Somewhere between the twang of the shamisen and the pause in the song lyrics, Ashi faltered and missed a beat with the footwork. Like always, it did not go unnoticed, the music stopping abruptly. A flash of silver whizzed past her, nearly grazing the very tip of her ear. It embedded itself in the dirt wall behind her.
Ashi straightened her posture, pulling against the wrapped stone weights coiled around her wrists and ankles, placed to enforce grace from burden. She watched her mother rise from her ornate chair, shurikens tucked between the knuckles of her raised hand like an unsheathed claw.
"A true daughter of Aku makes no room for mistakes. They lead to certain death." The high priestess spat in disgust beneath the face of her crimson mask. Ashi made no word or move of acknowledgement, merely staying still. Questions and excuses wracked heavier punishments. For Ashi, it would mean being sealed inside a small, cramped cave, purposed to completely snuff out any light source. She would be isolated for days, losing track of time. Oftentimes, starved simultaneously. Then, if she showed even the slightest hint of breaking down, they extended her confinement.
For a true daughter of Aku did not waver in their conviction.
Ashi did not know which was worse, the corporal punishment she used to receive with her sisters or the psychological discipline.
"You will start over. From the very beginning." The high priestess instructed with a hiss as she sat down again, her black cloak shrouding her seat and blending with the shadows.
Ashi had been dancing for several hours now, trying to master the Nihon Buyo that required a fluid measured motion and no room for excessive gestures. She felt her legs and joints ache with protest, but she did not allow her fatigue to show. Everything had to be perfect.
Once more, she arranged herself into the initial stance and waited for the cue of the shamisen.
The air seemed to be one with Ashi's pulse. Every passing second seemed to constrict her lungs, and the longer she stayed in the prince's arms, the more likely they would seem to burst. She pressed her hands to his chest and pushed herself off of him as best as she could. His arms still stubbornly held her back but he allowed the small breathing space between their kneeling bodies. The affection in his gaze did not waver.
"Ashi.." He whispered, her name like sweet sake on his lips. "Is it really you?"
Ashi's brows furrowed in confusion, than rose up once more when his face began to close in. With a surprised gasp, she turned her head quickly, his lips landing on her cheek. She felt her stomach flinch in disgust.
When he pulled his head away, Ashi looked to him in disbelief.
"Prince Shinjiro"- She could not finish her statement as he made a sound akin to a sob, his dark eyes boring into hers with a starry glint, his smile shaky from his trembling jaw.
"Your voice...oh Ashi. It is you..."
Her eyes bulged once more as he attempted her lips again. "What-no! Your highness!"
She cringed as she thrust his chin up with her palms. "I beg your pardon but this is highly inappropriate!"
"Ashi…"
She almost rolled her eyes at his infatuated tone. "Yes, it's me, Ashi. What"-
"You are not some cruel spiritual manifestation?" He interrupted. "It really, truly is you? You're real, are you not?" His questions came out in waves of desperate emotion, one crashing after the other. His eyes pleaded at her for the answers he wanted to hear. Ashi was not sure what to make of this. He had thrown her off the moment she stepped inside the room. She needed to ground her feet in the situation.
"Your highness…" she uttered, drawing her words carefully like one treading on icy soil. "I think we need to sit down, perhaps have some tea and"-
"Jack."
She blinked.
"I'm sorry…?"
He released her from his hold, then took her hands into his. Ashi was surprised by the rough, calloused texture of his palms and fingers and not the smooth softness of a nobleman's hand. He brought her hands to his lips, savoring each knuckle with tenderness, his eyes never leaving hers.
"Please call me Jack. I need to hear you say it." He urged, his breath heating her skin.
Ashi frowned, wondering what sort of mental game he was playing at. But she decided to humor him.
"Very well, your highness….Jack…"
The moment the foreign-sounding name left her lips, the strange prince shut his eyes and threw his head back, letting out a strong shuddering breath that spawned a tremor throughout his whole frame, even she could feel it as it passed through their joined hands.
"It is you." He said, deeply struck. His face beamed with a confident knowledge that seemed privy only to him, which irritated her.
"I thought I lost you…" He whispered, his hands snaking up to her shoulders. "When I returned to the past...to here, you vanished before my very eyes. I thought you lost to me forever...and that pain never staled."
As he continued smiling dumbly at her in admiration, Ashi remembered Satomi's words at dinner, of how the battle of Aku must have affected the prince's mind. The young maiko might actually be right after all.
