Standard disclaimers apply.
A/N: A big thank you to all for the support and kind motivation for the first chapter of "Once upon an Edo night"! I love those of you who were so kind as to leave me a review telling me how you felt about it. I was initially a little apprehensive about posting this because I haven't really written anything revolving around such themes before.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you who voted for Wisteria in the Dokuga 2nd quarter awards as well! We wouldn't have won three awards if it wasn't for you lovely people. Thank you very much!
Without further ado, here's the second chapter to the story and there will be a final chapter soon.
Once upon an Edo night
"Kagome…" He said softly, even though he was incapable of sounding too romantic or endearing towards her.
There was no love to speak of between the two of them, but Sesshoumaru knew he had a soft spot for this woman, with whom he spent an intimate night two seasons ago. Guilt struck him once again in the deepest spots of his heart as recollections of a certain night last winter proved to him that he was just like all the other men in her ill-fated past.
He had enjoyed her excellent company, her enchanting beauty, her songs, dances and her intelligence. Sesshoumaru was quite certain he would never meet another female who had such insightful views on Manchurian invasions at the Japanese borders. But after enjoying the company she provided, the agenda went back to being sex, and he took her right there on the tatami in the guest room after two rounds of rice wine.
He had not been gentle or formal with her; he had heard of her extraordinary and almost legendary talents and creativity in the art of eroticism from other lords.
He did not kiss her, not on her mouth, at least.
He had not even bothered with preparing a futon back then.
Oddly enough, he now felt uncomfortable about the way he treated her.
It was against the code of honor he lived by – somehow he managed his life so well, yet this one woman from the pleasure quarters of Edo showed him otherwise. He had prided himself on being a man of honor and righteousness, yet the one he did injustice to was a defenseless woman whom Fate betrayed and abandoned.
If he could go back to that time, he would have treated her like the precious and fragile flower she truly was. Even if it was just a tryst for one night.
The smoky tobacco scent, mingled with the sensual fragrance of sandalwood on her, gave the atmosphere a bittersweet tinge. Once again, it was sad and happy at the same time. Death, seemingly so final, would bring this beautiful butterfly liberation from the iron webs trapping her in her living hell.
He could feel her shaking slightly as she allowed tears to fall – tears she was shedding for her ill-fated life, the mortal world she was about to leave behind, and for the tenderness this demon lord was showing her.
There they stood for a few minutes, until the beautiful Tayu gently excused herself from his hold, gracefully dabbing at her eyes with the embroidered sleeve of her exquisite kimono. Her red rimmed eyes looked up into his slightly glazed, aloof yet soft eyes, and she gave him a smile. A smile which made her luscious lips remind him of the carmine camellia blooms of late autumn along the common stone paths – born in an unsightly and dirty place, yet grown to be so elegant and beautiful.
He looked back at her and tried to give her a gentle smile, but try as he might, Sesshoumaru could not get his stubborn lips to move into one. It was just something he was not quite used to, and he despised himself for not being able to offer it to her when she needed it.
Perhaps she realized that she had put too many feelings into this momentary tenderness and emotional intimacy, for she immediately assumed the slightly haughty and aloof face, matched with her trademark flirtatious expression. Yet the sadness was unable to be concealed; it shone through her features, rouge and everything else to manifest itself on her delicate face.
"Thank you, Lord Sesshoumaru…You are a good man. It is just my misfortune to have not known you earlier in life…you would have made a good husband, on top of a good lover."
She turned to look away from him, and settled for gazing out into the darkened distance, at nowhere in particular. The moon's reflection cracked into a million fragments on the uneven surface of the river, casting odd shadows on them.
"Just like how life on earth awaits precious rain…maybe all my life, I have been awaiting this moment."
He did not reply, but his gaze on her slender form was almost melancholic. He knew she was trying to appear strong and fearless, but he could smell the fresh tears she was trying to hide.
"Tayu no Higurashi…"
"Please…can you call me Kagome again?" She asked softly. "Just like how you did earlier."
"Kagome."
"Yes?"
"Tears are not meant for one so beautiful."
Kagome laughed, her laugh clear and sorrowful. "Don't make me fall for you, Lord Sesshoumaru…it will only mean more agony for me in my remaining time in this floating world."
"This Sesshoumaru does not have such despicable intentions."
Upon hearing his words, spoken so truthfully and honorably, made her turn to look at him over her shoulder. The lulling summer breeze whipped back a lock of stray hair which had fallen from its earlier confines, and her mesmerizing eyes, accentuated by the fragmented lights of the night, made Sesshoumaru realize how ethereally beautiful she was. She sighed, and gave him a grateful smile.
"I know." She said. "Here, let me give you something to remember me by."
"And that would be?"
"It is nothing fancy, but it would require you to remember and ponder over in your heart."
Catching his gaze, she recited softly and emotionally.
"Nagaraeba
Mata kono goro ya
Shinobaremu
Ushi to mishi yo zo…"
(I may live on
Until I long for this time
In which I am so unhappy…)
But before she could finish the haiku she was reciting, Sesshoumaru surprised her by completing it for her.
