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Chapter 5 – The Ootori Clan

“Reiko-ojousama, please wake up. It is morning.”

That voice woke me up.
Yesterday, the day of the Great Kanto Earthquake, I never left my new room. Even my slightly late dinner was brought to me by the maid who had just called out to me—yes, I shall insist on calling her a maid.

That day, I devoured as many books as possible from my room, focusing primarily on subjects related to social studies.

But alas, I am currently just a three-year-old child.

Even though my thoughts and knowledge are the same as they were before I reincarnated, a thirty-or-something woman, my physical abilities are nowhere near catching up.
Sleepiness overtook me far sooner than I had expected, and I drifted off before I could even put my books away.

And now, a maid was giving me a morning wake-up call.

“Good morning, Mari.”

(A little girl having multiple attendants… There’s no doubt about it—this family is rich. A true elite! No, considering the era, I should say, ‘This bourgeoisie scum!’)

“Good morning, Reiko-ojousama.”

Even though my mind was filled with far more thoughts than what I actually said aloud, Mari—the head maid assigned to me, or at least the highest-ranked among them (I think)—smiled gently.
The other two maids did the same.

But I knew the real meaning behind their smiles.

They were thinking about my feelings, knowing that yesterday I lost my father, Kiichi.
Moreover, there is also my mother, Kiko, who passed away shortly before my first birthday. 

They were surely taking that into account as well.

Apparently, my mother’s cause of death was some kind of gastroenteritis. In this era, even a simple gastrointestinal infection that would be easily treatable in the 21st century could still be fatal.

Even among the elite, it made little difference. The medical field itself was still underdeveloped.

As a history-loving woman, I had learned this mainly from the sacred texts (manga) that focused on medicine.
Well, my curiosity did lead me to check some real knowledge and resources too, but still.

Putting that aside,I have not only lost my mother, but also my father yesterday.

Of course, the adults would be kind to me.
Even I could feel that my body—or rather, my soul—was trapped in sadness.

By the way, Mari was one of the maids serving in this household and also appeared in the game.
She was the wife of Tokita, the butler, meaning they had a so-called workplace marriage.

Her slender appearance, which seemed unfitting for her age, gave me the same impression as in the game, but that was likely due to her age. 

In this era, anyone over sixty was considered fully elderly.
Mari should be in her early fifties at this point, but the fact that she didn’t look much different was probably due to differences in medical care, lifestyle, and diet.

However, people born around this time would later go on to live long lives, contributing to Japan becoming a nation of longevity.
All thanks to proper medical care and an abundance of food.

And now, my stomach, seeking one of those two essentials, let out an unladylike protest for a young girl.

“Oh my, shall we have breakfast? Would you like to eat in your room, or shall we go to the dining hall?”

Mari treated me not as a mere child but as a proper young lady.
She knew that even a three-year-old in this household would have received the appropriate education. 

For a family leading a financial conglomerate, that was simply expected—at least in the Ootori family.

And my answer was already decided. I had been thinking it was about time to gather my next piece of information.

“Eat with evewyone…” (Ugh, I still can’t speak properly.)

“Understood. Then, shall we get you changed?”

And so, as a proper celebrity, I wasn’t even allowed to dress myself.
Well, since I still wasn’t fully accustomed to this three-year-old body, it was actually quite helpful.

“Good morning.”

In the dining hall, where I gave a slightly inarticulate greeting with a bow, the members of the Ootori clan—those who either lived in this mansion or used it as their base—were already gathered around a long, grand table.

The Ootori family primarily followed a European-style way of life.
Meals were taken at tables with chairs, but for a three-year-old, that presented a bit of a physical challenge. 

But with the help of Mari and the others, I managed to settle into a child’s chair.

Before me, a fusion-style breakfast had already been laid out.
Since everyone ate at different times, there was no need to wait for the entire group; each person dined at their own pace. Some had already finished and were sipping coffee, while others were just beginning their meal. However, once seated, no one left the table.

Perhaps they had been waiting for me.

