straightened his kimono. \"We have no further questions. She was not involved in the crime.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I could have told you that,\" Akira said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"If you are finished I will escort you to the gates.\"\n\nAkira led them out of the kitchen and through the well-groomed gardens surrounding the bakufu mansion." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The clouds had darkened and the smell of rain increased.\n\nAs they passed a koi pond Hiro asked, \"Can the guards confirm that no strangers entered the compound after dark last night?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Of course,\" Akira said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I interviewed most of them personally this morning. No one entered the compound after they closed the gates at sunset.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What time did Ozuru leave?\" Hiro asked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Akira's forehead wrinkled as he tried to place the name. \"The carpenter? The guards wouldn't know that. Workmen use the stable gate, which is locked at sundown. Anyone leaving later would have to see the stable master.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Did you speak with him this morning?\" Hiro asked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"There was no need.\"\n\n\"May we speak with the stable master now?\" Father Mateo asked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Akira altered his course to the west and led them onto an earthen path wide enough for two horsemen to ride abreast." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "To their right, the shogun's private mansion sat behind high walls at the center of an artificial lake. Unlike the bakufu mansion, where government business and audiences took place, the shogun's palace was strictly off limits except to the shogun, his women, and his guards." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Past the palace, the path curved right and continued along the inner side of the compound's southern and western walls until it reached the stable yard, an open area large enough to saddle and exercise the shogun's horses." }, { "from": "human", "value": "At the western side of the yard, a pair of massive wooden gates stood open to the street." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Beyond them, Hiro caught a glimpse of a wooden bridge and half a dozen armored samurai guards.\n\nJust past the gates, but inside the compound, a long, low stable huddled against the western wall." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Does the shogun always have guards at this gate?\" Father Mateo asked.\n\n\"In the daytime,\" Akira said, \"but only four. He ordered extra guards this morning because of the murder.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro looked at the stable as he listened." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The wide doors on the building's southern end stood open, allowing a view of the dim interior. Windows along the eastern wall were covered with angled wooden slats to allow the passage of air and a little light." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A muscular man emerged from the stable. Silver hair stood up on his head like the bristles of an ancient boar." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His crooked nose had broken and healed more than once." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He wore a faded surcoat and baggy trousers that flared as he bowed to Hiro and the others.\n\n\"Good morning, Miyoshi-san,\" the stableman said to Akira." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He smiled in greeting, revealing a missing upper tooth." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Akira did not return the greeting." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Instead he told Father Mateo, \"Masao is the shogun's stable master. He can tell you what time the carpenters left yesterday.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I apologize,\" Masao said, \"but I fear I cannot. I was not here when they left.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Akira's eyes narrowed. His lips turned down. \"Where were you?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"My cousin came to Kyoto yesterday, on business. We ate dinner together near Sanjō Bridge. I left before sunset and returned about an hour after midnight.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Is your cousin still in Kyoto?\" Hiro asked, \"To confirm your story?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Unfortunately, no. He finished his business yesterday and planned to leave the city at dawn this morning.\"\n\n\"Where was he going?\" Father Mateo asked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"He owns an apothecary shop at Ōtsu, on the Tōkaidō Road. He comes to Kyoto once a month for supplies.\"\n\n\"Tōkaidō,\" Father Mateo repeated." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The travelers' road between Kyoto and Edo?\"\n\n\"Yes. Ōtsu is the first station outside Kyoto.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Who watched the stable in your absence?\" Hiro asked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The guards would have locked the gates at sunset,\" Masao said. \"After that, no one. The horses don't need care through the evening.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What about Den?\" Akira asked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Masao glanced at the gates. \"He's away, seeing relatives in the country.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro suspected a lie. \"Who is Den?\"\n\n\"My apprentice,\" Masao said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"He lives here with me.\"\n\n\"He must miss his family,\" Father Mateo said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Does he visit them often?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Not often.\" Masao said. \"His parents are farmers... poor.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He spoke the last word quietly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro understood. Many farmers could barely afford to feed themselves, let alone their children.\n\n\"When did Den leave?\" Hiro asked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yesterday afternoon,\" Masao said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"He wanted to pass the checkpoints before sunset.\"\n\n\"Then no one watched the gate after dark,\" Hiro said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"That is correct.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro opened his mouth, but before he could speak Akira asked, \"Then who let the carpenter out?\"\n\nMasao looked confused. \"The carpenters leave at sunset. The guards would have let them out.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The master carpenter, Ozuru, worked late last night,\" Hiro said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"He must have left by the other gate,\" Masao said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"This one was locked when I returned. I came back through the eastern gate myself.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Akira frowned. \"The guards didn't tell me that.\"\n\n\"Do you know that a man was murdered here last night?\" Father Mateo asked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Masao nodded. \"I saw Jun as she left this morning.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You know the maid by name?\" Hiro asked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Of course,\" Masao said. \"She brings us leftovers from the kitchen, though I suspect she intends them more for Den than for me.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He smiled fondly, but the smile faded as he noticed Akira's frown. \"Their relationship is appropriate and properly supervised.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro changed the subject. \"Did you see Ashikaga-san yesterday?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I must have.\" Masao glanced upward, thinking." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"He always arrives after dawn, on horseback. I stable his horse. I don't remember yesterday being different.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Is his horse in the stable?\" Hiro asked.\n\n\"No. The messenger who carried the news to Ashikaga-san's family took it with him.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Very considerate,\" Father Mateo said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Do you know who would want to kill Ashikaga-san?\"\n\nMasao shook his head." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'm sorry. The news was a surprise to me.\"\n\n\"If you remember anything else, or hear anything of interest, please let us know,\" Hiro said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"My house is on Marutamachi Road,\" Father Mateo added, \"just past Okazaki Shrine. You are welcome there any time and for any reason.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Akira narrowed his eyes at the priest.\n\nMasao bowed. \"Thank you.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He bowed even more deeply to Akira.\n\nHooves thumped on the drawbridge." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A child's voice shouted, \"Master Masao!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro turned as a bay horse trotted into the yard." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "On its back sat a boy of about ten years. His unshaven forehead marked him as a child, not yet an adult samurai, but his hair was long and tied back in a warrior's knot." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 3 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He wore a gray kimono emblazoned with the Ashikaga mon—a black-edged circle with five horizontal bars, alternating black and white.\n\nThe boy's handsome features looked eerily familiar.\n\nHiro had seen them not an hour before, on a dead man's face." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Mode: Collab writing\nAmount: 6 sentences\nVoice: Susan Spann" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Father Mateo leaned toward Hiro but fixed his eyes on the boy. \"Do you think that's Saburo's son?\" he whispered in Portuguese.\n\n\"I've never seen a stronger family resemblance,\" Hiro said.\n\nA second rider entered the yard, a samurai woman whose face bore a strong and unfortunate resemblance to her aging mare. Her gray-streaked hair was pulled back without adornment, though she wore an expensive gray kimono cut in the latest style." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Masao approached the woman's horse, bowed low, and held the animal steady as she dismounted." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The boy didn't wait for assistance. He slipped off his horse with practiced ease and pulled the reins over its head. He patted the animal's neck and turned to Akira.\n\nThe samurai ignored the child but bowed to the woman. \"Good morning, Ashikaga-dono. I am sorry for your loss.\"\n\nFather Mateo stepped closer to Hiro and whispered, \"-Dono? Not -san?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro switched to Portuguese." }, { "from": "gpt", "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.\"\n\nThe boy took a step toward Akira.\n\n\"What about me?\" he asked. \"I have lost my father. The least you can do is bow.\"\n\nHiro hid his surprise as Akira complied with the child's demand. \"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.\n\nAs he straightened, he noticed Father Mateo. His mouth fell open in surprise and he hurried toward the foreign priest. When he reached a comfortable speaking distance he stopped, pulled his hands to his sides, and bowed.\n\n\"Bun dia,\" he said in strongly accented Portuguese. \"You are not Father Virera, though you are from his country, I think.\"" }, { "from": "human", "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.\n\nThe boy cocked his head to the side like a bird inspecting an interesting seed.\n\n\"Bom dia,\" he repeated. This time he pronounced it perfectly.\n\n\"And to you.\" The Jesuit bowed low and switched to Japanese. \"My name is Father Mateo.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I am Ashikaga Ichiro, only son of Ashikaga Saburo. This is my mother, Lady Netsuko.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "After a pause he added, \"I have not seen you here before.\"\n\n\"I work in another part of Kyoto,\" Father Mateo said, \"near Okazaki Shrine.\"\n\nThe boy's eyes widened. \"There are two Christian temples in Kyoto?\" He looked at Akira. \"Did you know this?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"There is only one of consequence.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Akira gave the Jesuit a hostile look. \"These men are helping us find your father's killer.\"\n\nIchiro looked at Hiro. \"And you? What is your name?\"\n\nHiro bowed. \"I am Matsui Hiro, Father Mateo's translator and scribe.\"\n\nThe boy looked from Hiro to the priest." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"He seems to speak our language well enough.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Simple phrases, yes.\" Hiro offered the standard explanation. \"But he often misses the finer implications of Japanese speech.\"\n\nIchiro 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. \"Kazu did not kill my father.\"\n\nHiro regarded Ichiro with surprise. \"Does someone say he did?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Before the boy could answer, his mother laid a restraining hand on his shoulder." }, { "from": "gpt", "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.\"\n\n\"Kazu did not do this.\" Ichiro looked and sounded like a tiny samurai.\n\nHiro decided to treat him as one. \"Why do you think he is innocent?\"\n\nNetsuko spoke first. \"Kazu was Ichiro's tutor.\"" }, { "from": "human", "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. \"You do not know Kazu as I do. He is an honorable man.\"\n\nIchiro's hands clenched at his sides. He looked at each man in turn, as if daring them to contradict his words.\n\n\"Indeed?\" Hiro found the boy's reaction interesting. Except for his size, Ichiro didn't seem like a child." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You do not believe me.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ichiro squared his shoulders." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I am fourteen and ready for genpuku.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He paused. His fists clenched tighter. His lips pressed into a line as he took a deep, slow breath. \"That is, I would have been, had my father lived to approve Kazu's recommendation.\"\n\n\"I am very sorry,\" Hiro said. \"Please accept my condolences.\" He found the boy's restraint impressive, especially under the circumstances." }, { "from": "human", "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.\"\n\nHiro found the boy's loyalty surprising, particularly since Kazu had never mentioned Ichiro. Then again, Kazu didn't discuss his work in detail. No shinobi would.\n\nHiro felt a flash of regret for encouraging Kazu's flight. An innocent man should have stayed to defend himself. 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.\n\nFather Mateo bowed to Akira. \"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.\"\n\nThe men exchanged bows, and Hiro and Father Mateo left the compound.\n\nThey walked as far as the Kamo River in silence. 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.\"\n\n\"Three days,\" Father Mateo said. \"Perhaps the shogun would grant an extension?\"\n\n\"No chance of that,\" Hiro said, \"and if we fail to find the true murderer, Hisahide will probably execute me instead.\"\n\nAnd perhaps you also.\n\n\"You?\" Father Mateo raised his hands in surprise." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"He didn't say that.\"\n\n\"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.\"\n\n\"But why you?\" Father Mateo asked. \"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.\"\n\n\"We are both from Iga Province, and we are friends. That will suffice.\"\n\n\"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.\"\n\n\"To a samurai, maybe.\" Father Mateo shook his head in frustration. \"A man should say what he means directly.\"\n\nHiro shrugged. It was not the Japanese way.\n\n\"If that's the case,\" the priest continued, \"Kazu had better have told the truth.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Father Mateo said no more, but Hiro had the same thought himself." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 1 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"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 six sentences in the distinctive voice of Susan Spann, keeping within the mystery, historical fiction, Japan, historical mystery, 1500s genre." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro and Father Mateo found Ana on the front porch of the Jesuit's house, wielding a broom like a warrior monk. She flung up clouds of dust with a force that made the shinobi wonder what new irritation caused the fit of pique.\n\nShe noticed the men approaching and laid one hand on her hip in a manner that boded ill for someone. Hiro didn't have to wonder who. In Ana's eyes, the Jesuit did no wrong.\n\nThe shinobi ran through the usual list of complaints, but came up empty." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He hadn't brought sake home since Ana dumped the last flask in the koi pond to demonstrate her disapproval of alcohol, and she didn't know that Hiro was shinobi." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Still, she watched him approach like a mother preparing to paddle a naughty child.\n\n\"Hm,\" she sniffed as he reached the veranda. \"You said your friend was leaving.\"\n\n\"He did leave.\" Hiro paused. \"He came back?\"\n\nRelief flooded through him. If Kazu hadn't left Kyoto, they might still preserve the illusion of his innocence." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Well, I don't mean Gato,\" Ana said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"When did Kazu return?\" Father Mateo asked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"A few minutes after you left,\" she said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I mistook him for a monk in that crazy outfit. He walked right into the house without even knocking. When I told him to leave, he took off his hat and said he would wait for you instead.\"\n\n\"And you let him?\" Hiro hoped she let Kazu stay. He needed to talk with the younger shinobi before Hisahide did.\n\nAna's frown deepened the wrinkles around her eyes. \"I didn't want to. But he threatened to tell the neighbors Father Mateo refused a meal to a monk in need. I couldn't let him say a thing like that!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro stifled a smile. Ana's loyalty made her easy to manipulate.\n\n\"I told him to wait by the hearth,\" she said, then added, \"I didn't give him anything to eat.\"\n\nShe sounded triumphant. To Ana, withholding food was a serious punishment.\n\n\"Has Luis returned?\" Father Mateo tried to sound conversational, but Hiro caught a hint of concern in his voice. The merchant could not be trusted to keep Kazu's visit secret." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Not yet,\" Ana said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro stepped out of his sandals and onto the veranda. \"I'll talk to Kazu. He won't stay long.\"\n\n\"Hm,\" Ana said, \"he better not. You cause enough trouble. I don't need your vagrant friends underfoot.\" She raised the broom and resumed her vigorous sweeping.\n\nHiro found Kazu by the hearth. The basket-hat sat on the floor beside him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I'm sorry, Hiro.\" Kazu stood up and bowed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The shogun has guards on all the roads. They're checking everyone, even monks.\"\n\n\"I'm glad you couldn't get through,\" Hiro said. \"You need to get back to the shogunate.\"\n\n\"For my execution?\" Kazu shook his head. \"No thank you.\"\n\nAna's voice carried in from the porch. \"Welcome back, Luis-san!\"\n\nHiro appreciated the warning. \"My room. Now.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Kazu scooped up the basket-hat and hurried across the oe." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He slid open Hiro's door and disappeared through it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro followed. He had just reached the doorway when Luis entered the common room.\n\nThe merchant's face looked even more flushed than usual, as if his doublet and puff-sleeved shirt conspired to strangle him. A pair of tight wool breeches did no favors for Luis's portly legs.\n\nAs always, Hiro found the merchant's Portuguese clothing foolish and inconvenient.\n\nLuis glared at Hiro. \"You people and your impossible demands,\" he fumed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Why can't you understand simple logic?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro raised an eyebrow at the merchant.\n\nLuis thumped across the tatami and flung himself down by the hearth with a heavy sigh. As usual, he took the host's position opposite the entrance.\n\n\"Ana!\" he yelled. \"Tea!\"\n\nHiro heard the vehement swish of a broom against the veranda. Ana had no intention of responding to Luis's call." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Father Mateo tested the pot that hung above the hearth." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"There's water here. You have tea in your room, don't you?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Assuming someone didn't steal it all.\" Luis stood up and pulled his green doublet down over his bulging stomach. His girth and the unfortunate color made Hiro think of a giant sudachi, though Luis's face looked even sourer than the bitter little citrus fruit.\n\nHiro started to enter his room, but Luis's next complaint made him pause.\n\n\"How on earth can he expect me to find two hundred arquebuses in three days' time?\"\n\n\"Two hundred?\" Father Mateo repeated." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yes,\" Luis grumbled. \"An impossible number of firearms on an equally irrational timeline.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Who wants them?\" the Jesuit asked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Luis hadn't stopped talking. \"I told him it was impossible, but of course he wouldn't listen. Samurai are all alike. Demand, insist, threaten—that's all they know. If the profits didn't run so high, I'd have left this godforsaken island years ago.\"\n\n\"God has not forsaken Japan.\" Father Mateo spoke with unusual sharpness.\n\nLuis snorted.\n\nHiro could see the priest preparing to argue and jumped in to keep the conversation going." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Why does this samurai need the weapons so quickly?\"\n\nLuis turned, eager to continue his litany of complaints. \"A show of force, to keep some uppity lord from attacking Kyoto. I told him the shogun could hold his compound with half that many firearms, but he insisted. No less than two hundred will do.\"\n\n\"So the shogun wants them?\" Hiro asked.\n\n\"No.\" Luis shook his head. \"One of his retainers. Matsu-something.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Matsunaga Hisahide,\" Hiro said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"That's the one.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What will happen if the weapons don't arrive in time?\" Hiro asked.\n\nLuis looked smug. \"Of course they'll get here in time. Most merchants couldn't have managed it, but I have special connections. Where do you think I've been? I rode to Osaka to check the warehouse there. They hadn't enough, but they expect a shipment today or tomorrow and said they would send them on immediately.