I really, sincerely apologize for missing a week and then being late this week on top of that. Work just started up for me again and I've had almost zero time to write. Things are going to be very busy for me for a while until the dust settles, so expect my updates to become less regular. I'll still be stealing as many moments as I can to work on the next chapters, but I apologize in advance for future delays. Luckily, we're getting close to the end of the story so there's really not that much left to go.
I also apologize for the roughness of this chapter. Less writing time also means less editing time. Normally I reread a chapter several times to iron out the kinks, but I wanted to get this out so it's still pretty raw. Expect some choppiness, friends.
Chapter Thirteen
Kagura glanced sidelong at her newest partner in crime as they were both done up for the evening. News had already spread round Yoshiwara of Saya's "promotion" and Tsukuyo's Hyakka were in and out of the room like sugar ants as they reported to their commander about the ensuing gossip in the brothels.
As expected, there were many girls who were none too happy about her friend's relocation to the upper floors.
Saya herself seemed to be taking everything in stride. She sat calmly as her makeup was done by another of Tsukuyo's agents. For the sake of secrecy, the normal help had been replaced by Hyakka, as apart from their group of five, there was no telling now who in Yoshiwara could be trusted. The girl looked as natural as a koi in a pond dolled up in a splendid kimono of peonies while the agent brushed her lips with crimson. She was a seasoned pro at this and it showed.
Kagura was a little envious. Saya was a proper courtesan whose bearing exuded poise and refinement. Not to mention she was stunning in her full getup. Kagura may be a spectacle with her naturally pale skin, blue eyes, and vermillion hair, but Saya was the picture of a classic beauty with thick, dark hair, long lashes, and dainty, petal soft lips. A knock-out by any metric.
Killer or no killer, she certainly would have climbed the ranks on her own, given a few years.
"Kagura-chan?" the object of Kagura's scrutiny questioned, a note of concern in her voice. "Are you okay? Nervous about tonight?"
Kagura hurriedly shook her head, grateful that nobody was currently drawing on her face. "Ah, no. I'm fine. I was just thinking that you look really pretty."
Saya smiled a little bashfully. "Thank you. That's kind of you to say."
Kagura laughed and raised an arm to rub the back of her head. "I mean it! I don't think there's a man alive who could resist you looking like that."
Without really meaning to, Kagura found her eyes darting across the room to where Sougo sat against the far wall, his arms crossed over his chest and a bored expression on his face. To a casual onlooker, he appeared in every way disinterested in the goings on around him. And maybe he was. She knew, however, that appearances were often deceiving when it came to him.
He would be sharing a room with Saya-chan tonight as her client. And potentially every night after until the killer was caught. It was a weird thing to think about, the sadist cohabitating with another person. A girl, at that. She was surprised he'd agreed to it. He could be cordial and was even able to act sweet when it suited him, but it was famously known that he didn't enjoy being around others.
Saya was very cute, though. Was she, perhaps, his type?
"I could say the same about you," Saya shot back with a pretty giggle. "Yours is a rare look around here. Star or not, it's no wonder that so many high profile clients have taken a shine to you." Her voice lowered then and she leaned to the side to regard Kagura slyly. "Speaking of which, what about you, Kagura-chan? Have any clients caught your eye? Most courtesans have a favorite, you know."
Kagura felt her cheeks heat at the girl's insinuation. She thought back to all the men she'd entertained so far, but none stood out as having been particularly alluring. They'd all just been old farts with too much money to spend.
But... if a client were to show up who was closer to her age... an attractive man with a sweet tongue...
Could she fall for such a person? How would that feel, she wondered? To do naughty things with a pretty young man. To let a handsome boy touch her where he wanted and do with her as he pleased. To run her fingers through soft hair and allow herself to be physically adored.
Ah...
Her cheeks turned blazing hot as her imagination ran wild.
"My, Kagura-chan! You're blushing!" Saya declared delightedly. "Could it be that you do already have a favorite?"
Kagura swiftly snapped out of her daydream and shook her head fiercely. "N-no! No, I don't." The warmth she still felt in her cheeks told her that her blush had yet to recede. She brought her hands to her face in an attempt to cool them. "Not yet," she tacked on in a small voice.
