Chapter 9
"That's the ideal meeting...once upon a time, only once, unexpectedly, then never again." ― Helen Oyeyemi
"Otou-san~," I sang as I popped in to our bedroom, like one of those annoying weeds in the yard, just as Otou-san was packing for his short trip, "Where is this degeiko taking place this time?"
"Huh?" Otou-san perked up when he saw me. He paused his packing briefly to shoot me a friendly smile "Oh! I'm going to teach at the new dojo that Satô Hikogorô built."
Oh, the way that Otou-san mentioned the dojo makes it sound like it was in one of those small farming villages on the out skirts of Edo. It sounded like it would interesting and I wanted to tag along. Souji was spending more time in his kenjutsu lessons now so he didn't have the usual amount of time he use to have to spend with me. Deciding that big eyes was the way to go to convince Otou-san to take me with him, I conjured up the biggest and best puppy eyes I could manage.
"Can I come?" I asked cutely just as I approached him to unleash the close range puppy eyes I had prepared.
Otou-san chuckled at the expression that was painted onto my face before he ruffled my short hair. "I thought you said you weren't interested in swordplay." he said as he picked apart my puppy eyes. He knew I wanted something. "Why the sudden interest now?"
"All I said was that I wasn't interested in learning. That doesn't mean that I'm not interest in the mechanics of the Tennen Rishin-ryū style." I continued to pester Otou-san. "So, can I come? Please?"
While I truly wasn't interested in anything that dealt with the sword, I was bored. Because Souji spent most of his time trying to master the Tennen Rishin-ryū style now, I had no one too interesting to talk to. The other children that were my age were all now starting to enter the awkward stage of puberty. All the boys wanted to do was talk about girls, swords, and their newly discovered masculinity and all the girls wanted to talk about were boys, makeup, and weddings. I had already gone through that stage in my past life and I wasn't interested in going through it again. Once was enough. Besides, I got the distinct feeling that Otou-san was going to meet someone interesting at his degeiko. May this person would be someone that would be interesting to talk to.
"Well," Otou-san said as he looked down at me, "I'm leaving right now and there's no time left for you to pack. You can come next time."
Oh boo. That wasn't the answer I was hoping for. I looked at Otou-san with disappointment to show him I was unhappy with the answer, but Otou-san just laughed at me before poking my puffed up cheek, causing the air to leak out of my mouth.
"It's not that boring here." he said with a massive grin before he pat my head. "Be good and listen to Shuusai-sensei and Gen-san while I'm gone. And make sure Souji eats properly. He can't keep going out to eat dango."
"Fine." I yielded with childish disappointment.
"Alright, I'm going now." Otou-san said as he walked out of the bedroom and to the front door so he could put on his shoes.
I followed him like a small shadow so I could send him off. Souji, who also heard that Otou-san was leaving for a degeiko today, was already waiting by the front door to send Otou-san off. After Otou-san put on his shoes, he stepped outside and turned back to face me and Souji before he stepped off the dojo's grounds. Souji and I bowed politely to Otou-san and said, "Have a safe trip." in unison to properly send him off.
"I will." Otou-san called back as he continued walking. "So be good and remember your responsibilities. And Souji, look after Shizu-chan for me while I'm gone."
"I will." Souji answered.
Both Souji and I watched Otou-san leave until we couldn't see him anymore. Now what should I do to kill time after I finished my chores? Otou-san wasn't going to be around for a week, so I couldn't bother him. Maybe I could go down to the market to listen for gossip? Probably not. I did that yesterday so there was probably nothing new to listen to yet. I could go bug Inoue-san since he did seem to like my company, but as nice as Inoue-san was, it often got boring talking to him for extended periods of time. Maybe I could—
"Shizuka." Souji called me and tapped me on the forehead to capture my attention. I should really stop zoning out like that.
"Huh?" I blinked as I turned to face him.
