Part Eleven
Ken opened the door to a tall albino Irish man dressed in white with scars covering the best part of his body. He closed the door again and did his best to catch his breath. Farfarello knocked again. Ken opened the door and hoped and prayed that he didn't request time with Aya, that would be something to explain. "I'm here for the kitty." He said.
Ken shook his head, "there's no kitties here, I don't know what you've heard, but I think you're mistaken, maybe you've got the wrong address." He had his bugnuks but they weren't on him, they were upstairs in a locked case in case the geisha got to them. The geisha were into everything that they found vaguely intriguing, or denied to them, in fact Ichimomo had said that the bugnuks were shiny and pretty.
A small grey furred bundle with huge blue eyes rubbed at his legs and looked up at the one eyed Irish man and nyao-ed. "No kitties?" Farfarello asked, he picked up the cat and took a long deep sniff along it's fur.
"You can't eat the cat, you'll make Aoi cry." Ken said snatching the cat back and holding it away from the insane Irish man.
"It's just a cat." Farfarello said, "cats are devil's familiar so hurting kitties helps god. Crawford said to check. Also to give geisha woman this." He handed Ken a box. Then wandered off chanting "this old man he played one," under his breath.
Ken shuddered and picked up the kitten, and put it in the pocket of his apron. "You are a very lucky kitty. That's a very bad man, he probably eats little kitties like you." He put the box in the other pocket sure that none of Crawford's other gifts had been dangerous and it was for Aya, he could open the box.
"Who are you talking to?" Aya asked from the stairs. "You're not talking to that cat are you? Because we're not keeping it."
"Farfarello just dropped by to sniff it, apparently it's just a kitten, whatever he means by that." Aya sighed in relief, "and Crawford sent this." He handed Aya the box, it was six inches long and at least four inches wide and covered in Chinese silk. Aya opened it warily, then smiled and clutched it to his chest with a distant look in his lavender coloured eyes and what on anyone else would have passed for a smile. "And it is?" Ken pressed.
"A calligraphy set." Aya answered, "what better for a geisha that practises poetry than a calligraphy set."
Aya sat at the table looking at the pale grey cat as it lapped up it's milk quite contentedly as if waiting for the animal to explode or attack him. The other geisha had decided that they loved the little creature and she had spent most of the day in the pocket of Ken's apron. It turned and looked at him. "Nyo."
"I don't know why you're looking at me." Aya answered, he gathered his kimono sleeve in one arm as he reached across the table for the teapot.
The kitten took a swipe at the gathered fabric. "Nyao." Aya snatched the expensive silk out of the way of tiny claws that could snag it. The sudden movement meant the kitten overbalanced and fell on her tail, "Nyo." It complained.
"You talk almost as much as Yohji," he said patting her on the head. The kitten began to purr. "Well I suppose you're sweet in your way." The kitten butted his hand as it purred. "We'll call you Taiki, after all you are the colour of a cloudy day."
"Who are you talking to?" Ken asked walking into the room with a bucket in his arms.
"No one." Aya said, lifting the kitten before Ken got a chance to notice it. He held it carefully in his cupped hands.
"Kaasan said not to go near the kitten in kimono in case she snags one." He said eyeing the way Aya had clasped his hands. "Are you meeting Crawford tonight?" Aya nodded, wary of the sudden change of topic. "Omi says to say thank you for the flowers he got this morning because he was sick."
"He still not up to accompanying me?" Aya asked, praying that the kitten wouldn't give him away.
Ken shook his head, "between you and me I think he's playing on it so he can spend time with the kitten."
"Taiki." Aya corrected, "we can call her Taiki."
"You're letting him keep her. I thought she was from some maniacal evil genius with a mechanical eye that gave you the creeps." Ken asked, then he thought about it. "Well, we'll put him on the Kritiker wish list and keep the cat. Speaking of which, where is she?"
"Don't know." Aya answered brusquely, "haven't seen her all day."
Yohji looked at the small grey cat perched on the table and then frowned. One of Aya's more persistent customers had bought him a cat, the cutest darn cat in Kyoto by the look of it, with huge blue eyes and a rather consternated expression. It also hated him and hissed whenever he got near it. "Kawaii." Omi exclaimed every time she did it. "Taiki really likes you."
"Yeah, chibi, she really likes me." So far she had hissed at him, clawed him, bit him and peed on him, so he got the impression that she really liked him. The cat was damn near road kill. What possessed Aya's mystery customer to buy him a kitten? Omi was feeding it flakes of tuna from his fingers and was laughing happily as the kitten purred at him. "So where's our fearless leader tonight?" He asked, blowing out smoke in rings as he leant back in the wooden chair.
"He's going to the pictures and then he has some parties. If his first customer is willing though he might skip the parties." Omi answered, scratching Taiki on the stomach where she had rolled over. "He does that a lot for him."
Yohji seethed, he would discover the identity of this mysterious gaijin customer. "Who got him the kitten?"
"Aya said it was Doctor Muraki." Omi giggled a little as the kitten wriggled, it seemed the chibi was in love at first sight, "apparently he's staying at the KoKakuRou restaurant."
Yohji made his mind up there and then, this Doctor Muraki would pay for taking away his Aya. He would pay.