After exchanging morning greetings with those present, I focused on eating. For a three-year-old, even eating required full effort.
But I felt someone’s gaze on me.

While eating, I discreetly observed my surroundings in return.
The ones who lived in this mansion were, for the most part, direct members of the main family.

Technically, I was the eldest child of the main house, but due to my father’s work, I had been in Yokohama when the earthquake struck.
And ahead of me lay the so-called succession dispute. This matched what I had read in the game’s reference materials.

Currently, my great-grandfather, Souichirou, has retired, making my grandfather, Kiichirou—the man in the military uniform—the head of the family.
He was a senior officer in the Imperial Japanese Army, holding the rank of colonel at this point in time. 

Since he was known as a hiruandon (a “dim lantern”—someone slow to rise in rank), his career progression had been somewhat sluggish.

And then there was my great-uncle, Souichirou’s second son, the one who had been mentioned briefly yesterday—Ryuujirou, the head of the financial conglomerate.

The reason the head of the Ootori family is a military man is that, officially, a noble family is expected to serve the nation.
However, in reality, it’s because he himself believes he lacks business acumen.

In contrast, Ryuujirou successfully expanded the Ootori financial conglomerate during World War I, capitalizing on the wartime economic boom.
In the game, this expansion marks the beginning of the conglomerate’s downfall, but at this point in time, he is still a highly successful businessman.

However, it seems he was trapped under rubble during yesterday’s earthquake and has been hospitalized.

At the very least, his luck was slightly better than my father’s.

Given the Ootori conglomerate’s considerable scale, many family members, including my father, are involved in its management.

One such figure is my great-uncle by marriage, Zenkichi.
He joined the Ootori family as the adopted son-in-law of my great-aunt, Keiko. 

Since he was accepted into the family, it’s clear that he possesses exceptional management skills.

Incidentally, bringing in talented outsiders to manage the family business is a practice commonly used by wealthy merchant families like Mitsui and Sumitomo since the Edo period.
This strategy allowed them to sustain successful business operations for centuries.

Our family seems to have adopted a similar approach.

I have another great-uncle, but he is more of a technician than a businessman.His name is Torasaburou, the third son of my great-grandfather.
He has an unusual background—he studied abroad in America in the early 20th century and was recognized for his skills at a local automobile company, where he honed his craft.

Rather than being a financial figure, he is a full-fledged engineer by nature. Even now, he isn’t present here; he resides near the factory.

In the game, he serves as the mecha scientist character.

Another distinct trait of the Ootori family is the naming convention for its male members. Many of them have names derived from the Kirin or include characters like dragon (Ryu) or tiger (Tora).

This stems from the family’s tradition of viewing Ootori as a reference to the Vermilion Bird and incorporating one character from the sacred beast of the continent—Qilin (Kirin), White Tiger (Byakko), Azure Dragon (Seiryu), Black Tortoise (Genbu), and Vermilion Bird (Suzaku)—into the names of male heirs.

It is also influenced by the fact that the first head of the family was named Genichirou, derived from Black Tortoise (Genbu).

And that concludes the core members of both the family and the conglomerate.

However, there is another branch of the family—one that serves as the second pillar of the Ootori clan.
This branch descends from my great-grandfather’s younger brother, and its head, Koujirou, is the leader of this branch. 

Because of his name, this branch is sometimes referred to as the Kou family. However, some mockingly call it the “House Behind”, playing on the meaning of Kou (crimson) to imply it is a lesser, secondary branch.

In contrast, the main family is referred to as the Sou family, with Sou (blue) being a play on Souke (head family).

The Kou family oversees the pharmaceutical, hospital, and educational ventures of the Ootori conglomerate.
Many of its members are involved in medicine or academia, and my great-uncle was likely taken to Ootori Hospital after the earthquake.

But why did the Ootori conglomerate enter the pharmaceutical industry in the first place?

The answer lies with its founder—or rather, its de facto first-generation head.

The Enigmatic Founder.