"I need to go practice now, so I need you to come with me." Souji said as he reached down to grab my hand to take me with him, but I didn't understand. He didn't need me with him to practice, I couldn't fight. Souji playfully flicked my forehead when he saw my blank look. "You don't like to be alone, right? Come on let's go." he said before I let him drag me around for the rest of the day.
In the end, I didn't need to find something to do to kill time while Otou-san was gone. The whole week Otou-san was gone, Souji dragged me everywhere with him. He had really taken to heart what Otou-san said about looking after me. Souji even kept me with him at night when I couldn't sleep in my own room because Otou-san wasn't there. He would have me crawl into the same futon with him so I could sleep. Souji truly was the best friend anyone could ask for.
At the end of the week when Otou-san returned, he looked like he was a man deep in love. I had no idea what happened to him while he was away, but I wanted to know.
"Welcome back home, Otou-san." I greeted Otou-san at the front door when he returned late in the morning. Souji wasn't with me this time, he was taking a nap and I didn't want to wake him. "Did something good happen while you were away? You look like you're floating on a cloud made from happiness."
Otou-san greeted me back boisterously as he opened his arms to ask me for a hug. "It's good to be back! Something good did indeed happen. I met someone. He's Satô-san's brother-in-law. Now hurry up and come give your otou-san a welcome home hug."
I happily went up to and gave him the hug that he wanted, but something was bothering me. While I didn't actually know much about history, I do recall reading somewhere that Otou-san was supposed to marry a woman named Tsune and that Otou-san later became involved in the political field and that… Nope, that was all I knew. While gay men did often marry during this time so that they could complete their duty of producing an heir to continue the family name, I could have sworn that Otou-san was completely heterosexual. Did I do something to mess up the historical timeline or was this something that I just completely missed? Would this even be considered messing up the historical timeline? This was my era now too and I had the freedom to move as I wished. Well, either way, there would be no better way to know about where Otou-san's interests laid than asking him.
"I didn't know you were interested in men, Otou-san" I said with faux innocence as soon as I was released from the hug. Otou-san turned extremely pale as soon as I finished speaking. Interesting reaction. It was either he was mortified that I thought he was gay because he was straight as a doornail or it was because he was gay and was hiding it. "It's nothing to be ashamed of." I added shortly after for effect.
"What?!" he all but yelled once he found his voice again before adamantly denying my assertion while shaking his head. "Oh, no, no, no! I'm not interested in men! All I meant was that I made a new friend! A good friend!"
"Oops, maybe you should have been a bit clearer." I said with a sly smile that made Otou-san feel distinctly uncomfortable.
"What's with that smile?" Otou-san asked with suspicious worry as he tensed up. "You believe me right? Tell me you believe me."
"Maybe~" I teased him, causing Otou-san to turn paler than before. Okay, I should probably stop now. I had my fun.
"Shizuka!" Otou-san yelped. "I'm not gay!"
"I know, I know." I giggled to put him out of his misery. "I'm just teasing you. So, what's his name?"
Otou-san sighed loudly and relaxed visibly before he eyed me wearily. "His name is Hijikata Toshizo." Otou-san answered before he took another breath. "He's incredibly intelligent and fairly strong. I invited him over for some practice later today when he's finished with his job."
Hijikata Toshizo, I had read that name somewhere before in my past life and I was pretty sure that he was famous for something, but for what, I didn't remember. All I did know was that he was supposedly an intelligent and talented individual and supposedly very strict. Maybe he was a military commander of some sort? He did seem like he would have the traits of a military commander. I didn't really remember since memorizing history wasn't all that important to me back then, plus the fact that I never studied Japanese history in detail so everything I read on Japanese history was always fairly brief and undescriptive. However, now that I was living in the past, my curiosity was tickled. Now I really wished that I had paid closer attention to history and asked more questions.
