Kyoto had come alive after leaving the train. Kinu had walked through the streets with the women and Mister Snaps hovering close behind with her bag in his claws. Freshly roasted meat and ginger hung in the streets, warming the crisp morning air. The sun was starting to rise, but pockets of darkness hung over roads. Lights were woven through the trees, in some places blotting out the sky entirely as they navigated the narrow alleyways and roads coiling up the mountain to the estate.
It stretched out along a koi pond so long Kinu had initially thought it to be a lazy river. It had been all open rooms and hardwood in the places where tatami was inconvenient like the main passageways from the front to the kitchen, and back into the servant's quarters. There, Hiromi found her son with an elderly woman that had kind eyes. HItomi paid the woman, and received a little pat on the hand before the older woman was nodding to the others and seeing herself out.
When she was gone, Kinu was shown to a small sitting area off to the side of the bedroom. Ayumi pulled the sliding door open to give them a view of the pond and immaculately manicured sandy garden pathways.
They had poured her tea from the same pot as their own, and given her a choice of the mugs in good faith. Hiromi had been the one to start filling Kinu in.
"They give us a place to live and food, but that's it." Luxuriously long lashes hooded her downcast eyes as she clutched her babe to her breast. "Day and night they work us to the bone, and for what? Crumbs. How is anybody supposed to work off their debt like this? It's impossible."
"That's why we try to get as much money out of him as we can when he comes to the shop." Naomi chimed in, pressing a damp cloth to her palm. She had been cut on the train, but not badly enough to cry over. Hiromi had already apologized to her twice, but they had been so nonchalant about it Kinu couldn't tell if it was normal, or excused by the situation. "Hiromi-chan didn't have anywhere else to go when she found out she was pregnant, and we couldn't help her either…"
"No," Ayumi hadn't sat at the table. She had taken her tea to the edge of the garden door and stood there with her back to them, but now she turned. "He put her here. Because his dad always hated his whoring, and to him, we're whores."
"What?" Kinu looked over the uneasily shifting women across from her. "No you're not, that's just mean." That made Ayumi twist to face them.
"Thank you, Kinu-chan." Naomi said, voice softening. Ayumi started back, face hardened with anger.
"Tell her what he said to you when you told him you were pregnant."
Hiromi cast a sideways glance towards Kinu. For some time, she focused on pulling her babe from her nipple, and fastening her yukata as the boy twisted and reached for her, making little grunts and noises.
"Seiji told me his father said he should find a wife like you. Not a…"
She didn't say whatever the word was, but Kinu didn't need to imagine much. Anything was bad enough.
"So what do you want to do?" Kinu asked, pondering the words Hiromi had recounted. They sounded vaguely familiar. Like a joke she hadn't really laughed at because she had been so nervous that she barely heard the old man over her heart. He had said it at the tea ceremony to his son when the talking portion had resumed and they had been examining her equipment.
"I want a way out of here, and you're in it. If he's marrying anybody it's me, I have his son."
Kinu didn't know how to marry two people, especially when one didn't want to be involved in the process. Marriage was a scary thing when it came to men like Amagi. He probably drank in excess, too. She didn't want to picture it, and she didn't want it for the elegant woman sitting across from her.
"You need money." Kinu said. "Just like I do."
"Ace detective over here," Ayumi said, plopping onto the Tatami beside Kinu to take the baby from her friend. She bounced it in her lap, and it beamed up at her. "But that's no good if we're all broke."
Kinu sipped her drink. It was a cheap bagged tea, but not unpleasant. Floral and fruity. Ayumi was right, but Kinu preferred to be impoverished in a group setting as a rule.
"We're both easily recognizable." Kinu said with a grin towards Hiromi, and the woman shrank back from her. "And you've got a baby, this is perfect."
The women were all watching as she pulled out her phone, and brought up her social media page. She opened the camera on her phone, and moved around the table to sit beside Hiromi and Naomi, all the while motioning for Ayumi to join them and get in frame. "A client rescheduled a tea ceremony for undisclosed reasons… So my schedule is free." The women didn't need the details on the Joui meeting, but they seemed to understand who she meant. "We'll all be in danger after posting this."
"He'll recognize the workhouse." Hiromi's fingers gently hooked around Kinu's wrist. "He'll come here is he sees it."