In an attempt to look elsewhere, her gaze again found the Shinsengumi's first captain, still reclining against the wall with his sword at his side and his devil-may-care air. He was looking at her now—for the first time that evening—and one of his sandy eyebrows was aloft behind his fringe. He said nothing, which surprised Kagura since he always had a snarky remark at the ready.
Saya smiled knowingly. "Well, it's bound to happen eventually. Courtesans aren't immune to falling in love." She winked and returned to her upright position so that the Hyakka agent could finish her makeup.
Kagura remained quiet as she considered her friend's words. They echoed in her ears as if the girl had shouted right by her head. Love...
What did Kagura know about love? Could such a thing really be found here in Yoshiwara?
Love meant being treated tenderly. It meant wanting to spend time with another—to seek that person out for comfort and companionship. It meant protecting and being protected. It meant being willing to lay down your life for another. Were those feelings that could be born in a place like this?
Perhaps. There were many kinds of love, weren't there?
Kagura didn't have much time to dwell on these thoughts, because all too soon she and Saya were being called up to their rooms. One, to entertain a man she'd never met, and the other to suffer a night with the sadist king himself.
Kagura wasn't sure which of them had gotten the crappier deal.
oOo
Sougo sat wordlessly against the wall of the grand room he and the black-haired courtesan were to share for the night. Though not as extravagant as Kagura's top floor chamber, it still made his stomach churn with its gilded trimmings and fake finery.
Fake. Everything in this room was fake. Everything in this shipyard was fake. Any love found here was equally as fake.
His hand gripped the hilt of his katana and loosened. Gripped and loosened. He was restless and agitated, his ears straining to pick up any sounds from the floor above.
Nothing. The brothel's construction crew had done their job well.
"Okita-san, you seem troubled," his night's companion, the girl Kagura called "Saya", spoke to him from beside the liquor tray. There was a note of concern in her voice and she'd tilted her dolled up head to regard him inquisitively. Like Kagura, she too had been decorated with flowers, though hers were ornaments of glass and metal. She had a pretty face, the kind that his subordinates turned to jelly over. Not that he could currently see much of it under all the paint. "Would you perhaps care for a drink to help you relax?" She held up a bottle cordially.
Pretty though she may be, Sougo fought not to snap at her. Relaxing was the last thing he should be doing while on watch for a murderer. Did this girl have cotton in place of a brain? He bit his tongue however and instead directed his gaze pointedly elsewhere and shook his head. It wouldn't do to chase her off when he needed her for his mission.
Saya hummed and set the bottle back on the tray. "You take your job very seriously, don't you?"
Sougo allowed his eyes to slide back across the room to halfway look at her. He was sure that his disinterest was palpable. He deigned to reply this time simply because it seemed that the girl was determined to talk whether he wanted it or not. "The sooner the killer is caught, the sooner I can get out of this place," he said tonelessly.
He hoped that would be the end of their conversation. Much to his chagrin, it wasn't. Saya, apparently, wasn't the type to be deterred by clipped answers. He should have guessed as much with her being an entertainer by profession. She smiled knowingly and said, "You're not the brothel type, hm?"
Well, if he was going to be stuck with her, he supposed he could indulge her evident need for chitchat. Asinine as it was, focusing on her instead of his thoughts helped somewhat to take the edge off his anxiety. "No. This type of place disagrees with me."
The girl raised both her eyebrows in apparent surprise. "That's unexpected. I would've thought a man who makes his living by the sword wouldn't be bothered by something as comparatively benign as a whore house."
Sougo met her eyes properly this time and cocked a brow.
"Pardon me saying so, but I've been told that you've taken the lives of countless men. You mean to say that you can end a man's life without batting an eye but a girl like me makes you squeamish?"
Sougo looked back at the girl blandly. She was a forward one, wasn't she? "You're comparing apples and oranges."