\"\n\n\"Dispatch is no guarantee of arrival,\" Hiro said.\n\nLuis sniffed. \"This sale will fund Mateo's work for a year, and my own share is nothing to sneer at. I'll see that the arquebuses arrive on time.\"\n\nThe merchant turned back to Father Mateo, dismissing Hiro from the conversation. The shinobi didn't mind." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He stepped into his room and closed the door behind him." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 3 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The room looked empty, but Hiro knew better. He crossed to the futon chest and rapped softly on the lid.\n\n\"Kazu, it's safe to come out.\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "make story longer like Susan Spann would" }, { "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?\"\n\nKazu could wonder about the assignment all he wished." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro would never reveal the truth—even if he had known it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Instead, he changed the subject.\n\n\"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": "human", "value": "\"I can't even explain where I was without looking guilty.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"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.\"\n\n\"How will staying away excuse my absence?\" Kazu asked.\n\n\"Because you weren't absent,\" Hiro said. \"You were drunk.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Drunk?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"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.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"But I got hungry,\" Kazu said, picking up on the story, \"and returned to Ginjiro's to eat.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He nodded slowly. \"You know, that might actually work.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Only if we find the real killer in time.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "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?\"\n\n\"No more than usual.\" Kazu raised a hand, remembering. \"Wait—he did have an argument yesterday evening." }, { "from": "human", "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.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"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?\"\n\n\"Most evenings, yes. The shogun wants the work completed quickly, and the delicate carvings have to be finished on-site.\" Kazu shook his head slowly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I don't think Ozuru did this. He's an artisan, not a killer.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"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?\" Hiro wished he had looked more closely at Lady Netsuko. From what he remembered, she didn't seem physically capable of killing her husband in hand-to-hand combat.\n\n\"I don't know her well,\" Kazu said, \"but she's an unusual woman and stronger than average.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"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. \"What did you actually do last night?\"\n\nKazu 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.\"\n\n\"He won't question that?\" Kazu asked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"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. \"Sleeping, or so he said. Did you finish your business?\"\n\n\"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.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The sake shop? Why?\"" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Father Mateo looked confused.\n\n\"To witness Kazu's miraculous reappearance.\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "4 sentences sentences. mystery, historical fiction, Japan, historical mystery, 1500s stuff." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro and Father Mateo waited at the shogunate gates while the guards sent a runner for Akira.\n\nOne of the samurai guards regarded Father Mateo with interest, though social convention prevented him from addressing a higher-ranked man without invitation.\n\nThe Jesuit noticed and bowed.\n\nHiro stifled a disapproving sigh." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Only foreigners and children ignored etiquette so bluntly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The shinobi cared little for social norms himself but recognized the importance of disappearing into a crowd. Then again, Father Mateo could hardly avoid attracting attention.\n\n\"Good morning,\" the Jesuit said.\n\nThe guard gave an awkward smile and bowed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Good morning, Father-san,\" he said as he straightened. \"Please forgive my forwardness, but I am also a follower of the Jesus God, and yet I have never seen you in church. Are you new to Kyoto?\"\n\n\"I have lived here almost three years,\" Father Mateo said, \"but my work rarely brings me to Father Vilela's mission. I spread the Word among the merchants.\"\n\nAt least he didn't mention the entertainers and prostitutes, Hiro thought." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The guard looked curious rather than offended." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Does God hear commoners' prayers?\"\n\n\"Our Lord was born a commoner,\" Father Mateo said.\n\nThe guard squinted as if trying to understand. \"I never thought of that.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Indeed,\" Father Mateo said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"God loves all men equally, regardless of status or birth.\"\n\nHiro turned and bowed as Akira arrived.\n\nThe young samurai ignored the shinobi's greeting. He narrowed his eyes at the guard." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The shogun does not pay you to gossip about your foreign religion.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I apologize, Miyoshi-san.\" The guard returned to his post with a guilty expression.\n\n\"Please do not blame him,\" Father Mateo said. \"The fault is mine.\"\n\n\"You are here to investigate a murder.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Akira paused and brought his temper under control, as if remembering that the priest was the shogun's guest." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He turned to Hiro. \"I notice you have not found Ito Kazu.\"\n\n\"Not yet,\" Father Mateo said. \"We returned to gather more evidence.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro stole a glance at the priest. He hadn't expected the Jesuit to lie.\n\n\"We would like to speak with the carpenter Ozuru,\" Hiro said.\n\n\"Why do you care about carpenters?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Akira's eyebrows gathered like angry clouds." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Ito Kazu is to blame.\"\n\n\"I am not so sure,\" Hiro said.\n\n\"The evidence points to his guilt.\"\n\n\"I will explain on the way to Saburo's office,\" Hiro said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We also wish to review the scene of the crime.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Akira frowned but led them toward the mansion. At the entrance he stopped and asked again, \"What makes you think Kazu is innocent?\"\n\n\"A murderer wouldn't leave his own dagger behind,\" Hiro said.\n\n\"Especially such a distinctive one,\" Father Mateo added." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The murderer could not hide the cause of death.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Akira led them into the mansion and through the maze of wood-paneled rooms." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Only a dagger could have caused Saburo's injuries.\"\n\n\"True,\" Hiro said, \"but knowing the type of weapon is very different from identifying its owner. The killer may have left the dagger behind because he intended us to draw a false conclusion.\"\n\n\"Or else he was frightened,\" Akira said. \"Or maybe Kazu left it behind as a distraction, expecting us to believe he would not do so.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro hadn't ruled that out, despite his hope that Kazu would prove truthful." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"That suggestion seems brought back from a distance,\" Father Mateo said.\n\nAkira stopped walking. \"Pardon me?\"\n\n\"He means that it seems unlikely,\" Hiro said. \"The Portuguese idiom doesn't translate well. It's closer to 'fetched from afar.'\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Akira shook his head and resumed his pace." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It's a miracle we can understand him at all.\"\n\n\"Despite his awkwardness, he makes a point,\" Hiro said. \"A dagger is simple to conceal. Only a fool would leave it behind.\"\n\n\"Then how did someone else get Kazu's dagger?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Akira led them into the room where the carpenters worked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A trio of workmen bent over the unfinished beam. Their planes rasped in a rhythmic chorus. The scent of cedar shavings filled the air. The carpenters had made significant progress since the morning, and it looked as though they might finish the beam that day." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But Ozuru wasn't there.\n\nAkira continued across the room, still talking, oblivious to the master carpenter's absence. \"Maybe Saburo caught Kazu stealing, and Kazu killed him to keep the matter quiet.\"\n\n\"What would Kazu have stolen?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Father Mateo asked. \"Did Saburo keep gold or valuables in his office?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "They had reached the opposite side of the room." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro decided not to mention the missing carpenter. Ozuru might simply have gone to the latrine.\n\nAkira slid open the door to the room where Saburo died. \"He had access to secret documents. Maybe Kazu is a spy.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "That touched too close to the truth for Hiro's comfort, but it would only increase suspicion to deny it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"How long has Kazu worked for the shogun?\" Father Mateo asked.\n\n\"He was here when I arrived a year ago,\" Akira said, \"and he didn't seem new.\"\n\n\"Then your suggestion stretches imagination,\" Father Mateo said. \"The shogun's guards would have caught a spy long ago.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"More importantly,\" Hiro said, \"there is a simpler explanation.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Akira stepped into the office and moved aside to let the other men enter behind him. \"Which is?\"\n\n\"Ozuru admitted to arguing with Saburo yesterday evening. Did the guards remember what time the carpenter left the compound?\"\n\nAkira shook his head. \"I spoke with them after you left this morning. No one remembers seeing the carpenter leave.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"So he just disappeared?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro paused. \"If Saburo was killed by a spy—and I'm far from convinced he was—Ozuru's guilt seems far more likely than Kazu's.\"\n\nAkira hung his head. \"I was sure Kazu did it, but now...\" His head jerked upward. His hand flew to his sword." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 5 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We must seize Ozuru!\"\n\n\"Wait,\" Hiro said. \"A guilty man may escape if arrested too quickly. We can't explain how the killer acquired Kazu's dagger or why he chose Saburo as the victim. If you arrest Ozuru without sufficient evidence, you will give him time to construct a persuasive lie.\"\n\nAkira hesitated, torn between slow justice and immediate vengeance. Slowly, he lowered his hand. \"Very well, but be quick about it. Someone must pay for this crime, and the shogun is not a patient man.\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Write four sentences sentences in the style of Susan Spann spawning from what the user wrote." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro turned his attention to the office and tried to reconstruct the murder.\n\nHe already knew the attack occurred in the doorway between the outer room and Saburo's inner office. The bloody spatters on the wall to the left of the door suggested the victim lost his fingers early, possibly as he stepped into the room.\n\n\"Can you tell what happened?\" Father Mateo asked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Akira seemed curious too.\n\n\"We know Saburo didn't draw his sword,\" Hiro said, \"which means he either knew his killer or didn't see the attack in time.\n\n\"The killer severed Saburo's fingers near that door.\" Hiro gestured toward the inner office." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The blood that spurted from his hand left all those streaks on the wall.\"\n\n\"How do you know?\" Akira asked.\n\n\"Have you never noticed that flying blood makes patterns? It's harder to see in battle, but still visible if you know what you're looking for.\"\n\nAkira glanced away, embarrassed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I've never fought in battle.\"\n\n\"That's something to be proud of,\" Father Mateo said.\n\nAkira seemed relieved, though he tried to hide it.\n\nHiro continued his explanation." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The stains grow denser and more frequent approaching the place where Saburo fell. He was bleeding harder, both from injuries and exertion. We see most of the blood on the west side of the room, which means Saburo was facing the outer door throughout the struggle.\"\n\n\"There was a struggle?\" Akira asked.\n\nHiro looked at the floor. \"I see two sets of bloody footprints—one facing Saburo's office, the other facing away. Neither moves in a standard linear pattern. That suggests a struggle to me.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"So Saburo fought with his killer,\" Akira said. \"What else do you see?\"\n\n\"I think he knew the murderer,\" Father Mateo said, \"because he didn't shout or raise an alarm.\"\n\nHiro agreed, though he didn't like it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "That fact implicated Kazu.\n\n\"Of course he knew the killer,\" Akira said. \"Strangers can't enter the shogun's compound at night.\"\n\nHiro knew better, but didn't say so." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He dropped his gaze to the blackening pool where Saburo's body fell." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The tatami had absorbed more blood since morning, making the hair pin's presence more distinct." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro wondered again who it belonged to.\n\n\"Who else worked here last night?\" Father Mateo asked.\n\n\"No one,\" Akira said. \"The maids stay late, and the guards of course, but most officials leave at sunset, or very soon thereafter. Only Saburo and Ito Kazu were in this office after the gates were closed.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Do guards patrol the mansion after dark?\" Hiro asked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No,\" Akira said. \"We have guards at the gates and on the towers. A few patrol the grounds, and of course the shogun has warriors posted around his personal quarters, but there's no need for guards inside at night.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"So Saburo might have called for help,\" Father Mateo said, \"but no one heard him.\"\n\nAkira's lip curled. \"No samurai cries for help.\"\n\nHiro walked to the door of Saburo's inner office. The coppery scent of blood increased as he crossed the floor." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The corpse was gone, leaving only brownish stains on the white tatami and a fading smell of blood and death in the air, along with an undertone of aging food.\n\nHiro looked down. The dinner tray remained by the door.\n\nThe bloody dagger still sat on the desk beside the ink and inkwells, but Saburo's marble seal had disappeared.\n\n\"Who moved Saburo's inkan?\" Hiro asked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Akira and Father Mateo joined him in Saburo's office." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Hisahide took it,\" Akira said, \"to keep it safe.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Father Mateo walked to the bookcase nearest Saburo's desk. He pointed at a shelf near the top. \"There were six ledgers here earlier. Now there are five.\"\n\n\"Are you certain?\" Akira asked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Father Mateo looked at Hiro. \"Absolutely.\"\n\nAkira joined the Jesuit by the bookcase. He took down a ledger and opened it, keeping the contents hidden. After a brief examination he closed the book and returned it to the shelf." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"These are the secret duty schedules of the shogun's personal guards.\"\n\n\"Secret?\" Father Mateo asked. \"Anyone could walk in here and read them. You just did.\"\n\n\"These aren't the current schedules,\" Akira said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"These are records from previous months.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The current schedule seems to be missing,\" Hiro said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"How do you know that?\" Akira demanded, suddenly suspicious.\n\nHiro nodded toward the ledgers. \"The spines are numbered one through five, for the first five months of the year. I haven't seen this month's ledger anywhere in this room or the outer office, and if it was here this morning someone must have taken it since we left.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Akira's eyes widened. A look of horror spread across his face. \"I must report this to Hisahide immediately.\"\n\nHiro nodded. \"We will speak with Ozuru while we wait.\"\n\n\"Come with me,\" Akira said, \"I will escort you there.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "When they reached the nearby audience chamber, Ozuru had not returned." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Akira walked halfway across the room but stopped far enough from the workers to avoid getting dust on his kimono.\n\n\"Where is the master carpenter?\" he demanded.\n\nThe workmen dropped to their knees and laid their heads on the floor. After a moment, one of them raised his head just enough to prevent the floorboards from muffling his words." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The master's favorite chisel broke. He went to buy another.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Akira looked suspicious. \"When did he leave?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The workman didn't look up." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Just over an hour ago. We expect him back very soon.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I didn't ask when he would return,\" Akira said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro thought the reaction unfair." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The carpenter's answer was reasonable and probably anticipated exactly what the samurai would have asked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I know you are in a hurry,\" Hiro told Akira." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We can talk with the apprentices and wait for Ozuru while you speak with Matsunaga-san.\"\n\n\"As you wish,\" Akira said, \"but do not leave this room until I return.\"\n\nHe gave the construction site a wide berth and left through the southern door.\n\nFather Mateo approached the carpenters." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Please stand up. You don't have to kneel for us.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The workmen slowly got to their feet but continued to watch the floor." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The youngest man fidgeted nervously." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The other two stood straight and still.\n\n\"We are investigating Ashikaga Saburo's murder,\" Father Mateo said.\n\nThe oldest carpenter nodded. His bushy gray eyebrows sported more hair than the rest of his head put together." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro remembered the carpenter's name was Goro.\n\n\"Master Carpenter Ozuru helped us greatly earlier,\" Father Mateo said. \"He told us you left work at sunset yesterday and returned this morning at the usual time.\"\n\nHiro stifled a sigh." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The priest had an excellent intellect and passable social skills, but he still hadn't learned that questions should not reveal the desired answer.\n\nAs Hiro expected, Goro nodded. \"Yes, we left and returned at the usual time.\"\n\n\"Have you worked with Ozuru long?\" Hiro asked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Several years,\" Goro said without looking up." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Is he a difficult master?\"\n\nGoro bit the inside of his lip.\n\n\"We will not tell him what you say,\" Father Mateo added.\n\nAll three carpenters shook their heads, though only Goro answered." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Stern, perhaps, but artisans always are. He is fair when we work hard and do not complain.\"\n\n\"And when you do complain?\" Father Mateo asked. \"What then?\"\n\nThe carpenter looked up." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Complaints, like failures, have consequences. But this, too, is always so.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Did Ozuru leave work with you last night?\" Hiro asked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The carpenter tilted his head to the side. \"You already know he didn't.\" He straightened as if realizing his slip into familiarity. \"Ozuru remained to work on the transom carvings.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Do you know what time he left?\" Hiro asked.\n\nGoro shook his head. \"We report to Ozuru, not the other way around.\"\n\n\"Thank you for your assistance,\" Hiro said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You may return to work.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The carpenters bowed. As they picked up their planes, Hiro turned away and walked toward Saburo's office.\n\nFather Mateo hurried after him. \"Akira told us to stay in that room.\"\n\n\"And Hisahide gave us permission to investigate without interference.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro stopped in the doorway of Saburo's outer office." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A woman knelt beside the bloody pool with her back to the door. As Hiro watched, she slipped something into the sleeve of her kimono." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "make story longer like Susan Spann would" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Is that your hair pin?\" Hiro asked.\n\nThe woman startled. She jumped to her feet and whirled to face the door.\n\n\"Jun, isn't it?\" Hiro asked, though he already knew the answer.\n\nShe bowed, \"Yes, sir.\"\n\n\"Was it your kanzashi?\"\n\nHer gaze shifted from Hiro to Father Mateo and then to the floor.\n\nThe shinobi expected her to lie, but she nodded and said, \"Yes. It must have fallen out when I found Ashikaga-san. I noticed it when I came to retrieve the dinner tray.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She started to point to the inner office but returned her hand to her side." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Do you remember anything else about last night?\" Hiro asked. \"Anything you forgot to tell us earlier?\"\n\n\"No.\" She forced a smile. \"I am very sorry. If you will excuse me... the cook wants me to return the tray immediately.\"\n\n\"Of course,\" Hiro said. \"You may go.