"Good." Kinu murmured, messing with the filter settings. Everybody had makeup but her. Before she could get it right, Ayumi handed the baby to Hiromi, so she rushed to exit the menu. "Everybody smile." Holding the phone overhead, Kinu snapped a few images of them, all huddled together and looking like they were having the time of their lives. She selected the picture that had the most gotcha in it and promptly set the timer to make it her profile picture at the stroke of nine, an hour before visiting time would end at the workhouse.
They were all skilled mechanics. He didn't stand a chance.
After the image was readied, Kinu cast an anxious glance back at the woman.
"Is there a junkyard nearby?"
For the first time in a while, that question received a grin instead of a groan. Ayumi thumbed towards the garden. Naomi was immediately on her feet.
"Are we building something?" The blonde was already at the door beside Ayumi, but before Kinu could answer, Hiromi sighed, and pushed herself up. Her baby was quieter now. Every time he would start to fall asleep he would fuss and turn to look at Kinu.
"I guess I'll wait here for you."
Right. She couldn't leave unless she was on a work assignment. They had smuggled her out the night before, hence them not showing for so long. Naomi's smile melted from her face.
"We'll bring the pieces back. So you can get some action, too. Right, Kinu-chan?"
"Un." Nodding, Kinu glanced over Hiromi again. She looked so much softer with the sunlight illuminating her dark mahogany waves. Even the harsh white and green lines of her yukata were somehow made gentler with her in it. The other girls walked off then, leaving Kinu alone with the woman for the first time. When Hiromi's narrowed eye fixed on her, she swallowed.
"About your dad…"
"I don't want to talk about it." Hiromi cut her off. "If we do, I might explode."
Kinu understood that feeling, maybe even better than all of the other ones. So she nodded once, bowed, and hurried to catch up with the others. As she rounded the corner, rushing to put on her sandals, her phone vibrated.
He knows. They're together.
Both of them? Kinu had to frown. Why would Gintoki and Takasugi be convening at a time like this? Kinu was sure she could avoid one of them, but both? She typed back as quickly as she could.
Are they coming for me?
Looks like it.
Can you buy me time?
Done.
She needed to calm down. Her tracker was fried, she'd tested it herself but hadn't had the guts to carve it from her hand. A palm was a strange place to cut. They wouldn't find her in an entire city so easily. She just needed to hurry. The entire run to the junkyard Kinu was looking over her shoulder. It was the most obvious place to find her. Shinpachi would have immediately gone to one if he had been with them, but Gintoki thought she was smart.
Smarter than that, at least. They dragged back the few parts they could, but Ayumi hung back at the yard to put the hard labor into their main project.
"We only have to talk to him." Kinu said as she screwed a metal latch in place. She hated to do this to Mister Snaps, but she didn't see any other way. She took her final resort from his wiring and hooked it into the cylindrical seeker shell she had been refurbishing. It was questionable thing to prepare, but her top priority was getting rid of that man. One way or another.
Whether that meant marrying him to somebody, or blowing him to bits, he would go away. The method was up to him, though. "Once he sees us, we have to be on guard. Hiromi, have you packed?"
"We don't have much…" There was a single blue square beside her, tied with a knot in the center. Kinu nodded once, and motioned to Naomi.
"Will you take that?"
"Oh, sure. You guys want something from the stall down the street?"
"Please." Kinu had new didn't need Matako, she bet they would even join her double date list after this. They hadn't even tried to kill her again or said anything as mean as the text messages. Naomi did as asked, and finally Kinu was alone with Hiromi again. She was missing a baby, and Kinu guessed that it was sleeping, but didn't want to pry where she wasn't invited. Even if it had been cute.
"Hiromi-chan, if you had money would you still want him?"
Eyes fixed on the tiny screw she was trying to fix in place, the woman didn't even blink. She was stooped over so that her face was nearly on the table, with her elbow sticking straight up as she twisted the screwdriver.
"Look," Sighing, the woman sat up. She set the reactor vessel on the table, and with robot like precision jabbed another tiny screw into the door hinge. "He owes me that much, doesn't he? I thought he would take care of us, and look at me now! I'm a mess. My fingers hurt, my feet hurt, my tits hurt! Every day!"
Frowning, Kinu crossed her arms. Hers did that too sometimes, but Hiromi's was definitely worse if she was saying it out loud like that. "If you ever get pregnant don't go to a workhouse, you hear me? It's all just-" Her voice broke, and for the first time, Kinu realized the woman was on the brink of tears. Her face was bright red, and her eyes shined in the noonday light, but not a single tear fell. She shook her head. "Ayumi doesn't want me to marry him."