Saya tilted her head again and regarded him thoughtfully. After a moment, her smile returned and she caught him off guard when she, suddenly and with surprising elegance, shuffled across the tatami to kneel directly in front of him. Her smile took on a sultry quality as she leaned boldly forward so her face was directly in front of his. Out of the corner of his eye, Sougo saw her hands come up to grasp the folds of her kimono. "Really?" she purred. Her painted lips were a hair's breadth from his and he could feel her warm breath like a satin curtain on his chin. She looked alluringly into his eyes as she began to pull the folds apart. "Are you sure I can't change your mind?"
Sougo didn't pull away, nor did favor her with any reaction at all. "Really," he said in the same toneless drawl.
Saya lingered in his space for a protracted moment before finally pulling back with a pout. "A shame. You've got a face that could get you a free night with any girl down here." She appeared to study him appraisingly for a tick before she asked, quite out of nowhere, "You don't bat for the other team, do you?"
Sougo only continued to regard her with his overtly apathetic stare.
His night's companion folded her arms under her chest and sat back so that she was positioned more comfortably. "Hmm," she intoned, her demeanor changing to one of relaxation in the face of his disinterest in doing anything sexual with her. "Well, the night is young and I'm afraid we're stuck with each other for many hours yet. So..."
Sougo waited, wildly uninterested in knowing what she was about to suggest. He was already regretting his choice to participate in conversation with this girl.
"Why don't you tell me about yourself?"
oOo
"Welcome, Mr. Yashiro." Kagura bowed low over the tatami in a respectful greeting to her guest of the night.
She wondered what kind of client had paid for her tonight. Hinowa had reported that he was a wealthy merchant who'd grown his family's business through smart deals with Amanto. She hoped he wasn't too old. For once, it would be nice to flirt with someone who wasn't wrinkly.
Although... it couldn't be denied that clients who were old and crotchety tended to make for the easiest evenings. Scratch what she'd just thought. She hoped her guest was hella old. Preferably ancient.
"Good evening. You must be Kagura-san."
Kagura blinked. Puzzled, she lifted her head. That voice didn't sound ancient. It didn't sound old at all.
Before her stood the opposite of what she'd just hoped for. A young man with chocolate brown hair and striking green eyes. He looked to be about twenty; clean cut and tall with a pleasant air about him.
And he was attractive.
Very attractive.
Kagura's mouth fell open and she almost forgot to respond to him in her great shock at seeing a man like that enter her room. "Y-yes," was all she could utter as she gazed upon him like a thirsty man before a desert oasis.
The man, Mr. Yashiro, smiled and took his seat before her. "I saw your parade the night you debuted." His eyes twinkled as he leaned forward to lift her hand, and as she watched with a fluttering heart, he raised the appendage to his mouth and gave it a sweet kiss. "I knew the moment I laid eyes on you that I needed to spend a night with you."
The gears of Kagura's brain ground to a halt upon feeling the client's soft lips on her skin. She could only watch, starstruck, as his radiant smile fell on her like a ray of light straight from heaven.
A client like this... Kagura had never expected to actually encounter a handsome young man like him in this line of work. She wasn't prepared.
Yashiro seemed to understand that he'd struck her speechless. He smiled a warm smile and graced her with a knowing wink before lifting a cup from the try at their side and teasingly beseeching, "Won't you pour me a drink?"
oOo
"Tell you about myself?"
Sougo was quickly reaching the end of his very short tether with his and Saya's small talk. As expected, he just didn't have any interest in having a heart to heart with a prostitute he'd met a day ago. "You are aware I'm not paying you for this," he reminded her. "You don't need to pretend to be interested in my life's story."
Undeterred, Saya smiled and patiently folded her hands in her lap. "But you're keeping me safe. Is it odd to wish to know more about one's protector?"
Reflexively, Sougo's fingers tightened again around the hilt of his katana. The word protector called his thoughts back to the idiot Yato who was currently entertaining a client of her own somewhere above them, alone and all too vulnerable.
What sort of customer had shown up tonight? Was she being properly cautious? Did she have a back up plan for if the evening turned south like yesterday?
"Okita-san?"
