chapter two... this is the ten year gap in which both
vejita and buruma grow up. don't know how i'm gonna do this yet...
hmm... it may take awhile. listen to "simple and clean" by utada hikaru.
once u have the lyrics memorized, perhaps by then, i will have the next
chapter out. hehehe...
**** A/N: what i portray here is my depiction from my imagination. most is fiction, some is fact. i researched, trust me. and took some of the facts and combined it with my imagination. i'm not a historian so don't go to your teachers and say 'well, this girl online said....' no, i do not claim to know everything, nor do i stand by my writing as historically correct in all aspects. remember that.***
disclaimer: i don't own dragonball z, obviously.
but neither do i own any references to icons or names from rurouni kenshin nor do i own the lyrics used in this chapter.
Simple and Clean
Scroll Two:
Ten Years to Find the Words
A thin ray of light pierced through a crack in the wall, landing on Buruma's face. She moaned and flipped over. 'It is too early' she grumbled to her self. She pushed her futon blanket off her haphazardly. It fell, draping across the girl next to her. Buruma turned around when she heard a muffled voice call out her name sleepily.
"Buruma..."
Buruma giggled softly. She did not wish to wake the others yet. It was Buruma's turn this week to fetch in the water from the well for breakfast. This was one of the most dispised chores because it was so cold out and if one spilled the water from bucket onto herself, the cold became even more bitter. Yet Buruma did her chore dutifully. Everyone had to do their part here...
Buruma shuffled outside, bucket in hand. She wished she could have stayed with Old Baba at the shrine. She expressed as much whenever Baba made comments about Buruma finding her fortune elsewhere. There was nowhere Buruma would rather be than with the elderly old woman. Afterall, who would care for Old Baba if Buruma left? However, unknown to Buruma, Baba had asked a favor of her brother, The Turtle Hermit, Muten Roshi. He was very happy to oblige his sister and referred Baba to the House Of Kushami, run by a bubbly, young woman named, Ranchi. The preparations had been made and before Buruma could do a thing about it, Old Baba had sent her to the House of Kushami, to find a life more fitting for a young woman than taking care of an old woman in a shrine.
Buruma hefted the bucket off water, pouring it into the large iron kettle. Then she deftly lit the fire beneath the pot and set the cover over it.
"Buruma-chan, is that you?" Buruma heard a weary voice call out from the doorway; she looked up. Chi Chi stumbled in whil hastily tying a greatly used apron around her waist. "You could have wakened me up," she murmured, still half-asleep. Buruma grinned and waggled her finger at the girl teasingly.
An hour later, a dozen or so girl sat around a sake table eating rice and pickles with miso soup. They all stopped and looked up when someone entered from the door. A young woman with blue-black hair, pulled back and curled around her face, a bright red kanzashi (hair ornament) was placed delicately upon her mountain of curls. The girls all placed their chawan bowls on the table and placed their chopsticks on top. Madam Ranchi sat at the head of the table, looking over each of the girls scrutinously.
Buruma admired Madam Ranchi immensely. The young woman always appeared serene and graceful, always bedecked with the finest kimonos, always speaking so delicately yet so intelligently. However, there was another side to Madam Ranchi. At times she could be severe, harsh and demanding, in her expectations of the young girls. She would often tell them: "Go home. You will never make it here. You really don't have what it takes. You're better off wasting your time elsewhere."
And many girls had left since Buruma arrived three weeks ago. Some had lost heart and left; others were sent hom after failing in their tasks. Buruma looked around her. The dozen or so girls, besides herself, were the ones that had stuck fast and been determined to succeed.
Madam Ranchi cleared her throat. "This morning you will practice diligently at your tea serving skills and then perhaps tnoght, I will allow to observe the other girls," she caught them all with her peaceful yet strong gaze. "Do I make myself clear?" she asked.
The girls all bowed deeply to the tatami mat and answered. "Yes, Mama-san."
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He lay on his futon, staring at the ceiling. Three weeks had passed since his father's men had found him at the junction of the main road and the pathway down to the temple. He wondered how they were faring. He tried not to dwell so much on what had transpired the day he left. He regreted his harsh worse towards the gentle young girl. He growled to himself. He shouldn't think so much; thoughts as such would prove his weakness. As punishment, his father had kept him prisoner within his home. The older Vejita had stated that 'there were no words to express his anger,' 'that his son had shamed him greatly for running and hiding,' and 'he was not worthy of the title of Vejita.' Vejita cringed mentally. Countless times he had told his father how he understood his wrongdoing and would make atonement anyway he knew how. But his old man sure knew how to pour salt in the wound by reminding Vejita of his failure at becoming a warrior every single day. Vejita growled once more. He was so damn sick and tired of being coped up in doors. If his father was going to throw him out, he should just do it. 'I have better things to do than sit here and rot.' He rolled off the cushy futon bed pad and grabbed his katana. He wrapped the sheath's rope around his waist and tied a small satchel to the side opposite his katana. He filled that with his small stash of coins. He grabbed some fruit from the small hotoke-sama (buddhist portable shrine), praying silently for forgiveness for 'stealing' from the shrine of worship. He slipped out through the back, a heavy haori (over jacket) tucked under one arm.
By nightfall, Vejita was good way away from his home. He glanced every once in a while over his shoulder, watching as his childhood home, his sanctuary, grew fainter and fainter the farther he went. By now, his father would have discovered him gone yet Vejita knew how to cover his tracks. He stayed off the paths and slipped along through the shadows of the forest. He stopped every once in a while to rest his feet or to drink at bit from passing streams. He fell asleep sheltered under the roots of a tree with the haori pulled tightly around his body.
The next day he traveled without stopping. He passed two villages without venturing inside. They woudl be the first places his father would think to send his horsement to look for his runaway son. The older Vejita was very authoritative, a true leader, but he wasn't the brightest star in the sky. He wasn't half as clever as the young Vejita.
Many times Vejita thought of going back to Baba and Buruma at the shrine. But he abadoned that thought; he didn't want to think what would befall them under his father's wrath should he discover Vejita there. No, his life was his to deal with alone...
He arrived at a large port by the sea. He was too tired to ask where he was, what day it was; he simply tossed a few coins to the innkeeper and crashed into his room. He threw his katana haphazardly next to his futon and fell limply onto the wellworn mattress. When dawn rose the next morning, Vejita felt all the miles he had traveled ache within his body. He groaned and flipped onto his back. His stomach rumbled, and searching through his small satchel, Vejita found a persimmon to appease his hunger.
Vejita meandered through the bsuy sea port. He was not worried here. It was far too crowded for any to distinguish one body from the next, let alone recognize a face. Vejita turned a corner, bumping into a man.
"Watch it!" Vejita growled menacingly.
The other man was a full head taller than himself, staring down his nose at Vejita. "What did you say, boy?"
"I told you to watch where you're going," Vejita repited with malice.
"I thought so," the man replied serenely. "Watch that mouth of yours, boy, unless you want to lose your life."
"Are you threatening me?" Vejita asked, his hands flying to the sword at his side.
"A little slow, aren't you?" the man mused.
"That's enough!' Vejita shouted, drawing his katana. Within a few seconds, the sword was knocked swiftly from his hands. It clattered to the ground a few feet away. Next Vejita felt his feet give away under him in one smooth motion and was on his back, a deadly blade of steel pressed tightly against his neck.
"Never underestiamtre your opponent, boy," he spat at the young man. "What's a hot head like you doing running aroung a dangerous place like this?" he asked, smirking. He eased up on his sword, allowing Vejita to scramble to his feet.
"None of your business," Vejita said, nonchalantly, resheathing his sword.
"Fine," the other man consented.
Vejita eyed him warily. "How did you move so quickly?"
The man grinned slyly. "That is a secret. If I told you, I'd have to kill you."
Vejita set his mouth, determined. "Then kill me, for my curiosity is all I have left in this world. It must be satisfied."
The man nodded his ascent. "You are brave, I'll give you that." He looked the young man over. The boy had a week's worth of stubble on his chin, his clothes were spattered with mud and grass stains---and above all--- he stank. "This way," the man said, tilting his head towrds a nearby alley. Vejita looked around curiously. Did the man just invite him to come with him? Did that mean the man was going to kill him? Vejita swallowed a lump in his throat. 'Kami, what have I gotten myself into?' The man cleared his throat.
"Are you coming or not?"
