In Kyoto, a new business day had begun for the shopowners who plied their wares along the main street. The merchants did brisk business on the busy thoroughfare, tempting both residents and visitors from all parts of the world with fine silks, jewelled hair ornaments, and cleverly-shaped sweets. The sake shop, of course, always did the best business- alcohol never goes out of style.
Behind the counter, a young man waited impatiently for his father to arrive and take over. He had a lover's tryst with a beautiful maiko by the river in an hour, and the booming business here didn't give him much chance of escape. With a sigh of annoyance, he withdrew to the small room behind the counter to think of Katsumi and make himself more presentable for her.
Being the son of a rich sake-seller had its advantages, of course. He could afford imported luxuries that few other Japanese youth could, certainly at least one of the reasons the charming apprentice geisha was so fond of him. Now he combed his hair back smoothly with a little grease, and removed his brand-new secret weapon from behind some storage boxes.
It was a squat black bottle, round-capped and embellished with white English characters and an odd, twisty yellow pictogram on the front. With the little English the boy knew, he could tell that the label read 'AXE'. More importantly, he had heard from the sailor offloading a cargo ship from America that all women, Western or Japanese, found it irresistable. The blonde man had said so with a rather telling smirk on his face. So the merchant's son had taken his advice and bought a bottle, at a rather ruinous thirteen yen.
The spray came out suddenly and with a force that surprised him. Wrinkling his nose against the strong odour of the cologne, the boy fervently hoped it worked on Katsumi because he dreaded having to smell the stuff all day. Hearing the back door of the shop open and the sound of his father's walking stick on the tatami, he was already on his way out.
Seijuro Hiko the Fourteenth found town and so-called civilisation disagreeable. He preferred his self-induced isolation in his plain artist's shack with kiln in the hills above Kyoto, throwing out pottery and only coming down for more sake. Sake was the only reason he was here today; sake was the only reason he was ever here. Sake was the only reason anyone was ever here. Gritting his teeth against the smell of drunk and unwashed human being, he entered the small shop. As he made his selection and paid, Hiko's sharp senses only made a passing observation of the foreign scent wafting from the back of the shop though it pervaded the entire area. He was glad to leave with two jugs of sake in hand for other reasons besides the strong smell of cheap cologne.
It was such a peaceful, sunny spring day that not even the master of Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu was fully on his guard as he walked through the backstreets and far-reaching meadows of the Kyoto outskirts on his way back to the mountain. It was due to this warm sun-induced lethargy that Hiko didn't see the woman until it was much too late.
She was on top of him in an instant, faster than a jumping spider pouncing its prey. Of course, it took considerable strength for anyone to bring down the formidable stature of Seijuro Hiko. But if anyone could do so, it was the tall and leggy Oniwa Banshu ninja, Okon. She herself had been minding her own business, running a quick errand to pick up a bag of rice for the Aoiya's weekday lunch crowd. But now...it was just too tempting. And...that irresistable smell! Mmm...
"Ohhhh, Hiko-sama!""Gah!"
*pan to bottle of Axe Tsunami Cologne Spray*
~owari~
-maiko: apprentice geisha