At the sound of his name, Sougo's eyes snapped back to the girl sitting across from him from the ceiling where they had unconsciously wandered. He forced his brain to organize words into an answer curt enough to kill the conversation. "I'm a cop. I catch bad guys. Sometimes I do paperwork. It's not that glamorous."
Saya hummed again. She looked predictably unsatisfied by his answer. "Maybe not glamorous, but surely it's exciting. Your name alone causes grown men to shudder. I've heard you called vicious and ruthless. You can't tell me your work is really that bland."
Exciting? Was this girl a cop drama junky or something? Sougo suppressed a sigh and leaned the back of his head against the wall, his eyes unconsciously moving to stare off at the far side of the room in his great disinterest at this conversation. "Do you get excited when you take out the trash?" he asked plainly. "If more people shuddered at my name that would make my job easier."
Though he wasn't looking at her, Sougo didn't miss the rustling of silk as Saya drew back in shock at his words. Good. Maybe he'd stunned her into silence.
"Take out...the trash?" His hopes were, once again, dashed as she spoke again. "You...compare ending a man's life to throwing out garbage?"
Sougo allowed the path of his gaze to shift just enough to see the girl in his peripheral vision. Saya was now staring at him with a look of confusion that bordered on revulsion. Instead of answering, he turned his neck the rest of the way to face her fully and quirked a brow at her, inviting her to find fault with his comparison.
"Is a life," she said, her voice suddenly growing quiet, "Is a life really something that can be compared to trash? Something you can dispose of with a clear conscience?"
Sougo continued to regard the girl without expression. As expected, this girl, like so many others, believed that lives were heavy and precious things. She hadn't seen enough death to understand how little a single individual mattered in this great, vast universe. He lifted a hand to wave vaguely at the room's ceiling. "How many billions of lives do you think there are in our galaxy? In the universe? Do you think any of us matter? How soon death comes for you depends on how many people you piss off. I'm not going to lose sleep over picking a few weeds."
At last, Saya was silent. She'd lowered her face and was looking at her lap with an unreadable expression. Sougo imagined she was attempting to come up with a fluffy, idealistic rebuttal to his nihilistic declaration.
He didn't let her. "If you're done picking my brain for evidence of compassion, why don't you think about going to sleep? It's easier to guard someone who isn't yapping in my ear."
Saya continued to look at her lap, speechless, and Sougo gave himself a mental pat on the back. He clutched his sword with both hands and closed his eyes to convey to the girl that he no longer had any interest in continuing the conversation and turned his attention back to listening for any suspicious sounds around the vicinity of the room.
It was going to be another long, exhausting night of stewing in boredom while he waited for the killer to make their move. It would be nice if the killer did strike tonight. He wanted to hurry and catch the punk so he could scoop up his wayward rival and go home already.
oOo
Kagura was in trouble.
Yashiro was, without a doubt, the toughest customer she'd attended to yet. Upon being asked for a drink, she was able to at last kick her brain back into its normal pattern and serve him the way she would any other guest, but she found conversation came far more difficult with him than with any of her clients prior.
He was just so damned good looking. His green eyes were vibrant like summer foliage, set into a face that had no business existing outside a magazine. A perfect, straight nose. Perfect lips. Perfect teeth. On top of all that, his voice was even nice; calm and clear and soothing in her ears. Next to him, Kagura felt like a jizo statue somebody had thrown a shawl over out of pity.
She had never been a sucker for a pretty face, so her immediate attraction to this man blindsided and baffled her. Was it because of what Saya had said as they were getting ready? That every courtesan had a favorite? Or had she simply been awakened to her sexuality from entertaining men up here over the past week? Kagura didn't know what had caused it, but this man was affecting her. Oh, was he affecting her. The only thing keeping her on task was the knowledge in the back of her mind that she needed to be wary of this person.
He could very well be the killer.
After all, hadn't the late Keiko been bragging about bagging a particularly handsome customer? If Yashiro wasn't handsome, then handsome didn't exist.
Somehow, Kagura managed to coax the man into playing a drinking game and she celebrated that small victory. As they drank, Yashiro peppered her with questions pertaining to her life and her interests.
"So, you took up this line of work to help your family? That's admirable."