"Your highness…"
"Please away with formality. Call me by my name. Jack." He insisted with a light squeeze on her shoulders. Ashi wanted to pry herself from his touch, which seemed to burn through her uppawari and nemaki. She sat back on her heels in perfect posture, with Jack having no choice but to reluctantly let go and do the same.
"Your high-Jack." The name felt stupid saying. It did not have the distinguished air to match his title. Why on earth would he prefer that? "I think there's been a misunderstanding? Your words imply we...know each other. Unfortunately, I have not had the honor of being acquainted with you until this very night."
Jack's forehead creased, perplexed. "You have...no memory of me?"
Ashi smiled her practiced smile as she shook her head, softening her eyes as she began her memorized cover story. "I was born and raised in one of the refugee villages in Mount Kurama near the former capital. I managed to escape when it fell under attack. That happened shortly before you liberated us." She then made sure to arrange her features to an expression of wistful sorrow to her fabricated loss. The village had been real enough though, but there was nothing left of it, making it impossible to verify her origin.
"Wait...so you were born here? In this era? This timeline?"
"Yes." She answered, thinking how idiotic he sounded.
"But how can that be…? I met you in the distant future that Aku flung me into"-
Wait. Ashi's mind began to process his ramble. The future? Surely he does not think that I'm… The old chamberlain's words sounded in her head, about the prince's lover bearing her name. She had considered it opportunistic luck, that the prince would think it fate when they meet, making her mission easier to accomplish. But here he was...claiming that she was actually that same lover? Did she really resemble her that much or was the prince just deluding himself?
"Jack. Please." She cut in gently. "You're confused. This other Ashi that you speak of...it couldn't possibly be me."
"That can't be. It is you." Jack argued. "You have the same name, same face, the same voice…" He then paused at length, examining her thoroughly. "...The same body."
Immediately, Ashi folded her arms over her chest, face burning. "Excuse me?!"
"When I saw you outside the palace..." He continued, either oblivious to her offense or cared not. "I thought I was hallucinating. It happened a lot to me…"
Ashi just stared at him, afraid to voice her opinion on the matter, which, needless to say, was unflattering. He did not mind her silence though. "But you're real." He said and looked as though he was on the verge of tears. "And when I finally convinced myself to see you...I just...you really are here. Ashi. How can that be?"
Ashi sighed softly, dropping her hands to her lap.
"Dear God..." She muttered under her breath.
Jack immediately perked at her words, eyes widening in a sudden realization.
"God…"
"Huh?"
"Gods. Of course!" His hands came to his temples as though to contain whatever discovery he made inside his head. "Why didn't I-yes, yes, this makes perfect sense."
"Um...say what now?"
"There is no logical explanation for you to possibly exist in this timeline if not by divine intervention." He gushed excitedly. "They made it so you could be here!"
If Ashi did not despise him, she would have genuinely been concerned for him. "Umm...Jack. By any chance...did you fall off your horse?" She could not help but ask. "Or did you hit a branch on your way here?" She legitimately wondered and hoped that it was one of those things.
"Oh Ashi. I'm just so happy you're here." He smiled, snatching her hands again, complete adoration in his eyes. "You don't know how much I've longed to see you..."
Ashi raised an eyebrow at that. "Really? I did not quite get that impression from today. You turned me away without even acknowledging me." She reminded, the recollection reviving her animosity.
Jack flinched, the light from the andon making his shamed cheeks glow aflamed."Ashi, if I had known, I would have never dismissed you like that. I deeply apologize." His thumbs rubbed the back of her hands. "Please," he implored, "let us put that behind us and focus on the present."
Ashi slipped her hands away from his grasp and hid them in her sleeves. "The present you say?" Her tone was clipped, the cool deference reserved for clients who overstepped their boundaries. "In that case, presently, it is way past midnight and I think we should pick up this…" She was not sure what to call it. "...conversation...at a more reasonable hour."
His expression seemed to agree with her, jumping to his feet at once.
"Oh! But of course!" He extended his hand to assist her up, which she begrudgingly accepted.
"Do you need help?" He asked with a smile.
Ashi, gathering her jacket closer to her, tilted her head at him. "Help? With what?"
The prince shrugged his broad shoulders. "Gathering your things."
Her eyes narrowed. "...I'm sorry?"
"...Or I could have someone come and fetch for them later." He offered, rubbing his chin in thought. "Yes, that would be better."