However, I did know that Hijikata Toshizo was recorded by historians to be a strict person, but history was always written by the living about people who were long since dead. How would I know if the history that was recorded was actually accurate? I wanted to meet this man so I could develop my own conclusion about him. But if this man really was as strict as he was made out to be then it must have been his most memorable trait if the historians wrote about it.
"Can you introduce us?" I asked while tugging on Otou-san's hand to make myself look cuter so that it would be harder to turn down my request. "Please?"
"You're not going to question him about his sexual preferences, are you?" Otou-san asked me, still weary from the stunt I pulled earlier.
"I won't." I promised wholeheartedly. "So please?"
"Alright." Otou-san agreed immediately after my promise. He grinned once more and ruffled my hair again. "I'll introduce you to Toshi. Who knows, Shizu-chan might finally have another person she can hold a conversation with! Now go run along. I'll come find you later when Toshi arrives."
After finishing my little conversation with Otou-san, I ran off to take a nap with Souji so I could leave Otou-san to finish whatever task had to finish upon returning home. Some few hours past as the morning turned into the afternoon, I parted with Souji to go in search of Otou-san while Souji went down to the main practice hall of the dojo for his kenjutsu lessons with the other pupils. While I was wander down the hall in search for Otou-san, some sounds caught my attention.
"Hah!"
"Erk!"
I heard two voices accompanied by the sound of bokken clashing together as I passed a small practice room. That was strange. There should be classes going on right now, hence why Souji wasn't with me right now. There shouldn't be anyone using that practice room at the current moment. I decided to peek into the room to see who the people practicing inside were. There were three people in that room. Inoue-san was seated on the floor as he watched two people spar. The two people locked in combat were Otou-san and a rather handsome young man that had his long hair tied up in a high ponytail. As soon as the two men disengaged and bowed respectfully to each other, Otou-san glanced at me as my head was poking out from behind the doorway.
"Ah! There you are Shizu-chan! I was just about to go find you." As Otou-san spoke, the other man followed Otou-san gaze, his eyes widening slightly when he saw me. It was usually a bit strange to find a small girl wandering the halls of any dojo.
"Come over here," Otou-san waved me over with a grin, "you said you wanted me to introduce you to Toshi."
I nodded enthusiastically before I bounced up to Otou-san and the handsome looking man with the ponytail.
"Someone wanted to meet me?" The man with the ponytail asked as he watched me approach him with curiosity.
"Toshi, this is my daughter, Shizuka." Otou-san said as he gestured to me before gesturing back at the man. "Shizu-chan, this is Hijikata Toshizo."
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Hijikata-san." I said with a polite bow before turning to Inoue-san, "Good afternoon, Inoue-san."
"Ah, good afternoon to you too, Shizuka-chan," Inoue-san answered me before Hijikata-san.
"It's nice to meet you too, Shizuka-chan." Hijikata-san replied as he lowered himself to my height after Inoue-san before turning to Otou-san, "I didn't know you were married."
"Oh! I'm not married yet. Shizu-chan here isn't my daughter by blood, but I was the one that found and raised her."
That was interesting. For Otou-san to already tell this man that he found me and adopted rather than me his blood daughter after only a week of knowing this man, Otou-san must have really come to like and trust Hijikata-san. But one thing I noticed about Otou-san was that he trusted way too easily. Only time would tell if the trust Otou-san was right to trust Hijikata-san so soon.
"That was very generous of you! And you raised her so well, she's very polite." Hijikata-san exclaimed in pleasant surprise before he turned to face me again. "So Shizuka-chan, how old are you?" he asked me with a tone one would usually only use with young children.
"I'm eleven." I answered bluntly. I wasn't too happy with the way that Hijikata-san was talking down to me, but in his defense, I was didn't look like I was eleven. I was still tiny in comparison to the other children my age. "You don't have to talk down to me like I'm a child. I guarantee you that I'll be able to understand anything you say to me."
Hijikata-san seemed stunned at the way I spoke to him and even more surprised at my age.
