Devotion
by
Nana
Chapter 3
The Swordsman
Author's Note: Waiii! I'm back with a revision! I'm sorry for taking this long to update. Anyway, I'm back now, and I hope I will get to update more often. I have decided to do some embellishments to this tale (since I believe this is the most neglected and underdeveloped of all my stories).
Hee! Based on the reviews I can see that I have confused some of you with the plot and characters. Sorry about that. I hope it will be cleared up soon.
First posted: 8/2/04
Revised: 8/18/05
Disclaimer: After all these years I still don't own anyone of these people!
By lunchtime, the Hime had made it as far as the crowded marketplace. Under the glaring heat of the sun and the growing, unpleasant sensations of a hungry stomach, her earlier feelings of victory and accomplishment were fast wilting away.
Of course she had not thought to bring any money with her. Even if it had occurred to her before she managed to bolt from the palace, it would have meant stealing some from her nanny, who was the only person her father had assigned to take charge of finances among the ladies of the household. Getting near Kaede-san anytime before escaping was totally out of the question.
She cast a worried glance around her. There were several food shops nearby, the smells wafting from them inviting, appetizing. She had to eat something soon. But how could she afford even a morsel of that seemingly delicious and aromatic meat on skewers that a lady had set out on grilled coals just a few feet away from her?
Swallowing hard, she forced herself to walk on.
What to do?
The high sense of adventure with which she had run away with was wilting under the noontime sun.
But I can't go back! Anything but that!
What must they be doing back in the daimyo's palace? She knew only too well that her disappearance would be discovered soon enough. Thirty minutes was already too long a time before they realized that something was amiss.
And then...
It will have to be Inu Yasha, she thought grimly.
Without a doubt, he would be the one to be given the task of finding her and bringing her back. It was all too ironic...what would he think?
What would he think of all this? The sudden marriage agreement? She felt like a fool to be worrying about what her servant might think of it all, but it had been lingering in her thoughts.
Did it come as a shock to him the way it did to her? Or had Inu Yasha known? Had he known way beforehand? Somehow the thought made her head ache. Of course he did not know! If he had known before they left their small castle she would have wrung it out of him before they ever got here.
She knew him that well.
And if he managed to run her down, would he bring her back to the daimyo's palace against her wishes?
The Hime paused at this question, her heart sinking. She knew that he would. How could he possibly not? He would be acting under the orders of her father. He would have no choice, just as she had no choice in the matter. Unless...
Unless she told him she didn't want to...unless she told him she preferred---
Here she mentally shook herself. Was it the hunger that was making her think this way? She was probably growing dizzy from lack of food to be thinking thus! She must be mad--no, bad!--to be thinking of running away with Inu Yasha!
As if he would...!
But how could she even think of such a thing! Oh, if only there could be a clear way of thinking things out right now!
The sound of footsteps behind her brought her back sharply to the present.
Inu Yasha...! Was he here already!
"Oy, ona, you lost?" The sound of an unfamiliar male voice.
She glanced back nervously. There were two of them, and she didn't like their looks anymore than she did the tone of voice or the way she had been addressed by the first one.
She turned her head back and began to walk away quickly. Much to her dismay, the two started off in pursuit.
"What's the matter? Can't talk?" asked the second fellow, laughing. "We're only asking if you're lost. What's the matter? Can't answer that?"
"Oy, we haven't scared you, have we? We just want to know--"
Shouts of laughter from behind, the unpleasant sounds growing nearer...
She tried not to give in to fright and run for it. She suspected that would only goad them into giving chase. This was turning into a nightmare! Where was Inu Yasha when you needed him?
At that point, she bumped into a figure coming quickly from the opposite direction. The figure went past her in a blur. A moment later, she heard a blade being drawn. Instantly, the raucous noise coming from the Hime's pursuers stopped.
"Are these men bothering you?" the figure asked her.
The Hime blinked. The newcomer was a slender youth, not much older than she was, dressed in dark blue traveling clothes underneath the armor. Long, dark brown hair was kept away from the face by a high ponytail.
