“Oy Saitou. Don’t take too long with her.” Obaa-san reminds me. “I need her -fresh-. We’ve made a contract for exclusivity with the Hachirou for the rest of the week.”
I grin at the old woman. “Come on. She can handle it.” I laugh and take a chug directly from the sake bottle then wipe my mouth with the back of my hand.
“Even so. Why not the other girls here?” She motions to the ones by the window slats.
Looking the girls over I simply snort and turn away. “I’m an old fashioned kind of guy Obaa-san.”
“You -former- Samurai are ridiculous.” She places her hand on her hips and laughs a bit, “Well I run a -honest- business, no different than from the old days. So I guess I can’t complain about your kind.”
I put up my hand and go upstairs. I know my way around here of course, I used to come here in -those- days when I needed some relief from a contemptuous wife and a runaway ex-lover. Those bygone days that I thought were behind me and yet here I am -again-.
Entering the room, I see Aioi is fixing herself by the mirror. She looks up at me. “I’m sorry that I was the bearer of bad news.”
Locking the door, I go sit on the floor by the window. It’s almost dark out while playing with the bottle in my hand. I go ahead and take another shot of the cold sake. “It can’t be helped.” I say more to myself. Of all the things I wanted done this week, was to put that pig in the ground where no one could find him.
“Here. You shouldn’t drink like that… Like a brute.” She sighs and takes the bottle away and pours it in a sake cup offering it up to me, “If you were going after him tomorrow, I’d not allow you any alcohol at all.”
I look at the cup that is offered and I’m grateful for it. In Kyoto back then, one never pours for themselves. It was bad luck. “I’m going to Ito on the first train tomorrow.” I nod at the sack I brought with me that had a change of clothes and a ticket.
“You don’t want to waste time huh Hajime-han?” She leans into me and slides her arm under mine and offers me another cup.
“The Obaa-san said the Hachirou now has an exclusivity contract, for you? It’s probably him. You’ll have to bear with it.” I glance back at her but immediately look out the window. I hated leaving her at the private rooms of the Hachirou but it had to be done. Back then, I could care less but why does it seem I care now?
She smiles but it’s not the haughty smile from before. That old smile that told me she already knew what I was thinking and is -way- ahead of me. “Why not just wait for him here in Tokyo? I doubt he’d be long there since he told the madame at the Hachirou he’d want me ready by Friday evening and the days after.”
I drown the next sake cup she gives me and light a cigarette. “I don’t like to waste time… Besides…” I don’t tell her that there was something else about Ito. The things that I brought there, that started the sequence of events forced mother and daughter here to Tokyo. That there are also people there who may or may not end up being allies. “I’m only going there on a reconnaissance mission.”
“Ah in that case Hajime-han.” She puts the bottle away and takes the cup from my hand. “It’s better you don’t drink tonight.”
“And what do you propose I do then?” I ash the cigarette out the window sill. Back then no matter how much I tried, -nothing- happened. Much less now? If I sit around it’s guaranteed nothing -will- happen.
“Stay with me?” She grins and slinks back beside me on the floor. She first takes my free hand and links her fingers through mine and I notice how -soft- it is. She’s a Tayu after all, not one to do house work or care for a house full of children. With a sigh, I draw in a lungful of smoke and blow it out the open window.
“I’m sure everything you need for Ito is already in the bag right Hajime-han?”
I nod, more like a shrug really.
“Then just rest.” She lets go of my hand and takes my right arm placing it on her shoulders. I blink, looking at her hair. I decide to smell her hair but it’s not the same smell as the one that used to calm me even if hers does look similar to Hide now that Hide’s has grown back. But I never cared much about how Hide wore her hair, only that it smelled -familiar-, comforting even. But that’s the past, I tell myself. I should just take what’s in front of me, what’s offered without anything in return.
Aioi leans her body into mine and I can’t help but notice her bossom that’s full, maybe fuller than Hide’s. But Hide’s fit my hand -perfectly- and I remember the time we made a mess somewhere in the middle of -nowhere-. When she was still carrying -my- child. I blink again and close my eyes a few times, taking a deep breath in between.