\"\n\nJun bowed and walked to Saburo's office with mincing steps that avoided the bloody stains on the floor. She knelt in the doorway, retrieved the tray, and hurried out without another word." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When Hiro was sure she had gone he said, \"I wonder why she lied.\"\n\n\"What do you mean?\" Father Mateo asked.\n\n\"Had the hairpin fallen out when she discovered Saburo's body, it would have landed on the corpse or possibly beside it. Either way, the pin would have been on top of the blood. But Jun's kanzashi was thoroughly coated—that pin was on the floor when Saburo died.\"\n\n\"Perhaps it rolled through the blood when the body was moved,\" Father Mateo said.\n\nHiro shook his head. \"The pin lay in the center of the pool, where the blood was thick and largely undisturbed.\n\n\"Also—did you notice how many hair pins Jun is wearing?\"\n\nFather Mateo thought for a moment. \"Two.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The normal number for the way her hair is styled,\" Hiro said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Had she lost one this morning and only now discovered it missing, she wouldn't have two clean ones in her hair.\"\n\n\"She did go home,\" Father Mateo said. \"She might have replaced it then.\"\n\n\"Too distraught to work, but aware enough to replace a missing hair pin?\" Hiro shook his head. \"I don't believe it.\"\n\n\"Perhaps her parents noticed?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Possible...\" Hiro heard footsteps approaching." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He turned to face the door.\n\nHisahide stepped into the room with Akira behind him.\n\n\"Ito Kazu did not come to work this morning,\" Hisahide said, \"a fact which does little to persuade me of his innocence.\"\n\n\"The carpenter, Ozuru, is also missing,\" Akira said.\n\n\"Is this true?\" Hisahide asked.\n\n\"The workmen said he went to replace a chisel,\" Father Mateo said.\n\n\"Nonetheless,\" Akira continued, \"he hasn't returned, and, as Hiro pointed out, a guilty man would not leave his own weapon behind.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro found the young samurai's shifting opinion entertaining." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It seemed Akira was willing to blame whoever seemed most likely at the moment—a common trait among men whose rank exceeded their intelligence.\n\n\"You no longer believe Kazu left the dagger by accident?\" Hiro asked.\n\n\"A samurai does not forget his blades,\" Akira said.\n\n\"Then why has Kazu not come to work today?\" Hisahide asked.\n\nAkira looked to Hiro for support, or perhaps an explanation.\n\n\"Daggers can be stolen,\" Hiro said, \"and we can inquire about Kazu's tardiness when we find him.\"\n\n\"We checked his home,\" Hisahide said. \"He wasn't there.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro raised an eyebrow." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Unmarried men do not always sleep at home.\"\n\nAkira's lip curled with distaste. \"A samurai should not consort with prostitutes. I thought Kazu was an honorable man.\"\n\n\"Even saints can sin,\" Father Mateo said.\n\n\"What?\" Akira asked.\n\n\"He means that all men commit errors in judgment,\" Hiro said.\n\n\"He could have said so directly.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Irrelevant.\" Hisahide waved a hand to dismiss Akira's comment." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Find Ito Kazu—and also Ozuru, if he has disappeared... though I hope the artisan didn't commit this crime.\"\n\n\"Why?\" Father Mateo asked.\n\nHisahide's lips twitched. \"The shogun is fond of Ozuru,\" he said. \"It would be inconvenient and embarrassing to execute the carpenter for this crime.\"\n\n\"Embarrassing?\" Father Mateo asked.\n\n\"To admit that a commoner killed a samurai inside the shogun's compound,\" Hiro said.\n\nHisahide nodded. \"Lord Oda's spies must not learn that such a thing is possible. It makes the shogun's security seem dangerously weak.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"But Ozuru was already here,\" Father Mateo said. \"He didn't breach the walls.\"\n\n\"Any successful murder demonstrates a security weakness,\" Hisahide said. \"If a workman can kill the shogun's cousin, assassins may believe they too can infiltrate the shogunate, and belief is the first step toward success.\n\n\"Your suspicions about the carpenter must not become widely known.\"\n\n\"We will not speak of this to anyone,\" Father Mateo said.\n\n\"No, you won't,\" Hisahide replied, \"particularly if the evidence proves you correct.\"\n\nHiro heard the unspoken threat." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hisahide would rather kill them both than risk their revealing the shogunate's vulnerability." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "That fact concerned him even more than finding the killer in time.\n\nThe shinobi changed the subject. \"Did Akira tell you about the missing ledger?\"\n\n\"It isn't missing,\" Hisahide said. \"The shogun asked me to bring him the ledger, and also Saburo's seal. Is anything else missing from this office?\"\n\n\"Not that we've discovered,\" Hiro said.\n\n\"Then I suggest you turn your attention to finding Kazu—and also our missing artisan.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Precisely my intention,\" Hiro said." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 4 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Kazu spends his evenings at Ginjiro's, drinking sake. The brewer may know where Kazu spent last night.\"\n\n\"And the carpenter?\" Akira asked.\n\n\"It's possible that he really did just go to replace a chisel,\" Hiro said.\n\n\"Very well,\" Hisahide said, \"you may start with Kazu. Akira, go with them and report to me as soon as you return.\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "help a writer out? six sentences more sentences, mystery, historical fiction, Japan, historical mystery, 1500s genre thx" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro stepped out of the bakufu mansion into a fine-misted drizzle that hung in the air as if a cloud had settled onto the courtyard." }, { "from": "human", "value": "After the death-scented air of Saburo's office, the gentle drops felt pleasant and refreshing, though Hiro knew the rain would soon increase." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The earthen road outside the shogun's compound already sported a sticky layer of mud. The three men had barely left the gates when Akira said, \"We should have taken horses. Didn't you ride here?\"\n\nHiro smiled. \"Father Mateo does not own a horse.\"\n\n\"Why not?\" Akira asked. \"Only poor men and commoners walk.\"\n\n\"God walked, when he was on the earth,\" Father Mateo said." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Produce five sentences using the prose and structure of Susan Spann every time it's your turn, using what the user wrote as a seed. Stick to the mystery, historical fiction, Japan, historical mystery, 1500s genre." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They reached Ginjiro's brewery at midafternoon, late enough for the shop to be open but early enough to avoid the evening crowd.\n\nAs they approached the raised floor that stretched the length of the open brewery storefront, the rain increased from a misty drizzle to heavy drops. Hiro paused at the edge of the elevated floor just long enough to draw his katana and lay it safely on the tatami inside the shop. Gathering his kimono, he knelt up onto the brewery floor.\n\nAkira and Father Mateo followed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "No customers sat by the low wooden counter that ran along the left side of the shop. The long, tatami-covered floor was empty except for a pile of stained brown cloth in the right front corner of the brewery. It looked like a heap of rags set out to await a passing beggar, but Hiro noticed the pile rose and fell in the gentle rhythm of sleep.\n\nHiro shifted his gaze to Ginjiro, the brewer, who stood in the lowered space behind the wooden counter and wiped the honey-colored wood with a cloth while he waited for customers. Behind Ginjiro, a doorway led to the kitchen where the brewer's wife and daughter cooked food for the patrons." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The brewery and storage rooms lay beyond the kitchen, though Hiro had never seen them." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A noren of indigo cloth hung in the narrow doorway, blocking the view of the private rooms beyond.\n\nGinjiro looked up as Hiro approached the counter. He smiled and bowed but didn't call out his usual greeting. Hiro returned the bow in silence. He knew Ginjiro didn't want to wake the mendicant monk asleep in the opposite corner of the shop." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Akira and Father Mateo joined Hiro at the counter." }, { "from": "human", "value": "All three knelt and offered their swords across the wooden countertop." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Good afternoon, Matsui-san.\" Ginjiro accepted Hiro's katana and placed it in a wooden rack designed to hold patrons' swords. As he turned back to the counter he caught Hiro's eye and raised his eyebrows a fraction in silent inquiry.\n\nThe shinobi glanced at Akira. Hiro held Father Mateo in higher regard, but Akira would take offense if the brewer greeted the Jesuit first.\n\nGinjiro bowed to the samurai and took his sword with a respectful greeting." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A moment later he did the same for Father Mateo.\n\nWith all three swords placed safely on the rack, Ginjiro asked, \"May I offer you sake and snacks?\"\n\nFather Mateo opened his mouth to respond, but Akira cut him off. \"No, thank you. We are here on the shogun's business.\"\n\nAll emotion drained from Ginjiro's face." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He bowed again, more deeply." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"How may I assist the shogunate?\"\n\n\"Where is Ito Kazu?\" Akira asked.\n\nGinjiro's gaze flickered to Hiro. The shinobi gave an almost imperceptible nod, though he wondered what the brewer knew that made him seek approval to answer the question. Ginjiro didn't know Hiro's real identity, or Kazu's." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He knew them only as regular patrons." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'm afraid I don't know,\" Ginjiro said, \"but if you wish to wait, he should arrive within an hour or two.\"\n\nThe response made Hiro certain that Ginjiro knew more than he would reveal with Akira present.\n\n\"How do you know?\" the samurai asked. \"Do you have a meeting with him?\"\n\nGinjiro smiled and shook his head." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We have no appointment. Ito-san often drinks here in the evenings. I expect him every night, though truthfully he doesn't always come.\"\n\n\"What about last night?\" Akira asked. \"Was he here?\"\n\n\"Ito-san was here last night.\" Ginjiro used rigidly formal language and did not take his eyes from Akira's face, though as custom demanded he made no direct eye contact." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The brewer played the role of polite subordinate perfectly, suggesting he had experience using etiquette to conceal a spoken lie." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro doubted Akira noticed, but the shinobi had used the trick too often to miss it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What time did he arrive?\" Akira asked. \"How late did he stay?\"\n\nThe questions clattered through the silent shop like a horse's hooves on stone.\n\nHiro heard a rustle of cloth behind him. The sleeping monk had awakened." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ginjiro smiled politely. \"He arrived after dark. I apologize, but I did not note the time. I don't always hear the temple bells when the shop is busy.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"How late did he stay?\" Akira repeated.\n\nBefore Ginjiro could respond, Hiro heard a muffled thump and a yelp of pain.\n\nAkira whirled toward the sound, reaching for the wakizashi at his side. Father Mateo startled too, but Hiro turned more slowly. He already knew what had happened." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The monk had rolled off the platform and fallen into the street.\n\nA balding head appeared above the edge of the brewery floor.\n\n\"Sir, are you hurt?\" Father Mateo called.\n\nThe monk blinked like a sun-dazzled owl. He looked up and touched his forehead as if to confirm the existence of falling rain." }, { "from": "human", "value": "When he looked back into the shop, his mouth split open in a nearly toothless grin." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Hiro-san!\" He waved a skinny arm and wobbled on his feet.\n\nAkira looked down his nose at Hiro. \"He knows you?\"\n\n\"His name is Suke,\" Hiro said, \"and he knows all of Ginjiro's customers.\"\n\nHiro followed Father Mateo across the shop and helped the priest lift Suke back into the brewery.\n\n\"I was sleeping.\" Suke's eyebrows shot up as if trying to escape his hairless forehead." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"An oni must have pushed me!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I doubt the demons are bored enough to shove old men out of breweries.\" Hiro knelt and looked the monk in the eye. \"Are you hurt?\"\n\nSuke's gaze darted to the counter. \"Nothing a little sake wouldn't cure.\"\n\nGinjiro glared at the monk and shook his head." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The brewer considered Suke a nuisance, but wouldn't risk the monastery's displeasure, or that of the kami, by forcing the ancient monk into the street." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Shall I buy you a cup?\" Hiro already knew the answer, but the question was part of the game, and Suke's response would prove the monk hadn't injured himself in the fall.\n\n\"A cup might help a little,\" Suke said, \"but a flask would earn you a thousand blessings.\"\n\nHiro nodded. The monk was fine.\n\n\"Ginjiro,\" the shinobi called, \"draw a flask for Suke, and bring a bowl of rice with meat.\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "lets do a mystery, historical fiction, Japan, historical mystery, 1500s thing. u write 8 sentences bits like Susan Spann would" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro doubted Suke's oath would persuade a child, let alone the shogun, but he appreciated the offer." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He returned to the counter as Suke settled cross-legged on the floor.\n\n\"Do you buy him food often?\" Father Mateo asked.\n\nHiro shrugged. \"It keeps him from drooling into mine.\"\n\nGinjiro returned and set a pair of bowls on the countertop. One held a generous mound of steaming rice. The other held pickled vegetables and five thick slices of fatty pork.\n\nThe brewer didn't like Suke, but he never shorted a paying customer.\n\nHiro looked from the bowls to Ginjiro and waited." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The brewer sighed and bent below the counter. When he straightened, he set a ceramic flask and an egg-sized sake cup beside the bowls. Hiro nodded approval and carried the food and drink to the waiting monk.\n\nSuke clapped his hands in delight. \"A thousand blessings upon you, Hiro-san.\"\n\nThe monk swallowed two cups of sake in quick succession, wiped his mouth, and removed a pair of wooden chopsticks from his filthy robe.\n\nHiro returned to the counter as Suke shoveled vegetables into his mouth.\n\nAkira had already resumed his questioning." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Can you confirm how late Ito Kazu stayed?\"\n\nGinjiro's smile froze. \"Some time after midnight.\"\n\n\"Was he drinking all evening?\" Hiro asked. \"If so, he would have been very drunk when he left.\"\n\nFather Mateo gave the shinobi a sidelong look, but Hiro ignored him. The wording was neither careless nor accidental.\n\nGinjiro nodded and gave the desired answer. \"More so than I'd ever seen him. I'd be surprised if he made it home in that condition.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro made a mental note to tip Ginjiro handsomely." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Did Kazu tell you where he was going?\" Akira asked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"My patrons don't usually ask permission to leave.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ginjiro looked at Hiro with concern. \"Is Ito-san injured?\"\n\n\"We don't know,\" Hiro said. \"No one has seen him since last night.\"\n\nThe noren fluttered in the kitchen doorway, giving Hiro a glimpse of a purple kimono behind the fabric panels. Ginjiro's daughter, Tomiko, had a crush on Kazu as well as a tendency to eavesdrop.\n\n\"Does Kazu have a woman in Pontocho?\" Akira asked.\n\nGinjiro pressed his lips together. \"I don't know. If he does, he's never mentioned her and never brought her here. I certainly never asked. It is not my place to inquire about a customer's business in the pleasure district.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The brewer's comments revealed his disapproval. Akira's question overstepped the bounds of polite inquiry.\n\nAkira turned to Hiro, ignoring the brewer's tactful reprimand. \"You were wrong. He doesn't know anything useful.\"\n\n\"On the contrary,\" Hiro said, \"we know that Kazu spent the evening here and left in a drunken stupor.\"\n\nAkira thrust an expectant hand across the counter. Ginjiro retrieved the samurai's sword and also Father Mateo's. When the brewer returned Hiro's katana, the shinobi accepted the weapon with both hands, an unnecessary courtesy intended to show respect." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ginjiro had tried to keep Kazu out of trouble, and Hiro appreciated the brewer's loyalty.\n\nThe shinobi sheathed his katana and handed Ginjiro a silver coin for Suke's meal and a second one to express his thanks for the brewer's cooperation.\n\nAfter joining Akira and Father Mateo in the street, Hiro stepped to the edge of the floor where Suke squatted and asked, \"Did you notice which way Kazu went when he left last night?\"\n\nThe monk paused, mouth full of rice. After a moment he nodded and mumbled, \"River.\"\n\nSeveral grains of rice popped out from between his lips. He pushed them back into his mouth with a grubby finger.\n\nAkira's nostrils flared in disgust." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Father Mateo bowed. \"Thank you, Suke-san.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Suke nodded and returned his attention to his rice." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The rain had slowed to a mist again while the men were inside the brewery, but the brief downpour left puddles in the road." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The shinobi took care to avoid them.\n\nAs the men walked east toward the Kamo River, Hiro wondered why Kazu failed to meet them at the brewery as planned. He didn't like doubting a fellow shinobi, but Kazu's conduct didn't inspire confidence.\n\nJust outside the winding alley that housed the pleasure district of Pontocho, a pair of young women huddled beneath an oiled paper umbrella. They wore expensive kimonos patterned with summer scenes. Red linings peeked from the neck of their robes, marking the girls as maiko, or apprentice entertainers. Hiro knew them for novices even before he saw the collars. Water ruined time-consuming makeup and costly hairstyles." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Experienced entertainers stayed inside on a rainy day.\n\nThe girls scooted up against a building, gaping with astonishment at the sight of the foreign priest. Father Mateo bowed without slowing. Akira ignored the girls and Hiro looked away. He refused to acknowledge women who lacked the sense to get out of the rain.\n\nWhen they reached the river, Hiro paused to watch the raindrops fall on the flowing water. They dimpled the surface and disappeared, consumed by the thirsty river.\n\n\"Perhaps we should go back,\" Akira said, \"and search Pontocho?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"If you like.\" Hiro hoped the samurai wouldn't insist. The shinobi hated Pontocho.\n\n\"I'd rather not.\" Akira glanced over his shoulder. \"It's hardly an appropriate place to be seen.\"\n\nIn daytime, anyway, Hiro thought.\n\nSamurai flooded Pontocho at night, despite the ethical prohibition on nobles consorting with prostitutes. No one paid attention, and, for the most part, no one cared.\n\nBy daylight, however, a man in Pontocho attracted considerable notice." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Akira started north along the road that followed the river bank. \"I'm not risking my reputation. If Kazu's alive, he'll turn up sooner or later.\"\n\n\"And if he's not alive?\" Father Mateo matched Akira's pace.\n\nThe samurai turned. \"Do you think the murderer killed him too?\"\n\n\"He has disappeared,\" Father Mateo said.\n\n\"But why would the killer hide the second victim?\" Akira asked.\n\n\"He wouldn't, without a reason.\" Hiro said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The shinobi walked on Akira's right, closest to the river.\n\n\"Why do you think the murderer killed Saburo?\" Akira asked.\n\n\"The evidence makes robbery unlikely,\" Hiro said.\n\n\"Vengeance, maybe?\" Akira offered.\n\n\"Perhaps,\" Hiro said. \"Did anyone have a grudge against Saburo?\"\n\nAkira's momentary silence suggested unwillingness to speak, but eventually he said, \"Saburo was not popular. He thought his name entitled him to privileges above his rank.\"\n\n\"He demanded unusual deference?\" Father Mateo asked.\n\nAkira gave an awkward smile." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yes, but also... with the maids.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro understood at once." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Do any of the girls he approached still work at the shogunate?\"\n\n\"I don't know,\" Akira said. \"It is a delicate situation.\"\n\n\"Perhaps Saburo's wife knows more about it,\" Hiro said.\n\nAkira's eyes widened. His cheeks flushed. \"I would rather you didn't...\"\n\nBefore he could finish the sentence, Father Mateo made a startled sound.\n\nJust ahead, a male figure emerged from beneath a bridge." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His blue kimono was streaked with mud." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 5 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Dead grass and broken reeds poked out of the ragged samurai knot atop his head, and his face was bruised and battered. The man raised a hand to his temple as if to soothe its aching, but the effort seemed to increase his pain and he lowered his hand to his side.\n\nShock forced a name from Hiro's lips.\n\n\"Kazu?\" he asked. \"What are you doing here?\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Hey can you write like Susan Spann in the mystery, historical fiction, Japan, historical mystery, 1500s genre and use whatever I write as a jumping off point?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Mud and grass clung to Kazu's kimono as if he had rolled on the river bank. Bruises marked his cheek and temple. His right eye was purple and swollen nearly shut.\n\nKazu opened his mouth, winced, and raised a hand to a blackening, bloody scab on his lower lip." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He touched the injury gingerly and glanced at his fingers to see if the wound was bleeding." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro could tell the pain was real.\n\nFather Mateo rushed forward. \"Ito-san, what happened?\"\n\nKazu blinked at the sky. \"What time is it?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Late afternoon,\" Akira said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Where have you been all morning?\"\n\nKazu looked over his shoulder at the river. \"Under the bridge, I think.\" He blinked and looked up. \"It's raining.