The men quelled at the sight of the drawn sword. "We...were only asking her--" faltered one of the men before losing his nerve completely under the gaze of the swordsman.
A sudden twist of the sword made the two men take to their heels.
"They won't be bothering you any longer," said the youth, watching as the men receded from view before turning to face her. "Are you alright?"
The Hime nodded, staring disconcertedly at the face before her. She had never seen a boy as pretty as this one before.
"Good," said her rescuer, replacing the sword in its scabbard. "Be more careful next time."
"W-wait!" cried the Hime just as the swordsman was about to turn and walk away. "Can you help me out? I'm really lost here."
At that, the swordsman paused, brown eyes wide. Taking in again the girl's clothing (silk, no less, set in a pattern of pretty pink and white sakura petals), the youth asked, "what's your name?"
Here, the Hime hesitated. This was no ordinary person. Delicate-looking as he was, he wore armor and carried a sword. Suppose he was one of the daimyo's servants who were sent out to look for her?
"Kagome," she replied, using her first name. At least she was not lying.
The youth lifted a brow, as if indicating that he was waiting for her to complete her name. When no other answer was forthcoming, he returned, "Kawagata."
And no first name was given either.
Fair enough, thought Kagome. Aloud she said, "I'm sorry if I seem too forward, but...do you have anything to eat?"
In the end, she was asked to lunch.
That was the purpose why he was here in the market, said Kawagata, to look for something that can be cooked for the noontime meal.
After buying the vegetables, Kawagata silently headed for home with Kagome in tow.
"...And so that was how I got separated from my family and wound up all alone in your town," finished Kagome in what she hoped was a feasible explanation to her present state of being "lost".
"Won't they be looking for you?" asked Kawagata, concerned.
"Oh, I've been looking for them all morning," lied Kagome cheerily. "I'll go look for them some more after lunch."
Kagome forced herself not to look away as she met Kagawata's faint frown.
If Kawagata had other questions, they were left unasked as they finally arrived at the little hut some distance from the market. Kagome followed the youth in and heard him apologize vaguely about the state of the house.
To be sure, it looked as though nobody had been living in it for quite some time now. A fine layer of dust lay undisturbed over the shelves off to one side, and nobody had bothered to collect the ashes in the hearth. At the center of the room lay a bundle of belongings wrapped in cloth. Kawagata's presumably.
As if sensing her thoughts, Kawagata replied, "my father passed away just a few weeks ago. Since then nobody has been living here. I had to come back and see to some family matters."
"Oh. Will you be staying here tonight?" asked Kagome, careful to keep her voice casual.
And can I stay with you while I think about my next move? She added silently.
Kawagata stared. "I suppose so," he said slowly. His voice seemed like that of a young boy's--consciously low with a hint of a child's universal pitch in it somewhere. "I'm only allowed a day or two, afterwards I have to go back to the castle."
"Castle?" gasped Kagome.
"I work there," said Kawagata as he took off his chest armor and started the fire. He looked up at her again searchingly, wondering at the sudden edge to her voice. One look at Kagome's bland, smiling face made him pause before he returned to his work. "But do stay, if you like. A festival's going to start in a few weeks, you know."
"Festival?" echoed Kagome. "For...for what?"
Kawagata shrugged. "My master's going to get married," he said simply, his tone carefully neutral. The tone of his voice gave no indication whether he felt any happiness or interest in the matter. "The fire's up. I'll just go outside to fetch some water and we can start the soup--"
"I--I'll go get the water," Kagome said, rising to her feet quickly. "I saw the well by the entrance."
"No, I'll--"
"I'll get it," she said firmly as she made her way to the door.
Outside, with the front door securely closed behind her, Kagome sat down abruptly at the well's edge.
Breathe, she thought frantically. Breathe!
She had no reason to worry--yet. After all, she was only dining with the personal servant of her soon-to-be fiancé!
She let out a shaky breath. But it did not seem like he had recognized her, and if she did not give herself away, there was a good chance she would survive having lunch with him.
She would have lunch, and then she would flee.
After a moment or two, she scooped some water from the well and headed back in.
"A disturbance?" he asked. "When?"