Neither did Kinu.
She hummed once, low and understanding, and they proceeded to work in silence until Naomi returned.
Night slowly crawled across the world, bunching Kinu's stomach tighter with every tick of the clock. The room had been emptied of the few food items and niceties it had, decorations and pillows pawned off various stores along the way in every short trip Naomi took to the junkyard, until finally, Kinu went with her and they finished their project.
Ayumi returned with them. She cradled Yuto, as Kinu came to learn the baby's name was, and wrapped him in a blanket before tucking his little face away.
"We're all set." Ayumi was saying, and Hiromi nodded at her side, hands delicately draped over her heart. She had to be more nervous than Kinu was, saying goodbye to him like this. She gave the baby a kiss on the forehead, and planted a kiss on Ayumi's cheek for good measure.
"If anything goes wrong, leave without us, got it?"
Ayumi was nodding, one eye still closed as Hiromi gave her son one last kiss and sent them on their way with a pat on the raven haired woman's backside. Behind her, Naomi turned back with one hand on the doorhandle, and a dagger in the other.
"We'll be fine. I'll text you when we're in the air."
"'Kay." Hiromi hugged the girl and they were off. She stood with her back to the door, eyes closed as the quiet tap of footsteps occasionally rang out along the back porch until they could hear nothing more. Save for the light of the candle on the table in front of her, the room was shrouded in darkness and long, looming shadows that crept up the walls. Hiromi shuffled back to the table, ever the graceful one, and Kinu wondered if she'd had some sort of formal training to walk like that. "It'll be difficult for me to run." She said when she was seated at the table again.
"We just need to make it down the hill and around the corner." Kinu guessed that meant the baby was fresh. It had been struggling to keep it's head up, so maybe a few months. She wasn't sure how that timeline looked, but every stage of it was adorable. They waited in what initially felt like an uncomfortable, charged silence. Pacing, and listening. Watching for lights in the workhouse, or any sign of unrest.
A bump in the night sent Kinu to her feet. Hiromi's head shot up from the nest of her arms where she'd been slumped across the table.
They listened for footsteps or voices, but when nothing came, Kinu motioned for Hiromi to stay where she was seated. She crept towards the door raking the hair behind her ear as if it would help, but no sounds met her. Hiromi carefully leaned up.
"Stay here," Whispering across the room, Kinu hurried to the back door. She peeked out across the deck, then locked it before heading back to the main room. If anyone had come in, they would have to stop at the reception, and if Amagi Seiji wanted to visit or buy Hiromi he would be there, too. As she eased the door open she heard a low scrape, this time from the outside deck.
Rushing back to the screen door, Kinu gripped the handle of her mother's sword. She was panicking, which door did she check?! "If he'll talk to us we might be able to reason with him." She said, listening at the gardenway.
"If the Headmistress sees you-" Hiromi was still seated at the table on the only remaining pillow, but as she spoke she pulled it from under herself and offered it up. Kinu sighed, but stuffed the front of her yukata, giving the bump what little shaping she could before she eased the back door open. She didn't know if she passed for pregnant, but she figured she could probably outrun a woman actually suffering the condition. The lady running the place likely wasn't with child, but Kinu was still hoping.
As she stepped out onto the back deck, her hand instinctively cupped the unnatural curve of the pillow to keep it in place. If it shifted too far it would blow her cover.
She peeked out over the Koi pond, and listened to the low tap of wood against wood. Sandals, maybe. The longer she listened, the more she was able to make out a second pair of footsteps mingling with the first. They were whispering. Arguing, it sounded like, with sharp clicks of the teeth and groans interlaced with a harsh, low conversation Kinu couldn't make out.
With a breath to steady herself, she eased her head around the corner. Two men. One shining white under the moon and the other purple clad, save for the white wrap over his eye
Sucking in that same breath, Kinu ducked back against the wall. They had been heading towards the side entrance. Hadn't seen her.
"I'm telling you, this is stupid." Takasugi was saying, and Kinu glanced back towards the door she had come from. If they were here now, that complicated things. They would probably find Amagi before he found her. So much for buying time. Gintoki had gone into the building, but Takasugi stayed out front with his pipe. Likely barred from entry.
Kinu wondered what he wanted. Gintoki was exempt from her judgment. A gentle, predictable beast. He was earlier than she would have liked, but Kinu could make due with what she had. With this turn, that meant that they were on Amagi's time now, and she didn't like it.
