Disclaimer: I do not own Rurouni Kenshin. Watsuki-sama does. I'm only borrowing his characters for a while.
Chapter 6 – The hours preceding the fall
Had Tokio thought about the monstrosity of her words and actions? Not really. Due to context, due to her early education as a samurai daughter, due to many, many things, she felt that she was in her right. She had been publicly humiliated; her family name had been tarnish, so it was only normal to act.
Any other person might have thought twice before asking a hitokiri to murder his father. But Tokio wasn't any other person. Yumi had been right: if she wanted, she could have sent her best friend to the grave without even blinking.
But while Tokio thought that she was doing this only to get her family honour back, it's true that, unconsciously, she was also partially doing this because she had been hurt and wanted her revenge over the man who had destroyed her life. But she was not really aware of it. Blinded by her ideals of justice, she didn't see that her behaviour was as questionable as her father's.
And there would be the day when she would finally open her eyes and maybe regret this. Or maybe not… It always depends of the exact course of actions…
"Bitch!"
Tokio turned slowly toward Yumi and sized her from head to toe, as if she had seen the weirdest thing, before saying.
"You have a problem?"
"You know what it is."
"No, I don't. I just gave you the okiya back. You'll have money and you'll have Shishio while I'll end up with nothing… Isn't that what you wanted all along the way? There shouldn't be any problems then…"
Hearing these words, Aki stop cleaning the room and observed the scene more closely. This conversation was quite interesting…
"Bitch!" Yumi repeated calmly and defiantly. "Heartless bitch! I don't trust your word, and I don't trust the deal that we've made yesterday…"
"Well, trust it because it's true. You'll get the okiya, so be happy. That's all."
"Humph! And you think that I'll believe a girl who just sent her father to his death sentence? In your dreams!"
"Well, don't trust me then. What do you want me to say? That I just tricked you? I'll say it if it makes you happy…"
"Shsss…"
"What?"
"She's listening."
Both girls turned toward the young Aki who was still all ears… For a while, not a single sound was heard in the room. Everything was frozen in time and place until Tokio ventured.
"It's just Aki… She doesn't understand anything we say. Even if we explained with detailed schemes, she would still not get it."
"Still, I don't think we should mention any of this in front of others…"
"I tell you, she doesn't get it. See for yourself: Aki, what were we just talking about?"
"I don't know... It sounded very obscure to me." Answered the young girl, her face partially covered by her messy un-refined hair.
"You see!" victoriously exclaimed Tokio.
On that, Yumi lost her reticence and they both mockingly looked at Aki. They had no idea that behind this mass of hair, a pair of mischievous eyes was hidden.
The countryside gardens were vast, almost savage. People were walking in groups of two or three, speaking animatedly as the fresh autumn breeze was bringing them back to life after these long months, or rather years, of constant war.
Tokio was looking at all of this, standing on the porch, just happy to be away from Gion for once. She could count on the fingers of one hand the number of times she had gone out of Gion since her arrival in the city. It was a rare occurrence, but she enjoyed it very much. It reminded her of her past, of the time she had been a little girl running freely in the fields, with very little worries.
She smiled sadly. She wasn't a little girl anymore. And she did have a lot of worries.
Harada was chatting with the officials' wives not too far away from where she stood. These women had been kind enough to invite them here, for the third reunion, but they were of no real interest. No, Harada was her target… She smiled enigmatically at him. Intrigued, it didn't take long before he politely took his leave and came to join her on the porch.
"A Shinsengumi captain… That must be a very demanding job…" Tokio managed to say with restrained charm.
This way of speaking, this way of acting, enigmatic and at the same time so disturbing, immediately and entirely caught Harada's attention. Tokio was playing her role; it was what had made her relative renown these past few years in Gion, and she was becoming quite good at it.
She took a step closer and looking mockingly at him. She not-so-innocently asked, "Days off must be relatively rare…"
Harada was looking at her, suddenly living in a world apart, in a world where officials, where reunions, where the Shinsengumi didn't existed. He was completely unaware of his surroundings and of who he was. He was only fixing those red and taunting lips. He had never seen something so beautiful before…
He shook his head, trying to regain some sense, as he finally noticed that the red lips were moving again.
"I'm sorry, Tokio-san. You were saying?"
His eyes didn't leave her mouth as she pronounced words that sounded like music to his ears.
"I was just enquiring what a normal day was like for you."
"Oh… Well, train my men and do some patrol tours. The rest of the time, we take some rest, to… to be in full shape for the next day."
"How do you handle all of this?"
"Well, I'm used to it by now…" Harada laughed, slightly embarrassed.
"You must be very strong!"
"Well…"
"No, don't be humble… You are one of the captains after all. I guess that no man in your unit could beat you or could handle as many things as you do."
"It's true that…"
"That courier, for example. I'm sure that he only does half of what you do in one day. And I'm generous saying half."
"Well, to tell you the truth," started Harada, his male ego enormously flattered by Tokio's words, no matter if they were accurate or not "compared to me, that man doesn't do much."
"Oh… you're exaggerating… I see it in your eyes…"
"No, no. It's really the truth. That man sleeps until noon everyday. Then, most of the time, he only watches us train. All he manages to handle is to deliver one or two messages early in the evening before spending hours in Shimabara…"
Tokio's expression changed, from charming to deadly serious. Finally she was getting what she wanted: priceless information. That had been quick and painless. Much easier than if she had tried her luck with Saito…
"I'm sorry Tokio-san, I didn't mean to mention such a district in front of you…" said Harada who had apparently misinterpreted Tokio's expression.