"Some ten or fifteen minutes ago," said the peddlar he had stopped on the road. "You just missed it."
"What did the woman look like?" he asked urgently.
"I don't know, I didn't take a clear look," the peddlar said, nervously eyeing the sword on the hip of the person before him.
Inu Yasha let out an impatient sigh. "What about her dress? What did it look like?"
The peddlar shrugged. "Pink and white, I think. She looked rich, maybe that was the reason why those men were after her. Listen, she went off with that swordsman who got her out of trouble."
"Where did they go?"
"Over there." The peddlar pointed, wincing at the force of Inu Yasha's fists on his shirt.
What was that all about? Men! Trouble! Swordsman! What the hell had she been up to?
He broke into a run, feeling the icy sweat trickle down his backside. Ten or fifteen minutes. There was a good chance he could catch up with them...!
OOF!
"Watch where you're going!" Inu Yasha growled.
"You watch where you're going!" spat the small, fat man beside the younger one he had bumped into. "Just who do you think you're addressing--"
"That's enough, Hachi," said the young man, holding up a hand to silence his companion. "We don't have enough time."
"Matte--I might as well ask you. Have you seen a girl in a pink and white silk kimono anywhere here?" Inu Yasha said.
The man turned to look at Inu Yasha with clear, violet-blue eyes. "No," he said evenly. "Have you seen a girl dressed as a boy in armor?"
"What!"
The man shook his head. "Never mind," he said as he took leave, "gomen, but we didn't see your girl either."
"This is good soup," Kagome said carefully as she looked up from her bowl.
Kawagata only nodded.
"I hope I haven't been intruding..." Kagome stopped. It did seem so forward that she would be having lunch with a boy she hardly knew, but Kawagata did not seem to mind.
There was a moment of awkward silence before Kagome's curiosity got the better of her. "So...so you work for the daimyo's son?" she asked.
Another nod from Kawagata.
"What's he like?"
Kawagata turned away, indicating that it was somehow improper for her to ask. Instead, he said, "is there really nothing else you'd like to add to your story?"
"W-what?"
"Who are you, really?" asked Kawagata, cutting straight to the point.
"What do you mean?"
Kawagata eyed her clothes, at the smooth lines of silk, and at her unlined hands. "You cannot think you can get away by saying you are not from the nobility, at least," he said.
"I have to go," said Kagome faintly. She moved away quickly, panic starting to seep in. She would be done for if Kawagata were to press the matter and detain her.
Fortunately, he did not. He merely continued to sit where he was, staring at her.
At the doorway, she paused. "Please do not think me ungrateful for lunch," she said softly. "I hope in time I shall be able to repay you for this favor."
She listened as the girl's footsteps died away. She sighed, thinking that this was probably the most confusing day of her life.
It mattered very little that the girl had obviously thought that she, Kawagata Sango, was a boy, and it did not occur to her to correct the girl's mistake. She was good at deceiving people. Hell, she had even deceived her own master for the past seven years or so, and found that masquerading as a boy had served to her advantage.
It had always been a source of wonder to her how, with his supposed knowledge of women, her master had never found out about her identity. But then, she did not want to think of that idiot right now.
When the news broke through last night, the very first thing she had thought of was flight. She did not want to be there today to see his face, or the girl he was going to marry. She found that she simply would not be able to.
So she had taken leave from the master of the household to attend to some pressing matters that had not been seen to since the death of her father.
What if the young master asks for you?
Then he will have Hachi by his side, she had answered. Hachi is fully capable of attending to his every need.
She shook her head. This is madness! She thought. How on earth did you ever get into this kind of mess?
Since she had shown up wearing boys' clothes to work on the daimyo's stables, a part of her thought wryly.
It had been deception from the start, but this much had been true: Sango had been trained from an early age to be a boy.
What was strange about it was nobody had really bothered to check on her background. Her father had badly wanted a boy, and for the most part of her life, she had been reared as one even when her younger brother had been born. Being a child who never had any exposure to femininity, it had not been too difficult to get away with it.
What was more, she was good at what she did. Taking care of horses, and finally, mastering the sword had come to her naturally. At certain points she was even better than the young master, if she could say so herself.