"What?! You're eleven?" Hijikata-san said in surprise before he squinted at me to gather more information. "You speak well for an eleven year old. How are you this tiny?"
"Well, you see, I was really a thirty-one year old woman from the future who died in a horrific accident before I was reincarnated into the past in the body of a premature baby that was a product of rape. So this is why I speak so well and why I'm so tiny." I answered honestly all in one breath. Hijikata-san just stared at me with disbelief. He probably thought I was being sarcastic.
Otou-san and Inoue-san just merely laughed at my response before Otou-san placed his hand on my shoulder affectionately. "She's a piece of work, isn't she?" Otou-san said with fatherly pride.
"Well," Hijikata-san said as he stood back up straight again, "she certainly isn't like all the other kids her age I've seen."
Of course I wasn't going to be. I would be insulted if he thought I was. So far this man seemed like a kind person. He didn't seem all that strict, although I've only spoken to him for a few minutes. I wanted to know more about the man that captured Otou-san's affection so quickly, even Inoue-san seemed to really like him. Hmm…
"Otou-san, would you like me to get everyone some tea and snacks?" I suddenly offered. I figured that I would learn more about Hijikata-san at the moment by listening in on some of his conversations with Otou-san and what better way to promote small talk than having some tea with snacks?
"Oh! That would be much appreciated! Thank you, Shizu-chan." Otou-san said graciously.
"Hijikata-san," I called to get his attention before I left for the kitchen, "do you have any preferences to what snacks you would like to eat? Are there any allergies I should be aware of?"
"Ah, anything's fine and as far as I'm aware, I'm not allergic to anything." Hijikata-san answered before he sent me off with a polite nod.
As I stepped out of the room to go fetch the refreshments, the small talk began and I lingered a bit to catch some of the conversation.
"She really is a piece of work and she seems so intelligent too. Is she literate?" I heard Hijikata-san ask.
"Yes, she is and I believe that she's even more literate than me! She's fluent in Chinese and Japanese." Otou-san boasted.
"Really? You must be glad you spent the money to hire a tutor for her if she can retain all that information all that well. Pity she's a girl. She would have made a fine scholar."
"Well, that's just the thing. I never hired a tutor for her. She was already fluent in Chinese before I started to teach her how to read and write Japanese…"
"What?! How the hell does that work?!"
Ooo, looks like Hijikata-san wasn't afraid of using some less than polite language.
"I have no idea…" Otou-san said with his puzzlement clearly obvious.
"I remember the day when Isami-san discovered that Shizuka-chan was fluent in Chinese." I then heard Inoue-san cut in to the conversation. "Shizuka-chan was sick with the measles at that time and Isami-san was trying to keep her entertained while she was stuck in bed."
"I gave her a blank journal to amuse herself with despite the fact I hadn't started to teach her how to read and write yet and by the end of the week, it was filled from cover to cover with Chinese and medical diagrams that were actually accurate! I had never been so surprised in my life!" Otou-san continued from Inoue-san's piece.
"Isami-san was so shocked that he ran off to the temple to pray for an entire week without any breaks."
"How could I not? Shizu-chan must have been a gift from the gods! How else could a young girl have all that knowledge without having a teacher?"
Okay, that was enough eavesdropping for now. I'd better run off to go get the refreshment before they suspected that I had planned this just to listen in on the conversation. When I returned to the room later with refreshments, I served all the men before I took a seat next to Otou-san so I could listen in to the rest of the men's conversation in the open. Otou-san was right about Hijikata-san. From what I gathered from the small talk, Hijikata-san was an honorable person and an intelligent individual that was worthy of Otou-san's trust. Hijikata-san was also rather practical too. After realizing that I was not like all the other children, he started to speak to me like an equal. He didn't dumb down his speech with me like many other adults did and I greatly appreciated that. I liked Hijikata-san and he certainly had my approval.
