Aioi-san looks even nicer with normal clothes on! Now if only she’d stop coloring her teeth! The hair combs and pins can stay though, she wears it well.
“You’re no longer a Tayu, Aioi-san maybe you can stop coloring your teeth black.” I tell her. “You look pretty enough as it is.”
She looks at me from behind her mirror and smiles, batting her eyelashes and I can’t help but sheepishly smile back, “Shindou-kun…” She says in a sing song voice, “Why do you keep wearing that uniform? It’s to feel confident and worthwhile isn’t it?”
I clear my throat. “I don’t know.”
“Well I do.” She sighs and goes back to fixing herself, “You like being a policeman, just like I used to love being a Tayu. People in Shimabara respected me, some even adored and worshipped me.” She sighs and looks at the door as if waiting.
“Him?”
“Now now. A jealous man is not an admirable trait.” Suddenly she stands up, placing the mirror down. She places a hand on my shoulder so close to my neck that I wasn’t sure if she was going to strangle me or… I swallow. Embrace me. Instead she straightens up the corners of my uniform.
“You’re so much more better than him. Or rather -could- be much better.” She sighs, “He’s always walked those grey areas but you…” She looks into my eyes, “You -know- what’s right and what’s wrong. That’s why you chose to take a break right? You couldn’t believe a man like him could trump you.”
Breaking eye contact I look down, “It’s not exactly like that Aioi-san.” I swallow.
She pouts, “So he got to you too? You probably weren’t perfect but you tried your best. He probably made you feel inadequate for the job.”
I open my mouth. I do feel inadequate but if that was his fault or mine… Or the TMPDs… Who’s to say?
She finally let’s go, “Or as you say, it could be just -you-. In which case, how could anyone…” She looks up at me, “or I ever depend on someone like you.”
Staring into those eyes, my hand reach out and for the first time touch her cheeks. They’re soft. “You might think I’m just his lackey or worst a boy, but if you want to depend on me Aioi…”
She finally smiles at me. “I’d like to think of you as a man, Naruhodo-san.” she whispers and reaches up my neck, pulling me down and I meet those lips. Hungrily I kiss her and press her against me. Suddenly she seems small in my arms. I kiss her cheeks, down her neck and start to pull on her kimono. Is this what men feel when they’re with these mythical creatures called Tayu?
“Oh Naruhodo-san.” She whimpers into my ears as I kiss in between her breast. I know he likely won’t be back for a while, she told me he’s out working.
“Tayu….” I get her up against the wall and reach down towards her legs to feel my hands on them.
“No… Please no…” She says refusing my advances but running her hands into my hair egging me to go on.
I stop, my breath haggard. “No?”
She laughs softly, “Not yet. I don’t want his boy lackey -pretending- to be a cop making love to me.” She stares into my eyes, “I want the -real- thing.”
“You mean…” I take a breather and shake my head.
“How can you protect someone like me, if you’re not even on equal footing with him?” For a moment she looks sad, her eyes down cast. I wanted to comfort her, tell her it’s going to be alright now… That men will no longer use her as they did in the past. Like he did the other night when I allowed myself to be sent away. It should’ve been obvious wasn’t it? That he didn’t want me back until the afternoon. The things he probably did to her… I was such an idiot!
“You’re right.” I hold her by the shoulders. “I should be ashamed for what I tried to do.” I lift her face up and smile. “I’ll be busy convincing them to take me back in, so wait for me?”
“Yes!” She hugs me with some abandon that for a moment I thought this wasn’t the same Tayu who’s bossed me around the past few weeks. After months of aimless wondering I finally found a reason for me to go back.