Vejita nodded, hesitantly, before following the man through the dark alley.
If Vejita had known exactly where the man was talking, he undoubtedly would not have gone. The man led Vejita through a series of twists and turns, maneurvering like worms through the port. Vejita feets ached after pounding up and down on the unpaved pathways for what seemed like hours. Finally, the man stopped in front of a well lit home, rapping four times on the door. They waited patiently until a young woman opened the door a crack to 'inspect' the visitors. "Bardaku-sama! Come inside!" she cried, ushering the older man in. She eyed Vejita for a moment before looking up at 'Bardaku.' He nodded and she dragged Vejita in as well.
Vejita inhaled the food at the table at a tremendous pace. Bardaku and the young woman looked up at each other. Bardaku was amused, the woman who ever was not. She slapped his elbows off the table.
"We are NOT barbarians, so we will not eat as such, understand?" she commanded.
Vejita nodded vaguely before he began inhaling food once more. She gave a sign of defeat.
Bardaku chuckled. "So? Are you still interested in my fighting style, boy?" he gently reminded Vejita.
Vejita looked up, his mouth stuffed with dumplings. He nodded vigorously before swallowing the lump of food.
"I am a student of the Hiten Mitsuruji School of kenjutsu."
Vejita almost spit out the ocha (tea) he was drinking.
Bardaku continued, "My master was a descedent of the Hiten Mitsuruji line and took me in when I was a boy." Bardaku turned to contemplate Vejita. The woman seemed to notice this.
"You aren't serious, Bardaku-sama," she asked, snappishly.
"He reminds me of myself at that age. He is brave, simply misled."
Vejita turned red as the two exchanged comments as if he weasn't sitting right there in front of them! "What in Kami's name are you talking about?!" he interjected.
Bardaku looked at the young woman one last time before answering. "Would you like to become a disciple of kenjutsu?"
Vejita dropped his chawan bowl. The young woman muttered some curses under her breath and swept up the spilt rice. "You would teach me?" Vejita asked, unbelieving.
Bardaku nodded. "I believe you have potential... but are you ready for the challenge?"
Vejita thought about this for a moment. "I could leave my past behind... start anew and prove my honor," He nodded decidedly. "It would be the greatest honor if you would take me as your pupil," he said, bowing low on the tatami before the older man. Bardaku smirked. He called over his shoulder to the young woman who was in the kitchen. "Sazae! Make up a spare bedroom. We will be having a guest...for awhile." Bardaku snickered as he heard his housegirl growl and move to make another rom ready. He thumped Vejita on the back. "I think this is the beginning of a wonderful relationship, boy," he grinned.
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"You will do as Madam Ranchi instructs you," Mai ordered. The young assistant proprietress loomed over the cowering Buruma. The dozen or so young girls of the House of Kushami sat in two rows, facing each other with a shamisen (three-stringed instrument) before each one of them.
Mai was about fed up with the interminable silence of the green-haired twit. She refused to speak and now that they had to practive singing ballads that they would use later on on the stages of the House of Kushami. Without hesitation she rose her hand in the air, bringing it down harshly on the girl's cheek. She had had enough with being patient with the mute. "You see here. I will not tolerate any of this insubordination. You will adhere to my teachings or I will through you out readily. Do I make myself clear?" She emphacized her words by grabbing Buruma by the chin and shaking her roughly.
Madam Ranchi stood at the head of the room watching the exchanged benignly. Mai looked up at the Head Proprietress. "What shall we do?" she asked the older woman. Madam Ranchi tilted her head delicately. "If she does not speak now, we will teach her," she said passively yet with force behind her words. Mai grabbed Buruma by the wrist forcefully and dragged her out the back of the building.
Buruma struggled against the older woman's grip. For a tea hostess, she was exceedingly strong. Painful, stinging tears entered the corner of Buruma's eyes. She hated how Baba had 'forced' her out of the shrine. She had been happy there but Baba thought she needed a new life outside the weary shrine walls. Baba still had the papers of Buruma's property ownership and 'sold' her to the ocha-ya (tea house) to train to become and geisha. 'I don't want to be a geisha! I just want to go home!' Buruma cried to herself.
Mai grabbed the girl around ehr waist and hauled her to the center of the hana-machi (community of the geisha). "Koko ni kite," Mai ordered to two other propritress' assistants. Mai undid the sash around Buruma's kimono, causing the clothing to lay slack on her skin. Mai yanked down the collar so the kimono rested around Buruma's elbows. The other assistants tied each of Buruma's wrists to a pole so she was stretched loosely between them.
Mai whispered harshly in her ear. "You will speak out now, girl, or I will make you cry out," she threatened. She rose a wooden paddle over her shoulder, sending it flat against the tender, pale skin of the young girl's shoulders. Buruma bit her lip, drawing blood.
It was bitter..salty, running through the lines of her lips to drip onto the ground which drank it up greedily.
Mai brought the paddle up once more then sent it forcefully colliding with Buruma's shoulder blades. The older woman saw a small spilt run up her left shoulder blade with a think ribbon of blood coursing the crack in her skin.
Buruma felt her shoulder break under the force of the wooden paddle. There was a warm silky sensation that came after the paddle lifted. She let out a gasp, one that she had been holding in.
Mai looked at the large bluish yellow bruise that was forming. She leaned over the girl simpathetically. "All you have to do is speak a word and the pain will stop. Can you do that?"
Buruma shook her head weakly. 'Doesn't she understand I can't speak?'
Mai took the paddle over her shoulder once more.
"Ahhhhhh!"
The paddle was sticky with a light coating a blood. It had been a light oak in the afternoon but the rays of the dying sun, gleamed off the purplish-red coating giving it a deathly glow. Mai dropped the paddle from her hand and rushed at the girl, cradling her head to her chest.
They had been out in the harsh sun for hours, neither yeilding to the other. Yet finally, Mai sighed, the girl had given one desperate cry, a plea for the pain to end. Mai signaled to the assistants to release the girl from her binds. Buruma slumped weakily against Mai; the older woman holding her steady.
"Bring me a bucket of warm water and some clothes," Mai ordered. The two assistants looked at each other in consternation. "GO!" Mai bellowed when they didn't obey right away.
Buruma whimpered as the hot strips of linen were placed against her skin. Mai shushed her softly. "It was your own doing," she reasoned. "But now, we have heard your voice and you must show us over and over again," she cooed gently in Buruma's ear.
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Vejita rolled to one side, barely avoiding the swing of the kendo pole as it collided on the space of ground where he once lay. He barely had time to wipe the sweat from his brow before he was on the defense again from his master. Too late. The kendo stick whirled quickly through the air effortlessly knocking Vejita's feet out from under him.
Vejita groaned after picking himself off the ground. He brushed dirt and bits of grass off his hakama (pants). He heard a deep chuckle coming from his master. He growled.
"What so funny?"
"Nothing, boy, except that you continue to make the same mistakes over and over. You're blind spot which I have repeatedly reminded you off remaines unguarded and your concentration is sorely lacking." He looked over his pupil who was currently sporting a very disgruntled look. "How do you hope to graduate the Hiten Misturuji School if you do not improve?"
Vejita titled his head bac, frustrated. "I do not know," he mumbled. "I try, Bardaku-sama. I really do."
"Well then, you must try harder," Bardaku ordered gruffly.
Vejita took in a deep breath, exhilerating in the freshness of the air. "Let's get started then," he said, picking up his kendo pole.
Bardaku nodded in agreement and got into fighting stance. Vejita followed suit. The two men faced off against each other in silence, their eyes communicating the spiritual battle. Suddenly, they rushed forward, poles ready to attack...
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Buruma poised her nimble fingers over the strings of the shamisen.
"And begin." She heard a gentle voice instruct her. She looked up nervously. Madam Ranchi along with the other okami-sans (heads of the geisha houses) sat at the head of the room. The walls were lined with the other girls looking just as nervous as she. She heard a throat clear to her left. She looked over and saw Lady Mai smiling at her generously, encouraging her. Buruma swallowed her nervousness and placed her hands on the delicate strings. She plucked the opening chords gently and the music poured forth. After the opening instrumental, she faltered. She looked back to her instructor. Mai nodded in encouragement, motioning for her to continue. Buruma started up the instrumental where she had left off, she opened her mouth and sang...
aoi kage ni tsutsumareta suhada ga
toki no naka de shizuka ni furuete-ru
inochi no yukue wo toikakeru you ni
yubisaki wa watashi wo motomeru
tamashii
dakishimeteta unmei no anata wa
kisetsu ni saku maru de hakanai hana
kibou no nioi wo mune ni nokoshite
chiri isogu azayaka-na sugata de
watashi ni kaeri nasai
umareru mae ni
anata ga sugoshita daichi e to
kono te ni kaeri nasai
meguriau tame
kiseki wa okoru yo nando demo
tamashii no rufuran...