"Ima wa koishiki."
(And remember it fondly.)
Kagome's eyes widened a fraction, before she smiled sweetly to herself. It was not the smile he had seen on her previously, the smile she used to lure men into the web of seduction she spun for a living, but rather, it was a smile which came from the heart. It made her look innocent and adorable, not at all like the Tayu she was painstakingly groomed to be.
"Thank you for this moment then, Lord Sesshoumaru. I…I hope you really will remember it fondly."
"You have this Sesshoumaru's word that it will be retained in my memory for as long as I live."
He knew he would never ever be able to forget this woman, even if he wanted to. Her beauty, personality and emotional complexes, along with the most unusual circumstances under which they met and interacted, made an impact he knew he could never erase.
"Why didn't I have the good fortune to meet you in my younger days?" She mused, playing with her heavy sleeve. "I came as empty as a cicada shell and leave as it is, while this flower-like human heart, fragile with my assumptions about happiness, withers away imperceptibly."
Her tragic words, spoken truthfully and intelligently, gave him the courage to speak.
"Kagome."
"Hmm?"
"Do you believe in reincarnation?"
"I do." She nodded. "Which is why I am doing this. You?"
"I do too. Why would that be the reason for death?"
"I believe my next life would not be so cursed." She said softly, her voice hopeful as if trying to convince herself.
"Go on."
"I will be telling a very long story, Lord Sesshoumaru."
"Just go on."
"I am not hoping for fineries or a grand life. All I want is to be a normal woman, not one destined to drift in the floating world like a petal in the river. Just a plain, normal woman like how my mother was…a daughter of a rice farmer, who eventually married another rice farmer after meeting him at the local market. They were happy though they were so poor. Then they had children, four of them."
Her wishes were so simple; it made the demon lord's icy heart feel as if someone was gripping it. Not agonizing, but just uncomfortably so.
"I was born the youngest, with two older sisters and one older brother. The number of children was too many for them to afford bringing up…and…and it did not help in the least that everyone who saw me at around three or four years of age told them how beautiful their youngest child would grow up to be. They said my lips were like cherry blossom petals, delicate yet plump with slightly upturned edges that made me look as if I was perpetually smiling. According to them, my eyes could talk, my skin was smooth and my slender frame made it obvious that I'd grow up to be beautiful. Who would know that I'd end up selling that smile and body for a shelter over my head?"
"It happened that fateful day when I was out with my oldest sister, Yugiri. I was only six. She brought the rice we harvested to sell at the market, and luck was on our side – we managed to sell it all. I remembered helping her scoop ladles of grain into little sacks. Yugiri was very happy…she said I was a good little girl and she bought a sugared dough doll for me as a reward. It was a rare treat…I was so happy with the sugared dough doll that I could not even bring myself to lick it. I just kept looking at it, holding it very tightly in my hands."
"It was on our way home when we came across a procession of some sort. For the first time in my life, I saw so many kimonos that were made of the most beautiful materials, prints and colors. For once, kimonos were not like the thin, scratchy cotton or hemp ones I was used to. Their kimonos reflected the sunrays at certain angles…silk, as I found out later. The ladies were so well-groomed, with perfectly painted faces and equally perfect hair arrangements. Their getas were high and they towered over almost everyon with theme, while they walked slowly along the streets accompanied by so many attendants in a sensual, erotic figure-of-eight manner. But I didn't like them; I was adverse. They looked too perfect, like dolls."
"Yugiri held me close to keep me from getting in their way, and till today, I can still remember her hands, coarse from working hard in the fields, holding me by the arm. But I was never one to stay still obediently. I fidgeted, and my sugared dough doll fell from my hands, rolling onto the street. Guess what I did?" Kagome laughed sadly again, as she revisited memory lane. "I ran out to retrieve it, and bumped into a red and gold and black kimono which smelt most heavenly of the fresh yuzu orange fragrance oils. I fell, and the beautiful doll I bumped into teetered precariously before her attendants rushed forward to hold her. Her geta was ridiculously high compared to all the others'. That was the first Tayu I came into contact with, as I realized later. Highest ranking of all the courtesans. Her attendants started shouting at me and Yugiri ran forward and fell to her knees, bowing repeatedly and crying out apologies, while I remained adamantly grumpy that my sugared dough doll was soiled."
"The Tayu was kind. She signaled for one of her attendants to give us some money. 'Go buy another one, my child.' She told me. She was so beautiful, and her voice was equally so. She took a sensually dignified step ahead, before pausing in her footsteps and turning around to take a long, lingering look at me. Not just at my face, but from head to toe. 'My, my. What a beautiful little girl. Where do you live?' She had asked kindly. Yugiri looked absolutely petrified at that question and she visibly pressed her lips shut. But I did not know better then. Smiling back at her as brightly as I could manage, since she was nice to me, I said it clearly and brightly, 'Just by the stream behind the Eastern gates of this town, where the rice farms are! It is the third hut.'"
