A/N: This story has been on my mind for some time, but it took me a while to get started, as it needs quite a lot of research and is somehow much more difficult to write than a fantasy or present time story... I hope you'll enjoy it :) Also, even though I have done quite some research, please don't expect everything to be correct what I am writing about Meiji Japan or geishas. I am happy though, if you point out mistakes :) By the way, the beginning is a little inspired by Isabel Allende's "The house of spirits". One of the characters called Rosa reminded me very strongly of Michiru (I wonder if anyone who read the book thought the same?) and I am alluding to this in the beginning. Also, I am not a native English speaker, so there will be probably be some mistakes, weird grammar, etc.
It would be great to hear what you think!
Disclaimer: Sailor Moon obviously doesn't belong to me.
In a cold night in spring, on March 6th in 1877, a little girl was born in a fishermen's village at the eastern coast of Japan. The mother was beside herself when she saw the child for she was sure to have given birth to a demon. The little girl's hair shimmered turquoise, just like the sea and her eyes were as blue as the sky.
The midwife simply looked critically at the child and then asked for black tea leaves from which she brewed a thick decoction. She washed the little girl's hair with it and told the mother that she should do so regularly from now on – the turquoise would fade to a darker color.
Indeed, the color faded slightly, but it continued to shine with a faint blue-green. And the little girl with the strange hair, the blue eyes and the pale, almost translucent skin did not only look completely different from her siblings, she also behaved unlike them. From early on she was quiet and calm and content to play by herself.
But even if all this gave her mother enough cause for concern and she was glad that the father didn't pay too much attention to his numerous daughters, what worried her even more were the fantastic stories the little girl told the other children, of a strange moon kingdom in which a beautiful golden-haired princess lived. Where did the child get those ideas from? She had never ever seen a person with fair hair in her life, of that her mother was quite sure.
The people in the little village whispered about the child, suspecting that she might be a sea demon's child or maybe had been exchanged by the mermaids for one of their own. Or was she possessed by an ancient sprit who taught her the strange things she said and knew?
~o~o~
It was quite late at night when Michiru stole away from the house. Finally her oldest sister who lay in the futon beside her had fallen asleep and she needn't fear that she might get caught immediately. She left her wooden shoes behind and hurried barefoot to the shore, fearing that the sound of her geta would betray her too easily.
It took only a few minutes to reach the sea and this was one of the things she loved about this house. At the place to which her parents wanted to send her, she wouldn't be able to do so, they had said. It was not possible to simply walk to the shore and a life away from the sea was a life she felt unable to imagine, after living by its side for all of the six years she had already spent in this world.
She was convinced that she could never feel at home anywhere where she couldn't hear and smell the sea.
"Don't be silly, Michiru", her mother had said. "You only think so because you've never been away. You'll forget it soon." But while saying so, she had looked at her fearfully from the side, just as she did when Michiru told her about her lively dreams of a far-away kingdom.
Since she suddenly had known that something bad was going to happen to her big brother and he hadn't come home from fishing the next day – since then her mother always looked at her with this strange gaze, when she said such things. Was this the real reason why she was sent away?
Mother had said that she was going to live in a big house and learn to be a fine lady who was able to sing, dance and make music – she liked that, for she loved music. But she didn't want to go away from her parents and sisters and particularly from the sea.
„Mother is having another baby and maybe it's finally a boy again", her father had said when she had begged him to be allowed to stay. "You have to help support the family, Michiru. Yoshiko will marry and you need to do your part as well."
„It is a great honor", her mother had added, but Michiru wasn't sure whether she had really meant what she said. Why were her sisters allowed to stay and she had to go?
As the stars faded, she finally went back home and lay down next to her sister. Seemingly, no one had noticed her absence and she fell asleep exhausted.
~o~o~
It was spring time again and the wind ruffled the still bald trees. Michiru stopped for a moment and smiled as she saw the first tender buds forming. It wasn't long now until the cherry blossoms would flood the entire city with pink.
"Chiyoko-san?" The voice of the younger girl a few steps ahead of her, Yuka, brought her to her senses. She smiled at her apologetically and hurried onwards, her geta chattering on the floor. They mustn't come home late, there wasn't much time left until the evening.
She had gotten used to be called by a different name by now, her geisha name. She was Chiyoko now, eternal child, in honor of her older sister Chiyoha.
This was the third spring for her as a Maiko. Since more than three years she was accompanying her older sister as an apprentice geisha and entertained their customers together with her. She smiled in remembrance at how much she had struggled when her parents wanted to give her away. She had been lucky, incredibly lucky to have been sold to an okiya, a geisha house, and such a respectable one at that – her fate might certainly have been much worse.
Of course, she couldn't marry – or at least not soon, but she had no desire to do so either. Several of her fellow geishas and maikos had fallen for a man at some point and harbored secret dreams of him paying the price to free her from her duty to the okiya and marry her.
But she had never met someone for whom she felt like this. Only in a past life, which she felt sure by now was what her dreams showed her, there had been someone for her, but while her dreams were mostly vivid and detailed, she had never caught more than a few glimpses of this person – fair hair, not golden like the moon princess', but almost white - she smiled softly to herself.
And she enjoyed her vocation. Dancing and singing came easily to her and her skills on the flute, shamisen and as a painter and calligraphist were highly praised despite her young age. And she loved the moment when she and her sister appeared in the tea house in the evening in their white masks and silken kimonos, drawing all attention towards them.
Today, however, she was uncommonly nervous. In the tea houses businesses deals were closed and politics discussed and the geishas were responsible for creating the right atmosphere. Tonight several influential politicians and scholars would attend and she was exited, but also slightly scared that conversation might reach a level surpassing her skills. In no case she wanted to embarrass Chiyoha.
The only thing she bitterly missed in her new home in Tokyo was the sea, but it wasn't too far away, that much she knew by now – in Japan the sea was never far. And the wind carried its scent to her, even if no else was able to discern it except for her.
They left their wooden geta at the entrance and entered the house which was already buzzing with excitement and preparations. The geishas and maikos were readying themselves for the evening.
Yuka, who was no Maiko yet, offered her help and she took her along to look for Chiyoha, who greeted them happily without reprimanding them for being late. Michiru smiled gratefully. She was lucky with her older sister. She was an amiable young woman and in contrast to many others didn't enjoy ordering the younger girls around.
She went to the vanity and looked at her reflection. Her hair was rearranged once a week and during this period she had to sleep on a wooden stick like all the other girls to keep her hair in order. It had taken many weeks, but by now she had gotten used to the painful pillow.
It had been five days now since she had had it arranged last, but it still looked tidy and contented she started to color her face and neck in white. When she was finished, she outlined her eyes and eyebrows in black and then applied red powder to her eyes and eyebrows and to her cheeks, tinting them pink, as was common for a young maiko.
Finally, she colored her lips with red paint and looked at her face in the small mirror with satisfaction. She loved the colors covering her face like a mask even though she sometimes wished to be free to paint whatever she wanted, rather than having to adhere to the strict rules.
„Are you finished, Chiyoko-chan?" Chiyoha approached her with Yuka, who was carrying the kimonos for tonight in her arms – a pale pink one for the maiko and a more mature violet for the geisha, both covered with cherry blossoms to match the approaching season.
Two helpers joined them and assisted them donning the kimonos and binding the obis – this was the only task in the geisha house performed by men, for the heavy kimonos required a lot of strength to bind. Finally, they put expensive tortoise combs and colorful pins into their hair and left for the evening, fair like colorful butterflies.
To be continued.