Of course, her father had been ill at ease with it. As a junior retainer who had come from a poor samurai family, he had not wanted the confusion, but it seemed that even he was powerless to stop the events as they had unfolded.
From their first meeting of Sango, people had assumed that she was a boy. Her father could only nod dumbly when they referred to her as his son. It was one of the secrets that had eaten away at him as time went on.
Father was equally powerless from stopping the young master from taking notice of the samurai's child whose age was quite close to his own. Children, regardless of their class, naturally gravitated to one another. Even as his tutors tried to strike a balance between his studies and sword practice, the young master had found a way to ensure that Kawagata's "son" would be close at hand by choosing her as one of his personal servants two years ago.
That had meant that Sango would have to be with him everywhere he went, and Father had nearly gone mad with worry.
Sango had merely laughed. "Do not worry about it, Chichu-ie," she had said. "I will be able to handle him."
And handle the young master she did, no matter how potentially dangerous or embarrassing (or infuriating) a situation might be—the night trips to teahouses, bringing him home drunk with or without Hachi, the many discreet visits to ladies and the equally numerous love letters she had to deliver for him. Somehow, through it all, she had been able to grit her teeth and keep herself under control...until recently.
She had worried over that time when the waka's friend, Takeda Kuranosuke, had come to visit him and stay for a time in the castle. There had been several hair-raising encounters that could have led to uncomfortable questions, but she was glad the waka had not indulged his friend to pursue his "game". During his stay, Kuranosuke had been too friendly, too interested in what she did, to give her a moment's rest.
After a day or two of Kuranosuke's attention—flattering to the point of being uncomfortable, it seemed clear the waka had not been too happy with it…and with her. At the very least, he must see it wasn't her fault! But after Takeda had gone, the waka had reverted to his normal self without bringing her into his confidence regarding his friend. In this one detail he had acted unusually.
The waka…her waka…
The change had been so gradual that she had not even realized it. When she finally did (and after she got over the mortification), it was already too late to do anything about it. It was easy at first to dismiss it, deny it, even laugh at it, but if she needed the final proof of its existence, it was this: she had run away on the day of his engagement to another girl.
Sango sighed unhappily as she asked herself for the hundredth time how this had happened. Hadn't she told herself time and again that the waka did not exactly possess all the admirable traits required of honorable young men; that she, born as a girl, was actually more of a gentleman in many respects than he was? All the ladies, once he was through with them, had tearfully told her so.
So it was not supposed to happen this way!
But perhaps Heaven had finally meant to put her in her proper place and punish her for the lie that she had perpetuated for most of her life, because this was how it had turned out.
That strange girl--whoever she was--had created a welcome distraction. Had she not arrived, Sango would have found herself circling these same treacherous thoughts over and over again at an earlier hour today.
Wearily, Sango allowed herself to wonder who she might be. For a young chit she had a penchant for attracting trouble in the streets. She was also pretty forward with things. No matter how she tried to hide it, though, it was pretty clear that she was running away from someone--or something. A fate worse than death, perhaps?
At that moment, Sango heard a bit of noise outside the closed door.
So she's back, Sango thought dully. I really wonder what her family would say to her hiding here with an unfamiliar swordsman?
"What's the matter now?" She heard herself say as the door slid aside. "Has your family finally tracked you down? Is that the reason why you--"
And whatever she had planned to say died on her lips when she looked up and saw who it was.
He stood there for quite some time, leaning against the door frame with the noontime sun slanting down on his dark head, and when he finally spoke, it was with his usual gentle rhythm, and entirely without heat: "So this is where you've been hiding, Kawagata Sanju--or should I say...Sango."
Vocabulary:
Chichi-ue -- Father
Matte -- Wait!
Ona -- woman
Waka -- in general, it means "young"; a term that can be used to mean "young master"
Additional Notes:
Women warriors abound in history, and Japanese History is no exception. I have made some research into the field of Samurai women and I found several interesting articles in the Internet. The only problem is I can't seem to be able to post it here. E-mail me if you would like them, and I'll be more than happy to send them along.