2

The boat was damp and uncomfortable, crammed full of others making the long voyage to Wutai. Aeris had never heard of Wutai, let alone set her eyes on it; for all she knew, it was a completely different world. From the small snippets she heard from Mrs. Nakamura it was a wealth country with many ways to live prosperously and Aeris was to work for the Nakamura household until she could pay off her debts and live on her own.

"Your aunt was only thinking of your welfare." Mrs. Nakamura had told her one evening while she had sat by the port window, a silk cloth sitting in her lap for embroidering. Her bony hands worked nimbly, weaving the needle in and out of the bright red material. "She would not have been able to support you now that your mother has passed on. She gave responsibility of you to me so that you could find a better life in Wutai."

"How am I to pay off my debts? Will I be working in your home as your maid servant?" Aeris fiddled nervously with the wrinkled hem of her sleeve, not able to imagine running through Mrs. Nakamura's house bidding to their every wish.

"Maid servant?" The elder woman stopped embroidering, looking up in astonishment. "My dear, you'll be working in my okiya."

"Okiya?" Aeris rolled the word around in her head, but could not come up with a meaning to the word.

This time Mrs. Nakamura dropped the silk fabric into her lap, a humored look on her face. "You don't…know what an okiya is?" She tittered a dry laugh when Aeris shook her head no. "Oh dear, I forget how young you are. Well…an okiya is a communal home where we house our…geisha."

"And I'll work in your okiya…your geisha housing…as your maid servant?" She wasn't quite sure where this was going.

"Dear, are you daft? I bought you so that you could one day become a successful geisha yourself!" Eiko Nakamura shook her head in amusement. "Maid servant, indeed! I wouldn't pay so much for a simple maid servant!"

Aeris was bewildered: her, as a geisha! "But…don't geishas…" She blushed furiously, ashamed to even say it.

"What?" Mrs. Nakamura saw the color on the young girl's cheeks and guessed the question herself. "No dear, that's a common misconception. Geishas do not sleep with men for money; I actually forbid it. A geisha's name must be kept clean at all costs; you are there to entertain, not partake in dirty deeds. A geisha that sleeps with men are not geisha at all but mizutengeisha."

"Then what sort of 'entertaining' would I be doing?" Aeris could not think of anything a grown man could be interested in a girl of merely seventeen.

"You will be doing no sort of entertaining until you finish your training and lessons." Mrs. Nakamura took up her embroidering again, flicking the thread up and over with experiences hands. "After I get you settled into the okiya, I expect you to start as soon as possible; you're behind as it is."

Aeris wistfully stared out the porthole, afraid of the prospect of starting a new life in Wutai. She did not want to become a geisha, she did not want to start lessons and trainings; she had lost everything and was sold out of her family to live somewhere far away, far from everything she knew and loved. And now she had a debt on her hands, the debt that she was to pay off to Mrs. Nakamura. What was she to do now? How badly would her life change once their ship landed in Wutai?

The city of Wutai was a city full of colors. The first thing she could see was the sea of vibrant green grass, fragrant pink cherry blossoms now in full bloom skimmed the shores of the pale blue river that dissected Wutai. The air was clear with a slight hint of the oncoming crispness of spring, but the fresh flavor of the environment rejuvenated her weary senses. The city was a lot more refined than her small village in Mideel, the traditional Old World style buildings made her feel as if she had been transported back to the young days of the Planet.

A small rickshaw pulled up next to them, the driver waving. Mrs. Nakamura grabbed Aeris' arm, pushing her into the hard seat, getting in next to her, asking the driver to take them to Nakamura okiya. With a hard jerk, they were being pulled along the streets; small groups of people were standing outside, watching how the setting sun threw vivid colors all over the glass-like surface of the lake.

"Are you listening?" Mrs. Nakamura tapped Aeris' arm with a paper fan she had been cooling herself off with.

"I'm sorry, Nakamura-sama."

"I said that you should be wary of Scarlett, she is our main geisha at the okiya. She has a slight tendency to be cruel to the others from time to time. Do not get in her way or provoke her in any manner and you should be fine."

"Yes, Eiko-sama."

They pulled up in front of a large gate, Mrs. Nakamura motioning for Aeris to get out; she paid the rickshaw driver who left with a deep bow. The elder woman knocked on the large wooden gate, which was opened a few minutes later by a slight girl who greeted her with surprise.