Buruma strummed lightly on the strings, giving an instrumental, a reprieve to her singing. She was not used to using her voice that singing was a great strain. She took great swallows of her saliva to lubricate her worn throat. She was so intent on her playing of the shamisen that had she looked up she would have seen that everyone in the room was spellbound from the melody of her voice.
inou you ni mabuta tojita toki ni
sekai wa tada yami no soko ni kieru
soredemo kodou wa mata ugokidasu
kagiri aru eien wa sagashite
watashi ni kaeri nasai
kioku wo tadori
yasashisa to yume no minamoto e
anata mo kaeri nasai
aishiau tame
kokoro mo karada mo kurikaesu
tamashii no rufuran
watashi ni kaeri nasai
umareru mae ni
anata ga sugioshita daichi e to
kono te ni kaeri nasai
meguriau tame
kiseki wa okoru yo nandodemo
tamashii no rufuran
Buruma finished, bowing slightly over the shamisen. All she heard was silence and all she saw were stars. 'I have displeased them,' she thought sadly. She was broken from her sorrowful train of thought with the resounding noise of hands clapping together furiously. She looked up and everyone had the largest smiles on their faces. Buruma looked over hesitantly at Lady Mai, the woman who had taught her to use the shamisen, even more than that: the woman who had helped her find her voice again.
Mai beamed at her pupil proudly. She shuffled over to the young green-haired green and knelt by her.
"Very well done, my maiko," she whispered into Buruma's ear. Buruma looked up at her wide-eyed.
At first she could not find the words to speak, then she asked shakily, "D-do you really mean that sensei?" (sensei means teacher)
Mai smiled once more and nodded. "You will be my disciple, Buruma-chan," she promised. "I know one day you will become a wonderful geisha." Buruma bowed once again to her teacher, so low the tip of her nose touched the tatami mat. "Arigatou gozaimasu," she whispered fiercely. "I will not disappoint you, sensei."
Mai tilted the girl's chin up to look her in the eyes. "No, I know you will not."
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Vejita shifted the short sword, his wakizashi, by his side. It was difficult getting used to carrying two swords, one on either side of his body. Yet Vejita brushed that minor annoyance now. He had completed his training of the kenjutsu with his master Bardaku, even going so far so assimilate all of his masters techiniques then creating some of his own. In Bardaku's words, he had 'created honor for himself from the ashes of his past.' Vejita was now on his way to Kyoto as part of his first assignment as a hitokiri (shadow assassin). Vejita had no qualms about killing people if they deserved to die. Though he had never disclosed his past to his master, Vejita, now five years older, kept a secret pact with himself to given atonement for his cowardice on the battlefield all those years ago by giving justice to those who could not defend themselves.
He stopped at the first inn he happened upon, renting a small room and ordering a small meal in the adjoining tavern. Vejita slurped up his miso soup quckly. He was dead tired from walking all day that all he wanted to do was crash into the bed he knew was waiting upstairs.
He felt the wind shift behind him and before anyone in the tavern knew what was happening he had his katana drawn and pointed at a man's neck. The man whimpered slightly at the sharp cut of steel at his neck.
"What do you want?" he ground out harshly.
The other man just stood, cowering in his getas (slippers), eyes darting nervously around the man. Vejita noticed his apprehension at the confrontation being monitored by everyone on the room. Vejita looked at them from the corner of his eye.
"What are you looking at?" he barked. Immediately, everyone went back to what they were doing before the incident. "Now," Vejita said, turning his attention back to the man at the end of his sword, "what business do you have disturbing me during my meal?" The man swallowed, scared. "Lower your sword," a voice from the shadows ordered.
"I take orders from no man," Vejtia snarled.
"Then consider it a request," the man in the shadows rebutted.
"Too afraid to show your face then you send your own cowards to do your work?" Vejita scoffed.
The man in the shadows chuckled. "I merely sent Shiu to ask you to please join me at my table. You are the one who took the offense," he jibed.
Vejita grumbled and lowered his sword, resheathing it. Shiu breathed a sigh of relief then retreating out of 'stabbing range' of Vejita.
"Will you join me?" the man asked. Vejita nodded his ascent and motioned for an attendent in the tavern that he was finished with his meal. Vejita crossed over to stand before the bank of shadows.
"Now show yourself," he demanded. A man with three eyes stepped out of the shadows. Vejita scrutinized him "You're not from around here," he deduced.
The man chuckled. "No, I'm not. I come from a province in the far North."
"What do you want with me?" Vejita asked, tilting his head curiously.
"I noticed you had both the daitou and shotou (long and short sword) on your person. And the lightening fast reflex you had towards my footman only confirms my suspicions. You are a student of the Hiten Mitsurugi, are you not?"
"I am," Vejita said flatly.
"I am in need of your services for my master's sake."
"I already have a duty to my family to seek out the evilness in Kyoto and vanquish it with my twin blades," Vejita countered.
"A noble cause no doubt," the three-eyed man said. "However, would it not be worth your while to battle evil while earning coin?"
Vejita thought this over for a moment. "I suppose.... what would this service to render you entail?" he asked after a while.
"My master's, the child emperor's, court is overrun with corrupt advisors and even more corrupt administrators. We are in need of a warrior like yourself to help me protect his royal Highness," the three-eyed man said.
"I work alone," Vejita said as he turned to leave. The man put his hand on Vejita's shoulder to stop him. Vejita promptly spun around, drawing his shotou, his wakizashi, and holding it directly against the three-eyed man's throat. The man's point of pulsing raged against the cold metal.
"Don't touch me," he growled. The other man lifted his hands in defeat.
"I'm sorry," the man offered. "You are no ordinary warrior, I can see." The three-eyed man scrutinized the sword that was still pressed into the crevice of his neck. "If I didn't know better, I would say you were hitokiri."
"Maybe I am," Vejita said dangerously.
"In that case, you are perfect for the job. You will work alone if that is what you desire. I will simply remain as the Emperor's attendant."
Vejita's mouth twisted in thought. "I want to be paid as if I were two men," he demanded.
The man looked stunned for a moment then broke out into a grin, despite the sword still dangerously close to this neck. "I can see you are of strong character. Very well, you will be paid as if you were two instead of one," the man agreed. Vejita backed up and sheathed his shotou. The three-eyed man bowed to him. "My name is Tienshinhan, attendent and protector and the child emperor, Lord Chiao-tzu."
Vejita stared at him stonily. "I am that which I am. My name means nothing to you as we will probably never meet formally again."
"Then I will call you battou-kun, for you do have the fastest draw of the sword I have evern encountered."
Vejita smiled benignly. "So when do I begin?"
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"One, two, three, four... one, two, three, four... c'mon, ladies, graceful now. Maron, please keep in time. NOW, one, two, three, four... one, two, three, four..." Mai rubbed the bridge of her nose. The girls that had remained through the severest training were now entering the stages of dance. They were practicing the grandest of all the known dances, the "Cho-no-michiyuki" ('Journey of the butterflies').
Mai groaned. She was getting the biggest headache situated at her temples. Some of the girls had perfect rhythm, others were lacking in the department by a landslide; and it was these girls with no sense of rhythm that was throwing everyone off.
"Stop! Stop!" she commanded.
Chi Chi stumbled, startled and bumped into Marron who went tumbling off the stage. "Gah!" the aqua-haired girl squealed as she fell off right onto her face. The girls started snickering but were soon silenced by the smoldering glare of their instructor.
"This dance encompasses the story of a love that will never die. Two lovers forbidden to be together kill themselves and are reborn as butterflies to fly among the rape blossoms together for all eternity. The dance is gracful; the dance is serene; the dance is majestic... the dance is NOT what I have just been shown. Obviously you have not been practicing enough. Three more hours of renshuu (practice) for each of you before the day is done. Now, go," Mai said, fuming. Sighing, she leaned her head back. 'What did I do to deserve this, Kami?' She noticed a shy green-haired girl making to slip out the side door. "Buruma-chan, may I please speak with you?"
