"So how's Yoko doing?"
"Oh well you know, that pirate left her again," the dark haired girl stated.
"That's awful."
"And she's being a complete jerk about I, I try getting her to talk and she won't say one word. I don't know if it's because she's sad or because she's embarrassed."
"Embarrassed?"
"Oh, y'know, her coming from a well to do family, and him being all criminal like. Not really an approved boyfriend; her parents threatened to cut her off if she kept seeing him."
"Huh, really? No one told me that. Might have to reconsider my possible beaus," she smirked. "I knew this pirate back in Edo, and just damn. Very pretty."
"Well, usually they're bad, and rude, and trust me not pretty."
"He was," Yukari grinned, "He was pretty handsome. Used to come in this teahouse where I worked. Funny guy, I mean, he looked so tough, y'know? And about a month ago, he walks in. Starts getting drunk like he's got a deadline, talks about shaking the place up. I figure great, a fight, just what I fucking need... but then..."
"Yeah?" Fuu asks, leaning forward slightly.
"He sits on one of the stools, near the sake... and starts talking about some girl. At first all pissed but then he starts saying how beautiful she was, and... The way he said it. Had a voice like chocolate, y'know? All smooth, made you tingly when it slid down, Could have spent days listening to that boy talk, know what I mean?"
Fuu smiles wistfully, "I know exactly what you mean."
"Thing is...he never came in again. I thought maybe he left town or got run out so I started asking around for him, turns out he got killed, went down fighting in a great big yakuza fight."
"I'm sorry," Fuu said.
"Yeah, me too; not that I think I ever had a chance with him or anything, it's just... he was cool. Sorry he's not in the world anymore, y'know?"
Yukari's nostalgia suddenly bursts into movement, her hand flying forward to slap the table. She doesn't strike Fuu as someone who lets herself be sad for long.
"Wish you could have been there, though, to hear him talk. I think he even made up a poem called 'Pure', you would have liked it."
"Didn't think pirates wrote poetry," Fuu giggled.
"Nah, me either, but he was drunk most of the time. Say this, though - hot guy, great ass, amazing voice... worst rhymer in the whole damn world."
"No one knows my pain/I stare out at the rain?" Fuu laughed.
"Worse. He rhymed 'brown' with 'drown.'" Fuu snorted, her hand flying to cover her face.
"Oh! No!" Yukari remembers, her face splitting in a grin, "I remember a worse one. Get this, okay? He said something like 'you were flat' 'I liked that'. They both laughed at that. "Why would he even insult the chick like that? and then he rhymed 'Fuu' with 'Goo.'"
The color drains from Fuu's face, her hand tightening around the edge of the table they're sitting at.
"I don't even know why he wanted to talk about goo," Yukari continues, "It didn't fit the poem and then to make up a nonsense word for it to rhyme with? Cute, but weird."
Fuu's voice is quiet, careful. "You said this was... a month ago?"
"Give or take, yeah," Yukari notices Fuu's face, and bites her lip, "You okay?"
"What... what did he look like?"
"Uh, tall, skinny, dark. Hair all over the place. A red shirt, dark shorts, and the weirdest geta with metal on the bottom. And oh yeah! he had those blue prison tattoos around his wrists and ankles..."
Fuu shoves back suddenly, her breath coming in small gasps.
"Oh holy crap..." Yukari says, her eyes widening, "You're the girl like a wooden plank?"
"And he's dead," Fuu says, hysteria winding through her voice, "He's dead, you're sure of it? He's dead?"
"I didn't see it happen, no, but it was all over the place..."
Fuu's eyes close, delicate pain wrinkling her features.
"Fuu, I'm sorry, I had no idea you knew him, fuck, I feel so stupid."
"Yukari, I... I need to go, I'm sorry, I..." Fuu rises, pulling a handful of shiny coins from her purse and setting it on her plate, "I... I'm kind of… I just need to be alone..."
Fuu is two steps away from the table when Yukari's voice stops her.
"Hey, Fuu?"
Fuu's fingernails have broken the skin of her palms, "Yeah?"
"The poem was shit, but the way he talked about you. He really, really loved you."
Fuu smiles grimly, her eyes looking blankly across the restaurant, "I know."
And she walks out into the dark night of Nagasaki.