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You slept under a bridge?\" Akira's forehead wrinkled, caught between concern and disgust.\n\nHiro wanted to hear the answer, even though he knew Kazu would lie.\n\n\"Thieves attacked me.\" Kazu sounded disoriented, as if remembering a dream. \"I was walking home from Ginjiro's and saw shadows near the bridge." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I fought back, but there were too many. The next thing I remember, I woke up—just now—and saw you on the path.\n\n\"They must have left me under the bridge.\"\n\nTalking had cracked the scab on Kazu's lip." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He dabbed at the drop of blood that oozed from the wound.\n\nHis eyes widened. He searched through his kimono. \"My purse is gone! Fifty silver chogin!\"\n\nAkira's mouth fell open in dismay. \"Fifty?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The sum was more than some samurai made in a year, though well within the range a wealthy man might carry in Kyoto." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro didn't know the size of Kazu's stipend from the Iga ryu, but money was vital to Kazu's cover story." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The wealthy eldest son of an Iga nobleman would have plenty of coins to spend." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Were they samurai?\" Father Mateo asked. \"The thieves, I mean.\"\n\nAkira looked down his nose at the priest—a difficult task, given the Jesuit's eight-inch height advantage. \"Samurai do not become thieves.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Once again, Hiro knew better, but as before he let the inaccurate statement pass without comment." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No,\" Kazu said, \"just common brigands.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Did you see their faces?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Akira asked. \"We should report this to the police.\"\n\nKazu started to shake his head but stopped, as if the motion made him dizzy. \"They wore hoods and covered their faces. I wouldn't recognize them if I saw them.\"\n\n\"Insolent thugs,\" Akira said, \"most likely wasting your money as we speak. The police are paid to patrol this river at night. I'll have Hisahide speak to the ward commander.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Matsunaga-san obeys your commands?\" Hiro asked.\n\nAkira flushed. \"I meant I would ask him.\" After an awkward pause he continued, \"Hisahide will want to know. This attack might be connected to the one at the shogunate.\"\n\n\"Attack at the shogunate?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Kazu repeated. \"Was the shogun also robbed?\"\n\nAkira shook his head. \"I am sorry to bear bad news. Ashikaga Saburo has been murdered.\"\n\nHiro caught a whiff of something terrible, like sake mixed with urine." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Murdered?\" Kazu stepped toward Akira. \"What happened?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The smell increased. It was coming from Kazu's robe. The scents of the rain and the river had covered the unpleasant odor initially, but the longer they stood on the bank, the more it permeated the air.\n\nHiro wrinkled his nose. Kazu had overdone it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"He was killed last night, in his office at the shogunate.\" Akira seemed to notice the smell. He stepped away from Kazu but covered the movement by gesturing to Hiro and Father Mateo. \"The shogun asked these men to help Hisahide find the killer.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Hiro?\" Kazu squinted in confusion. \"Why?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"He has solved murders before,\" Akira said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro could see the samurai trying not to inhale too deeply. The smell lingered unpleasantly on the air. Etiquette forbade Akira from mentioning it, but no one could have missed the pungent odor.\n\n\"Saburo was stabbed to death with your dagger,\" Hiro said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"If you killed him, confess it now.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Me?\" Kazu stepped backward. The fear in his eyes looked real.\n\n\"You were missing,\" Father Mateo said. \"Matsunaga Hisahide asked us to find you.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I didn't...\" Kazu paused. \"Who would kill Saburo?\" He looked up the road to the north. \"I need to get to the shogunate. I can search the office, identify things out of place.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You need a physician,\" Father Mateo said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Only my pride is injured.\"\n\n\"Under the circumstances, I think you should rest—and possibly change,\" Akira said. \"I will explain to Hisahide, and he will inform the shogun of your whereabouts.\"\n\n\"With respect, I must refuse. Saburo's confidential papers must be protected and delivered to the shogun.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Kazu's face fell. \"Also, I should pay my respects to Ichiro.\"\n\nThe catch in Kazu's voice sounded genuine. Hiro studied the younger shinobi with a concern that had nothing to do with Kazu's injuries. A shinobi must always remain detached from his mission." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Real emotion was dangerous and forbidden." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro's friendship with Father Mateo violated the rule too, but Hiro pardoned his own transgression because his assignment was permanent and tied his own life to the priest's." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Kazu's assignment was neither lifelong nor dependent upon anyone's survival but his own." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Ichiro seemed fine this morning,\" Hiro said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"He accompanied his mother to the shogunate.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I should pay my respects,\" Kazu repeated. \"As his tutor, it is my duty.\"\n\nHiro hoped Kazu's attachment to the child was merely a pretense.\n\n\"Lady Ashikaga will not welcome you today,\" Father Mateo said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"She believes you killed her husband.\"\n\nKazu raised his chin and squared his shoulders. \"Then I must convince her otherwise.\"\n\n\"It will help if I accompany you,\" Akira said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro hadn't expected that offer, especially given the way Kazu looked and smelled. It raised his estimate of Akira considerably.\n\n\"Would you?\" Kazu asked. \"Could we go now?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Akira nodded. \"I will explain that you were indisposed and could not have killed Saburo.\" He paused. \"But perhaps you would like to change your kimono first?\"\n\nHiro's frustration with Kazu hadn't faded. The younger man should not have altered the cover story." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His failure to meet them at Ginjiro's ruined Hiro's original plan. Still, Akira seemed to believe Kazu's alternate claims, so maybe the changes hadn't done any harm.\n\nHiro just hoped the police wouldn't investigate the alleged assault too closely.\n\n\"If you will pardon my presumption,\" Father Mateo said, \"we should all get out of the rain.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They walked together as far as the bridge at Marutamachi Road. There, Akira and Kazu turned into the wealthy residential district that housed the imperial palace and the shogunate, while Hiro and Father Mateo crossed the bridge and headed home.\n\nAs they passed Okazaki Shrine Father Mateo asked, \"Do you think Kazu is safe? Akira seemed to believe him, but samurai often hide their thoughts.\"\n\n\"Kazu can take care of himself,\" Hiro said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Speaking of which, where did his bruises come from? And that smell...\"\n\n\"Sake,\" Hiro said, \"mixed with what it becomes a few hours later.\"\n\n\"And the injuries?\"\n\nHiro shrugged. Every shinobi knew about self-inflicted wounds and how to cause them, but Hiro couldn't explain that without also revealing that Kazu was more than just a man from Iga Province." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Moreover, Kazu's wounds didn't look entirely self-inflicted. Few men could strike themselves hard enough to split a lip and blacken an eye that badly. Kazu must have enlisted help, but Hiro didn't know who the younger man would trust to do him harm.\n\nSuddenly, a name sprang to mind." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It seemed absurd, but Hiro knew it had to be the right one." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 1 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He shook his head and smiled, though the expression faded quickly at the sight of the stranger standing in the road in front of Father Mateo's home." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Today you will be acting as a writing assistant, your partner will send something and you will write the next 4 sentences." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The stranger wore a dark brown robe and woven sandals. Graying stubble covered his balding head. He stood in the street, holding the reins of a skinny chestnut gelding and a glossy black stallion that stomped the muddy ground as if impatient with the rain.\n\nThe brown horse wore a simple wooden saddle and a bridle made of rope, but the stallion had expensive leather trappings and a foreign bridle set with silver rings." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It towered over the chestnut like a samurai beside a farmer's child." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Father Mateo slowed his pace for a moment and then hurried toward the house.\n\n\"Samurai do not run,\" Hiro murmured. He increased the length of his strides to match the priest's.\n\nFather Mateo slowed to a walk and made a nervous gesture toward the stallion." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"That's Father Vilela's horse.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The black one?\" As Hiro said the words, he realized his perception of priests had changed. Two years ago he would have assumed the nicer horse belonged to the wealthy foreigner, but Father Mateo's ascetic nature had altered Hiro's expectations. He now found it odd that a Jesuit priest would ride an expensive stallion.\n\nFather Mateo didn't miss the surprise in Hiro's voice." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It was a gift from the shogun.\"\n\n\"Interesting.\" Hiro masked concern behind a casual tone. Father Vilela had never visited Father Mateo before.\n\nFather Mateo ran a hand through his dark brown hair." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"He must have news from Portugal.\"\n\nThe brown-robed servant bowed as they passed but kept his eyes on the road. Father Mateo returned the bow, though for once he didn't stop to address the stranger.\n\nOrdinarily, the Jesuit's adherence to Japanese etiquette would have drawn an approving nod from Hiro, but the fear on Father Mateo's face deprived the shinobi of any satisfaction." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 5 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Father Mateo had family and friends in Portugal. News arrived infrequently, and only tragic news would merit a personal visit from Father Vilela.\n\nFather Mateo slipped out of his sandals and hurried across the veranda into the house. Hiro followed, alert but apprehensive. Father Mateo had not mastered the Japanese art of stifling emotion in difficult circumstances, and emotional moments made Hiro uncomfortable." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Mode: Collab writing\nAmount: 1 sentence\nVoice: Susan Spann" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The shinobi had seen Gaspar Vilela only once, and at a distance, but he recognized the kimono-clad Jesuit instantly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Except for his foreign features and the wooden cross that hung around his neck, Father Vilela could have passed for a samurai." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His hair was so dark that not even a Japanese would call it brown, and he wore it in the samurai style, with a shaven pate and neatly tied chonmage atop his head." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A hooked nose perched between his deep brown eyes, and beneath it Vilela's mouth fell naturally into stern but neutral lines." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro wished Father Mateo looked as much like a samurai." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Father Vilela bowed from a seated position but did not rise." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro and Father Mateo returned the gesture and joined the senior Jesuit at the hearth." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Mateo,\" Father Vilela said, \"I hope you don't mind my waiting.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He spoke Japanese, doubtless in recognition of Hiro's presence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The shinobi found that courtesy intriguing." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Of course not,\" Father Mateo said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I am honored by your visit.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"And no doubt, confused.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Father Vilela's sternness melted away in the warmth of his smile." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Are you comfortable here? Now that I see it, the house looks rather small.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I have everything I need,\" Father Mateo said, \"and my parishioners appreciate humble houses.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Father Vilela nodded. \"If it pleases you, then it pleases me also.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Watching the senior Jesuit, Hiro wondered—not for the first time—why a samurai client had hired the Iga ryu to protect Mateo instead of Gaspar Vilela." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Both men came from Portugal, and Vilela was undoubtedly more important to the Church." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro didn't know the client's identity and couldn't guess at his motives, but the choice of Father Mateo suggested the unknown client's motivations went beyond an appreciation of the Catholic faith." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As always, Hiro dismissed the question as soon as he found himself asking." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "So long as the client paid his bill, a shinobi would follow instructions, and the man who insisted on Father Mateo's safety paid very often and very well indeed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"May I offer you tea or cakes?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Father Mateo looked for Ana." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Your maidservant offered when I arrived,\" Father Vilela said, as if reading the other Jesuit's thoughts, \"but unfortunately I cannot stay long enough to enjoy your hospitality.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Is there news from Portugal?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Father Mateo ran his hand through his hair again, but this time flushed with embarrassment as he lowered the hand to his lap." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro noted the flush with satisfaction." }, { "from": "human", "value": "At least the priest remembered that in Japan, a nervous gesture was considered a sign of weakness." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Not lately.\" Father Vilela shook his head as if confused by the question." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Almost at once, his eyes widened with understanding." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Did you think I brought bad news from home? That's not why I have come.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Father Mateo looked relieved, but the tone of Father Vilela's final words mimicked samurai disapproval too closely for coincidence." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro prepared himself for unpleasant news." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Miyoshi Akira sent me a message this morning,\" Father Vilela said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Akira is a Christian?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Father Mateo drew back in surprise." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"He is not,\" Father Vilela said, \"though several high-ranked members of his clan have accepted the faith. Akira wrote to express displeasure with your treatment of the shogun's servants.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Father Mateo's mouth fell open." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I assure you, we mistreated no one.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He looked to Hiro for support." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"On the contrary.\" Vilela sounded more like a samurai than ever." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You treated everyone far too well. In addition, Miyoshi-san expressed displeasure with your statements that Christianity is available to commoners.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The hint of a smile passed over Vilela's face, then disappeared." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"He accuses you of believing all men are equal.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"All men are equal in God's sight,\" Father Mateo said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Should I treat them otherwise?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The Japanese are a complex people, with intricate social rules. We have made great progress here, but that progress must come on Japanese terms. Father Xavier left very specific instructions—we argue with the Japanese only on vital points of doctrine.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Equality before God is a vital point of doctrine.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Father Mateo's voice rose in pitch." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Father Vilela raised a hand like a parent calming an angry child." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It is your manner that offended. You must learn to speak the truth another way. Samurai do not want to hear that servants are the same as noble men.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I will not exchange the truth for samurai rudeness.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Father Mateo kept a civil tone, but barely." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro had seldom, if ever, seen the priest so angry." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No man deserves ill treatment just because of common birth.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I have not asked for any man's mistreatment,\" Father Vilela said, his voice as calm as a midnight pond, \"merely that you remember you do not speak for yourself alone.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I speak for men who cannot speak for themselves.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Do you help their cause by making their lords resent us?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro watched, impressed, as Father Mateo's expression changed from anger to chastened realization and then regret." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Few men had the strength to acknowledge errors that flowed from a commitment to moral values." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I apologize,\" Father Mateo said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It would be wrong for me to tear down what you and others have built.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"To be clear,\" Father Vilela said, \"I am not asking you to change your message, merely to remember that words have appropriate times and places.\"" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I will apologize to Miyoshi-san,\" Father Mateo said.\n\n\"Unnecessary,\" Father Vilela said, \"and impossible, since you will not return to the shogunate.\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Literary Collaboration Request:\n- Sentence Count: 6 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": "Father Mateo's eyes widened. \"Are you ordering us to abandon the investigation?\"\n\n\"Not both of you.\" Father Vilela indicated Hiro. \"I believe you said Matsui-san helped you solve the previous murder. I am sure he can solve this one in your absence.\"\n\nThe shinobi shook his head." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We worked together to find the Akechi killer.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You will find this one alone.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Father Vilela's tone permitted no argument, which naturally made Hiro inclined to argue.\n\n\"Did Miyoshi Akira demand this?\" Hiro asked.\n\n\"No,\" Father Vilela said, \"but Akira made his meaning clear. His message complained of Mateo's behavior and said that the shogun didn't want to trouble the foreign mission with further investigation of Japanese crimes.\"\n\n\"What of me?\" Hiro asked.\n\n\"The message indicated that your help is still desired,\" Father Vilela said. \"You are not a common servant, to be commanded, but I would consider it a favor—to Mateo and to me—if you would do as Miyoshi Akira requests.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"And Father Mateo?\" Hiro asked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Has nothing more to do with this investigation.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Father Vilela's mind was made up.\n\nHiro disagreed, but even a samurai servant lacked the status to contradict a priest, and as far as Father Vilela knew the shinobi was merely a translator.\n\nFather Mateo nodded once. \"I understand. I will not return to the shogunate.\"\n\n\"Thank you,\" Father Vilela said. \"We are making progress in Kyoto. Sometimes it comes at substantial cost, but the end result will be worth it—for commoners as well as for samurai.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He rose and bowed, first to Father Mateo and then to Hiro." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Thank you for your hospitality. Pax vobiscum.\"\n\n\"Peace be with you also.\" Father Mateo stood and escorted the senior Jesuit to the door.\n\nWhen he returned, alone, Hiro asked, \"Do you really intend to abandon the search for Saburo's killer?\"\n\n\"Father Vilela told me to, and Akira demanded it.\"\n\nHiro frowned. \"You surrendered too quickly. You claim to believe in truth at any cost, yet you resigned without argument. Akira will think he was right and you were wrong, not only about equality, but about everything else as well.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Father Mateo met Hiro's gaze with calm determination. \"I made the right decision." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Akira is mistaken, but he was born and raised to believe himself superior to commoners. To him, that too is truth, not opinion. Arguing with his beliefs will never change them.\n\n\"Father Vilela is correct—I must find another way.\"\n\n\"There is an important reason for you to continue,\" Hiro said. \"If Lord Oda's men are spies, their arrival could lead to violence—and not just at the shogunate. I cannot protect you adequately if you quit the investigation and I do not.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Father Mateo smiled. \"I never agreed to abandon the investigation. If you remember, I merely said I would not return to the shogunate.