He had missed his cue, the strike of ten. End of the visiting hours.
That had to mean that he had something bigger planned, and Kinu didn't like it. Maybe she needed Takasugi, too. Gintoki was strong, but Kinu didn't like the thought of him going up against that man alone. She hated when he fought. For something so awe inspiring, it left it's damage on him. Gintoki always got hurt if it was serious, and Amagi had already shown them how serious he was.
Takasugi squatted by the front steps, and tapped the bowl of his pipe against the wood. They were ruining everything. Who went to the front door when they thought somebody was hiding from them?
Well, side door, but her point still stood.
"Kinu-chan,"
Gasping, she spun at the sound of her name, and the gentle hand on her shoulder. Hiromi looked just as surprised as she did, but pulled her towards the room all the same. "He's coming. He just tried to call me, that means he's in town."
Perfect. Her phone vibrated just as she pulled it out of her pocket to update the others. They were in position, waiting for her and Hiromi.
"Let's wait in your room." Trying not to rush the woman, Kinu picked up the pace. If they locked the door nobody would find them. Nobody had seen Kinu. She had used the back entrance all day, and been careful not to speak to anybody. Her hair was a dead give away, though. Kinu hadn't thought to invest in a wig, and it was too late to kick herself now.
"Oi,"
Every muscle in Kinu's body went rigid. Hiromi turned, taken aback by the deep voice behind them, but the moment the woman saw whatever was back there, a wide grin curled her lips. Kinu knew what the woman was thinking without asking. It was the Kitten guy. Since Hiromi stopped, Kinu started walking again, but she had no such luck.
"Ki!" Gintoki was the next to call out to her, and Kinu had to look over her shoulder. Hiromi slipped past her with a knowing glance as the men caught up to her, one aloof but suspiciously eying her, and the other notably more animated in his anger. "What the hell are you doing running off like that?! Don't try to walk away like you didn't hear us, get back over here!"
When she turned to face the men, their eyes fell to her vaguely round belly, puzzled at first, but the longer they stared the more horror gradually leaked into their features. Gintoki had Takasugi's collar in an instance, and they stumbled a few steps.
"What's that?" Gintoki was asking, not fighting, but that was possibly only because they couldn't stop looking at her. "What'd you do to her?!"
"Me?!" Takasugi shoved the Yorozuya back. "I didn't do that! She wasn't like that when I saw her, it must have been an amanto or-" He straightened his collar, but his effort was in vain when Gintoki came back, swiping at him again. This time he was prepared and stepped out of the way.
"You calling my sister an alien banger?! No you! Your sister! I bet if you had a sister she would-"
They were idiots. How had it come to this? Being left to them and their protection? Reaching into her yukata, Kinu pulled the pillow from her stomach and flattened the fabric. She spent a moment tugging and pushing at her belt as the men's struggle came to a halt.
"I told you!" Takasugi said, smacking the back of Gintoki's head. The Yorozuya stumbled forward, holding his injury, and Kinu squeezed the bridge of her nose. They were going to kill each other before Amagi got there. Or they would cause a scene and draw him around the back of the building.
Taking both men by the collars, Kinu dragged them back, bickering and fussing the entire way until they were all locked in Hiromi's room.
"Shut up!" She hissed at them as soon as the door was closed. Takasugi sneered at her, and Gintoki made his opinion known. He had plenty more to say, but she was sure she'd only get a few words on it when they were actually alone. For now, he was just excited.
"Not until you tell us what the hell you're doing here." His voice was significantly lower as he glanced at the woman seated at the table. Hiromi wore a pleasant face, but it did little to hide her worry. That was one thing Gintoki was familiar with. When he got a good look at the woman, Kinu knew his mind had already done the work and he understood enough to know that their silence was tantamount to their safety.
"Kinu-chan," At the table, Hiromi lifted her glowing phone. Amagi was calling. He was closer. "We need to be ready."
Kinu nodded, glancing over the two men that had come to find her. They had succeeded, and seemed more confused and concerned right now, but they were going to kill her next time. If they could keep up.
"No time." Kinu was already at the table gathering what little supplies they'd kept to split between themselves. She pressed a smoke cartridge into Takasugi's palm, and his skin slipped between her hands for just a second, warm in spite of the cool autumn night, but she didn't meet his gaze. It wouldn't hurt if everybody had a charge but somebody had to wear the belt. "Cover us, and use these if it's overwhelming."
