- Prologue -
The war that has enveloped the world for more than a decade is finally coming to an end. The alliances among the five great countries has been restored on the grounds of compromise, although fragile, but widely welcomed by the people who had long endured the sufferings brought upon by the war. Throughout the continents, people celebrate the promises for peace.
Except, however, for the people from the small, insignificant villages, ignored and forgotten, war or no war. Poverty-stricken, these people from these villages of the no-names just scrape by on what they can find, which is always never enough, while crime-rates remain on the high. Worst still, the administration are usually made up by mobsters and crime organizations.
Tucked away from civilization and away from the safe reaches of any Hidden Villages of the Shinobi, is such a village. Aside from Pachinko parlors and the main produce of "personal lady hostesses", people in the village can hope for no happy respite, due to it being overrun by criminals and all sorts of suspicious people. And it's these criminals and suspicious people who reap the benefits from the two main "businesses"; the village folks stay poor.
So, war or no war, work is still work. And for one little lady, her line of work knows no rest.
"Amamikiyo-hime, are you ready?" a voice calls softly from behind a curtain of beads.
She looks at herself in the mirror; violet eyes tracing her perfect porcelain face, laden with snowy-white make up. The mark of a courtesan.
"Hime?" the voice said again, a slight note of urgency in it.
Violet orbs darted down to smooth pale hands, to the envelope they held. She took the still hot wax with a make up brush and shook a drop onto the back of the envelope, embedding it with an official-looking seal. "Borrowed" from a Fire Country administration official attending her special performance tonight. It is common for people from the higher-ups to stop by the village from whatever businesses that they might have in the nearest Hidden Village, still miles away. This one is a slimy old lecher, but she is even slimier, having lived in hardships had earned her some very useful skills.
"Jinko-san," she called in a hush.
"Yes, Amamikiyo-hime. Is it done?" Jinko asked, her head popping through the beaded tassels.
"Perfectly. You know what to do, yes?" She looked at the elderly woman now standing behind her, the cheap greenish-gray kimono she had on a sharp contrast to her own brightly-colored expensive-looking one.
"I do."
Jinko took the envelope and carefully placed it in the bosom of her kimono, safely hidden.
"If there is another way," Jinko begins.
"Jinko-san. Please."
Jinko stares wearily at the face of the most sought after courtesan in the village. Life has been hard on both of them, and now, the young lady in front of her is offering both of their escapes. But, at the cost of their own lives. Jinko pays no mind putting her own life on the line; the only reason for her reluctance is her lady's own wellbeing.
"This is our chance at a better life, Jinko-san, perhaps, our only chance." Amamikiyo said, as quietly as always, to the woman she considers as her surrogate mother.
"I understand, Hime." Jinko retreats slowly to the doorway, and as her back touches the tassels, Amamikiyo suddenly got up and took the woman's hands in her own, whispering into it.
"Hime? Mami-chan?" Jinko worded softly, the long-forgotten name passing from between her wrinkled lips.
"A little prayer. My mother taught me when I was a child." She looked up, and smiled a genuine smile, one she had not shown in many years.
"For luck."
"Thank you. But it is you, Hime, that I am worried about."
"I will be fine. I am his potluck. Even if this doesn't work, he needs me. He needs this face."
They hear hooting and cheering and clapping, and know that that is her cue. They want the "Princess."
"Hurry, Jinko-san."
Jinko watches as her lady grabs the seal and hid it deep within her sleeve, and after one last look in the mirror, they exchanged a silent goodbye to each other. Jinko disappears, and the Princess appears, to enthusiastic applauses and wolf-whistles.
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