Buruma stiffened and turned around. She shuffled back to the room to stand in front of her onee-san (older sister, also older woman mentor as used here). "Yes, Mai onee-san?"
"I noticed your dancing has greatly improved."
"Oh...thank you, onee-sama," Buruma said bowly deeply.
"If you would like to start accompanying me on appointments..."
Buruma gave her a small smile. "I thank you very much for thinking of me, Mai onee-san, but I don't think I'm ready yet." Buruma bowed once more then shuffled out of the room towards the back gardens.
Mai rested her cheek in one hand thoughfully. 'I know she is ready... what is she waiting for?' Mai shook her head. It was useless to waste her percious time on these trivial things right now. She had an arranged meeting to get ready for.
Buruma managed to remain a maiko to her elder 'sister,' the geisha Mai Shiniji for five years longer than the average maiko. (hope you all know a maiko is basically a geisha in training ^-^)
Marron pushed a small wooden comb through her hair. The tsubaki-abura (camellia oil) went slick across her aqua hair, giving it a silky sheen. She turned to her geisha-sister, Chi Chi who was pinning small sakura (cherry blossom) pins into her own hair that was as black as midnight. She felt another set of hands start to readjust the pins that were wayward.
"Buruma!" Chi Chi exclaimed. "Where have you been? Mai has been looking everywhere for you."
"Forest," Buruma answered concisely.
"I see, well, Madam Ranchi is not going to approve of your being so late."
"As you can see, I'm ready," replied Buruma. "Where as you," she emphacized, "are the one running behind."
Chi Chi blushed. "I'm just so nervous. This is our first performance without our elder sisters to help us," Chi Chi looked up at her friend nervously.
Marron just giggled. "Don't worry, Chi Chi. It won't be hard. Just smile pretty and bat your eyelashes. They like that," she said, then turned back to her own primping.
Buruma rolled her eyes. "I don't think men are THAT gullible. Just do as you've always done and you'll be fine," Buruma said soothingly. She placed the last of the pins in her friends hair then got up and left to help prepare with the tea.
As she entered the kitchen, she noticed the girls in there go silent. Buruma eyed them suspiciously.
"Well, what is it?"
One girl, Mikami, coughed gently and looked amongst the other girls before looking up at Buruma. "Buruma-chan, we, Raeki-chan and I, overheard Mai onee-san talking to Madam Ranchi. They're speaking of forcing you to become a geisha or they'll throw you out."
Buruma looked down at the floor. She knew the day would come one day when the benevolence of Madam Ranchi would run out and she would make Buruma choose her path for life. She knew that Madam Ranchi and Lady Mai had put a lot of time and money into grooming her into the well-bred, cultured woman she was now at twenty-five years old. She owed them so much. She realized as much as she didn't want to be an entertainment bauble to men, she didn't have the heart to turn on the women who were who only family and who had given her so much.
Buruma made her decision. She would tell Mai onee-chan now before they confronted her with the embarassing ultimatum.
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Vejita waited, crouching on the low rooftop over the market square. His keen eyes scanning for any disturbances otherwise undetectable by the average person. Vejita was far from average. Five years taking odd jobs as an assassin, a bodyguard, a stalker, a killer.... WIth each job he grew leaner and more cunning. His nickname of Battou-kun, coined by the three-eyed Tienshinhan, had grownmore feared and morphed in the assassin name 'Battousai' or "sword-drawing manslayer."
His current target was a jewel thief guised as a rich lord. He travled in the high cirles of society praying on those he dubbed his "friends."
The man was in his view. Laughing and joking amongt the cream of society while he picked their pockets. It made Vejita's blood boil. The man clearly had no honor. What was more, was that he even dared to steal from those who were impoverished. He had been trailing the thief for a good two weeks and had witnessed him pillage crops of their fruit, leaving poor farmers and their families to weep in the morning. He had observed as the thief tried to push himself on a sweet, virginal girl who made the mistake of walking home along the back road alone. Luckliy, a merchant and his ox cart happened along that very same road distracting the thief l;ong enough that the girl could run away. Vejita recalled thinking that if the cart had not interrupted, he surely would have.
A lesser, more impatient man would have struck by now, but Vejita was biding his time until the right moment presented itself. There it was...now. Vejita smirked, catipulting from the rooftop to land in the square. He quickly darted into the crowd before anyone even noticed his abrupt landing. He came to a halt a few feet from his intended target. The man currently was chatting of an older woman, no doubt buttering her up with his charm when Vejita noticed the man slip his hand in her purse. The action went unnoticed by the woman who continued chattin, truly believing the man was interested in what she had to say. 'Boy, is this going to be fun...' Vejita said, smirking.
He sauntered up behind the man and tapped him on the shoulder. The man turned around and eyed him arrogantly. Then sneered, "What do you want?"
Vejita did his best impression of ignorant innocence. "I think you should return those things to woman you just took them from."
"What are you talking about?" the woman asked incredulously.
"Check your purse. I'm sure you'll find a few things missing," Vejita said with a sinister glance at the man. The thief turned back. 'Kuso! I gotta get out of here!' he said to himself. And he did just that, he turned tail and ran. Vejita just watched him, amused. He heard the woman's indignant cry.
"You were right. I'm missing some of my money. Why that---why would Lord Konoboshi do such a thing?"
Vejita smirked at her. "Because he is not Lord Konoboshi; there never was one. He is a travelling theif and trickster named Takeo Zakki."
"Well?" the woman looked at him expectantly. "Are you just going to let him get away?"
"No, I think I'll catch him." Vejita said as he turned to walk into the crowd in the direction the thief had run.
"And just who do you think you are?"
"Me?" he repeated without turning around. "I am the Battousai."
Of course when Vejita caught up to the man he begged for his life. Vejita ended it mercilessly. He severed the head and secured in a small sack; a token of his work to show his employee that the deed was indeed done. How ironic, Vejita thought. For his current employer had been a wealthy merchant whom the their had swindled in some sort of shady deal and now the their was dead by a paid assassin. The world worked in mysterious ways. Vejita left the body out in the opened, the headless body decaying in the garish sun.
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Buruma stepped out into the brisk air. Ten years of living in the hana-machi in Gion and she still wasn't used to the frigidness of the winter. She remembered the lovelier days of endless spring weather with Old Baba. But those days were long past and she had to take responsibility for her future. This night was her erigae, finally. (erigae is the 'changing of collars' ceremony; the final step to becoming a full-fledged geisha.) She took a deep breath, the cold biting the insides of her lungs, her chest restricted by the tightness of her kimono. 'What an unpleasant event....' she thought to herself bitterly. She watched as her 'sister' geisha came out of the building behind her. Chi Chi scurried over to her.
"Excited?"
"Hardly," Buruma answered. In truth, butterflies were running rampant in her stomach.
Chi Chi smiled. She knew her friend was really nervous even though she pretended not to be.
"Ready?" she asked, grabbing hold of Buruma's elbow.
"Ready as I'll ever be," the green-haired younr woman repled. 'Here's the first night of the rest of my life...'
"Cheer up, Buruma. Perhaps you're future sponsor will be really nice or extremely charitable. Maybe one day you'll be able to buy your freedom from this place," Chi Chi said hopefully.
Buruma looked down at her kind-hearted friend. "No, Chi Chi, I don't think life is quite that simple," she admitted sorrowfully.
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'Gion...' Vejita looked up at a small sign over an inn door. Vejita had spent the last few days wandering aimlessly. He had no new job 'oppotunities' so he spent his time as a ronin, traveling and contemplating. It all got to be pretty boring so the first big city he spotted he made a bee line for. This place Gion looked like it could be very interesting. Very interesting indeed....
credit to: The Battousai Shrine (http://www.todokanai.net/battousai)
The Hakone Geisha Association (http://www.geisha.co.jp/eg-01.htm)
'Japan for Visitors' Guide (http://gojapan.about.com/library/weekly/aa080300a.htm)
Anime Lyrics of the Neon Genesis Evangelion song 'Tamashii no Rufuran' (http://www.animelyrics.com/anime/eva)
as you can see i put MUCH research into this. was not so easy because i know like level two japanese. thank you to my mom for helping me with understanding the geisha way as well as kudos to the above sites for their 'part' in my story ^_~ welp, let's see what happens next time. will they meet in Gion, geisha capital of japan? i thought the dance, journey of the butterflies, a romeo and juliet-like story, was such a parallel to my story that i had to insert it somewhere. anywho, till next time! ^-^
rev kurame
**** A/N: what i portray here is my depiction from my imagination. most is fiction, some is fact. i researched, trust me. and took some of the facts and combined it with my imagination. i'm not a historian so don't go to your teachers and say 'well, this girl online said....' no, i do not claim to know everything, nor do i stand by my writing as historically correct in all aspects. remember that.***
disclaimer: i don't own dragonball z, obviously.
but neither do i own any references to icons or names from rurouni kenshin nor do i own the lyrics used in this chapter.