\"\n\nHiro considered the priest. Father Vilela might look more like a samurai, but Father Mateo thought like a shinobi.\n\nAna entered the oe through the kitchen door on the north side of the room. Hiro's kitten, Gato, pranced along in her wake. The maid crossed to the hearth and removed the teapot from its chain." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Lost in thought, Father Mateo didn't seem to notice." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro looked at Ana. \"Did the broom handle split Kazu's lip right away or did you have to hit him more than once?\"\n\n\"Hm.\" She straightened, kettle in hand. \"You think I can't split a lip in one blow?\"\n\n\"You beat Kazu?\" Father Mateo sounded horrified.\n\n\"He said if I didn't the shogun would think you hid him.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ana glared at Hiro. \"Why did you let that drunken pig sleep off his sake here? You know we don't allow alcohol in this house!\"\n\n\"He didn't bring any with him.\" Hiro remembered the smell of Kazu's robe and wished he hadn't mentioned it.\n\n\"But... you beat him?\" Father Mateo repeated.\n\nAna set her free hand on her hip." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I will not let Hiro's lazy friends bring trouble on this house. Staying out to all hours, coming here drunk, hiding from responsibility! That lazy good-for-nothing deserved far worse than I gave him! Good sons stay home and take care of their parents. Shameful drunken carousing...\"\n\nShe disappeared into the kitchen, still muttering about inconsiderate children who abandoned their aging parents to live debauched and useless lives in the city.\n\nHiro heard the front door open. He turned, surprised and a bit relieved, as Luis entered the common room. Until that moment, Hiro thought the merchant was still sleeping.\n\n\"Good evening, Luis.\" Father Mateo bowed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Not really.\" Luis waved a hand in the air." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Nasty rain and insufferable samurai.\" He crossed to the hearth without returning the Jesuit's bow. As he lowered himself to the floor in the host's position, he shouted, \"Ana! Food! And tea!\"\n\nHe looked at Father Mateo. \"I have to ride back to Ōtsu to fetch the shipment. The shogunate won't issue a pass for shippers to bring the firearms into the city, even though the weapons are for the shogun.\"\n\n\"Why not?\" Father Mateo asked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Some hot-headed samurai murdered a clerk at the shogunate, and the bakufu office won't issue new passes until the killer is caught.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The magistrates normally issue travel passes, not the shogun,\" Hiro said.\n\n\"Not for firearms,\" Luis snapped.\n\n\"I thought so,\" Hiro said. \"The shogun wouldn't shut down Kyoto's supply lines over a killing.\"\n\nLuis hadn't stopped fuming. \"The ban is on new permits only, and only for weapons. It doesn't apply to other merchants or to food, as far as I can tell." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I can bring the weapons into the city myself, I just can't hire a Japanese merchant to cart them here from Ōtsu." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Typical samurai nonsense.\"\n\n\"A murder didn't cause this.\" Hiro explained about Lord Oda's approaching embassy. \"The shogun doesn't want Oda's warriors sneaking weapons into Kyoto.\"\n\nThe explanation only made Luis angrier.\n\n\"Ridiculous waste of time,\" he grumbled." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"These are the shogun's weapons, in marked containers! But now I have to close the warehouse, ride to Ōtsu, and bring the shipment back myself—and with the price already set, I can't even charge him extra for my trouble.\"\n\nHiro suspected that was the real problem. Luis just wanted more money for the job.\n\n\"But you can bring the weapons into the city?\" Father Mateo asked.\n\nLuis nodded. \"Police had better not try to seize them. Murder investigation or no, I'm getting paid for these firearms.\"\n\n\"I wouldn't worry about that,\" Hiro said." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Job: User writes start, you add ~eight sentences sentences. Style: Susan Spann" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Father Vilela asked us to help the shogun,\" Father Mateo said. \"I couldn't refuse.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"But now he has instructed Father Mateo to quit the investigation,\" Hiro added." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Luis shook his head. \"Jesuits—almost as inscrutable as Japanese.\"\n\nAna carried a tray of soup and pickled vegetables into the room. She set it down in front of Luis and asked, \"Father Mateo, would you like to eat now too?\"\n\n\"Please.\" The Jesuit knelt beside Luis. Unlike the merchant, Father Mateo had trained himself to sit in the Japanese style. \"Hiro? Will you join us?\"\n\n\"No thank you.\" The shinobi slid open the door to his room." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Gato raced through the opening the moment the gap was large enough to admit her narrow frame.\n\nHiro shook his head and followed the kitten into the room. As he slid the door shut behind him he heard Luis tell Father Mateo, \"I'm heading for Ōtsu tomorrow morning. I'll be gone overnight and back on the sixteenth, hopefully by midday...\"\n\nThe door closed and Hiro stopped listening. The merchant's words held no further interest.\n\nGato ran halfway across the room and flopped down on her side. She stretched herself in a backward arc, legs splayed out and claws extended. She finished the stretch, rolled upright, and looked at Hiro." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He snapped his fingers." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The kitten jumped up and trotted toward him with a trill. Hiro stroked her fur as she padded back and forth, purring in a low but constant rumble reminiscent of a temblor. Hiro smiled. At least her rumbling wouldn't set the room to shaking.\n\nWhen Gato wandered off, the shinobi exchanged his gray kimono for a dark blue surcoat and black hakama trousers. He slipped a shuriken into the tunic's inner pocket and tied an obi around his waist. As he passed a hand over his hair, he decided to retie his chonmage. The morning's hurried dressing had pulled the knot out of place, and the leather tie pinched when he turned his head.\n\nHiro removed the outer tie that secured the knot but left the second, inner band in place." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Retying the outer knot was hard enough without assistance.\n\nHe ran a comb through his hair until the well-oiled tail hung smoothly to his waist. He set down the comb and twisted the hair in his hands, preparing to double it over the top of his head. Most samurai used a hairdresser, and Hiro preferred that option too, but necessity had forced him to learn to tie a passable knot on his own.\n\nThe attack came from behind and without warning.\n\nA dozen tiny daggers punctured Hiro's shoulder and upper back. He grunted with surprise and pain and tried to twist away, but the effort made Gato sink her claws even deeper into his flesh. Her free paw batted his hand and grabbed at the swaying tail of hair." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Ow!\" Hiro grabbed for Gato, determined to pry the kitten away before her efforts ruined his hair completely." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He felt her claws release as the kitten slithered away through the oiled strands, clawing furiously as she slid to the floor.\n\nHe whirled to prevent a second attack, but the kitten moved even faster. She sprang for his back, and once again he felt her needle-sharp claws dig into his skin.\n\nWhen he finally managed to grab the kitten, she purred at him through a mouthful of oiled hair.\n\n\"Stop it!\" Hiro maneuvered Gato's paws into one hand and used the other to extract the overexcited kitten from his hair. As he finished, Gato wrapped her paws around his wrist and sank her tiny teeth into his thumb. Her green eyes glowed with excitement. She kicked his sleeve with her legs. Her purr crescendoed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No!\" Hiro dislodged the kitten from his wrist and set her on the floor." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She fell to her side, paws extended, eager to continue the wrestling match." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro looked for something to distract her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A piece of rumpled parchment sat in the discard pail beside the desk. He grabbed the paper and crumpled it into a ball.\n\nGato mewed and jumped to her feet.\n\nHiro tossed the paper across the floor. Gato sprang after it, purring loudly, and tackled the target as it hit the ground. Kitten and parchment somersaulted across the floor and rolled to a stop. Gato clutched the paper between her paws and kicked contentedly at her captured prey.\n\nHiro took advantage of her distraction to fix his chonmage." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "By the time he finished, Gato had shredded the parchment and started to eat it.\n\nThe shinobi scooped up the scraps and dropped them into the discard pail, imagining Ana's fury if Gato threw up parchment on the clean tatami floor. The maid wouldn't blame the cat. Ana believed that Gato, like Father Mateo, could do no wrong. Hiro would bear the brunt of her wrath for feeding the kitten paper in the first place.\n\nHe tucked his swords through his obi and left the room as Gato curled up for a nap.\n\nAs Hiro passed through the common room, Father Mateo asked, \"Will you join us?\"\n\nThe Jesuit and Luis sat by the hearth enjoying a cup of tea." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 9 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It smelled expensive, almost certainly ichibancha from Luis's personal supply.\n\n\"No thank you,\" Hiro said. \"I need something stronger than tea.\"\n\nFather Mateo's smile faded. \"You're going to Ginjiro's?\"\n\nHiro ignored the obvious, and familiar, disapproval. \"Care to join me?\"\n\n\"I have a worship service here in an hour. Why don't you stay?\"\n\n\"Another time.\" Hiro avoided the Jesuit's preaching as diligently as the priest avoided sake." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "writing exercise: 6 sentences sentences, mystery, historical fiction, Japan, historical mystery, 1500s genre. go!" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro walked up Marutamachi Road as the darkening sky turned the clouds from gray to black. The evening air smelled of earth and smoldering fires, and though the rain had stopped for the moment the rainy season had definitely arrived.\n\nThe torii gate at the entrance to Okazaki Shrine glowed red, reflecting the charcoal fires in the braziers at its base. A whiff of acrid smoke from the coals made Hiro think of hell. He wasn't sure he believed in the flaming pit of the Christian god or the multilayered Buddhist hells where evil met a variety of peculiarly twisted punishments. He was more concerned with avoiding the torments inflicted upon the living—and ensuring that Father Mateo did the same." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro crossed the Kamo River and continued south along the river road. As he walked, he considered what he knew of Saburo's murder.\n\nThe body's condition indicated that Saburo died around midnight. By that hour, all visitors would have left the shogunate grounds. Kazu and Ozuru, as well as Jun, admitted to staying after the gates were closed, though each of them claimed no knowledge of the murder.\n\nSaburo hadn't drawn his sword, which suggested the dead man knew the killer and didn't question his appearance in the office so late at night." }, { "from": "human", "value": "All of which looked increasingly bad for Kazu." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro hoped Ginjiro, and possibly Suke, could fill in some of the gaps in Kazu's evening. If not, the shinobi might have to depend upon Kazu's word and inferences drawn from the younger man's story, and though Hiro trusted Kazu more than almost anyone else in the world, the shinobi's distrust of assumptions ran even deeper than his faith in friends." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "i'll kick things off by writing a bit, then you'll take over and write the next 7 sentences in the distinctive voice of Susan Spann." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As Hiro approached Ginjiro's brewery, the hum of masculine voices told him the evening crowd had arrived. Most of the regulars knew one another on sight and Hiro was no exception. A samurai patron called a greeting, echoed by several others, and the shinobi acknowledged the welcome with a polite if not heartfelt smile.\n\nSuke sat in his usual corner farthest from the counter, but the monk seemed too absorbed in a flask of sake to notice Hiro's approach.\n\nThe shinobi noted Kazu's absence with relief. Ginjiro might talk more openly without the younger man present.\n\nUnfortunately, the brewer was absent too." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ginjiro's daughter, Tomiko, stood alone behind the counter waiting on patrons." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She wore a purple kimono with a repeating pattern of bamboo and paulownia leaves. Its trailing sleeves revealed her unmarried status, unusual in a girl of twenty years, and though Tomiko's face would not stop a man in the street, she had an understated beauty that appealed to those who preferred a real flower to an artificial bloom.\n\nTomiko looked up as Hiro approached. Her eyes lit and she smiled in recognition, though the shinobi noticed her gaze flicker over his shoulder. He didn't have to guess who she hoped to see. To her credit, the girl's smile didn't waver much when she saw that Hiro arrived alone.\n\nThe shinobi handed his sword across the counter." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Tomiko accepted it with both hands." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She bowed. \"Good evening, Matsui-san. May I draw you a flask?\"\n\n\"Thank you,\" Hiro said, \"but not this evening. I hoped to speak with your father.\"\n\nShe bowed again, this time in assent. \"Please wait. I will get him for you.\"\n\nHiro remembered the noren fluttering during his visit that afternoon. He glanced along the counter. The other patrons had already turned back to their conversations." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Before you go,\" he said softly, \"perhaps you will answer a question for me. Did you see Ito Kazu last night?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The girl looked down at the countertop as a blush darkened her cheeks. \"Yes, Ito-san was here.\"\n\n\"What time did he arrive?\" Hiro hoped Tomiko's feelings for Kazu would make her helpful rather than deceptive.\n\nShe looked up before answering. \"After sunset. I don't remember the time exactly. It was already dark. First he was not here, and then he was. I am sorry I can't be more specific.\"\n\nHer answer matched her father's, as well as Kazu's." }, { "from": "human", "value": "More importantly, she looked the shinobi in the eye and showed no discomfort as she answered the question." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Do you remember what time he left?\" Hiro asked.\n\nShe glanced at the counter. \"He was here when I left the shop for the night.\" She bit her lower lip. \"Is he well?\"\n\n\"He is fine,\" Hiro said. \"I am sure he would appreciate your concern.\"\n\nTomiko nodded. The blush returned." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro couldn't help but feel sorry for the girl." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She wasn't the first to fall for the dashing Kazu, and she would fare no better than the others, though the shinobi suspected Tomiko knew her crush was a hopeless cause. No samurai ever married a brewer's daughter. As far as Tomiko knew, Ito Kazu lay beyond her reach.\n\nThe noren ruffled as Ginjiro entered the shop from the kitchen. He bowed to Hiro and straightened with a smile.\n\n\"Thank you, Tomiko,\" he said. \"You may join your mother.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The girl gave Hiro a look that suggested she wanted to say something more." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She changed her mind and departed with a bow." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As Tomiko disappeared through the noren Ginjiro lowered his voice and asked, \"Does Ito-san need help?\"\n\nGinjiro had dealt in sake, and with its drinkers, long enough to develop a nose for trouble.\n\n\"I don't think so,\" Hiro said, \"but I do need to know what time he really left last night.\"\n\n\"Half an hour before the temple bells rang midnight.\"\n\n\"Before midnight,\" Hiro repeated.\n\n\"Should I have said so earlier?\" Ginjiro asked. \"I didn't like your samurai companion. He looked like a man in search of someone to blame. I heard about the murder at the shogunate and didn't want to cause trouble for Kazu. Was he involved?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"How did you hear about the killing?\" Hiro asked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The brewer shook his head. \"I'd no more betray my sources to you than I'd turn Ito-san over to that preening shogunate monkey.\n\n\"Before you ask,\" Ginjiro continued, \"I don't know who killed the shogun's clerk, and I have no intention of getting involved. What Ito-san does—or doesn't do—outside my shop is none of my concern.\"\n\n\"Why tell me this?\" Hiro asked. \"I can make trouble for Kazu as easily as the shogun's men.\"\n\nA knowing smile curled the brewer's lips. \"You won't. I know men as well as I know my flasks, and your flaws don't run to betrayal.\"\n\nHiro raised an eyebrow but changed the subject." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Are you positive Kazu left before midnight?\"\n\n\"My wife goes to sleep when the bells ring the midnight hour,\" Ginjiro said. \"I make the last call for snacks half an hour before that. Kazu left the shop as I made the announcement. I'm certain about the time.\"\n\n\"One last question,\" Hiro said.\n\nGinjiro didn't even need to hear it. \"Kazu wasn't drunk.\"\n\nThe brewer's words fell on Hiro like stones. Kazu had left the brewery in time to kill Saburo, and he hadn't told Hiro the truth about his actions." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The shinobi clenched his jaw to fight the anger that rose, unbidden and unexpected, in his chest. He didn't care about killing Saburo—assassination was a shinobi's trade—but Kazu's lies endangered a fellow shinobi's mission, a serious offense against both Hiro and the ryu.\n\n\"Have my answers upset you?\" Ginjiro looked across the counter, concerned by Hiro's silence.\n\nThe shinobi forced a smile. \"No. I appreciate your assistance and discretion. You need not worry about Kazu. He was robbed last night, by the river, but he's unharmed.\"\n\nGinjiro frowned and swiped the counter with a towel." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The police should patrol that river at night. The thieves are getting bold.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Desperate men are always bold.\" As he spoke the words, Hiro felt his anger evaporate, replaced by a sudden chill. If Kazu had murdered Saburo on Hattori Hanzo's orders, the ryu would also condone the death of everyone who knew or suspected that Kazu committed the crime. Kazu knew that Hiro and Father Mateo had solved the Akechi murder and could have suspected the shogun would ask for their help with this one. His plea for assistance might have been a ruse to throw them off the track.\n\nBut Hiro hadn't fallen for it, and if his persistence threatened to expose Kazu as the killer... a trained shinobi would have to counter that threat with lethal force. Hiro fought better than Kazu did, but Kazu also knew that Hiro's greatest weakness lay with the Jesuit priest." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro wanted to believe that kinship—and friendship—would stay Kazu's hand, but the master shinobi was too well-trained to fool himself with hopes. Kazu would kill Father Mateo if he thought his mission required it.\n\nAnd Hiro had left the Jesuit unguarded.\n\nHe hurried home, barely restraining his pace enough to avoid undue attention. He wanted to run but held himself to a rapid walk. Stopping to answer a curious policeman's questions would only delay him more.\n\nHe let himself break into a run as he passed Okazaki Shrine." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His geta squished in the gummy street and spattered his robe with mud, but at that moment he didn't care about cleanliness." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Only once before in his life had Hiro wished so desperately to be wrong. To his regret, he hadn't been—and this time the life at risk was more important than Hiro's own." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Continue with the same vibes as Susan Spann" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As Hiro approached the Jesuit's home, he heard voices wailing. He froze, stomach cold and churning like the muddy street beneath his wooden sandals.\n\nIn the silence the wailing took on a familiar sound—voices singing a hymn in Japanese. As always, Hiro found the music mournful though the lyrics spoke of praise.\n\nThe shinobi bent forward, weak with relief. His breathing slowed and his thoughts grew clear. He berated himself for falling prey to ill-founded worries." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Illogical thinking guaranteed failure as surely as an assassin's blade." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He slipped through the gate in the garden wall and entered his room through the veranda door. He decided not to tell Father Mateo that Kazu had lied. Not until he knew why and whether the Jesuit was in danger. Fortunately, the worship service made the priest unavailable anyway.\n\nA few minutes later Hiro emerged from the house wearing special trousers that tied at the ankles, a midnight-colored surcoat, and a cloth that obscured his face.\n\nHe pulled himself onto the damp veranda roof and climbed the sloping thatch all the way to the heavy wooden beam at the peak of the house. Mumbling prayers and off-key singing wafted up from the rooms below, covering even the minimal noise of his movements." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As he straddled the beam, Hiro glanced at the cloudy sky and hoped the rain had finished for the night." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Inside the house the silent mumble increased to a babble." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The front door opened, discharging the chattering congregants into the street. Their lanterns bobbed like fireflies in the gathering darkness.\n\nHiro bent over the beam. In the cloudy twilight, and without the moon to betray him, only an owl's eyes would see the shinobi perched on the roof, but Hiro didn't believe in taking chances. Not unnecessary chances, anyway.\n\nAngry barking burst from the yard across the street, startling the parishioners. A group of women clustered together as if their numbers might deter attack." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A child cried out in fear." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 8 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The barking increased, and Hiro half expected to see the neighbor's massive akita run into the road. The vicious beast had escaped before, but the owner had always recaptured the dog before it caused any harm.\n\nThis time the dog did not appear.\n\nAfter a moment, the women giggled nervously and dispersed. The barking slowed as the street grew still. Eventually the akita gave a final peevish bark and then fell silent.