"Overwhelming? You can't just start putting us to work." Gintoki's complaint earned a low snort from the girl. A tap vibrated through the hilt of her sword into her hip, and she turned to see the one eyed man's hand dancing up the handle of her blade.
"Prepared for a fight?" Takasugi's fingers lingered at the hilt, as if he was contemplating taking the blade in his hand. Gintoki's silver brow arched.
"Is that Ma's?"
She nodded and hummed a yes as she draped the gray sash of charges across her brother's shoulders. His arm instinctively lifted and he let her fix it around him without protest.
"These are just smoke. We leave town in different directions, okay?" She was rushing to get the words out as Hiromi waved her flashing phone at them again. "Where are you docked?"
"South." Takasugi answered, and Kinu unintentionally met his gaze. He was studying her with the hint of a frown. Perhaps wondering where she would be taking them next.
"We're headed west after this, then back to Edo. Can you just get us to the plaza, then keep south when you hit cloud? Cut around after you're sure you're not being followed." The men were disappointingly calm for being in on her first big plan. Gintoki's raised eyebrows were the only hint of surprise on him, and Takasugi was glaring at her. "You two should hide for now. Just keep an eye on us from…"
Kinu looked over the room. She hadn't been prepared for hiding spots. So she whisked Gintoki to the closet and headed for the backdoor with Takasugi. It would be useful to have a man on the outside. Kinu had worried over what they would do if the back door was cut off, but with Takasugi holding it, they would have a clear escape if things turned sour.
She ushered him outside, keeping hold of his black haori as she scanned the few tastefully placed bushes and miniature outcroppings of foliage. All the while she kept her back to the man and made sure to keep two to three steps ahead of him. Warmth encompassed her hand, and fingers laced through hers as she walked, but even then, Kinu didn't turn back.
"If you wait in here, you should be able to see our door through yours." The building was shaped like a four way tire iron. Their wing was sparsely populated. According to Hiromi, most of her side worked nights and slept during the morning until afternoon at the earliest. That left plenty of space to slip a man into an empty room for a few moments. She started to pull the man through but before she could release him Kinu found herself pressed beside the closing doorway.
"You're not going to say anything?" Takasugi asked, and she made a point not to look at him.
"Like what?" Back against the wall, Kinu scrutinized the man's face. There was a single slit of light across his eye, not enough to fully judge his level of guilt. Takasugi had only pushed her into the wall. He'd promptly left her space after that, and stood before her with no hint of mirth or his usual amusement.
"You could yell." His voice lowered, and Kinu narrowed her eyes at him. "Or hit me." He said closing half of the distance between them. His hands were poised to grab her and she could already feel them squeezing up her sides, or rubbing the anger out from between her legs. There was no time for any of that. She had known they would arrive, but she couldn't guess at the types of infernal tricks Takasugi had up his sleeve. "What happened at your house?"
Frowning, Kinu laced her arms across her stomach. She didn't have to answer that. It should have been obvious to him. Then again, maybe he hadn't seen Riku and her mother. Her room hadn't been too bad off. She'd left in a fit of rage, tearing the metal hands she'd built in half as much as she could. The wires had kept them together, and that had infuriated her beyond the sight of her mother cuddled into that man's side.
Rushing to bring him food and drinks, and warm towels when he came back from mowing some stranger's lawn for chump change. Riku was all Ai could talk about now. Whether it was something he said, or in case Kinu had forgotten how difficult everything was for him.
"Looks like our signal." Takasugi murmured, and Kinu turned to find Hiromi leaned out of the room across the yard, waving into the open air.
He was right. It was definitely a signal of some sort. Hiromi was calling her back. Kinu would explain. Not now. There wasn't enough time now, but they could work something out later. When they had a moment of safety.
"We might be here all night, don't kill him unless you have a clear shot, just keep him off us. Keep him in Kyoto."
Takasugi had the men for that. Kinu hoped he could figure something out. If they could engage Amagi here it would be all the better. She wished she had Takechi's phone number, and the fact that it had even crossed her mind worried her.
Kinu was already back to Hiromi's room when she glanced back at the cracked door across the garden. How was what she was doing now any different to what he had been? She was a hypocrite. Condemning his tactics, yet employing them the moment it suited her needs.
No. Kinu told herself. I was attacked first. I have this completely under control.