Simple and Clean
Scroll Two:
Ten Years to Find the Words
A thin ray of light pierced through a crack in the wall, landing on Buruma's face. She moaned and flipped over. 'It is too early' she grumbled to her self. She pushed her futon blanket off her haphazardly. It fell, draping across the girl next to her. Buruma turned around when she heard a muffled voice call out her name sleepily.
"Buruma..."
Buruma giggled softly. She did not wish to wake the others yet. It was Buruma's turn this week to fetch in the water from the well for breakfast. This was one of the most dispised chores because it was so cold out and if one spilled the water from bucket onto herself, the cold became even more bitter. Yet Buruma did her chore dutifully. Everyone had to do their part here...
Buruma shuffled outside, bucket in hand. She wished she could have stayed with Old Baba at the shrine. She expressed as much whenever Baba made comments about Buruma finding her fortune elsewhere. There was nowhere Buruma would rather be than with the elderly old woman. Afterall, who would care for Old Baba if Buruma left? However, unknown to Buruma, Baba had asked a favor of her brother, The Turtle Hermit, Muten Roshi. He was very happy to oblige his sister and referred Baba to the House Of Kushami, run by a bubbly, young woman named, Ranchi. The preparations had been made and before Buruma could do a thing about it, Old Baba had sent her to the House of Kushami, to find a life more fitting for a young woman than taking care of an old woman in a shrine.
Buruma hefted the bucket off water, pouring it into the large iron kettle. Then she deftly lit the fire beneath the pot and set the cover over it.
"Buruma-chan, is that you?" Buruma heard a weary voice call out from the doorway; she looked up. Chi Chi stumbled in whil hastily tying a greatly used apron around her waist. "You could have wakened me up," she murmured, still half-asleep. Buruma grinned and waggled her finger at the girl teasingly.
An hour later, a dozen or so girl sat around a sake table eating rice and pickles with miso soup. They all stopped and looked up when someone entered from the door. A young woman with blue-black hair, pulled back and curled around her face, a bright red kanzashi (hair ornament) was placed delicately upon her mountain of curls. The girls all placed their chawan bowls on the table and placed their chopsticks on top. Madam Ranchi sat at the head of the table, looking over each of the girls scrutinously.
Buruma admired Madam Ranchi immensely. The young woman always appeared serene and graceful, always bedecked with the finest kimonos, always speaking so delicately yet so intelligently. However, there was another side to Madam Ranchi. At times she could be severe, harsh and demanding, in her expectations of the young girls. She would often tell them: "Go home. You will never make it here. You really don't have what it takes. You're better off wasting your time elsewhere."
And many girls had left since Buruma arrived three weeks ago. Some had lost heart and left; others were sent hom after failing in their tasks. Buruma looked around her. The dozen or so girls, besides herself, were the ones that had stuck fast and been determined to succeed.
Madam Ranchi cleared her throat. "This morning you will practice diligently at your tea serving skills and then perhaps tnoght, I will allow to observe the other girls," she caught them all with her peaceful yet strong gaze. "Do I make myself clear?" she asked.
The girls all bowed deeply to the tatami mat and answered. "Yes, Mama-san."
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He lay on his futon, staring at the ceiling. Three weeks had passed since his father's men had found him at the junction of the main road and the pathway down to the temple. He wondered how they were faring. He tried not to dwell so much on what had transpired the day he left. He regreted his harsh worse towards the gentle young girl. He growled to himself. He shouldn't think so much; thoughts as such would prove his weakness. As punishment, his father had kept him prisoner within his home. The older Vejita had stated that 'there were no words to express his anger,' 'that his son had shamed him greatly for running and hiding,' and 'he was not worthy of the title of Vejita.' Vejita cringed mentally. Countless times he had told his father how he understood his wrongdoing and would make atonement anyway he knew how. But his old man sure knew how to pour salt in the wound by reminding Vejita of his failure at becoming a warrior every single day. Vejita growled once more. He was so damn sick and tired of being coped up in doors. If his father was going to throw him out, he should just do it. 'I have better things to do than sit here and rot.' He rolled off the cushy futon bed pad and grabbed his katana. He wrapped the sheath's rope around his waist and tied a small satchel to the side opposite his katana. He filled that with his small stash of coins. He grabbed some fruit from the small hotoke-sama (buddhist portable shrine), praying silently for forgiveness for 'stealing' from the shrine of worship. He slipped out through the back, a heavy haori (over jacket) tucked under one arm.
By nightfall, Vejita was good way away from his home. He glanced every once in a while over his shoulder, watching as his childhood home, his sanctuary, grew fainter and fainter the farther he went. By now, his father would have discovered him gone yet Vejita knew how to cover his tracks. He stayed off the paths and slipped along through the shadows of the forest. He stopped every once in a while to rest his feet or to drink at bit from passing streams. He fell asleep sheltered under the roots of a tree with the haori pulled tightly around his body.
The next day he traveled without stopping. He passed two villages without venturing inside. They woudl be the first places his father would think to send his horsement to look for his runaway son. The older Vejita was very authoritative, a true leader, but he wasn't the brightest star in the sky. He wasn't half as clever as the young Vejita.
Many times Vejita thought of going back to Baba and Buruma at the shrine. But he abadoned that thought; he didn't want to think what would befall them under his father's wrath should he discover Vejita there. No, his life was his to deal with alone...
He arrived at a large port by the sea. He was too tired to ask where he was, what day it was; he simply tossed a few coins to the innkeeper and crashed into his room. He threw his katana haphazardly next to his futon and fell limply onto the wellworn mattress. When dawn rose the next morning, Vejita felt all the miles he had traveled ache within his body. He groaned and flipped onto his back. His stomach rumbled, and searching through his small satchel, Vejita found a persimmon to appease his hunger.
Vejita meandered through the bsuy sea port. He was not worried here. It was far too crowded for any to distinguish one body from the next, let alone recognize a face. Vejita turned a corner, bumping into a man.
"Watch it!" Vejita growled menacingly.
The other man was a full head taller than himself, staring down his nose at Vejita. "What did you say, boy?"
"I told you to watch where you're going," Vejita repited with malice.
"I thought so," the man replied serenely. "Watch that mouth of yours, boy, unless you want to lose your life."
"Are you threatening me?" Vejita asked, his hands flying to the sword at his side.
"A little slow, aren't you?" the man mused.
"That's enough!' Vejita shouted, drawing his katana. Within a few seconds, the sword was knocked swiftly from his hands. It clattered to the ground a few feet away. Next Vejita felt his feet give away under him in one smooth motion and was on his back, a deadly blade of steel pressed tightly against his neck.
"Never underestiamtre your opponent, boy," he spat at the young man. "What's a hot head like you doing running aroung a dangerous place like this?" he asked, smirking. He eased up on his sword, allowing Vejita to scramble to his feet.
"None of your business," Vejita said, nonchalantly, resheathing his sword.
"Fine," the other man consented.
Vejita eyed him warily. "How did you move so quickly?"
The man grinned slyly. "That is a secret. If I told you, I'd have to kill you."
Vejita set his mouth, determined. "Then kill me, for my curiosity is all I have left in this world. It must be satisfied."
The man nodded his ascent. "You are brave, I'll give you that." He looked the young man over. The boy had a week's worth of stubble on his chin, his clothes were spattered with mud and grass stains---and above all--- he stank. "This way," the man said, tilting his head towrds a nearby alley. Vejita looked around curiously. Did the man just invite him to come with him? Did that mean the man was going to kill him? Vejita swallowed a lump in his throat. 'Kami, what have I gotten myself into?' The man cleared his throat.
"Are you coming or not?"
Vejita nodded, hesitantly, before following the man through the dark alley.