After that day, Hijikata-san would always arrive at the dojo everyday around the same time to practice and converse with Otou-san and occasionally with Inoue-san. Souji, who was never around when Hijikata-san was here due to his kenjutsu lessons, began to notice how enamored Otou-san was with his new friend. Souji would always hear Otou-san say things like, "Toshi this" and "Toshi that" or, "You must have had fun talking to Toshi today, Shizu-chan."
Frustrated with these new developments, Souji always cornered me right after each of his classes every day forced me to tell him everything that happened. He grew more envious and moody with each day and with each piece of information I passed on to him.
"Shizuka." Souji called to me as he ran up to me right after his lessons ended. He was still covered in sweat from today's practice.
"Souji, you know you should, at the very least, wipe away your sweat from today's lesson." I voiced my disapproval before I began wiping the sweat from his face with my kimono sleeve. "This is one of the reasons why you get sick so easily."
Souji quickly brushed away my arm as I reached out to wipe away the sweat. "Shizuka!" Souji voiced displeasure at my actions. "You'll get your kimono dirty. Back to what I want to ask you—"
"About what happened today with Hijikata-san?" I guessed the obvious topic he wanted to ask about.
"So? What happened?" he asked impatiently with a frown. "Is Kondou-san still spending his whole afternoons with that man? Are you?"
"Well, we actually talked about Rangaku[1] today." I answered Souji's first question. "He was impressed with my medical knowledge so he took some time and effort to secure some Dutch medical books for me and we spent the whole afternoon discussing it. You know how hard it is to get Dutch medical books and how expensive they are."
"The whole afternoon?" Souji asked with an increasingly bad mood growing. "Did Kondou-san stay to talk the entire afternoon too?"
I nodded and Souji huffed angrily at what I told him. He was frustrated at the new intruder that had snuck his way into mine and Otou-san's lives because both Otou-san and I were spending so much time with this "intruder".
"Souji?" I said to get his attention again after he started to brood. I didn't like it when Souji was this frustrated about something and I wanted get his mind off of this topic. I continued speaking when I had Souji's attention. "I just finished preparing a hot bath for you a little earlier so that you can enjoy a relaxing bath after practice. After you're done with your bath, do you think you can help me fetch some things at the marketplace?"
Souji brightened up when I asked him for his help and put his negative thoughts out of his mind for now.
Finally, one day the class schedules were changed. One of the instructors had an aging mother that required more care and couldn't teach classes at the same allotted time anymore. Souji no longer had his lessons in the afternoon. The time he had free now was at the same time that Hijikata-san usually came to the dojo.
"It's good that the class times got rearranged," said Otou-san to Souji as we all sat together eating lunch, "I'll finally get to introduce you to Toshi."
"Yes, I'm sure you'll like him." Inoue-san added in between bites of his meal. "Shizuka-chan likes him and she doesn't become attached to many people very easily."
I nodded in agreement, agitating Souji even more as he griped his chopsticks together so tightly that they started to grind against each other. I frowned and reached over to take his hand. Souji put down his chopsticks and gently squeezed my hand back when he accepted it.
"Yes, I'm sure I will," Souji lied though his teeth with a smile. He was unable to control the unconscious twitch of his eyebrow.
And so came the fateful meeting of Souji and Hijikata-san.
"Toshi, meet my otoutodeshi[2], Okita Souji. Now Souji, your greetings." Otou-san said cheerfully as he rubbed Souji's head affectionately.
"Good day, Hijikata-san. I've heard a lot about you from Kondou-san."
Oh, Souji had that smile on his right now. He had something planned for Hijikata-san. Figuring this was going to be fun, I moved in a bit closer so I wouldn't accidently miss something.
"Oh. So what have you heard?" Hijikata-san asked Souji. He had already met me and he liked me, but he was going to be in for a nasty surprise if he thought Souji was going to be anything like me.
