Little Loved One
She belonged to neither this world nor this body and would do anything to be able to return home. She didn't remember or understand how she ended up here but it just didn't feel right, she had no memories of a childhood here—
Her musings were cut short by the sound of light footsteps. "Aiko-sama."
The teenager sighed. 'Well there goes all my privacy for the day…'
"Enter." At her command the wooden doors slid open and four women scurried to her side, each carrying something different. The maids were all dressed in simple blue kimonos made of hemp or linen, with brown sashes tied around the waist. Their hair was in a neat braided low bun held in place by a simple wooden hair pin.
Aiko sat patiently in front of her large vanity mirror, as the ladies placed out everything in front of her; a large bowl of water, a cup, various hair accessories, brushes and cosmetics and creams. First she washed her teeth with rosemary ashes and a cloth, then proceeded to rinse her mouth thoroughly with water, spitting it in the empty cup. She washed her face and let the attendants do the tedious task of hair styling.
By the door overseeing everything stood the head maid, Yamamoto, a strict yet loyal servant in her late thirties. Her daughter, Hatsumoto, picked up the bowl along with the cup and left with her head down. To her right sat Minako, braiding carefully. She liked Minako and would usually refer to her as 'Mina' much to the jealousy of the other maids who also wanted to gain the princess' favours. Minako was nineteen years old, the same age she had been in her world before she got stuck in the fourteen year old body of a royal, and had distinct sharp features which made her stand out from all the other women in the castle. She had brown hair and light brown eyes and a shapely chest much to the pleasure of the guards and displeasure of the women of the court.
Behind her stood Ohjin, a slave taken from Korea, she was calm and calculated, always staying level headed and never showing any weakness which is what made Aiko think she was the most intimidating of the bunch. Other than that she knew nothing more of Ohjins past nor her current but didn't really care either way. The castle was too mundane a place and was only kept lively by all the gossip and court drama.
Lastly sitting by her left was seventeen year old Ran chirping about the eastern ministers arriving for the Kings birthday. There was nothing special about Ran except that she was extremely social and happy around the clock.
That summed up all her personal maids. Then there was her family. Aiko was apparently the first daughter of the king and had two twin brothers five years older and one 10 years her junior. After birthing Aiko the Queen had four miscarriages and died giving birth to Hideyoshi. While the princess rarely saw her elder brothers who were out leading battles all the time, she got to spend a significant amount of her time with little Hideyoshi.
Today was special because most of the guests would be arriving for her father's birthday and as a formality she would be greeting them alongside her father. This meant that she had to look especially presentable to any and all suitors.
"Aiko-sama!" Once more she was snapped put of her daydreaming, this time by Ran who smiled brightly up at her. "It's all finished now."
"Ah." She paused for a second. "Thank you. You may leave."
The ladies exchanged glances before bowing a polite 90 degrees and stepped away quietly.
She knew. She knew that a royal saying 'thank you' to servants is below her but at the same time she knew to only do so in private. In her world everyone was equal, every human life was worth the same. After arriving here here she had first thought she'd time traveled to the middle ages but quickly scratched that thought as she discovered demons. It'd been the shock of her life. The first demon she encountered was a snake that had tried to bite her. According to the maids; after discovering that her father had taken a new wife less than two years after the Queen's death, Aiko-hime ran away disguising herself as a boy and was found later that evening under a cliff. Aiko remembered waking up and seeing the bright scarlet scales of a snake. It was already too late when the search party had found her, the golden eyes of the snake had stared directly at her and had spoken to her in a quiet weary voice.
"…ye' shall bear great responsibility to unite…yet—" The young girl cried out as the creature was cut in half before her eyes and dissolved into nothing. She stared at the two little holes in her right wrist and then up at the disgruntled face of a young man breathing heavily. He's immediately dropped to his knees, gathered her in his arms and ran.
When she awoke once more she discovered that her saviour had been her elder brother Ieyasu, but realised quickly when she came to that she didn't have any brothers. The royal physician concluded that she must've hit her head and lost her memories. Her right wrist bore no mark but she discovered soon that a flesh coloured mark had appeared on her wrist. It blended into her pale skin almost perfectly but would turn red on certain days. Ironically it looked liked two snakes going in a circle but never touching. She found herself unsure of showing it to anybody, what if it had something to do with her crossing over from another world? And if not then would the people here ostracise her for having it?
Her head was always filled with questions. She had been ripped away from her old life at the age of nineteen and put in a child's body instead. Why her? And how? She wanted so badly to leave this castle and find answers but couldn't with the way she was protected all the time.
Aiko found herself rubbing her right wrist and pondering deeply. She finally looked up to her mirror and inspected herself. This body looked eerily similar to her real one in the other world, the same dark green eyes, nose, skin tone and moles. Everything looked exactly like her except for the overly long hair. In her nineteen year old body her hair had just barely grazed her waist yet now it almost reached her knees. This summer she would have turned twenty-three…she wondered whatever happened to her real body? Was it still alive?
'Did I really die…'
The problem she had with this lifestyle was hygiene. It was so different yet she tried to find replacements for everything and had so far succeeded thanks to her status. Had she been poor it would have been a different story.
Her hair was half tied up into a bun covered with intricate braids and accessories. To complete the look were two sparking silver hair pins with tiny emeralds hanging off the end. Along with that she had on almost a thousand heavy kimonos of different colours. Beauty is pain she had learned in her first life but this did not look the least bit appealing.
The makeup was something she would never let anyone else do for her because she would end up looking like a cartoon character. She giggled quietly to herself and picked up the red lip cream and mixed it with the charcoal giving it a more brownish colour which was better on fair skin. She used soft strokes to fill in her thin and newly plucked brows. Then used the eyebrow brush to mix a tiny bit of beeswax with the charcoal again and used that as a substitute for mascara. Using a paint brush obviously did not result in the luscious and full fake eyelashes she was used to but worked wonders here. Apparently many of the women in the court had been trying the modern look Aiko wore out. It was flattering to say the least.
The powders and creams were always too white so she refrained from using them and only did so on special occasions as to not get any pimples. When she'd first entered puberty for the second time her face had broken out massively and she ended up staying inside more often, reading.
Small quick footsteps made their way to her door and there was a loud collision with the wooden doors followed by a shout. "OW!"
It unconsciously made her smile as she expectantly waited for the door door to be slid open by tiny hands. Her little brother stuck his head out grinning from ear to ear.
"Aneue!" He shouted. "Aneue! Aneue! Aneue!"
His sister turned towards the mirror checking over her look, fixing any small flaws while ignoring the child at her doors. Finally deciding that it was out of character for him to be this quiet, she turned around only to be hit in the leg with a tiny wooden sandal. It hit the floor with a soft 'thud'. She looked from the sandal up to the mischievously grinning boy and stared him down unamused.
"Don't tell chichi—"
"I am telling chichiue." Aiko put on her sandals and quickly walked out leaving Hideyoshi to pick up his now broken sandal.
The second she steppe out all the maids stated following in her footstep with their hands clasped in front and heads lowered slightly. Her little brother was suddenly in front of her, stopping the princess and everyone behind her in their tracks.
She bent down to rub his chubby dirty cheeks. "What are you so happy about, Hide?"
Hideyoshi grind widely. "Tenbungakusha-san is coming today! This Hideyoshi shall ask him to read my fortune! But Chichiue already says that I shall be stronger than both Ieyasu-aniki and Hidekatsu!"
She put a finger to her chin, pretending to think. "Why do you wish to become strong?"
Aiko already knew the answer. "To protect my Aneue of course!"
Tenbungakusha - Astronomer