Aya sat in the dark movie theatre with Crawford trying his best not to stare at the man instead of watching the movie. Crawford was actually quite attractive in his way, his features a little harsh and gaijin for Aya's taste normally, but there was an intelligence and cunning in his eyes which was quite intriguing. He looked at Aya as if working out how to consume him whole. Despite that he was supposed to be working later that night he had dressed rather casually, in a scandalously short wool cardigan that ended just under his fake bosoms and a pair of low slung jeans in a matching colour. His midriff was completely bare. He wore a pair of simple boating shoes. Kaasan had said to dress down for the cinema and to come back to dress up for the parties, but judging by the way Crawford was holding his hand Aya knew he wouldn't make it to his appointments tonight. He was half prepared to tell Kaasan to just accept Crawford as his patron so he wouldn't have to entertain any more.
On the screen an American woman was complaining about some American man in what was pretending to be a romantic comedy set in what appeared to be New York. He was beginning to think that they might have been better off seeing the domestic zombie movie showing in the other theatre.
"You seem bored, Saki-chan." Crawford whispered, his breath hot in her ear.
"The film is a little trite, Crawford-san." She whispered back, he tightened his grip on her hand a little.
"I wouldn't mind if you just called me Crawford, you know."
"I'd like that." She answered with a faint and rather genuine smile.
Meanwhile at the KoKakuRou restaurant Yohji was staking his prey. The gaijin doctor was white haired and only wore white which made the job of tracking him much easier. At the moment he was stood outside the restaurant in the formal gardens with a tall man with long black hair and a dark purple kimono. With their proximity Yohji grew even more enraged, not only was this doctor stealing Aya away but he wasn't even faithful.
Crawford laughed as Murasakiiro crossed her eyes trying to see the blob of whipped cream on the end of her nose. The ice cream parlour had filled as the film emptied and now they were sat in a private booth, he was drinking coffee but had insisted that he buy her at least something from the menu. She had ordered the simplest sundae, but had managed while laughing to get the cream on the end of her nose.
She wiped it off with a napkin. "you look like a different man when you laugh like that." She said with a smile.
He leaned across the table and kissed her, his breath was spicy with cinnamon and coffee and she leaned into it, all conscious thought vanished from her brain except ohmigod he's kissing me.
Schuldig joined Yohji in the tree overlooking the restaurant. "I wouldn't if I were you." He said looking at the tall pale doctor where he and the man in purple were talking. A card exchanged hands.
"He's stealing my Aya away." Yohji answered.
"Muraki?" He asked. "I don't think so, the man's completely barmy, even by Farfarello's standards, do you know he carries his brother's head around in a jar and keeps kidnapping a Shinigami so another one will go out with him?"
Yohji looked at Schuldig like he was speaking in tongues.
"It's true, it came out last year at the Christmas party. He's a complete loon, nuttier than a fruit cake, kinda sexy in that whole Bwa ha ha kinda way, but barking." Schuldig looked at Yohji, "Aya can do better." He said.
"But he's a doctor." Yohji protested.
"Of what no one's figured out." Schuldig smiled at him. "Come on, let's blow this popsicle stand and get wasted. Crawfish is out on a date, by the sound of it's so's Abyssinian, no one's going to complain, hey we can even invite Muraki if you want." He thought about what he said. "Hey how funny would it be if Abyssinian and Crawford were on a date with each other?"
Yohji said nothing.
Crawford and Murasakiiro were walking through the grounds of the Heian-jingu temple when she suddenly sneezed. The grounds were lush and obviously well tended and the colours in autumn were amazing to behold. "Are you cold?" He asked.
"Just a little," she said, "I think someone's talking about me." she laughed a little looking out at the moon's reflection across the small koi pond.
He shrugged off his jacket and wrapped it around her shoulders, then wrapped his arms around her as he looked out across the water and into the trees. Murasakiiro didn't know whether she snuggled deeper into the warmth of the jacket or the arms holding her. She just knew that it was something she never wanted to end.
"Crawford," she said finally, looking down at her feet. "There's something I need to tell you."
Next time on An Assassin And White Geisha: Yohji gets drunk and Murasakiiro reveals a terrible secret
Authors note:
The whole set up with the Noh, I'm so cheap to even include it, I just had this image of an evil mastermind society, spawned in part by Silrayn Silverwolf's Ayankitsune and the Assassin's Convention and Neil Gaiman's "The Dolls House" which had a serial killer's convention- cereal lovers welcome. I just liked the idea of them all knowing each other and sharing "professional courtesy". I'm so glad you liked it, for those of you that didn't get it, Muraki and Tsuzuki are characters in Yami no Matsuei (or Descendants of Darkness) and you can find anything you ever needed to know about it on although it's just been released by viz. In fact I lifted Muraki's speech directly from (side note the voice for Tsuzuki was provided by Miki Shinichirou who WK fans should recognise as the voice of Yohji.)
I got the idea for this fic from the Ja Weiss! Doujinshi which shows Aya dressed as a geisha, Yohji as a hostess and Omi as a school girl, but also what happens when Ken actually finds a kitty. Taiki by the way means sky among other things. I'll email the pic for anyone who wants a look.