\n\nHiro allowed himself a moment of envy for the dog. The akita's world held only friends and enemies, and the lines between the two remained distinct." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "im ur writing buddy. i set scene, u do 2 sentences like Susan Spann" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Dawn found Hiro still on the roof, damp from the rain that emptied the clouds and allowed the rising sun to send golden streamers through the sky. He yawned and stretched his muscles, stiff from exhaustion but satisfied." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Even if guilty, Kazu would go back to work to keep up appearances, which meant that Father Mateo was safe until nightfall." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro slipped down from his perch and into the house. He shed his wet clothes and lay down on his futon for a nap." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Gato joined him almost at once, and the shinobi fell asleep to the kitten's rumbling purr." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "An hour later, Father Mateo's morning prayers woke Hiro from a sleep that diminished exhaustion but not concern. Foregoing both breakfast and explanations, Hiro put on his gray kimono and left the house by the veranda door." }, { "from": "human", "value": "When the shogunate gates swung open for the day, Hiro was there and waiting." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But before the guards could ask his business, he saw a familiar figure in the road.\n\n\"Please excuse me,\" Hiro said to the puzzled guards, \"I have already found the man I need to see.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He turned away and walked toward Kazu at a pace designed to ensure that he would meet the younger man far enough from the gates to prevent the guards from hearing their conversation.\n\nKazu saw him approaching and stopped to bow." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Have you eaten?\" Hiro asked. \"I know a good noodle cart nearby.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Is there one in Kyoto you don't know?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Kazu smiled. \"I can't. I'll be late for work.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Not as late as you will be when I accuse you of killing Saburo.\"\n\nKazu's eyes widened, then narrowed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I told you I didn't do it.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You lied.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Kazu's face revealed nothing.\n\n\"You left Ginjiro's before midnight,\" Hiro said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You had plenty of time to kill Saburo.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You checked my story?\" Kazu's left hand balled into a fist." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You didn't trust me.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"With good reason,\" Hiro said. \"You didn't tell the truth.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He started walking away from the shogunate gates." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As he expected, Kazu followed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro watched the younger man carefully. He doubted Kazu would risk an attack within sight of the guards, but a wise man made no assumptions." }, { "from": "human", "value": "When they had almost reached the end of the block Hiro asked, \"Did you think I wouldn't reveal you as the murderer? Or did you just think yourself too smart to be caught?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I did not kill Saburo,\" Kazu muttered through clenched teeth. \"I swear it on my honor.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro bit back a snide remark about liars' honor." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Some things no man could hear without a fight. \"Where were you two nights ago?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"At Ginjiro's, as I told you,\" Kazu said. \"Ask Den, the stable boy. He was in the garden outside the mansion when I returned.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You claimed no one saw you return,\" Hiro said. \"Besides, Den was out of town.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"He wasn't out of town,\" Kazu said. \"When I slipped back over the wall I saw him in the garden northeast of the kitchen, near the bakufu mansion. He saw me too, and bowed, so I pretended I was merely out for a stroll." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"And I told you that no one saw me come over the wall.\"\n\nKazu sounded truthful, but his words didn't match the stable master's story." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro considered the scars on his own shoulder and inner thigh, the price of another misplaced trust." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The stable is on the opposite side of the compound,\" Hiro said. \"If Den was in Kyoto, which Masao disputes, what was he doing so far from his proper place?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"He seemed to be crying,\" Kazu said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Male servants did not cry.\n\nHiro shook his head." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Masao said Den left the city.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They had reached the southeast corner of the compound. Kazu looked to his right, along the road that paralleled the southern wall of the shogunate." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We should ask Masao why he lied.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I intend to,\" Hiro said, \"but there is no 'we.'\"\n\n\"You don't trust me.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro looked at Kazu without emotion." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Your presence could frighten him into a different lie. Besides, I need your help another way.\"\n\n\"So now you want the help of a murdering liar?\" Kazu asked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro heard himself in the younger man's tone but tried to ignore it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"A schedule book disappeared from Saburo's office after the murder. Hisahide says the shogun asked him to retrieve it. I need to know if that's true, and whether anything else was taken.\"\n\nIt was risky to ask for the younger man's help, but Hiro knew no other way to monitor Kazu's movements without offending." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I don't believe Hisahide's story,\" Kazu said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The shogun would have retrieved the ledger personally. He wouldn't have trusted anyone else to handle it—especially Matsunaga Hisahide.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Kazu glanced over his shoulder and lowered his voice. \"Do you know why Hisahide came to Kyoto?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro shook his head." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His assignment hadn't required a detailed study of provincial politics." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"When Daimyo Miyoshi Chokei died last year, most people expected his childhood friend—Matsunaga Hisahide—to succeed him as the lord of Yamato Province.\"\n\n\"The daimyo had no relatives?\" Hiro asked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"He had three brothers, and a son, all of whom predeceased him under suspicious circumstances.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Hisahide killed them?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"No one dared suggest it,\" Kazu said, \"and with good reason. Hisahide is a dangerous man." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"After Miyoshi Chokei died, his will revealed that he had adopted his nephew in secret and named the boy his heir. But the new daimyo is only a child. His regents—trusted Miyoshi clansmen—sent Hisahide to Kyoto immediately.\"\n\n\"And the shogun knows this?\"" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 3 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro asked, though he guessed the answer before he saw Kazu's nod of confirmation.\n\n\"I'll find out about the ledger,\" Kazu said.\n\n\"I'll come to your office after I speak with Masao.\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Task: Story collab\nMe: Opening\nYou: 1 sentence more, Susan Spann-style" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Kazu turned back toward the compound entrance, but Hiro headed west along the southern wall of the shogunate compound." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The shinobi refused to deny his growling stomach a bowl of noodles just because Kazu didn't want to be late for work." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Half an hour and one large breakfast later, Hiro entered the shogunate through the stable gate in the western wall." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He found Masao sweeping the earthen yard." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Good morning,\" Hiro said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Have you remembered anything more about the night Ashikaga-san died?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The stable master feigned a smile that would have fooled most men." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"There is nothing to remember. I wasn't here and Den was visiting relatives out of town.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Curious,\" Hiro said. \"A samurai claims to have seen Den here that evening.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Masao's smile faded. \"Please come with me.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro followed him into the stable." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The long wooden structure had double doors on either end for easy access to the stalls that lined the interior." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A hay-strewn corridor ran up the center of the building, and a raised wooden platform at one end provided a living space for Masao and Den." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The air inside the stable was fresh but heavily scented with horses, hay, and the underlying odors of wood and leather." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Masao leaned his broom against the wall and turned to Hiro, face grim, like a man owning up to a crime." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Den left Kyoto the night Ashikaga-san died.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Why did you say otherwise?\" Hiro asked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Why does any man lie? I was afraid. But Den did not kill Ashikaga Saburo.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Masao gestured to the platform." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Please sit, if you wish. I'm sorry I have no better place to offer.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ths shinobi didn't move." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Masao nodded, accepting Hiro's decision to stand." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"When I returned from dinner I thought I would find Den sleeping, but he was awake and terrified. He said he had argued with Ashikaga-san about a girl. I've felt the brunt of Ashikaga-san's temper more than once, and I thought it wise to send the boy out of town to let the samurai's anger cool.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Would the girl be Jun, the maid?\" Hiro asked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Masao raised his hands defensively." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I promise you, the relationship is entirely innocent. Den hopes to marry Jun, in time, though he hasn't mentioned it to her. It wouldn't be appropriate before he finishes his apprenticeship.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro found Masao's concern understandable but irrelevant." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Did Den describe the argument?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Masao indicated the stable door." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"He said that Jun ran in, out of breath, and claimed that Ashikaga-san was chasing her. Den hid the girl in an empty stall. When Ashikaga-san arrived Den claimed he hadn't seen her.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Which Ashikaga-san disputed.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Masao nodded. \"Den wouldn't change his story, so Ashikaga-san left in a rage. Jun hid here a while longer, and afterward Den walked her back to the kitchen.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Assuming the timing matched, which it could, Masao's new story put Den outside the shogunate kitchen exactly as Kazu claimed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "That didn't prove Kazu's innocence, but it told Hiro what to investigate next." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I need to speak with Den,\" he said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Why?\" Masao asked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I've told you everything.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro knew concern for the boy was the key to obtaining the stable master's assistance." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I need to speak with him personally in order to persuade the shogun that Den did not kill Saburo.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "A genuine smile relaxed Masao's face." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"He is staying with my cousin, the apothecary, at Ōtsu. But, if you please... would you speak to Den there, rather than bringing him back to Kyoto? I am worried about his safety.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Ashikaga Saburo is dead,\" Hiro said." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"His anger is no longer cause for concern.\"\n\nWhen Masao's smile faltered, Hiro added, \"I have no intention of blaming an innocent boy for this crime or allowing anyone else to do so either.\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "I'll kick things off by writing a bit, then you'll take over and write the next 4 sentences, keeping within the mystery, historical fiction, Japan, historical mystery, 1500s genre." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro left the compound and retraced his route to the shogunate's east entrance along the public roads. The shinobi could have reached Kazu's office faster by crossing the shogun's compound, but he decided not to risk it without an escort. Heightened security gave the guards a motive to detain and interrogate strangers, and Hiro wanted to finish his business and leave for Ōtsu as quickly as possible.\n\nThe shogun's guards escorted Hiro into the waiting room of the bakufu mansion and sent a runner for Kazu." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The six-mat room overflowed with samurai waiting for an audience. The musty odor of sweat-dampened silk overpowered the sandalwood incense smoking wanly in a brazier near the entrance.\n\nA pair of richly dressed samurai stood by the door. When Hiro entered, one of them leaned toward the other and whispered, \"Ronin.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Both men sneered as if smelling something foul.\n\nHiro ignored them and waited.\n\nMinutes passed. One of the well-dressed samurai sneezed, presumably from standing too close to the incense.\n\nEventually Kazu arrived and led Hiro back through the mansion's many tatami-floored chambers." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You were right,\" Kazu said as they passed through an empty room, \"this month's guard schedule is missing from the office.\"\n\n\"Does the shogun have it?\" Hiro asked.\n\n\"I don't know.\" Kazu looked uncomfortable. \"I can't approach him directly, and asking questions might raise suspicions.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro decided not to mention that Kazu's refusal to ask was suspicious too.\n\nWhen they reached the final audience chamber before Saburo's office, Hiro noticed Ozuru at work on the transom carving. The master carpenter had his back to the entrance. His chisel and hammer tapped a steady accompaniment to the other men's scraping planes." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro leaned toward Kazu. \"I need to speak with the carpenter for a moment.\"\n\nOzuru turned, surprising Hiro, who didn't think he spoke loudly enough to be heard.\n\nThe master carpenter bowed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His subordinates noticed the samurai and knelt." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Get up and get back to work,\" Kazu said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The assistants stood and resumed their planing." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ozuru waited, inaction confirming he heard the shinobi's words.\n\n\"I'll wait for you in the office.\" Kazu continued across the room.\n\n\"May I help you?\" Ozuru asked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro wasted no time on pleasantries." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Two nights ago, which gate did you use to leave the shogunate compound?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ozuru smiled. \"Servants and artisans always use the stable gate.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What time did you leave?\"\n\n\"Just before midnight,\" Ozuru said. \"The bells rang as I reached the gates of my ward.\"\n\n\"Who let you out of the compound?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The carpenter glanced at the transom carving as if he longed to return to work. \"The stable boy. I'm afraid I don't know his name.\"\n\n\"I have one more question,\" Hiro said. \"Why did you leave work yesterday?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I broke a chisel. I went to buy another.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ozuru's polite but conversational tone struck Hiro as unusual. Few commoners exhibited such composure when speaking with samurai. Then again, Ozuru had worked at the shogunate long enough to become accustomed to conversing with men of higher rank.\n\n\"Thank you,\" Hiro said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I will not keep you from your work.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ozuru bowed and returned to his carving as Hiro left the room." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The shinobi paused in the doorway to Saburo's outer office." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The grassy scent of fresh tatami permeated the air, along with the sharper odor of Kazu's wintergreen hair oil." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Someone had replaced the ruined mats and scrubbed the bloodstains from the floor." }, { "from": "human", "value": "New paper panels set the wall aglow." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 5 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Kazu knelt before the desk to the right of the entrance. He gestured for Hiro to enter and close the shoji. As the paneled door slid closed Kazu opened a lacquered box that sat on the desk before him. He removed a folded parchment and extended it toward Hiro.\n\n\"You'll want to see this. It was hidden in Saburo's letter box.\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Mode:\nCo-writing\n\nLength:\n5 sentences\n\nStyle:\nSusan Spann\nGenre:\nmystery, historical fiction, Japan, historical mystery, 1500s" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro unfolded the parchment. \"It's unsigned.\"\n\n\"Read it,\" Kazu said. \"Would you have signed it?\"\n\nThe writer wasted no space on idle words. Even the salutation had been omitted." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Our friends will arrive on the eighteenth, as planned." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Make sure they gain access and find the proper men on duty. Full payment is expected upon completion\n\nHiro looked up. \"Completion of what?\"\n\n\"I don't know,\" Kazu said. \"The sentence looks unfinished, but I suspect that's intentional. The writer didn't want anyone but Saburo to understand.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "After a pause he added, \"Lord Oda's emissaries are expected on the eighteenth.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Two days from now.\" Hiro turned the letter over. The back was blank. \"You found this in Saburo's letter box? Strange that no one found it yesterday.\"\n\n\"Hisahide wouldn't have known to look,\" Kazu said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Saburo kept the box a secret—even from me, or so he thought. I'm bothered by the letter, though. I'm not sure it's genuine. The parchment shows no signs of handling, suggesting it didn't travel far. But if the writer was in Kyoto he would have delivered that kind of message in person.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro agreed. Only fools put things in writing unnecessarily.\n\n\"Also,\" Kazu continued, \"the letter, combined with the missing ledger, implies a plot against the shogun—but I don't think Saburo would do that. He was greedy but never disloyal.\"\n\n\"Perhaps someone made him a better offer,\" Hiro said.\n\n\"Would you trust Lord Oda to keep his word?\" Kazu shook his head." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Saburo was a selfish man, but he knew where his power came from.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Did Saburo receive private correspondence often?\" Hiro asked.\n\n\"Daily,\" Kazu said, \"but most of it wasn't really confidential. I think he kept it private just for show.\"\n\nWithout warning, the door slid open. Hisahide entered the office, followed by Akira.\n\n\"What's that?\" Hisahide frowned at the letter in Hiro's hands." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The shinobi handed over the parchment." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Where did you find this?\" Hisahide demanded. \"Who was it sent to?\"\n\n\"I found it this morning, in Ashikaga-san's private letter box,\" Kazu said.\n\nHisahide glanced at Akira. \"Why didn't you find this yesterday?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Akira glared at Kazu. \"What letter box?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"A hidden box for private correspondence,\" Kazu said. \"I was the only other person who knew about it.\"\n\nAkira looked at Hiro. \"You showed it to him?\" He sounded offended.\n\n\"I apologize if I erred,\" Kazu said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You told me Matsui Hiro was investigating the murder. The letter seemed relevant to his inquiry.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Is this a good enough excuse to stop Lord Oda's men from entering Kyoto?\" Hiro asked.\n\n\"Not without offending Lord Oda and risking war.\" Hisahide turned to Akira. \"I need the new firearms immediately. Find the merchant and get the weapons now.\"\n\n\"If you mean the Portuguese merchant, Luis,\" Hiro said, \"he left for Ōtsu this morning.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hisahide looked surprised, but the emotion faded almost at once." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro suspected the samurai knew not only where Hiro lived but also who shared the house.\n\n\"When will he return?\" Hisahide asked.\n\n\"Tomorrow,\" Hiro said, \"and he will have your weapons with him.\"\n\n\"Leaving less than a day to equip the men,\" Hisahide said. \"Akira, ride to Ōtsu and tell the merchant I need those weapons immediately. Use your shogunate pass and leave word with the guards to ensure there are no delays at the barricades.