Chapter 2: Little Kai

A small child, a girl with raven black hair, was sitting perpendicular to an older woman who seemed to be surveying the girl's moves. On her knees, she was moving in memorized steps to drink her tea. She stared at the floor and made each one like a robot, practiced and practiced over and over again, repeating herself just like the dozens of times before that day. By now, the woman watching her stopped putting tea in the girl's cup and replaced it with fountain water. Not because the tea upset the girl's stomach after the fourth cup of consumption, but because all that tea cost money.

When the girl finished, she bowed to the woman and stood up and left the room in another string of robotic moves she was taught. Once her body had left the room, the girl waited in slight fear at what would happen next. She waited several seconds till the woman inside called for her back in. The girl entered in a more nonchalant way than before and sat on her knees waiting for the woman's grade. She looked into her older eyes as she sipped tea out of her cup, looking at the girl who appeared to be a mini her. She set her cup down and waited a few seconds before giving the girl a slight nod of achievement, telling her she did well. The little girl smiled and stood up in following the woman. They walked out into the bright spring sun and took in the sights around them. The little girl looked up as she held onto the older woman's limp fingers.

"Mother? What shall we eat for dinner?"

Later

"Hiiiiiiiii-YAH!" A young, black haired girl swung down her wooden sword on her opponent and he fell to the ground with swirls in his eyes. A group of boys to the side made the usual sounds of surprising defeat, though in this case it wasn't that surprising. She had beaten many, many a time before. A small laugh came from her lips as she extended her hand down to pick the boy back up. He only scowled at her as he rubbed his head and got up himself. Dusting himself off, he started to speak to the girl but a sudden noise to their side interrupted him. All the eyes went toward the town fountain where everyone got their water. There was only one girl there and she was staring at the others in slight fear and embarrassment. An empty pail that was once filled with water lay on the ground with a growing dark circle coming from it. The girl was covering her mouth as the others didn't know exactly what to say. The black haired girl was the first to speak.

"Are you okay there Kai? What happened?" The girl picked the pail up and washed it off in the fountain so there was no dirt on it (She knew that the fountain would soon filter that dirt out). The confused girl looked up into the taller one's eyes not answering because she was a little flustered. She appeared to be trying to form words but at the sight of all the other boys looking at her she couldn't speak.

"Um… I…" She peered at them again and their strange sneers that didn't necessarily mean they were in a bad mood, they were just boys.

"Here." The taller girl didn't let Kai finish and handed the pail, now full of water, back to her. She was a little surprised and bowed before taking the pail. The girl just laughed a little because bowing was not common that much around where they lived but it was in other places. The taller and older girl knew of this one's situation and knew how she was raised so she didn't take serious consideration of her antics. But that didn't mean that the other boys would.

Several meters away, the boys were laughing and giggling as they play bowed to each other, making fun of little Kai. They spoke in high pitched voices meant to be funny and continued bowing and pretending to drink tea. These actions made Kai go bright red and she quickly took the pail from the other girl's hand. However, in simple reaction, she bowed again as she was going to leave and another round of hearty laughter filled the air. Kai looked down and started to run away but the pail of water was too heavy, this being the reason she had dropped it the first time. And this time was no different. As she tried to keep the pail balanced she was actually starting to tip over because of its heaviness. Then, in front of all these kids, she fell forward and spilled the water again but then she landed in it too. Her clothes now wet and dirty, and with quite a face plant, the other boys began to laugh again but this time they were literally crying from the comedy of it all. Some were on the ground, holding their stomachs, others were reeling back their heads to release even louder fits of laughter. Kai almost began to cry. She could see bits of dirt in her black hair and her eyes were filling up with tears, blurring her vision. However, before she could succumb to her embarrassment, someone came to save her.

"Hey! You little punks shut up! You wouldn't know proper kindness if it stabbed you in the back with a katana!" The older girl had now stepped in front of Kai and was looking angrily at the boys with her wooden sword pointed at them. They started to quiet now, letting the laughter pass and looked at the girl with a scowl.

"What are you gonna do Kuina? Get your dad to scold us?"

"I'll be doing the 'scolding' if you know what I mean." She stepped forward and swung her sword down and looking at them with fury in her eyes. They just gulped and ran away yelling that they were going to tell on her. Tell what she didn't know or care. Kuina turned around and kneeled down to lift Kai up.

"Are you okay Kai? Did I fill the pail too high?" She grabbed the pail again and helped Kai get to her feet.