"No, it's alright. It's just that I'm surprised that a man can spend one or two hours in that district every night of the week, without growing tired of it…"
"He spends way more time than that in Shimabara! My unit has a day off every Tuesday, and on these occasions, he spends his entire day there! Can you believe it! From noon to midnight! Even a man like I – no, not that I'm a regular – wouldn't be able to party so often."
"That's very sad to hear, very sad… Oh, I'm sorry, I think that I just heard my name being called. If you'll excuse me…" lied Tokio, being done with Harada.
On these words, she left and as Harada watched her walk away, he slowly came to realise that the universe was wider than what he had thought and that the two women he had left behind a few minutes ago were laughing at him and his stunned expression.
His hand messily ran through his air as he boyishly and guiltily grinned. He had considered Tokio purely as a little sister to be protected until now, but a single beat of eyelash had been enough to make him change his mind. Oh, well, that Tokio was something… These were the women who made the reputation of Gion…
He decided to forget her, she was in another league, and he went back to the two other women.
Tokio had not taken more than twenty steps when, too lost in her thoughts to realise what she was doing, she almost bumped into a man. She raised her head to meet the not-so-friendly eyes of Hajime Saito.
A shiver ran down through her spine. Their closeness, which would have made Harada feel jealous if he had not already been occupied by something else, made her feel uncomfortable. She tried to take a step back, but holding her by the arm, Saito stopped her short in her attempt, bringing her even closer.
"You changed tactic?" asked Saito, referring to her earlier seductive behaviour.
Hearing his word, Tokio found her grip back and smiled mischievously. After all, she had not spent years arguing and fighting with Yumi for absolutely nothing…
"Do I perceive a touch of jealously in these words, captain? Maybe you would have preferred that I tested that tactic on you first?"
"Harada is a fool," cut Saito, leaving no room for discussion. "He is the only one who will never realise that you set him a trap, to get information."
"Is this a warning?"
"Yes." Saito replied, glaring intensely at her in a way that would have made most people run for their life.
But far from being perturbed, Tokio only went on, mockingly.
"And what are you going to do, captain? Slice a poor innocent geisha in two? It's true that it will look very courageous and noble on your resume…"
"You don't look so innocent to me. And I think that you don't understand… I don't care: geishas, women, the elderly… You don't have to be a man between twenty and forty to be rotten to the bone."
"And I look rotten to you?"
The Shinsengumi captain answered nothing to that. He was only glaring intently at her, analysing, judging, looking directly into her eyes. Yet, Tokio didn't blink. She sustained the stare and let him see all there was to be seen. She had nothing to be ashamed of, for she was in her right. She truly believed that she had taken the best decision.
Finally, he let go of her arm. The geisha's eyes were not kind, but there was something childish and gullible in them. No she wasn't rotten, not yet.
"I asked a few questions around and apparently, your family name is Tanaka… That man, he is what… your father?" Saito asked after a long silence.
"Yes."
"What do you want from him?"
"A loving daughter cannot enquire about her father?" Tokio replied mockingly, before adding more seriously "Why do you loathe him?"
Why did he loathe the man? That was something that didn't concern Tokio. But yes, he did loathe him. Tanaka was a sleaze who had a tendency to associate himself with the wrong people, but who always retreated just in time, when he felt that drinking games were not worth his life. That's how he had managed to survive so far.
Tanaka was targeted, many Shinsengumi members wanted to see him dead. And Saito was among them. Tanaka had eluded justice many times, way to many times. All that stood between him and seppuku was the loyalty of Isami Kondo.
Saito was perfectly aware of the fact that Tokio had something in mind, and to tell the truth, he was intrigued. He wanted to see what she was up to. He didn't thought that it was anything big, but still he was intrigued. Maybe that if he had known, if he had been aware of the whole story and of Shishio's implication, he would have said more than:
"I'll be watching you."
A few days later, Tokio was in her room, looking at the letter that rested on her knees with great satisfaction. It was all that had been missing, the last piece of the puzzle: the detailed account of her father's usual whereabouts on his days off. The list of establishments he visited in Shimabara and the hours at which he visited them were right there in front of her. It was complete. She had gathered all the information Shishio needed.
Her father had a day off every Tuesday. That was tomorrow, which meant that she would have to give the signal to Shishio during the next few hours. Was it… was it right? Was it what she really wanted? Had she made a mistake? Would she come to regret this?
Suddenly, as the fatidic day was approaching, she wasn't sure anymore. She had some doubts. She just didn't know and needed to be reassured.
She bent her head down, closed her eyes and at that exact moment, she saw it. She remembered it. She remembered the humiliation she had felt that night in the street. She remembered the gross scene that had taken place right under her eyes. She remembered the dirty looks her father had sent her, twice. And she remembered the fact that all those years ago, the man had lied to her, telling her that he would visit her often. She clearly remembered that the man had abandoned her before tarnishing her family's honour, the last thing that they possessed in this world.
He deserved to be punished. She didn't care about Hajime Saito's warnings. She was in her right.
She opened her eyes and saw Yumi looking at her from the corridor. Before changing her mind, she coldly declared:
"We're talking to Masako tonight."
In the fall of 1867, while everything and everyone were getting ready for the final stretch of the Bakumatsu, two young geishas were playing their fate. Two young geishas would influence slightly the course of actions.
Years later, their role would remain unknown. Only the main events would be remembered: the Ishinshishi's victory and the Shinsengumi defeat. It was sufficient. But what happens backstage is often as important as what happens under the spotlights.
To be continued…
AN: Thanks to EEevee who kindly beta-read this chapter. Review replies can be found on my website.
À la prochaine!
Mary-Ann