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'll go with you,\" Hiro said. \"I have business at Ōtsu.\"\n\n\"You have no business outside Kyoto until Saburo's killer is found,\" Hisahide said.\n\n\"I need to interview Den, the stable boy,\" Hiro said, \"and Den is currently at Ōtsu.\"\n\n\"He wasn't here when Saburo was killed. What could he possibly know?\" Akira asked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"He was here,\" Hiro said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Two witnesses saw him here the night of the murder.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I will let you leave the city on one condition,\" Hisahide said. \"You will ride with Akira and will not leave his side. If you try to flee, I will kill the foreign priest.\"\n\nHiro had no intention of leaving Father Mateo behind as a hostage, but before he could object, Hisahide continued, \"Please excuse me. The shogun will want to see this immediately.\"\n\nHe turned on his heel and left the room.\n\n\"Let's go,\" Akira said, \"we should ride at once.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro needed a minute to think." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 3 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It's a long ride to Ōtsu. I need to visit the latrine.\"\n\nAkira tried not to show his distaste but failed. \"Kazu can escort you and bring you to the stable when you finish. I'll meet you there.\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Produce five sentences using the prose and structure of Susan Spann every time its your turn using what the user wrote as a seed." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As they approached the narrow building that housed the latrine Kazu asked, \"Was that an excuse or do you really need...?\"\n\nHiro gestured for Kazu to follow him inside. The sharp scent of ammonia—and worse—rose from the oval slots in the floor, suggesting the collection pots beneath were in need of cleaning. Some air seeped in through the slatted windows, but barely enough to make the atmosphere bearable.\n\n\"Where did you go after leaving Ginjiro's the night Saburo died?\" Hiro asked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Kazu raised a hand to his nose." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"That's what you needed me here to ask? Did you think the smell would make me change my story?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Diversion works only on those not trained to use it.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro turned to face the latrine. He heard Kazu leave the building but didn't worry. The younger man would wait.\n\nWhen he left the latrine, Hiro took a deep breath of rain-scented air to flush the less pleasant odors from his lungs. He fell in step beside Kazu, who started walking the moment Hiro appeared." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Where did you go between Ginjiro's and coming back to the shogunate?\" Hiro asked.\n\nFor a moment, Kazu didn't answer. He gave Hiro a sidelong glance. \"I cannot tell you.\"\n\n\"You know what that implies.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It implies exactly nothing.\" Kazu said. \"I did not murder Saburo.\"\n\n\"So you claim, but that doesn't prove it.\"\n\nKazu turned on Hiro. \"You question my word?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You are trained to lie.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro felt his anger rising to answer Kazu's.\n\n\"Not to you.\"\n\n\"To everyone,\" Hiro snapped, \"unless your training failed.\"\n\nThe shinobi held Kazu's gaze but watched peripherally for movement. He stood as still as possible so as not to provoke a fight." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Kazu scowled. \"It is brotherhood that has failed.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He turned on his heel and stalked away down the path.\n\nHiro followed in a silence that lasted all the way to the stable. The shinobi wanted to mend the breach, but his mouth refused to form a single conciliatory word. His current mistrust of Kazu ran too deep. He also objected deeply to Kazu risking Father Mateo's safety—and Hiro's own—without offering the courtesy of the truth." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro loathed feeling used, and at that moment he felt very ill used indeed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "When they reached the edge of the stable yard, Kazu paused for only a moment and then departed without a word." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro noticed Akira waiting outside the stable and decided to obtain permission for Father Mateo to join their ride to Ōtsu." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The shinobi had no intention of leaving the Jesuit alone in Kyoto with Kazu and Hisahide." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hooves pounded on the bridge as Ichiro rode into the yard on his tall bay horse.\n\nThe boy leaned back in his saddle, brought the horse to a stop, and dismounted.\n\n\"Masao,\" he called, \"take my horse, I'm late!\"\n\nMasao emerged from the stable, bowed, and took the horse's reins.\n\nIchiro noticed Hiro. \"Good morning, Matsui-san,\" he said with a bow." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Have you captured my father's killer?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro bowed as if addressing an adult." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Not yet, Ashikaga-san, but I will.\"\n\n\"Kazu called on us last night. Thank you for proving that he was not to blame.\"\n\nHiro decided not to mention his reconsideration of Kazu's guilt. \"Thank you for speaking on his behalf. Your opinion was very helpful.\"\n\n\"It was not an opinion.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ichiro straightened his shoulders and raised his chin." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I know that Kazu is not guilty.\"\n\n\"My apologies,\" Hiro said. \"Thank you for sharing your knowledge.\"\n\nIchiro nodded. \"Please excuse me. A samurai should never be late for his lessons. Tardiness shows disrespect for the tutor.\"\n\nHe strode off toward the mansion, head high and pace unhurried, looking more noble than most men twice his age." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The boy had barely left the yard when Akira asked, \"Do you have to obtain the priest's permission before you can leave Kyoto?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I am free to come and go as I please,\" Hiro said, \"but—\"\n\n\"You serve the wrong priest, you know,\" Akira said. \"Father Vilela's mission is large and honorable. Your Father Mateo makes serious mistakes.\"\n\n\"Does he?\" Hiro asked.\n\n\"All men are not equal. It is nonsense to suggest it and unacceptable even to mention such a thing to peasants. Commoners' ignorance leads them to folly quickly enough without the intervention of foreign priests.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I assure you,\" Hiro said, \"he intends no harm.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"And I assure you, his intentions are irrelevant. Persisting in this error will bring worse trouble than expulsion from the shogunate.\"\n\nMasao emerged from the stable a second time, leading a pair of horses.\n\nAkira took the larger horse's reins and swung into the saddle. He looked down his nose at Hiro. \"You would do well to find employment elsewhere.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The guards at the gate cried out in surprise." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A little boy raced past them into the yard." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Two samurai in lacquered armor ran after the child, but the boy eluded their grasp. He started for Hiro but froze at the sight of Akira and the horses.\n\nThe child's thin hands clutched at his faded kimono as if the fabric might protect him from samurai rage. His bare feet shuffled on the ground. He didn't seem to notice the mud that squelched between his toes." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A chill spread over Hiro as if he had plunged headfirst into an icy lake. The child was the only son of Father Mateo's neighbor across the street.\n\n\"Wait!\" The shinobi raised a hand to the guards. \"I know him. Let him speak.\"\n\nThe armored samurai paused and exchanged an awkward look." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The boy bent forward, struggling to catch his breath." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "At last he straightened. \"Hiro, come quickly! Father Mateo is dying!\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "CONTINUE STORY. PARAMETERS: one sentence sentences, mystery, historical fiction, Japan, historical mystery, 1500s genre." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Dying?\" Hiro couldn't believe it. \"How?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Otosan's dog got loose.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The boy sounded desperate." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It went after Ana. Father Mateo tried to help but the dog attacked him instead.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Questions swirled in Hiro's mind: how the akita escaped its tether, what it was doing at home again, and why the owner hadn't noticed the dog's escape in time to prevent the attack." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He didn't stop to ask." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I need this horse.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro took the reins from Masao and swung into the saddle." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As the shinobi reined the horse in a circle Akira said, \"You may take it.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro glanced over his shoulder, surprised by the samurai's consent." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I may not like your Jesuit,\" Akira said, \"but no honorable man would withhold assistance.\" He nodded. \"Go.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro pulled the neighbor's child up behind him on the saddle." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As soon as he felt the boy's hands on his waist, the shinobi put his heels to the horse's sides." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I'll go to Ōtsu,\" Akira called, \"and bring Den back to Kyoto later tonight.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro barely heard him over the sound of the horse's hooves on the wooden bridge." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He held the beast at a gallop the whole way home, scattering pedestrians and spattering the slower ones with mud from the stallion's hooves." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "For once, he didn't try to avoid attention." }, { "from": "human", "value": "If Father Mateo died, it wouldn't matter who saw Hiro on the road." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When they reached the Jesuit's house the shinobi lowered the boy to the ground, dismounted, and handed the child the reins." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Walk the horse to Okazaki Shrine, and ask a priest to return it to the shogunate.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A splash of crimson stained the grass by the veranda." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Bloody droplets formed a trail across the porch, and a single bloody footprint smeared the threshold." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As he followed the trail inside, Hiro tried to calculate how much blood the priest had lost." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Not enough to have bled to death immediately, but enough that Hiro worried he might still have come too late." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The trail continued through the foyer, across the oe, and under the door of Father Mateo's room." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The wooden shoji frame and paper panels showed no bloody stains." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Someone, probably Ana, had helped the Jesuit to his room." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro laid a hand on the door, wanting and yet not wanting to see what lay on the other side." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He took a breath and entered." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Darkening bloodstains spattered the tatami from the doorway to the center of the room." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There, Father Mateo lay on a hastily opened futon." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His eyes were closed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His misshapen, bloody hands lay folded across his stomach." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Crimson stains covered his neck and the front of his brown kimono." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His face was pale. He wasn't moving." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Mateo!\" Hiro rushed to the Jesuit's side." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Father Mateo opened his eyes." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I stopped the dog.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He tried to smile but failed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A bloody wound at the base of his throat sent a crimson trickle down his neck." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You got here quickly,\" Ana bustled into the room with a steaming pot in one hand and strips of cream-colored silk in the other." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Taro must have found you at the shogunate.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She thrust the silk into Hiro's hands and set the pot on the floor beside Father Mateo." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The Jesuit's bloody neck and ruined hands told Hiro that water alone would not suffice." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Boil another kettle,\" he said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Add a handful of salt. And when you bring it, please get the medicine box from the shelf beside my desk.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ana nodded, controlled as always, but Hiro saw the worry in her eyes." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When she left the room he knelt and turned his attention to the wounds." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The gash on the left side of Father Mateo's neck had bled heavily." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Fortunately, the bleeding had slowed, though the skin of the Jesuit's throat looked badly torn." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Father Mateo's left hand bore a series of deep red punctures that oozed a mixture of blood and pinkish fluid." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The surrounding flesh was ripped and swollen, indicating broken bones, probably crushed by the force of the bite." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Blood covered the hand, some still red and the rest already dark and clotting." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The priest's right hand looked better, but only by comparison." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The punctures were fewer in number and without the ragged gashes." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The swelling seemed less prominent, too, but until the wounds were clean the shinobi couldn't tell how much damage the hand had suffered." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro started to reach for the priest's left hand." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He paused. Father Mateo's bloody sleeves and chest suggested additional injuries." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Where else were you bitten?\" Hiro asked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Father Mateo started to raise his hands but stopped with a jerking motion and a grimace." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He inhaled sharply against the pain." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "After a slow but not quite shuddering breath he said, \"My hands, my left arm—and my neck. It could have been worse.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro nodded. \"It's important to clean them properly. This will hurt.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It already hurts.\" The Jesuit closed his eyes." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Do what you need to.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro drew back Father Mateo's sleeve, exposing deep bloody gashes on the Jesuit's left arm." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The punctures were not as numerous as the ones on the hands, but they looked deep and the muscles seriously torn." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Fortunately, the Jesuit's bones appeared intact." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I don't think your arm is broken,\" Hiro said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Can you move your fingers?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Father Mateo opened his eyes." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Not easily, and I'd rather not even try. I asked Ana to send for a surgeon, but she insisted we wait for you.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"She was right,\" Hiro said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I can treat wounds better than any Kyoto surgeon. It was part of my training.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"How would Ana know that? Did you tell her...?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro shook his head." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"She thinks I'm ronin, like everyone else does, but she's seen my medicine box and she recognized some of the healing herbs. She probably thinks since I own them I know how to use them.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Do you?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro raised an eyebrow at the priest." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Most men in your position would worry more about the bites than about the treatment.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Begging your pardon, but if you poison me the bites become less important.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The shinobi laughed despite his concern." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I know how to use the herbs.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro found the Jesuit's fortitude impressive." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Few samurai would endure the pain so well." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He glanced at the door and wished Ana would hurry." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He needed salted water and medicines to clean the wounds before an infection started." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The bleeding had stopped for the moment, but only time would tell if the Jesuit had lost too much blood to recover." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Can you tell me about the attack?\" Hiro asked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Blood loss could cloud a victim's perception." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro hoped the answers would help him evaluate the priest's condition." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Ana was outside, sweeping the steps. I heard her speak to the neighbor's son and went out to invite his family to church on Sunday.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Why do you keep inviting them?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro asked. \"They never come.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"They are my neighbors,\" Father Mateo said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I am treating them the way I would want to be treated.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro bit his tongue." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "This wasn't the time to ask if the priest liked being harassed with unwanted invitations." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"As I opened the door I heard Taro shout a warning,\" Father Mateo said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The dog ran into the yard with a frayed rope trailing behind it. It started for Ana. I yelled to distract it and jumped off the porch to protect her.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You yelled at the dog?\" Hiro asked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I did. A Portuguese dog would have fled.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro shook his head." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Akitas attack when threatened.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Now you tell me.\"" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro found the sarcasm encouraging.\n\nDying men didn't usually display a functional grasp of irony." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Produce 7 sentences using the prose and structure of Susan Spann every time its your turn using what the user wrote as a seed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Did you kill the dog?\" Hiro asked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"He did not.\" Ana entered the room with a steaming pot and a lacquered box retrieved from Hiro's room." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She set both on the floor and continued, \"Taro's father pulled the dog away.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"He's home today?\" Hiro asked.\n\n\"His wife is ill.\" Ana looked at Father Mateo. \"Good thing I bought a fish this morning. The broth will help him.\"\n\n\"I agree,\" Hiro said.\n\nAna looked surprised, then nodded. \"I'll cook it now. Let me know if you need my help.\"\n\nShe hurried out and closed the door behind her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro dipped a strip of silk in the salted water. Based on the saline odor that rose from the pot and the scalding heat on his fingertips, Ana had done exactly as he requested. He wrung the extra water from the silk and dabbed at the Jesuit's neck.\n\nFather Mateo drew a hissing breath.\n\n\"It's going to get worse,\" Hiro said. \"Do you want a cloth to bite on?\"\n\nFather Mateo opened his eyes." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I can manage without.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Blood saturated the first cloth almost immediately." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro dropped it into the pot of unsalted water and dipped another strip in the steaming brine. He cleaned the Jesuit's wounds, wiping firmly but carefully around each rip and puncture. The priest flinched only a little and didn't cry out at all.\n\nHiro remembered the painful salt-water cleansing of the wounds that scarred his own inner thigh and shoulder. Despite the years, the memory remained as vibrant—and as excruciating—as if it had happened only yesterday.\n\nHe forced his thoughts back to the present, unwilling to dwell on his injuries and even less willing to think of how he received them.\n\nBy the time Hiro finished cleaning the Jesuit's wounds, the bleeding had stopped." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The deepest punctures still oozed a little fluid, but Hiro knew even that would stop very soon." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The shinobi dropped the last used piece of silk in the bloody water and raised the lid of the medicine box." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He flipped through the rows of folded paper packets until he found the one he wanted.\n\nHiro removed the packet and broke the seal, revealing a crystalline powder within. A pungent odor filled the air.