The truth is, not much is known about the first-generation head of the family.
From a meta perspective—based on my past-life memories—he was likely someone who, under normal circumstances, would have died in obscurity and never made it into history.

Yet, he became a pivotal figure in the family’s history, standing at a critical turning point. His life was so tumultuous that it could easily serve as the plot of an entire novel.

His name was Ootori Genichirou.

From my perspective, he is almost like a revered ancestor. But in terms of direct lineage, he would be my great-great-grandfather.

He was born in 1835 (Tenpo 6) and was supposedly a samurai of the Choshu domain.
However, by the time he emerged in historical records, his original family line had effectively died out.

Moreover, the surname Ootori raises some doubts.
If he was truly a samurai of Choshu, why would he bear a name that doesn’t quite fit with that background?

Whatever the case, his family had long assumed him dead.

Technically, he revived the family under the new name Ootori, but it was most likely a case of fabricated lineage.
His supposed origins in the Choshu domain, as well as his eventual emergence onto the historical stage, were all deeply intertwined with Japan’s greater historical currents.

The Ootori family were lower-ranked samurai, but they also ran a small shipping business.
At barely ten years old, Genichirou was already working in what was essentially an apprenticeship. 

One day, he boarded a ship for the Goto Islands on a trade mission. However, a storm struck, and the ship was wrecked.
In the history of my past life’s world, this would have been the moment he died—end of story.

But in the world of the otome game “Tasogare no Ichizoku,” he was miraculously saved.

However, the ones who rescued him were smugglers from the continent.
While he was pulled from the sea alive, he was promptly sold off as a slave in some port town.

…Honestly, couldn’t my ancestor have been given a slightly less tragic backstory? This is way too much.

But Genichirou was a man of unyielding determination and action.
He escaped his life as a slave and ended up joining a gang—a syndicate run entirely by children. 

Essentially, he became part of a violent criminal group.

At some point during this period, he apparently learned the local language.
And from there, he began to rise through the ranks, displaying his natural talents.

Initially, his group was based in Nanjing, but during the Taiping Rebellion, they moved their operations to Shanghai, which was rapidly expanding at the time. Riding the tide of chaos, they grew in power.

Genichirou involved himself in various business ventures, which, of course, included the opium and arms trade.
There is no doubt that the Ootori family’s pharmaceutical ventures today are a direct result of their history with the opium trade.

At some point during this period, he married my great-great-grandmother, Rin, and my great-grandfather and his siblings were born.

Rin might seem like she was from the continent, considering Genichirou’s base of operations, but she was actually a shrine maiden.
Naturally, that meant she was Japanese, as she served in a Shinto shrine.

According to my great-grandfather, my great-great-grandfather met her on a certain Japanese island that he frequently used as a trading post while running smuggling operations between Japan and the continent.

Because of this, my great-grandfather, Souichirou, and his younger brother, Koujirou—both born and raised on the continent—grew up speaking Japanese with a heavy accent.
Moreover, since they had lived in Shanghai, they struggled quite a bit after coming to Japan.

Then, during the final years of the Edo period, fate intervened.

At that time, Choshu Domain secretly sent agents to Shanghai to purchase weapons. By then, Genichirou had become a high-ranking member of a sizable syndicate.
He could speak Japanese, Hu language (Shanghainese), and some broken English, and he was also literate and skilled in arithmetic.

Thanks to these abilities, he successfully made contact and negotiated with the Choshu samurai.

After that, he made a triumphant return to Japan and even became recognized as one of the key figures in the Meiji Restoration.
That being said, in the game’s hidden lore, Genichirou’s efforts in securing weapons and ammunition for Choshu almost led to the collapse of the Satsuma-Choshu Alliance.

Additionally, because he had harbored hostility toward Sakamoto Ryoma, he was rumored to have been one of the masterminds behind his assassination.
Perhaps due to these historical ties, the Ootori family had surprisingly good relations with Mitsubishi.

With the arrival of the Meiji era, the Ootori family took a great leap forward.

Just like a phoenix rising.

At least, that’s how the game describes it.