Shaking her head in resigned amusement, Kagome looked at Sesshoumaru with a helpless, amused expression. "I recalled how my parents cried as they hugged me, but I was just very happy because the Tayu came again, without her garish garb but nonetheless beautiful, with an entire box of sugared dough dolls and many presents for the rest of the family. She brought me to ride along with her in a palanquin, and…it was Yoshiwara from then till today. The hurt has never left me."
"In my next life, I don't want the curse of beauty again. I just want to be born into a normal middle-class family, plain in appearance and be allowed to live a life of dignity and freedom. I want to be loved, happy and be a good wife and mother. I would like to meet a good man like you."
He nodded as he pondered her words, as she regarded him with a bright, rather playful smile. "Why were you asking me about reincarnation? Could it be that…you wish to meet me in our next lives?"
"It does not sound like a bad idea to this Sesshoumaru, if there is really a next lifetime."
Her laughter reminded him of the wind chimes hung up in the rafters of Japanese households during summer. "You are doing a fine job of humoring this dying woman, Lord Sesshoumaru. But I'd have to wait for a very long time…given how difficult it is for you to die."
"That would give you ample time to regret your decision and reborn into somewhere where this Sesshoumaru might not be able to find you."
She laughed again, at the wit and subtle humor in his speech. "I'd soon be leaving this place alone…so after you die; you might have a hard time finding me. You are a good man…just don't let me meet you too late in my next life again."
He did not say anything to that.
Kagome smiled ruefully to herself. What was she expecting? This was Sesshoumaru, demon lord of the Western Lands. But there was something she wanted to do before she died.
"Lord Sesshoumaru. I have a request."
"What would that be?"
"Can you come over closer by my side?"
He did not question her reasons, and did so.
From her sitting position on the ledge of the Nihonbashi, Kagome leaned over slowly and kissed Sesshoumaru softly on the lips.
He stood still as a statue, and did not do anything else until she gently pulled away.
The demon lord remained silent, and the Tayu turned away from him. She did not want him to see her brimming tears despite the smile on her face, especially when the time for her to take her own life was coming so soon. She was awaiting the chime of the night bells from the Buddhist monastery up in the hills. Once the chiming starts, she would jump into the river, and let her tainted soul leave along with the soothing chimes of the sacred bells to wherever it was destined to go.
"Shouldn't you be going by now?" She asked him softly. "It won't be a pretty sight, you know."
"Hm."
"Thank you, Lord Sesshoumaru." She continued. "For everything. I am thankful to have met you. Make sure you will come looking for me in our next lives."
The nightly chiming of the bells started. They reverberated in the summer breezes, rolling along and spreading across the entire expanse of the cities and towns in the vicinity like a calming mantra.
Kagome looked up into the inky darkness of the skies.
"It is time." Her words left in a whisper.
"Please leave, and walk away without turning back. I…I don't want your final memory of me to be such a tainted one."
Taking a deep breath, she looked around at the surroundings which she had grown so accustomed to over the years, to the extent of taking them for granted. From where she was, she could see the lights from Yoshiwara, and she wondered how they would react when her body was discovered in the river. Would they be sad? Would anyone shed a tear? Or would anyone bother to go to her grave annually to pay their respects, light an incense stick and offer a spray of flowers?
It was too late to worry about this. She just hoped they would not get too much of a shock when they find her missing from her futon the next day and eventually, see her body being fished out of the river.
Focusing on a verse from the Buddhist scriptures she read the night before, Kagome closed her eyes and allowed her mind to flow along with the night chiming. She leaned forward, anticipating the feeling of falling before she reached the freedom she craved…
But that sensation of falling never came. She felt a very strong arm grip hers, pulling her back from her leaning position. Her eyes flew open, and she caught a flash of silver and molten gold.
"Wait."
"Lord Sesshoumaru? Wh-Why?"
"Give me your hand."
Still in shock, Kagome extended her right hand towards the demon lord, who held up the other loop to the red cord around her wrist and slipped his left hand through it.
"What are you doing?"
"Making sure that this Sesshoumaru can find you in our next lives."
Her eyes widened as the unshed tears fell and rolled by lips upturned in a grateful smile. "Lord Sesshoumaru...I was only joking about making sure you find me…"
"This Sesshoumaru was not joking."
"But…you don't love me. Why are you doing this for me?"
"Not now, but in this Sesshoumaru's next life he will."
"This…this means I will die not as a merely courtesan of the Red Lantern House of Yoshiwara. I will die as…Lord Sesshoumaru's woman."
He nodded.
"You have no idea how much this means to me…" She whispered. He would not die from drowning like this, but he would be accompanying her until the very end of her journey. Subsequently in time, death would visit him, and till then, they would once again meet.
In a fluid motion, he positioned himself by her side on the ledge of the bridge. Looking at her hauntingly beautiful features, accentuated by the ghost of a smile she wore, Sesshoumaru leaned in and kissed her fully on those lips.
To be continued...