"Let's see... Things like he's already old enough but still tied to his married ane's apron strings, not getting a serious job, challenging dojos and forcing them to buy his family's medicine after beating them up, being smart but not using his wits in doing good, and stuff like that." Souji happily dissed Hijikata-san without missing a beat.
"What the... Kondou-san, you've been saying that to a kid like this?" Hijikata-san asked with shock.
"Err... No! I don't recall saying such things." Otou-san said while looking confused at Souji's words as he tried to fix the situation.
"Isami-san would never talk about Toshi-san in such manner." Inoue-san jumped in to defend Otou-san.
"Of course not." Souji said with a smug smile starting to form on this face. "Kondou-san wouldn't talk this way. I'm only saying what I want to say. I heard those from other older pupils."
"Kid, tell you what. If you can't tell what's a stupid rumor and what's not, you'll never grow up to be a decent man." Hijikata-san said as he attempted to connect with Souji by offering as a piece of advice.
"If that means wondering around all day doing nothing but practicing sword, rather than getting a proper job, I'll be careful not to become one like you."
"Souji!" Otou-san finally scolded Souji. "Don't talk this way!"
After watching that exchange, I couldn't help myself as I burst out into uncontrollable giggles. That was amusing to watch, Souji could be pretty quick-witted too when he wanted to be.
"Ehh?! Don't laugh, Shizu-chan!" Otou-san scolded me as he kept looking back and forth between me and Souji.
Souji just stood there with a proud smirk, pleased that he made me laugh when he dissed Hijikata-san.
After Souji and Hijikata-san met, a vicious cycle formed between the two. Souji would go out of his way just to annoy and tease Hijikata-san, while, in turn, Hijikata-san would yell at Souji frustratingly before sinking down to Souji's level and start hurling insults back at Souji. However, that isn't to say that they didn't grow close to each other. Hijikata-san came to view Souji as the annoying little brother and Souji… well, came to see Hijikata-san as the pain-in-the-ass cousin that nobody wants to see during family reunions. This cycle continued for two years before Hijikata-san started to live at the dojo in 1859. After that, the cycle got a little bit…more vicious.
"Hey, what do you think of this haiku?" Souji asked me as he pointed to one in a journal that he obviously stole from Hijikata-san's room after breaking in.
"It's… pretty terrible."
"For such a smart man, Hijikata-san sure is bad at writing poetry, right? Hehehe, look at this one—"
"SOUJI!" A loud yell rang across the dojo. Looks like Hijikata-san discovered what Souji did.
Within a matter of seconds, the door of the room Souji and I were sitting in was slammed open with a loud bang.
"SOUJI! YOU BROKE INTO MY ROOM AGAIN AND STOLE MY HAIKU JOURNEL!" Hijikata-san furiously yelled at Souji, "GIVE IT BACK!"
"Eh? No way, I'm not done with it yet~" Taunted Souji as he stood up, "Right, Shizuka?"
"SOUJI!" Hijikata-san yelled before scolding me, "DON'T ENCOURAGE HIM SHIZUKA!"
Souji quickly danced away as Hijikata lunged him.
"Neh, Hijikata-san, Shizuka is always on my side so it's pointless to tell her such things~" Souji mocked Hijikata-san before running out the door with the book.
"SOUJI!" Hijikata-san yelled after Souji before giving chase, "GET BACK HERE!"
"Wait for me!" I quickly scrambled to my feet to run after them. I didn't want to be left in this room by myself.
[1] Rangaku (Kyūjitai: 蘭學/Shinjitai: 蘭学, literally "Dutch Learning", and by extension "Western Learning") is a body of knowledge developed by Japan through its contacts with the Dutch enclave of Dejima, which allowed Japan to keep abreast of Western technology and medicine in the period when the country was closed to foreigners, 1641–1853, because of the Tokugawa shogunate's policy of national isolation (sakoku).
[2] Otoutodeshi literally means "little brother pupil", which means a pupil of the same dojo, but entered later.