If Vejita had known exactly where the man was talking, he undoubtedly would not have gone. The man led Vejita through a series of twists and turns, maneurvering like worms through the port. Vejita feets ached after pounding up and down on the unpaved pathways for what seemed like hours. Finally, the man stopped in front of a well lit home, rapping four times on the door. They waited patiently until a young woman opened the door a crack to 'inspect' the visitors. "Bardaku-sama! Come inside!" she cried, ushering the older man in. She eyed Vejita for a moment before looking up at 'Bardaku.' He nodded and she dragged Vejita in as well.
Vejita inhaled the food at the table at a tremendous pace. Bardaku and the young woman looked up at each other. Bardaku was amused, the woman who ever was not. She slapped his elbows off the table.
"We are NOT barbarians, so we will not eat as such, understand?" she commanded.
Vejita nodded vaguely before he began inhaling food once more. She gave a sign of defeat.
Bardaku chuckled. "So? Are you still interested in my fighting style, boy?" he gently reminded Vejita.
Vejita looked up, his mouth stuffed with dumplings. He nodded vigorously before swallowing the lump of food.
"I am a student of the Hiten Mitsuruji School of kenjutsu."
Vejita almost spit out the ocha (tea) he was drinking.
Bardaku continued, "My master was a descedent of the Hiten Mitsuruji line and took me in when I was a boy." Bardaku turned to contemplate Vejita. The woman seemed to notice this.
"You aren't serious, Bardaku-sama," she asked, snappishly.
"He reminds me of myself at that age. He is brave, simply misled."
Vejita turned red as the two exchanged comments as if he weasn't sitting right there in front of them! "What in Kami's name are you talking about?!" he interjected.
Bardaku looked at the young woman one last time before answering. "Would you like to become a disciple of kenjutsu?"
Vejita dropped his chawan bowl. The young woman muttered some curses under her breath and swept up the spilt rice. "You would teach me?" Vejita asked, unbelieving.
Bardaku nodded. "I believe you have potential... but are you ready for the challenge?"
Vejita thought about this for a moment. "I could leave my past behind... start anew and prove my honor," He nodded decidedly. "It would be the greatest honor if you would take me as your pupil," he said, bowing low on the tatami before the older man. Bardaku smirked. He called over his shoulder to the young woman who was in the kitchen. "Sazae! Make up a spare bedroom. We will be having a guest...for awhile." Bardaku snickered as he heard his housegirl growl and move to make another rom ready. He thumped Vejita on the back. "I think this is the beginning of a wonderful relationship, boy," he grinned.
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"You will do as Madam Ranchi instructs you," Mai ordered. The young assistant proprietress loomed over the cowering Buruma. The dozen or so young girls of the House of Kushami sat in two rows, facing each other with a shamisen (three-stringed instrument) before each one of them.
Mai was about fed up with the interminable silence of the green-haired twit. She refused to speak and now that they had to practive singing ballads that they would use later on on the stages of the House of Kushami. Without hesitation she rose her hand in the air, bringing it down harshly on the girl's cheek. She had had enough with being patient with the mute. "You see here. I will not tolerate any of this insubordination. You will adhere to my teachings or I will through you out readily. Do I make myself clear?" She emphacized her words by grabbing Buruma by the chin and shaking her roughly.
Madam Ranchi stood at the head of the room watching the exchanged benignly. Mai looked up at the Head Proprietress. "What shall we do?" she asked the older woman. Madam Ranchi tilted her head delicately. "If she does not speak now, we will teach her," she said passively yet with force behind her words. Mai grabbed Buruma by the wrist forcefully and dragged her out the back of the building.
Buruma struggled against the older woman's grip. For a tea hostess, she was exceedingly strong. Painful, stinging tears entered the corner of Buruma's eyes. She hated how Baba had 'forced' her out of the shrine. She had been happy there but Baba thought she needed a new life outside the weary shrine walls. Baba still had the papers of Buruma's property ownership and 'sold' her to the ocha-ya (tea house) to train to become and geisha. 'I don't want to be a geisha! I just want to go home!' Buruma cried to herself.
Mai grabbed the girl around ehr waist and hauled her to the center of the hana-machi (community of the geisha). "Koko ni kite," Mai ordered to two other propritress' assistants. Mai undid the sash around Buruma's kimono, causing the clothing to lay slack on her skin. Mai yanked down the collar so the kimono rested around Buruma's elbows. The other assistants tied each of Buruma's wrists to a pole so she was stretched loosely between them.
Mai whispered harshly in her ear. "You will speak out now, girl, or I will make you cry out," she threatened. She rose a wooden paddle over her shoulder, sending it flat against the tender, pale skin of the young girl's shoulders. Buruma bit her lip, drawing blood.
It was bitter..salty, running through the lines of her lips to drip onto the ground which drank it up greedily.
Mai brought the paddle up once more then sent it forcefully colliding with Buruma's shoulder blades. The older woman saw a small spilt run up her left shoulder blade with a think ribbon of blood coursing the crack in her skin.
Buruma felt her shoulder break under the force of the wooden paddle. There was a warm silky sensation that came after the paddle lifted. She let out a gasp, one that she had been holding in.
Mai looked at the large bluish yellow bruise that was forming. She leaned over the girl simpathetically. "All you have to do is speak a word and the pain will stop. Can you do that?"
Buruma shook her head weakly. 'Doesn't she understand I can't speak?'
Mai took the paddle over her shoulder once more.
"Ahhhhhh!"
The paddle was sticky with a light coating a blood. It had been a light oak in the afternoon but the rays of the dying sun, gleamed off the purplish-red coating giving it a deathly glow. Mai dropped the paddle from her hand and rushed at the girl, cradling her head to her chest.
They had been out in the harsh sun for hours, neither yeilding to the other. Yet finally, Mai sighed, the girl had given one desperate cry, a plea for the pain to end. Mai signaled to the assistants to release the girl from her binds. Buruma slumped weakily against Mai; the older woman holding her steady.
"Bring me a bucket of warm water and some clothes," Mai ordered. The two assistants looked at each other in consternation. "GO!" Mai bellowed when they didn't obey right away.
Buruma whimpered as the hot strips of linen were placed against her skin. Mai shushed her softly. "It was your own doing," she reasoned. "But now, we have heard your voice and you must show us over and over again," she cooed gently in Buruma's ear.
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Vejita rolled to one side, barely avoiding the swing of the kendo pole as it collided on the space of ground where he once lay. He barely had time to wipe the sweat from his brow before he was on the defense again from his master. Too late. The kendo stick whirled quickly through the air effortlessly knocking Vejita's feet out from under him.
Vejita groaned after picking himself off the ground. He brushed dirt and bits of grass off his hakama (pants). He heard a deep chuckle coming from his master. He growled.
"What so funny?"
"Nothing, boy, except that you continue to make the same mistakes over and over. You're blind spot which I have repeatedly reminded you off remaines unguarded and your concentration is sorely lacking." He looked over his pupil who was currently sporting a very disgruntled look. "How do you hope to graduate the Hiten Misturuji School if you do not improve?"
Vejita titled his head bac, frustrated. "I do not know," he mumbled. "I try, Bardaku-sama. I really do."
"Well then, you must try harder," Bardaku ordered gruffly.
Vejita took in a deep breath, exhilerating in the freshness of the air. "Let's get started then," he said, picking up his kendo pole.
Bardaku nodded in agreement and got into fighting stance. Vejita followed suit. The two men faced off against each other in silence, their eyes communicating the spiritual battle. Suddenly, they rushed forward, poles ready to attack...
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Buruma poised her nimble fingers over the strings of the shamisen.
"And begin." She heard a gentle voice instruct her. She looked up nervously. Madam Ranchi along with the other okami-sans (heads of the geisha houses) sat at the head of the room. The walls were lined with the other girls looking just as nervous as she. She heard a throat clear to her left. She looked over and saw Lady Mai smiling at her generously, encouraging her. Buruma swallowed her nervousness and placed her hands on the delicate strings. She plucked the opening chords gently and the music poured forth. After the opening instrumental, she faltered. She looked back to her instructor. Mai nodded in encouragement, motioning for her to continue. Buruma started up the instrumental where she had left off, she opened her mouth and sang...
aoi kage ni tsutsumareta suhada ga
toki no naka de shizuka ni furuete-ru
inochi no yukue wo toikakeru you ni
yubisaki wa watashi wo motomeru
tamashii
dakishimeteta unmei no anata wa
kisetsu ni saku maru de hakanai hana
kibou no nioi wo mune ni nokoshite
chiri isogu azayaka-na sugata de
watashi ni kaeri nasai
umareru mae ni
anata ga sugoshita daichi e to
kono te ni kaeri nasai
meguriau tame
kiseki wa okoru yo nando demo
tamashii no rufuran...