Kagura smiled prettily and raised a hand to her cheek. "You think so? There aren't many who would agree with you."
Yashiro shook his head and regarded her warmly. "Helping family is always admirable. That you would do so at such a steep personal cost shows how much they mean to you. I'd do the same for my family."
Even though she wasn't being strictly honest with him, Kagura's heart gave a flutter at Yashiro's answer. She found herself unwittingly comparing him to the sadist, who had come into this same room with a very different stance on the matter. "You don't think I'm spitting in the face of everyone who's ever loved and protected me?" she echoed the brat's words from that night. What would this man say to that, she wondered?
Yashiro took a moment to consider her question, sipping from his cup as he did so. Finally, he looked her gently in the eye and said, "Someone very dear to you said that, didn't they?"
In the face of his bald question, Kagura's heart clenched in her chest.
Someone very dear?
No.
Okita Sougo and dear were two utterances that clashed worse than ketchup and ice cream. Worse than hot sauce and cake. There was nothing dear about him and she didn't care in the slightest what he thought about her work here.
She didn't.
At all.
But...
Those words had stunned her. They had stunned her coming from him.
"Harsh words from those who love us cut the deepest," Yashiro spoke again, an understanding glint in his eye. "But at the end of the day, as long as you feel that what you're doing is right, then that can be enough. Sometimes looking after others requires going against the wishes of the very people we wish to look after. It's up to you to decide if that's worth it."
Kagura nodded dumbly as Yashiro finished his fifth drink and busied himself pouring another. She knew he did it himself to give her time to process what he'd said. It was a very gentlemanly thing to do.
"Mr. Yashiro," she spoke at last. There was a question burning her throat, begging to be asked, and she'd never been one for self-restraint. "You're very don't seem at all like the type to come to a place like this. So why...?" She couldn't find the words to complete the question she wanted to ask.
Yashiro merely smiled and threw his head back to drain his glass. When the cup was empty, he set it aside and said, "For the same reason as any other man. I can't resist a pretty face." He leaned forward then and placed his right hand delicately on Kagura's left cheek. His green eyes sparkled enchantingly as he stroked her cheek with the pad of his thumb. "Kagura-san, may I kiss you?"
Suddenly breathless, Kagura sat frozen before her customer. For a drawn out moment, she studied his up-close face with her eyes as he waited for her permission. Hell, he was so handsome. And so nice on top of it all. He was a paying client, so she couldn't very well refuse. And, well, she supposed a simple kiss was something she didn't mind giving him after he'd been so free with his advice.
Taking a deep, self-centering breath, she nodded.
Yashiro responded to her permission by closing his eyes and traversing the remaining few inches between them to capture her lips with his. He continued to caress her cheek as his lips pressed gently but firmly against her own and Kagura felt him exhale through his nose in obvious satisfaction.
So, this was what it was like to be kissed. To really be kissed. Heat flooded her cheeks and pooled in her belly as Yashiro sensually moved his mouth against hers. She could taste his breath and smell his skin. He kissed her tenderly, just like she'd always imagined a lover's kiss to be, and just like him, it was absolutely perfect. If she were swept up in a hormone-induced frenzy of lust the way she'd been some other nights, she might have even let him go all the way with her.
But... what Kagura felt kissing this man wasn't lust. The opposite, in fact, what she felt was serenity. And perhaps a sort of affection for him due to the kindness he'd shown her.
He was a handsome, handsome man, and he made her heart flip in circles, but she had an inkling already that he wasn't right for her. He was kind and a good person, but she was a Yato. She needed more than kindness. She needed a man who would challenge her. Would a good, kind man like him be able to do that?
No. She could feel it already from the absence of desire in her chest. She'd always thought she wanted a gentleman, but this man couldn't ignite any passion within her. His kind words and gentle caress didn't set her heart aflame.
And so it was, with a surprising amount of regret, she surreptitiously allowed the capsule containing the sleeping draught to fall from her sleeve into her palm.
Too bad. But at least she'd have the memory of this kiss to squeal over in the days to come.
oOo
Welp. Once again, Kagura gets development with a man other than Sougo. Poor Sougo.