\n\n\"What is that?\" Father Mateo opened his eyes.\n\n\"Camphor.\" Hiro tilted the envelope slightly so the priest could see the contents. He tried to ignore the unpleasant tingling the powder always caused in his sensitive nose. \"In small doses it fights infection.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Does it sting?\"\n\n\"Some, but not for long, and it will numb the pain a little.\" Hiro decided not to explain that, in larger doses, camphor was also toxic.\n\nHe sprinkled the powder on Father Mateo's wounds. As before, the priest endured the process without protest.\n\n\"I don't suppose you have something else for the pain?\" Father Mateo asked.\n\nHiro folded the camphor closed and returned it to the box. \"Sake helps.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Father Mateo frowned.\n\nThe shinobi stifled a smile. On matters of morality, the Jesuit was nothing if not predictable.\n\nWhen he finished bandaging the wounds. Hiro thumbed through his box and removed a twist of paper wrapped around an object about the size and shape of a soybean. \"This will help. I'll ask Ana to make you some tea.\"\n\nFather Mateo nodded and closed his eyes." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His face relaxed and his lips began to move in silent prayer." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Knocking echoed through the house. Someone was at the door.\n\nFather Mateo opened his eyes and raised his head but Hiro laid a restraining hand on the Jesuit's chest. \"Ana will answer. If it's important, I'll handle it. You need rest.\"\n\nFather Mateo closed his eyes without arguing.\n\nThe shinobi picked up his medicine box and turned to the door. The shoji slid open as he approached." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ana stood in the doorway and bowed, an unusual courtesy.\n\n\"You have a visitor, Matsui-san,\" the housekeeper said.\n\nHiro walked to the door and almost dropped his medicine box in surprise.\n\nAshikaga Netsuko—Saburo's wife—knelt by the hearth.\n\n\"Good afternoon, Lady Ashikaga.\" Hiro tucked the twist of paper into his sleeve and handed the medicine box to Ana.\n\nThe housekeeper bowed and scurried from the room." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Is the priest away?\" Netsuko asked as Hiro joined her at the hearth.\n\n\"I apologize, but he is unable to see you today.\"\n\nShe looked at a spot of blood on the floor and then raised her eyes to Hiro with a directness women usually avoided.\n\nThe unspoken question was clear.\n\nHiro nodded. \"There was an accident.\"\n\n\"Most unfortunate.\" Netsuko nodded politely." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I trust he will recover.\"\n\n\"Yes.\"\n\nEtiquette prevented Netsuko from asking questions about the details, but Hiro sensed she didn't want them anyway. He also suspected it wasn't Father Mateo she came to see.\n\n\"May I offer you tea?\" he asked.\n\nAs if on cue, Ana appeared with a plate of sweetened rice balls, a pair of porcelain cups and an expensive teapot reserved for Father Mateo's most important guests. In the years since he joined the Jesuit's household, Hiro had never seen the teapot used." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ana knelt and placed the plate before the lady. She filled the pot with water from the kettle above the hearth, bowed low, and departed without a word.\n\nDelicate steam rose from the teapot, perfuming the air with the sweetly grassy scent of expensive tea. Hiro tried to hide his surprise. The housekeeper must have recognized the shogun's family crest on Netsuko's kimono and raided Luis's personal stash of highest quality ichibancha.\n\nAna disapproved of Hiro, but she would never show it in front of guests.\n\nNetsuko leaned forward and inhaled the steam." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Gyokuro tea?\" She sounded impressed. \"And, unless I'm mistaken, ichibancha?\"\n\nRecognizing teas by scent was a popular game among wealthy samurai. Hiro silently thanked Ana for making a good impression on his behalf.\n\n\"The Portuguese appreciate our ways,\" Hiro said, deliberately blending Father Mateo's cultural interest with Luis's taste for expensive delicacies.\n\n\"Really?\" Netsuko gave Hiro a smile that no recent widow should give an unmarried man. \"But no foreigner would know that first-picked leaves make the finest tea unless someone competent taught him. You, perhaps?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro poured a cup of tea for Netsuko and one for himself, thereby avoiding the need to respond to her comment." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Netsuko's eyes widened. Hosts normally poured a visitor's tea, but samurai men rarely extended such courtesy to women.\n\nShe raised her teacup with a nod of thanks and inhaled the aromatic steam.\n\nHiro raised his own cup and examined the pale green liquid. He drank in tiny sips, enjoying the delicate sweetness and the heat of the tea on his tongue.\n\nNetsuko also savored her tea in silence. After several minutes she set the empty cup on the mat.\n\nHiro reached for the pot to refill it." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 8 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As the steaming liquid flowed from the teapot into the porcelain cup, Netsuko said, \"My husband was not faithful, but he did not deserve to die.\"\n\nShe spoke quietly and without emotion, as though discussing the weather or the tea.\n\nAs Hiro set the teapot down, Netsuko studied his face.\n\n\"It doesn't surprise you that I knew about his infidelity?\" She tilted her head slightly and waited for a response.\n\nHiro kept his expression blank. \"I try not to make assumptions about other men's wives.\"\n\n\"Then perhaps it will not shock you to learn that I approved of his affairs.\"" } ]

[ { "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 mystery, historical fiction, Japan, historical mystery, 1500s genre." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro waited for Netsuko to explain.\n\nOnce again she seemed surprised by his lack of reaction. \"You don't condemn me for approving of my husband's infidelity?\"\n\nThis time her pause required a response.\n\n\"You doubtless had your reasons.\" Hiro decided not to offer an excuse that she might substitute for truth." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"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": "human", "value": "He said nothing." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She 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.\n\n\"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.\"\n\nAs 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.\n\nHe smiled politely. \"Your arrangement sounds reasonable.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Netsuko examined her teacup. \"I think many people would find it strange.\" She looked up. \"Most men believe a wife should not take an active role in her husband's affairs.\"\n\nHiro 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.\"\n\n\"And are you a wise man?\" she asked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The question caught Hiro off guard." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Netsuko laughed. \"I wondered how far I would have to go to surprise you.\"\n\nHer 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.\"\n\nShe set her empty teacup on the mat. \"I want my husband's murderer punished. Put plainly, I want her dead.\"\n\n\"Her?\" Hiro asked.\n\n\"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?\"\n\nAs Hiro refilled Netsuko's tea, he realized he hadn't asked Ana to make the painkilling brew for Father Mateo. 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. She savored the steam and sipped her tea, as relaxed as if they discussed a business transaction and not a murder." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Eventually she lowered her cup and continued, \"Saburo told me everything. The relationship started innocently—as innocently as it could, anyway—but the girl became unreasonable. She wanted Saburo all to herself. He didn't know how to refuse without causing a scene, though he had no intention of acting on her demands.\n\n\"He asked me to help him discard her.\"\n\n\"Your husband asked you to end his affair?\" Hiro asked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Why wouldn't he? I helped him with everything else.\" 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.\"\n\n\"And she refused,\" Hiro said.\n\n\"She didn't just refuse, she murdered him.\"\n\n\"Why didn't you tell Matsunaga Hisahide about your suspicions?\" Hiro asked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You think I didn't?\"\n\n\"If you had,\" he said, \"Hisahide would not have needed me.\"\n\n\"Hisahide doesn't believe a maid could kill a samurai.\"\n\n\"A maid?\" Hiro asked.\n\nNetsuko 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.\" Netsuko tilted her head to the side." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Based on your expression she didn't admit the affair to you.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"No,\" Hiro said. \"Would you, in her place?\"\n\nNetsuko smiled. \"I would never allow myself to be caught in such a place.\"\n\nA slip of the tongue, or another play on words? Hiro couldn't decide.\n\n\"What makes you believe Jun killed Saburo?\" he asked.\n\n\"Her demands, and that Saburo was killed with a dagger. A man would have used a sword.\"\n\n\"But the dagger belonged to Ito Kazu, a fact you acknowledged yourself.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I regret that accusation.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Netsuko took her right hand off the teacup long enough to rub her left wrist." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I wasn't thinking clearly yesterday.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Now that you have decided to accuse the real murderer, why come to me instead of Hisahide or the shogun?\" Hiro asked.\n\nShe took a deep breath. Her shoulders sank slightly as she released it. \"The foreign priests have a reputation for discretion. I thought, perhaps, since you work with one...\"\n\nShe trailed off as if hoping Hiro would finish the thought.\n\nHe didn't." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Just 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": "gpt", "value": "Ichiro's future and mine depend upon our ignorance of the affair. 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.\"\n\nNetsuko looked at her tea. \"Pity. It's gone cold.\"\n\nShe set the cup on the tray and stood up, ending the conversation." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro escorted her to the door. To his surprise, no horse waited in the yard.\n\nNetsuko 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.\"\n\nHiro found the comment interesting. Grieving widows seldom thought their actions through so carefully." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Thank you for your visit.\" Hiro bowed, the formal gesture echoing his words. \"I will give your regards to Father Mateo.\"\n\n\"Thank you for the tea.\" She stepped off the porch and into her sandals. \"And thank you in advance for your discretion.\"" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 7 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro watched her walk away.\n\nAs she reached the street the neighbor's akita began its furious barking. Hiro tensed, half hoping the dog would run into the street. He would have welcomed any excuse to kill it. 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": "ur a writing helper. partner writes, u do next 8 sentences." }, { "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.\"\n\nHiro hadn't thought she would recognize opium. \"It will dull his pain and help him sleep.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"He doesn't even drink sake.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ana frowned. \"Did he ask for this?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"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. 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." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"But I'm holding you responsible.\"\n\nShe accepted the bit of resin and hurried toward the kitchen.\n\n\"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": "gpt", "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.\n\nHiro 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. \"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.\"\n\n\"And upset Ana?\" Father Mateo shook his head. \"I'd rather sneeze. Besides, I like the cat when she's not shedding hair up my nose.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The 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. If the opium didn't give much relief, or if it worked too well, he would use something different the next time.\n\nHiro took Gato back to his room, set her down, and pondered Netsuko's visit. The woman's accusations, while superficially reasonable, had troublesome undertones." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "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.\n\nNone of which explained Kazu's refusal to talk or what Ozuru the carpenter really did after dark that night. Hiro even considered Netsuko a suspect. Her visit raised more questions than it answered. Hopefully talking with Den would do the opposite." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro put on a pair of old hakama and a faded tunic, grabbed his swords, and hurried into the yard." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "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. 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.\n\nHiro 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?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "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.\n\nKazu turned. \"Looking for you.\" 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." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What are you doing here? I won't ask again.\"\n\nKazu'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. \"You might as well stay and tell me.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Kazu looked over his shoulder." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "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.\n\n\"Thank you, no.\"\n\nAs 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." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What did you find at the shogunate?\"" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 3 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"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": "I'll kick things off by writing a bit, then you'll take over and write the next five sentences in the distinctive voice of Susan Spann, keeping within the mystery, historical fiction, Japan, historical mystery, 1500s genre." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Altered?\" Hiro repeated.\n\nKazu nodded. \"The guards originally assigned to the shogun's quarters tomorrow night have been exchanged for alternates.\"\n\n\"Alternates?\" Hiro asked.\n\n\"Yes,\" Kazu said. \"Shogunate guards, but not the men Saburo would have assigned for duty that night.\"\n\n\"How do you know?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Saburo had a system. The men on duty tomorrow night are not the ones the system would have named.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"And you know the changes were made by someone other than Saburo?\" Hiro asked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The writing is similar, but it shows inconsistencies. I'm not certain.\"\n\n\"Could the shogun have changed the ledger?\" Hiro asked. \"The letter you found suggested a plot, and shifting the guards might stop an assassination attempt.\"\n\n\"It's possible,\" Kazu said, \"but why tomorrow night? Lord Oda's men aren't due to arrive until the following morning.\"\n\n\"Do the changes continue through the ambassadors' visit?\" Hiro asked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Kazu looked at the floor." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I didn't look. I was so surprised about the change that I came straight here to tell you.\"\n\n\"You'd better go back and find out,\" Hiro said, \"since it doesn't appear that you brought the ledger with you.\"\n\nKazu looked up, alarmed. \"Of course I didn't bring it. The shogun would kill me if I took it outside the compound—and I don't mean that as a figure of speech. I won't be able to check tonight anyway. They've locked the gates, and no one goes in or out without an excuse. With everything that's going on, I'm not willing to risk the wall.\"\n\nHe looked at Father Mateo's door." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What happened to the priest? Does he always go to bed this early?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The neighbor's dog attacked him this afternoon.\"\n\nKazu leaned forward. \"Is it serious?\"\n\nWorry weighted Hiro's chest. \"Too soon to know.\"\n\n\"I hope he recovers.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Kazu stood up and bowed formally." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It is a terrible thing to lose a brother.\"\n\nBefore Hiro could rise, the younger man left the room. Hiro heard the front door open and close as Kazu left the house.\n\nThe shinobi spent the night awake and listening for intruders. He doubted Kazu would return, but his thoughts made sleep impossible anyway." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He checked on Father Mateo more than once and heard Ana do the same." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro found himself wishing the Jesuit would wake, even though the priest needed rest." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The shinobi couldn't stop thinking about the murder, and he found himself wishing for Father Mateo's input.\n\nJust before dawn, Hiro lay down on his futon and fell into restless sleep. He woke feeling bitter and unrefreshed. His knee ached, which made no sense until he realized Gato was sleeping on it.\n\nHe lifted the little cat off his leg and set her down on the futon." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She yawned and stretched before curling into a ball and closing her eyes." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro knelt on the veranda and meditated until his mind felt reasonably clear. Then he returned to his room, donned his usual smoky gray kimono, and fastened his swords through his obi.\n\nPreparations complete, he went looking for Ana.\n\nHe found the housekeeper sweeping the oe floor. She looked up as he entered and raised a hand to her lips to warn him that Father Mateo was sleeping." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro nodded and whispered, \"How is he?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I warmed up more of your special tea at dawn.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It's gone, then?\" Hiro asked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"There's still a cup left, maybe two.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Give it to him when he wakes, along with the strongest broth you can make, but no rice unless he asks for it specifically.\"\n\n\"Hm,\" Ana said. \"You think I've never tended an injured man?\"\n\nHiro smiled. \"If Father Mateo asks, I'll be back by noon.\"\n\nThe front door creaked and heavy footsteps thumped on the entry floor. Hiro turned, but without alarm." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Only Luis sounded so much like a drunken bear.\n\nThe Portuguese merchant appeared in the doorway. His face was red and shone with sweat despite the cloudy morning.\n\nLuis saw Hiro and raised a hand to his chest. \"Don't sneak around like that!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I haven't moved,\" Hiro said.\n\n\"Well, make more noise. You'll scare someone to death.\"\n\n\"You should make less noise.\" Hiro gestured toward the Jesuit's door and lowered his voice. \"Father Mateo is resting.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"At this hour?\" The merchant frowned, though Hiro noted Luis did lower his voice." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"How was your trip to Ōtsu?\" Hiro asked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Miserable,\" Luis fumed. \"I barely had time for a meal, and a poor one at that. I brought the weapons though. My servants are unloading them at the warehouse now. Lord Oda's men aren't due until tomorrow, so even Lord Matsunaga will have to admit I met his deadline.\"\n\n\"Matsunaga-san is not a daimyo,\" Hiro said.\n\nLuis looked smug. \"Every samurai fancies himself a lord. If he pays his bills, I'll call him one in the bargain.\"\n\n\"Did you see Miyoshi Akira on the road?\" Hiro asked.\n\nLuis wiped his forehead with a greasy hand." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"How did you know? He passed me yesterday afternoon on the way to Ōtsu. He stopped just long enough to order me not to stay the night—and then galloped off without waiting for my response! Some nerve, addressing me as if I was some kind of servant.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The merchant opened his mouth to continue, but Hiro had no desire to entertain another of Luis's diatribes.\n\n\"Matsunaga-san ordered him to find you,\" Hiro said, \"and also to return to Kyoto quickly.\"\n\n\"Well, he took it seriously,\" Luis said. \"By the time I reached Ōtsu, he'd already left.\"\n\n\"Did you see Lord Oda's ambassadors?\" Hiro asked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"They hadn't reached Ōtsu yet. According to the innkeeper, their messengers hadn't even arrived.\"\n\n\"You asked?\" Hiro let his surprise show.\n\n\"Of course I asked,\" Luis scoffed. \"I didn't want some overzealous samurai trying to seize the shogun's weapon shipment.\"\n\nHiro considered this news." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Samurai traveling parties often sent messengers ahead on the road to reserve sufficient space at the village inns." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "If the messengers for Lord Oda's embassy hadn't reached Ōtsu, the ambassadors must still be days from Kyoto.\n\nLuis looked around. \"You didn't answer my question. Why is Mateo sleeping at this hour? Is he ill?\"\n\n\"The neighbor's dog attacked him,\" Hiro said. \"He'll recover, but he needs to rest.\"\n\n\"I knew that beast would hurt someone,\" Luis scowled." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Did you kill it?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I wasn't here.\"\n\nLuis's upper lip curled back from his teeth. \"And you let that stop you? I thought you samurai understood revenge.\"\n\n\"Vengeance is taken for wrongful acts by men,\" Hiro said. \"Samurai do not declare duels with dogs.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The owner should pay an indemnity.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"A matter Father Mateo can address when he recovers,\" Hiro said, knowing the priest would neither demand nor accept any money for his injuries." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"If you'll excuse me,\" Luis said, \"I can still get a few hours' sleep before I meet Lord Matsunaga at the warehouse.\"\n\nHe looked at Ana as if just noticing her presence. \"Don't disturb me until noon.\"\n\nAs the merchant waddled to his room, Hiro left the house and hurried toward the shogunate.\n\nAccording to Luis's estimate, Akira and Den would have reached Kyoto by midnight the night before." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The boy would not have gotten much sleep, but Hiro wanted to hear Den's version of the events on the night Saburo died." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 1 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "More importantly, he needed to know if love for Jun was sufficient to turn the boy into a killer." } ]