Buruma strummed lightly on the strings, giving an instrumental, a reprieve to her singing. She was not used to using her voice that singing was a great strain. She took great swallows of her saliva to lubricate her worn throat. She was so intent on her playing of the shamisen that had she looked up she would have seen that everyone in the room was spellbound from the melody of her voice.
inou you ni mabuta tojita toki ni
sekai wa tada yami no soko ni kieru
soredemo kodou wa mata ugokidasu
kagiri aru eien wa sagashite
watashi ni kaeri nasai
kioku wo tadori
yasashisa to yume no minamoto e
anata mo kaeri nasai
aishiau tame
kokoro mo karada mo kurikaesu
tamashii no rufuran
watashi ni kaeri nasai
umareru mae ni
anata ga sugioshita daichi e to
kono te ni kaeri nasai
meguriau tame
kiseki wa okoru yo nandodemo
tamashii no rufuran
Buruma finished, bowing slightly over the shamisen. All she heard was silence and all she saw were stars. 'I have displeased them,' she thought sadly. She was broken from her sorrowful train of thought with the resounding noise of hands clapping together furiously. She looked up and everyone had the largest smiles on their faces. Buruma looked over hesitantly at Lady Mai, the woman who had taught her to use the shamisen, even more than that: the woman who had helped her find her voice again.
Mai beamed at her pupil proudly. She shuffled over to the young green-haired green and knelt by her.
"Very well done, my maiko," she whispered into Buruma's ear. Buruma looked up at her wide-eyed.
At first she could not find the words to speak, then she asked shakily, "D-do you really mean that sensei?" (sensei means teacher)
Mai smiled once more and nodded. "You will be my disciple, Buruma-chan," she promised. "I know one day you will become a wonderful geisha." Buruma bowed once again to her teacher, so low the tip of her nose touched the tatami mat. "Arigatou gozaimasu," she whispered fiercely. "I will not disappoint you, sensei."
Mai tilted the girl's chin up to look her in the eyes. "No, I know you will not."
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Vejita shifted the short sword, his wakizashi, by his side. It was difficult getting used to carrying two swords, one on either side of his body. Yet Vejita brushed that minor annoyance now. He had completed his training of the kenjutsu with his master Bardaku, even going so far so assimilate all of his masters techiniques then creating some of his own. In Bardaku's words, he had 'created honor for himself from the ashes of his past.' Vejita was now on his way to Kyoto as part of his first assignment as a hitokiri (shadow assassin). Vejita had no qualms about killing people if they deserved to die. Though he had never disclosed his past to his master, Vejita, now five years older, kept a secret pact with himself to given atonement for his cowardice on the battlefield all those years ago by giving justice to those who could not defend themselves.
He stopped at the first inn he happened upon, renting a small room and ordering a small meal in the adjoining tavern. Vejita slurped up his miso soup quckly. He was dead tired from walking all day that all he wanted to do was crash into the bed he knew was waiting upstairs.
He felt the wind shift behind him and before anyone in the tavern knew what was happening he had his katana drawn and pointed at a man's neck. The man whimpered slightly at the sharp cut of steel at his neck.
"What do you want?" he ground out harshly.
The other man just stood, cowering in his getas (slippers), eyes darting nervously around the man. Vejita noticed his apprehension at the confrontation being monitored by everyone on the room. Vejita looked at them from the corner of his eye.
"What are you looking at?" he barked. Immediately, everyone went back to what they were doing before the incident. "Now," Vejita said, turning his attention back to the man at the end of his sword, "what business do you have disturbing me during my meal?" The man swallowed, scared. "Lower your sword," a voice from the shadows ordered.
"I take orders from no man," Vejtia snarled.
"Then consider it a request," the man in the shadows rebutted.
"Too afraid to show your face then you send your own cowards to do your work?" Vejita scoffed.
The man in the shadows chuckled. "I merely sent Shiu to ask you to please join me at my table. You are the one who took the offense," he jibed.
Vejita grumbled and lowered his sword, resheathing it. Shiu breathed a sigh of relief then retreating out of 'stabbing range' of Vejita.
"Will you join me?" the man asked. Vejita nodded his ascent and motioned for an attendent in the tavern that he was finished with his meal. Vejita crossed over to stand before the bank of shadows.
"Now show yourself," he demanded. A man with three eyes stepped out of the shadows. Vejita scrutinized him "You're not from around here," he deduced.
The man chuckled. "No, I'm not. I come from a province in the far North."
"What do you want with me?" Vejita asked, tilting his head curiously.
"I noticed you had both the daitou and shotou (long and short sword) on your person. And the lightening fast reflex you had towards my footman only confirms my suspicions. You are a student of the Hiten Mitsurugi, are you not?"
"I am," Vejita said flatly.
"I am in need of your services for my master's sake."
"I already have a duty to my family to seek out the evilness in Kyoto and vanquish it with my twin blades," Vejita countered.
"A noble cause no doubt," the three-eyed man said. "However, would it not be worth your while to battle evil while earning coin?"
Vejita thought this over for a moment. "I suppose.... what would this service to render you entail?" he asked after a while.
"My master's, the child emperor's, court is overrun with corrupt advisors and even more corrupt administrators. We are in need of a warrior like yourself to help me protect his royal Highness," the three-eyed man said.
"I work alone," Vejita said as he turned to leave. The man put his hand on Vejita's shoulder to stop him. Vejita promptly spun around, drawing his shotou, his wakizashi, and holding it directly against the three-eyed man's throat. The man's point of pulsing raged against the cold metal.
"Don't touch me," he growled. The other man lifted his hands in defeat.
"I'm sorry," the man offered. "You are no ordinary warrior, I can see." The three-eyed man scrutinized the sword that was still pressed into the crevice of his neck. "If I didn't know better, I would say you were hitokiri."
"Maybe I am," Vejita said dangerously.
"In that case, you are perfect for the job. You will work alone if that is what you desire. I will simply remain as the Emperor's attendant."
Vejita's mouth twisted in thought. "I want to be paid as if I were two men," he demanded.
The man looked stunned for a moment then broke out into a grin, despite the sword still dangerously close to this neck. "I can see you are of strong character. Very well, you will be paid as if you were two instead of one," the man agreed. Vejita backed up and sheathed his shotou. The three-eyed man bowed to him. "My name is Tienshinhan, attendent and protector and the child emperor, Lord Chiao-tzu."
Vejita stared at him stonily. "I am that which I am. My name means nothing to you as we will probably never meet formally again."
"Then I will call you battou-kun, for you do have the fastest draw of the sword I have evern encountered."
Vejita smiled benignly. "So when do I begin?"
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"One, two, three, four... one, two, three, four... c'mon, ladies, graceful now. Maron, please keep in time. NOW, one, two, three, four... one, two, three, four..." Mai rubbed the bridge of her nose. The girls that had remained through the severest training were now entering the stages of dance. They were practicing the grandest of all the known dances, the "Cho-no-michiyuki" ('Journey of the butterflies').
Mai groaned. She was getting the biggest headache situated at her temples. Some of the girls had perfect rhythm, others were lacking in the department by a landslide; and it was these girls with no sense of rhythm that was throwing everyone off.
"Stop! Stop!" she commanded.
Chi Chi stumbled, startled and bumped into Marron who went tumbling off the stage. "Gah!" the aqua-haired girl squealed as she fell off right onto her face. The girls started snickering but were soon silenced by the smoldering glare of their instructor.
"This dance encompasses the story of a love that will never die. Two lovers forbidden to be together kill themselves and are reborn as butterflies to fly among the rape blossoms together for all eternity. The dance is gracful; the dance is serene; the dance is majestic... the dance is NOT what I have just been shown. Obviously you have not been practicing enough. Three more hours of renshuu (practice) for each of you before the day is done. Now, go," Mai said, fuming. Sighing, she leaned her head back. 'What did I do to deserve this, Kami?' She noticed a shy green-haired girl making to slip out the side door. "Buruma-chan, may I please speak with you?"
Buruma stiffened and turned around. She shuffled back to the room to stand in front of her onee-san (older sister, also older woman mentor as used here). "Yes, Mai onee-san?"
