Hi everyone, sorry it took me so long to get this next chapter out! Vet school is very busy to put it mildly. I will do my best to update this and my other stories as quickly as possible though it may take some time. But I do promise to finish all my stories! Please read, review & enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own any characters from Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time or Ashia (who belongs to Mutt99 on Deviantart- happy late birthday btw!). There are also character names in here from another story. Can you guess what work they are from? The other source will be revealed in the next chapter!
Chapter 2: Becoming a geisha
The white tigress shrieked as she was whipped through a swirling blue vortex. But just as suddenly as her fall began, it stopped, concluding with her slamming into the hard ground, her head thumping against it. She could just make out bamboo shoots surrounding her and the sound of hurried feet before her vision blackened and she knew no more.
Ashia jerked awake, her head pounding. Was the vortex some work-induced nightmare or migraine-induced vision? However, one quick look at herself quickly dashed those hopes. Instead of her usual maroon pencil skirt and blouse, she seemed to be wearing some sort of red floor-length plain cotton robe, her normal attire nowhere to be found. Ok Ashia reasoned to herself, trying not to panic you have obviously worked far too hard lately and are now having some sort of…hallucinations. But all you have to do is wait for it to end; absolutely nothing is wrong.
She got up and surveyed the room around her which was sparsely furnished with a small chest of drawers, a sleeping mat (from which she had just risen), paper walls and straw mats which covered the floor. Tatami mats, her mind supplied while she tried to suppress hysterical giggles. These were common in Asian cultures such as Japan. But she obviously wasn't in Japan, was she? She had probably just fallen somewhere in Chinatown on the way home from the library and had been put in someone's room to recover, right?
Before she could come up with anymore theories regarding her current situation, the paper door slid back to admit two- wait a minute why were they dressed like samurai?- into the room. Saying nothing, the armored boars each grabbed her by an arm and hoisted her from the room.
"Don't touch me, get off!" Ashia shrieked, trying to wrestle her arms free to no avail. Her efforts were simply ignored as she was brought down a flight of stairs and into what looked like some sort of office.
The screen door slammed shut behind her, leaving her alone with an enormous rhino lady wearing a ridiculous amount of makeup and a kimono, hers a light blue. She looked up from what appeared to be an abacus to scrutinize the newcomer.
"Do you know where you are?" The rhino croaked, her voice rougher than the crunch of gravel being trod on. Ashia mutely shook her head. "You are in my okiya, girl, after my guards found you in a clearing nearby. Thus, saving your life. As a result, you belong to me." Ashia began to protest but was cut off. "I don't care where you came from nor how you arrived. From now on, you will be a geisha and everything you do will be to serve the okiya and myself. Dismissed."
Before she could say anything, the boars returned, hauling her out of the office and down multiple twisting corridors and throwing her through another set of screen doors. From her sprawled position, Ashia met the gazes of three startled women, a jaguar and two snow leopards who were also dressed in kimono. One of the guards snapped at them, "Madame Hatsumomo wishes for her to be trained." He then marched out, leaving the women alone.
Ashia struggled to her feet and backed away from them. "There is no way in hell I will ever be a geisha!" She hissed ferociously. The situation was starting to fully hit her, and she could just feel a panic attack coming on. The jaguar looked at her sympathetically and approached her slowly. "That is what I also said, yet here I am. You see, Hatsumomo controls most of the village and her word is law. Disobey her and, well…" Here, she paused, then turned around and lowered her kimono past her shoulders to reveal numerous whip wheals. Ashia gasped then nodded. Not only could she lose her life, she also had no idea where she was. For now, it may be better to play along until she could find a way out of this mess.
"Where am I exactly?" She asked. The three felines looked surprised and one of the snow leopards answered. "Kyoto. How do you not know?" The tigress shrugged. "To be honest, I'm not sure how I arrived. One moment, I was reading a book about this place, the next I am falling through this blue light…" She trailed off, noting the dubious looks of her audience. The jaguar stated, "Well everything about you is, no offense, a little odd from your accent to the clothes you arrived in… Be that as it may, you're still going to have to survive here until you can get back home." Swallowing her hurt pride and seething anger, Ashia agreed.
Thus, began her training. The jaguar, Sayuri, first instructed her on dressing in the kimono and applying her makeup. It was all much more complicated than she anticipated. First, she was given a wooden twig that was burned at the end which she was informed was paulownia wood to help emphasize her faded eyebrows as well as pigment sticks of various red colors for eye shadow and liner as well as lipstick. She was thankful that, as a result of having white fur, she didn't have to smear her face with white makeup.
Next, came the rest of the kimono which was surprisingly confusing. After swapping the cotton robe (which turned out to be a "makeup robe") for a white short-sleeved cotton shirt and a silk slip, small pillows were tied around her waist to act as padding to "perfect her figure." Once Ashia had calmed down (the 3 women had to pin her to a chair and cover her mouth to stop her rant), a light pink underrobe was added with a red collar to signify her status as an apprentice geisha or maiko. Then came the white socks with toes called tabi which fit her feet snugly (she made a mental note to find them back home if she could) followed by the main kimono and the accompanying silk tie or obi. This last article was a light pink, standing out against the dark red kimono, and had to be fixed in place by a wizened stork, the dresser, who did this using well placed clasps and padding to achieve the final knot. Her white hair was then arranged in an elegant top knot with a pink lotus flower added for adornment.
Once she was dressed, the snow leopard twins, Li and Xi, taught her dancing, music and general entertainment etiquette. They had to stifle laughs as Ashia stumbled around at first in the large sandals, or zori, worn by geisha as they showed her how to properly shuffle her feet, so she didn't tip over. By the end of the day, Ashia's head was spinning with different techniques for serving tea and picking kimonos and she had no energy left to despair of her situation as she was led back to the room where she had awoken. She didn't notice a navy, bush-tailed shadow outside her window as her body hit the sleeping mats, instantly asleep.
AN: See you all in the next chapter. Brownie points to anyone who can name the book from which some of the character names came from (hint- I'm talking about Madame Hatsumomo and Sayuri)!