I cough a bit having inhaled the smoke awkwardly just moments ago. I just had enough time to throw the cigarette out the window before… Was it the sake?
(OOC: To be continued)
In a way I’m glad that, that pig Miyagawa has gone out of town. Hajime-han and I still have a few days together. I didn’t know what would’ve happened tonight. What the Mibu no Ookami would do to a pig like him but I know it would not be -soft- or one with mercy. Was I afraid? No. Maybe I’ve seen too much that violence nor cruelty no longer fazes me. And this man sitting by the window smoking and drinking -is- capable of such ferocity much like his comrades who are mostly dead.
But he tells me he’s still going to investigate tomorrow and it seems that he’s not going to spend time the next few days lounging and fooling around. I suppose that’s very much like him so I take the sake away. I ask him to stay with me instead and not go to Ito but even with a smile and a soft touch he easily turns me down. I wonder if he has the same resolve when it’s his fake wife asking for a bit more time? Hopefully -not-.
He takes my advice to rest and we settle against each other. I can feel him assessing me as he sits there and plays with my hair. I push up my breast to show him what he can have tonight instead of going on another goose chase and I hear him take deep breaths. Looking up I fully expect him to start ravishing me like in the old days but instead he starts to hack. Restrained at first but then it gets deeper, louder and he flicks his cigarette out the window before falling over to his side on the floor.
“Hajime-han?” I shake him and look him over. He’s pale again and I touch his face, it’s cold with sweat. Just like he’s been the past few months? I thought whatever was wrong with him was fixed the other night? That problem that seemed to plague him back then whenever he’d want to take things further, like the old days before his “Princess” came back. I let out a frustrated sigh. “Truly Wolf…”
I place a pillow behind his head and straighten him out some. I do know how to -fix- this. He told and actually showed me it. I wonder, he said he had everything he needed in his bag, so I go there and look for that black pouch and take it to his side.
The truth was I think he can sleep this off but he’ll hate waking up knowing he’s wasted a day. Or I can do what he used to ask of me before. I look at his face, sleeping like this you’d think how “peaceful” but the beads of sweat on his forehead betray him. I take the sleeve of my yukata and wipe the sweat away. “Do I help you Mibu no Ookami?” I ask. I have always helped him but I didn’t know why. I suppose I’m just used to doing it by now without anything in return. But when I saw what he did for his princess I admit, not buying me out back then seems to sting much more today than it did back then. He had a reason, a perfectly good one. The money was to create a reason and distraction as to his true motives. But back then, he didn’t tell me and led me on, letting me have dreams of being freed just like what any Courtesan would dream off after she’s past a certain age. But he didn’t come on the promised day and only came back much later as someone else, a Jirou Yamaguchi.
I don’t have any false hopes about what we may end up to each other. He liked having a wife and I’m not. And it’s only lately that I’ve toyed with the idea that children maybe aren’t so bad. Last Saturday was the only time he bedded me for -me-. I didn’t force him and I don’t think he did it out of loneliness or pining for the women who cast him away. I go up to him and kiss his lips lightly. I heard a story that a kiss can wake someone up if it’s the right person and so I wait a bit more. After a while I smile to myself, I suppose it was just a story after all so I do what he told me to do and injected him on his neck with whatever concoction this was.
And it’s not long, a minute or two when he opens his eyes. I stare at him and he stares back at me. “I’ll wake you in time for the train to Ito.” I tell him and smile. He slightly nods and closes his eyes again. He’ll need rest.
Taking a pipe, it’s my turn to smoke by the window sill. I suppose the reason we keep finding each other is because we were cast away. I, cast away and forgotten by society and him, cast away by those women who thought themselves better or could do better. But I don’t deceive myself in thinking that there can be more to us, well I can I suppose build castles in the air. After all that’s what a Tayu does for the men who find themselves at her doorstep.
(OOC: End scene. Saitou will post a thread on visiting someone in Ito before going to the Sugiyama onsen)