Saitou:
The door slides open and I’m concerned as it’s -much- too early for her to be back. But it -is- her.
“Slow night?” I ask and look her over. She’s already changed to something more normal. I suppose she has to leave her garments and accessories at the Hachirou.
She looks at me and stretches her neck. “Not really but the madame wanted me to play hard to get. She basically paraded me around Hachirou’s important clientele and then whisked me away, saying it’s better to let a day or two pass so that bidding would be better.”
I don’t know what to say about that, knowing the kind of stature a Tayu is used to. To be treated like a Juuyo… But I can’t be -soft-. Not right now. So I wave a hand in dismissal. “Well at least you get a reprieve today.”
She just looks at me with some disappointment? What did she want me to say? I suppose I should’ve apologized but this isn’t anything new.
“So why are you here Hajime-han? Shouldn’t you be elsewhere right about now?”
My eyes narrow at her. What does that mean? If I were supposed to be somewhere, it’s in Ito Shizuoka but there’s still unfinished business here in Tokyo. So I decide to ignore her comment. “I’ve procured a place where we can take Miyagawa.”
“Oh? What a teahouse or another gentlemen’s club?”
I smirk and blow a smoke to the side, “An abandoned warehouse.” That’s the perfect place to hang him upside down and do as what Hijikata-san did to Furutaka. Hot and cold. Before I finish him off.
“So you’ll send the “invite” tomorrow and we’ll wait for him at this address.” I give her the address of another teahouse closer to the edge of town and where my final destination for Miyagawa would be.
She looks at it. “Really Hajime-han, what makes you think he’ll even come?”
“The threat of a woman claiming to connect him to the Tanaka group? He’ll come.” Because he won’t tarnish that reputation of his, not publicly at least. He’ll try to shut her up and when he does…
Aioi:
The truth was I’m very glad not to have some stranger groping me tonight. I like the seduction and seeing men fall at my feet but the men at this Club has no manners and seems to be hardly educated. They have no appreciation for beauty and intelligence. Not one of them can carry a conversation that doesn’t end up in tasteless vuglarity.
I look at the man across from me. Now very different from the one the other night, who seemed to appreciate me for -me-. Was that the sex talking or was he just so tired of trying to make it work with women whom he deemed “wife material” and wanted to try something -else-? Will -that- one come back? But one thing I do know after I left that Princess, was that this man will not be able to move forward without settling these loose ends. Until then he won’t be able to move forward. He maybe doing it for her but I’ll do it for him.
Though I can’t help but express some dubiousness about his plan. It seemed missing something, not just -something- but an entire half of it! Like what will he do once he kills Miyagawa? That -bothers- me. Surely he’s thought that far ahead right?
I stand up and go near him, placing a hand on his chest and lean on his shoulder, “So after Miyagawa, who’s next? What next?” And how Hajime-han? He’s usually more meticulous than this but right now he’s rushing. But why? For her safety? His lost honor? For her “love”? But I’ve never seen him this -impatient-.
He continues to smoke eventhough I’m playing with the buttons of his jacket, “An old woman named Yasutake in Ito. That’s who’s next. Hide told me she was called “Mama-san” and had her injured.”
I look up at him and he’s staring intently out the window to the shadows. “An elderly woman? That doesn’t sound like she’ll pose much of a threat compared to Miyagawa.”
“Hide said this woman is -evil-.” And he has fire in his eyes as he says this. How can that woman stir such things in him still? After everything?
“Did she say this Miyagawa was evil as well?” Because if she did, why is he following her words -blindly-?
He glowers back at me, “No. But he was part of her kidnapping and is closely associated with this “Mama-san”. All evil must be eradicated -swiftly-.” The way he says that leaves me with little comfort but at least it seems that Miyagawa is his own volition. Not some instruction from his “Princess”.
He flicks his cigarette out the window. “Aioi once your part is done. You can leave. Maybe go to the countryside. Start over.”
I blink. He’s asking me to leave after I deliver Miyagawa? And it sounds -permanent-. “No. I’m sticking by you.” Because I always have and I’m not about to stop in the middle of a job, “And I don’t mind watching what you’ll do with a pig like Miyagawa.”
“A Tayu shouldn’t be witness to a murder.” He reminds me.
“But I’m no longer a Tayu Hajime-han.” I look up at him, my hands reaching up his neck making him bend down towards me. I kiss him and I can see I’m stirring something in him. There’s a different look in those eyes, a look I know -well- and I know if I push him a little more…
But he closes his eyes and lets out an audible sigh and turns away. “We have a job tomorrow. If you’re staying put, I don’t want you to slow me down.”
I can only smile. He wanted me, just now. “When did I ever slow you down Hajime-han?” In fact if he’d let me tonight, he might’ve gone away much energized than before. Ready for what tomorrow would bring but he’s right, we have a job to do. And once that’s done, he’ll forget about that Princess who only used him to gain a home full of children. He won’t be beholden to her anymore. Not out of “love” nor of out of duty.