Ashi had a niggling suspicion about the meaning of his words and she had to confirm it...because of how unbelievable it was. "Jack...wh-what are you saying?"
He did not hesitate.
"I want you to come home with me."
Ashi staggered back in shock.
"WHAT?!"
"WHAT?!"
Another exclamation followed from outside the room. Ashi glared at the silhouettes of the badly-concealed eavesdroppers on the shoji screen. She had been so focused on Jack and the craziness around him that she did not pick up on the unwanted listeners, who were just right there. It was an unforgivably embarrassing mistake, one that would have gotten her severely punished in training.
The prince, however, did not seem to care about the extra company and followed his passionate plea with another embrace. Ashi felt her insides squirm as his arms pulled her intimately close, her cheek pressing against the exposed area of his solid chest.
"You have to come home to the palace with me." He whispered, resting his chin atop her head. "Please. You must."
Ashi's head began to spin, Jack's voice fading in the background of her own thoughts. This was one of her main objectives, to charm the prince and secure a way inside the palace. But everything was happening without any effort on her part. She had had it all worked out inside her head before arriving in Edo, an estimated timetable of what she needed to accomplish. Well, in roughly an hour, she already realized about half a year's worth of her expectations. This was...too easy, too soon.
Too good to be true.
She shoved him away, heedless of his royal status.
"Prince Shinjiro. That is quite enough." She said gravely. "I am not from the Yoshiwara district, I am a geisha. If you want to see me, you will arrange for an appointment and maybe this time honor it."
Jack opened his mouth to protest but Ashi was quick and moved towards the door, sliding it open with a bang. Her maiko sisters, who had been leaning close to the shoji, fell inside the room with a thud on the tatami while Oka-san stood behind the human heap, wringing her hands with a guilty expression.
"Oka-san." She addressed the matriarch with a neutral voice. "His highness and I are finished here. Please see him out."
Oka-san looked at Ashi as though the geisha had sprung a second head. "Ashi!" She cried out, aghast. "Have you gone mad?! Where are your manners?! He is the prince. You cannot treat him with such callousness!" While she berated Ashi, the three maiko girls crawled away to the side, hiding behind the panels to gather themselves.
Jack came up behind Ashi, raising his palms in reassurance. "It is quite all right, madam." There were no traces of displeasure in his speech as he bowed his head. "It was quite impertinent of me to come here so late in the first place. I must apologize for the inconvenience."
Oka-san bobbed down to the level of her waist. "Your highness. Not at all! You grace us with your presence. You are a noble and dedicated hero..." The sugary praise in her voice made Ashi look up to the ceiling. It was only a few short hours ago that Oka-san tarnished the prince's name with every insult imaginable. The older woman straightened up, still kissing up to him. "Someone like you is always welcome here…" Her simpering eyes then turned hard when she snapped to Ashi. "...isn't that right, Ashi?"
Ashi frowned, then spun back around to Jack, bowing gracefully at the hip. "I look forward to meeting with you again, your highness."
Her disgusted grimace was only made known to the floor.
Jack sighed lovingly, reaching for her hands again. "Oh Ashi. I want to bring you home with me now...but I'll respect your wishes." He then turned his gaze to Oka-san. "I would like to have her sent to the palace again."
Oka-san nodded enthusiastically. "Certainly, your highness. We can be over there in the afternoon after Ashi's morning engagements with"-
"Cancel all that. I will have an escort sent."
Ashi bristled, wanting to argue but Oka-san's scolding eyes told her better.
Jack bid goodbye to the matriarch, thanking her profusely and did the same with the three giggling maiko girls. Not once did he stop holding Ashi's hands. He tried appealing once more for Ashi to come to the palace with him. When she still did not relent, he sighed resignedly and planted a kiss to the inside of her wrists.
"Then l shall see you again tomorrow." He declared like an anguished lover.
They followed him up to the entrance, watching him as he mounted his horse. He kept glancing back to Ashi as he rode off. When he was finally out of sight, all eyes were on Ashi. Fumiko was the first one to speak.
"Big sister…" She said in awed disbelief. "We knew you were the best geisha...but damn."
Could it be? An update?! After God knows how long?! Haha I apologize for the really late chapter drop. I have no excuse save that my writing muse is a bitch. Thank you for your patience and I hope to make more reasonable updates after this (HOPE). The cover art was done by sally. :3
/Any errors, I'll rectify at a later time.