"It's okay Kuina-chan, it wasn't you're fault." The two girls walked back to the fountain to refill the pail once again, this time only half way.

As Kuina stood with one of her hands on Kai's back, there was still one boy left standing where he had been since ending his fight with Kuina. He looked slightly confused, and walked over.

"What was that all about?" This boy didn't realize what was going on because he was in his own world, yelling at himself for losing to Kuina once again. He hadn't even noticed the whole bit with Kai.

"You're stupid friends were picking on little old Kai." With that, Kuina nudged Kai a bit to show who she was talking about and the little boy looked down at the other black haired girl whom he hadn't noticed. He didn't say anything, and neither did she, Kai just bowed a bit to hide her blushing face.

"Well I gotta go catch up with them. Hani's mom is making lunch!" The boy turned around and was about to run off till he was grabbed by the back of the shirt.

"Hold up! Make sure when you catch up with those dweebs you tell them to say sorry to Kai next time they see her, you got it?" Before replying, the boy looked at the girl again, trying to recognize her face, but instead had to memorize it. He just nodded wildly and said he would so he could be let go. When Kuina did let go, he ran after his friends without looking back. Kai followed the boy's movements as he became smaller and smaller in the distance till he rounded a corner and left her sight.

"Here Kai." Kai turned from where she was looking and saw Kuina holding the pail, now a lot lighter, out for her to take. Kai smiled at her, bowed, and said her thanks. She then turned around and left for home.

Kuina stood there, and watched as Kai, the little girl most of the town talked about, leave for home and her mother, Sakuya. Kuina had heard stories of Sakuya when she was younger from her father. Her father never directly talked about her to Kuina, she would eavesdrop on her father's conversations with other people when she was supposed to be in bed. From what she had heard, she wasn't the nicest woman in the world. But she also wasn't the most fortunate. She had been injured back in her mid twenties, her prime, and she could no longer be what she was best at, a geisha. She was forced to settle down and make a family. Something she never wanted to do.

Dealing with Kai on the other hand, she was the girl whom everyone said was unfortunate for having Sakuya as a mother. After her injury, she became cruel and rude because of her condition. She was plagued to be in bed for the next 8 months instead of out to parties. Her own depression and pain became everyone else's suffrage and nuisance. Poor little Kai had to deal with it every day of her life. And after 9 months of pain for Sakuya, she wasn't the apple of her mother's eye, especially since she was supposed to be an abortion.

Kuina couldn't even imagine how hard little Kai had it for the first few years of her life. Those are the years you learn by experiencing things, like what a dog feels like or the sound of bird chirping. But little Kai didn't get that, she got pain.

By the time Kai was five, Sakuya was fed up with beating and regretting her own mistake. Instead, she decided to make her daughter into what she couldn't be because of her injury. Yes, it was the all too common live-your-own-dream-through-your-child syndrome. She began teaching Kai how to be a geisha.

A door was heard closing in the reaches of Mahiru's mind, and she sprang open from unconsciousness to see a wooden ceiling above her. She tried to move her head to her right to see where she was but found she couldn't do it. She was stuck watching the ceiling. She felt awkward, like she was entombed because of her paralyzing feeling but then realized if she moved slowly she could lift herself up. Doing this, she came to a sit up position out toward the center of the room with her legs over the side of the bed she was laid upon. She scanned what she could, and saw her silk bag opened next to her sword. She started to panic and feared that something was taken or broken from her bag. While she tried to stand up and move across the room in her condition, the door that she heard close now opened.

"Hey, what are you doing up? You should still be resting." Out of the corner of Mahiru's eye, she could see a reindeer, standing on its hind legs and talking to her. It looked the one she saw in the restaurant. When she saw it the first time, she thought it was a child in costume. She didn't know why a child would be in costume, but no other explanation came to mind. But now, it appeared that the lips of this apparent costume were moving like the real thing. The surprise she felt from seeing this thing in her current condition was just enough to make her collapse in surprise. She fainted right where she was and the sound of her body hitting the floor caused everyone else to turn wherever they stood in wonder of what was going on in the clinic.

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Shade- Strange place to end the chapter but it's gotta end somewhere. My original intent for the girl's name was Kanzen which means 'perfect' and I had Mahiru be her last name even though it is a first name, not a last. But I decided to have her first be Mahiru and Kanzen will be her fake last name now. Okay, I don't know when I'll next update because I don't know where exactly to go from here but I'll figure something out. So anyways, as always, please review and give me your opinion; questions, comments, anything plaguing your mind at the moment.