"I noticed your dancing has greatly improved."
"Oh...thank you, onee-sama," Buruma said bowly deeply.
"If you would like to start accompanying me on appointments..."
Buruma gave her a small smile. "I thank you very much for thinking of me, Mai onee-san, but I don't think I'm ready yet." Buruma bowed once more then shuffled out of the room towards the back gardens.
Mai rested her cheek in one hand thoughfully. 'I know she is ready... what is she waiting for?' Mai shook her head. It was useless to waste her percious time on these trivial things right now. She had an arranged meeting to get ready for.
Buruma managed to remain a maiko to her elder 'sister,' the geisha Mai Shiniji for five years longer than the average maiko. (hope you all know a maiko is basically a geisha in training ^-^)
Marron pushed a small wooden comb through her hair. The tsubaki-abura (camellia oil) went slick across her aqua hair, giving it a silky sheen. She turned to her geisha-sister, Chi Chi who was pinning small sakura (cherry blossom) pins into her own hair that was as black as midnight. She felt another set of hands start to readjust the pins that were wayward.
"Buruma!" Chi Chi exclaimed. "Where have you been? Mai has been looking everywhere for you."
"Forest," Buruma answered concisely.
"I see, well, Madam Ranchi is not going to approve of your being so late."
"As you can see, I'm ready," replied Buruma. "Where as you," she emphacized, "are the one running behind."
Chi Chi blushed. "I'm just so nervous. This is our first performance without our elder sisters to help us," Chi Chi looked up at her friend nervously.
Marron just giggled. "Don't worry, Chi Chi. It won't be hard. Just smile pretty and bat your eyelashes. They like that," she said, then turned back to her own primping.
Buruma rolled her eyes. "I don't think men are THAT gullible. Just do as you've always done and you'll be fine," Buruma said soothingly. She placed the last of the pins in her friends hair then got up and left to help prepare with the tea.
As she entered the kitchen, she noticed the girls in there go silent. Buruma eyed them suspiciously.
"Well, what is it?"
One girl, Mikami, coughed gently and looked amongst the other girls before looking up at Buruma. "Buruma-chan, we, Raeki-chan and I, overheard Mai onee-san talking to Madam Ranchi. They're speaking of forcing you to become a geisha or they'll throw you out."
Buruma looked down at the floor. She knew the day would come one day when the benevolence of Madam Ranchi would run out and she would make Buruma choose her path for life. She knew that Madam Ranchi and Lady Mai had put a lot of time and money into grooming her into the well-bred, cultured woman she was now at twenty-five years old. She owed them so much. She realized as much as she didn't want to be an entertainment bauble to men, she didn't have the heart to turn on the women who were who only family and who had given her so much.
Buruma made her decision. She would tell Mai onee-chan now before they confronted her with the embarassing ultimatum.
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Vejita waited, crouching on the low rooftop over the market square. His keen eyes scanning for any disturbances otherwise undetectable by the average person. Vejita was far from average. Five years taking odd jobs as an assassin, a bodyguard, a stalker, a killer.... WIth each job he grew leaner and more cunning. His nickname of Battou-kun, coined by the three-eyed Tienshinhan, had grownmore feared and morphed in the assassin name 'Battousai' or "sword-drawing manslayer."
His current target was a jewel thief guised as a rich lord. He travled in the high cirles of society praying on those he dubbed his "friends."
The man was in his view. Laughing and joking amongt the cream of society while he picked their pockets. It made Vejita's blood boil. The man clearly had no honor. What was more, was that he even dared to steal from those who were impoverished. He had been trailing the thief for a good two weeks and had witnessed him pillage crops of their fruit, leaving poor farmers and their families to weep in the morning. He had observed as the thief tried to push himself on a sweet, virginal girl who made the mistake of walking home along the back road alone. Luckliy, a merchant and his ox cart happened along that very same road distracting the thief l;ong enough that the girl could run away. Vejita recalled thinking that if the cart had not interrupted, he surely would have.
A lesser, more impatient man would have struck by now, but Vejita was biding his time until the right moment presented itself. There it was...now. Vejita smirked, catipulting from the rooftop to land in the square. He quickly darted into the crowd before anyone even noticed his abrupt landing. He came to a halt a few feet from his intended target. The man currently was chatting of an older woman, no doubt buttering her up with his charm when Vejita noticed the man slip his hand in her purse. The action went unnoticed by the woman who continued chattin, truly believing the man was interested in what she had to say. 'Boy, is this going to be fun...' Vejita said, smirking.
He sauntered up behind the man and tapped him on the shoulder. The man turned around and eyed him arrogantly. Then sneered, "What do you want?"
Vejita did his best impression of ignorant innocence. "I think you should return those things to woman you just took them from."
"What are you talking about?" the woman asked incredulously.
"Check your purse. I'm sure you'll find a few things missing," Vejita said with a sinister glance at the man. The thief turned back. 'Kuso! I gotta get out of here!' he said to himself. And he did just that, he turned tail and ran. Vejita just watched him, amused. He heard the woman's indignant cry.
"You were right. I'm missing some of my money. Why that---why would Lord Konoboshi do such a thing?"
Vejita smirked at her. "Because he is not Lord Konoboshi; there never was one. He is a travelling theif and trickster named Takeo Zakki."
"Well?" the woman looked at him expectantly. "Are you just going to let him get away?"
"No, I think I'll catch him." Vejita said as he turned to walk into the crowd in the direction the thief had run.
"And just who do you think you are?"
"Me?" he repeated without turning around. "I am the Battousai."
Of course when Vejita caught up to the man he begged for his life. Vejita ended it mercilessly. He severed the head and secured in a small sack; a token of his work to show his employee that the deed was indeed done. How ironic, Vejita thought. For his current employer had been a wealthy merchant whom the their had swindled in some sort of shady deal and now the their was dead by a paid assassin. The world worked in mysterious ways. Vejita left the body out in the opened, the headless body decaying in the garish sun.
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Buruma stepped out into the brisk air. Ten years of living in the hana-machi in Gion and she still wasn't used to the frigidness of the winter. She remembered the lovelier days of endless spring weather with Old Baba. But those days were long past and she had to take responsibility for her future. This night was her erigae, finally. (erigae is the 'changing of collars' ceremony; the final step to becoming a full-fledged geisha.) She took a deep breath, the cold biting the insides of her lungs, her chest restricted by the tightness of her kimono. 'What an unpleasant event....' she thought to herself bitterly. She watched as her 'sister' geisha came out of the building behind her. Chi Chi scurried over to her.
"Excited?"
"Hardly," Buruma answered. In truth, butterflies were running rampant in her stomach.
Chi Chi smiled. She knew her friend was really nervous even though she pretended not to be.
"Ready?" she asked, grabbing hold of Buruma's elbow.
"Ready as I'll ever be," the green-haired younr woman repled. 'Here's the first night of the rest of my life...'
"Cheer up, Buruma. Perhaps you're future sponsor will be really nice or extremely charitable. Maybe one day you'll be able to buy your freedom from this place," Chi Chi said hopefully.
Buruma looked down at her kind-hearted friend. "No, Chi Chi, I don't think life is quite that simple," she admitted sorrowfully.
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'Gion...' Vejita looked up at a small sign over an inn door. Vejita had spent the last few days wandering aimlessly. He had no new job 'oppotunities' so he spent his time as a ronin, traveling and contemplating. It all got to be pretty boring so the first big city he spotted he made a bee line for. This place Gion looked like it could be very interesting. Very interesting indeed....
credit to: The Battousai Shrine (http://www.todokanai.net/battousai)
The Hakone Geisha Association (http://www.geisha.co.jp/eg-01.htm)
'Japan for Visitors' Guide (http://gojapan.about.com/library/weekly/aa080300a.htm)
Anime Lyrics of the Neon Genesis Evangelion song 'Tamashii no Rufuran' (http://www.animelyrics.com/anime/eva)
as you can see i put MUCH research into this. was not so easy because i know like level two japanese. thank you to my mom for helping me with understanding the geisha way as well as kudos to the above sites for their 'part' in my story ^_~ welp, let's see what happens next time. will they meet in Gion, geisha capital of japan? i thought the dance, journey of the butterflies, a romeo and juliet-like story, was such a parallel to my story that i had to insert it somewhere. anywho, till next time! ^-^
rev kurame