"Oh, Nakamura-sama! I was not aware that you would be back so early!" She bowed, helping the woman out of her wooden sandals. "Is this the girl?" She eyed Aeris with interest.

"Yes. Yuffie, show her where her room is then I want you to wash her up and feed her. Tomorrow you will take her with you to school and introduce her to all your teachers." Mrs. Nakamura started to climb a set of stairs, her voice starting to fade. Finally they could hear the upstairs door sliding shut and the girl named Yuffie let out a sigh.

"Thank goodness." She turned to Aeris with a huge grin, her mouth almost overtaking her small face. "Hi, I'm Yuffie of Wutai."

"I'm Aeris Gainsborough of Mideel." She gave her a shaky smile.

"Come on, lets get your stuff in your room and I'll show you around a little bit." Yuffie grabbed Aeris' small bag of personal items, bounding to one of the rooms closest to the main gate. Sliding open the door, she could see four or five other small floor mats neatly rolled up and placed against the wall. Yuffie opened a cabinet door pulling out another floor mat and placing it next to the others, next taking her bag and setting it next to the mat. "You'll have to sleep next to the door, sorry. It gets drafty during the winter but there's not a lot of room for six people to fit."

"It's alright." Aeris looked around the tiny room, a stale smell of dirty hair and sweat mingling in the air. From what she could see of the okiya, it was fairly big: a center courtyard surrounded by three long buildings. From the one on the farthest right she could smell rice porridge cooking: that had to be the kitchen. Mrs. Nakamura had disappeared into the largest building, from what she heard that was her living quarters, the room next to hers occupied by the senior geisha, Scarlett. The other room was the storehouse for the okiya's kimonos.

Aeris was shown into the bath house where she washed away three days worth of grime and dirt, scrubbing away with lye soap until her body turned red. The hot water felt wonderful against her skin, the oily smell of the lye a welcome after the dank smell of the ship. After, she was shown into the kitchen where she ate a small portion of rice porridge, the cook stealing glances at her when she thought Aeris wasn't looking. There was a sharp knock on the gate, Yuffie looking up from her daydreaming, struggling to shove her feet into a pair ofzouri and scrambling to open the gate.

"What took you so long, you nitwit!" A jagged voice berated the poor young girl. "I've been standing outside forever!"

"I…I'm sorry, Scarlett!" Yuffie laughed nervously.

Aeris watched as a stunning creature emerged from the gateway of the okiya, a wash of yellow and blue. She was a tall thin woman, her features very lovely but somehow cunning at the same time. Her hair was a fair blonde, done up in an exquisite style, small hair ornaments dangling from it. What struck Aeris was the gorgeous kimono she was wearing: it was a lavish midnight blue made of light silk, delicate silver stitching lined the hem and sleeves in a pattern of leaves and branches; around her waist was tied a light gray obi weaved with gold thread. On her feet a pair of gray lacquered zouri peeked out from the hem of her kimono.

Never had Aeris laid eyes on such a wonderful and stunning kimono, although later she was to find out that the one Scarlett was wearing would have been deemed 'plain'. Still, at the moment, Aeris thought it was the most beautiful article of clothing; no one in Mideel owned anything so refined.

"You're such an oaf, Yuffie!" Scarlett pushed past the skinny girl. "Get out of my way." The hem of her robe fluttered as the blonde walked; Aeris listened in fascination.

Never would she have associated that screeching cruel voice to such a stunning woman. So this is what Mrs. Nakamura had been warning her about. As if the other woman could hear her thoughts, she turned to look at Aeris, a quizzical look crossing her features.

"And who are you?" She pattered over to the kitchen glaring at Aeris.

"Um, Aeris." She suddenly felt crowded, something about this woman made her nervous.

Scarlett turned to the cook. "I though I told you to take the trash out. What is this little piece of garbage doing here? She's stinking up the okiya." She threw back her head and laughed, amused by her own joke. "So you must be the little girl Mrs. Nakamura bought from that dirty fishing village."

"Yes, Scarlett-sama." Aeris hung her head, too ashamed to look such a lovely creature in the face. All of a sudden her plainness seemed to shine forth in comparison to the other woman.

"Figures." Scarlett whirled around, tossing Aeris a wicked smile. "I thought I smelled dead fish."