Kanji wasn't someone who needed much in his life. He was like the cherry blossoms, simple, ethereal, fleeting. Put on the earth to be viewed and admired for a few weeks, if that. Doomed to blow away in the wind, weak and quivering at the end. Men were like cherry blossoms, in a way. Short but fleeting lives, but what pretty lives they were. He just needed to live a life to be content. Ever since he was a kid, no, ever since he was born, life had been planned out for him. His father was a samurai, not the most wealthy or even well-known of the bunch, but he was what he was and watched over the small town of Inaba like every one of his male ancestors before him. He loved his son and his two wives, bringing up Kanji in a household of love and regality. He was told he was to marry the other traditional girl in town, Yukiko Amagi, a girl as perfectly beautiful as his own mother was in the one illustration of her likeness they had. He likely would've had another wife, should he choose, and keep ruling Inaba, passing the samurai trade onto his own son.
At least, that's the way it was supposed to be.
The reforms were before his time, he wasn't even born yet, really, but they had a far-reaching effect on his life. His father would be remembered as one of the many samurai who fought against the Western military in a last attempt to preserve their heritage and way of life, but it was not meant to be. Even a sleepy town like Inaba wasn't spared. His father and his two wives were forced out of the one life they had ever known and opened up a textiles shop, something they had prior skill in. When Kanji was born, he was raised as their heir and retained their own ideas of a life before, a whole world before now.
No, his father didn't die in battle. That'd be too romantic. He died in a hospital of tuberculosis, coughing and hacking right up to the end. Kanji only saw him twice, but it was enough. That pale, skeletal man could not be the once proud figure of his father. That just left him as the man to manage everything while his two mothers took care of the domestic work.
Well, one mother. Setsuko. But Mother to him. She was older than most mothers, especially for just having one kid, but it didn't matter. Tomiko was not his blood mother but she was still close with him. Her hair was silver like Mother's but she had more fire. She took archery before marriage and was quick with her bow and slept most hours of the day, so most of the time he never actually saw her. It was just him and Mother, or Ma as he preferred, taking on everything together.
Now, he stood before the tiniest boy he had ever seen in his life, wearing the flashiest clothes he had ever seen on any person, man or woman. He himself knew he made the right choice with his outfit, at least. Normally he just wore simple patterned kimono around the house, but today he opted for looking a little nicer, so he wore a grey kimono with light blue striped hakama and haori with his hair as brushed down flat as he could possibly get it. He also wore the tabi and zori to fully complete the look. Did the boy like it? He couldn't tell.
"Why'd you want to meet me at school?" He asked, but the boy just gestured for him to follow.
"I wanted to continue our talk from yesterday. I want to know more about you." The boy suddenly held out a hand to shake. "Shirogane Naoto."
Kanji just stared until he very slowly put his hand down. "Like, you just wanna get to know me?"
"Something like that." The two walked down the street, Naoto staring either straight ahead or down at his feet, but never actually at Kanji directly.
"Uh, I ain't got much to say. I ain't that interesting."
"Why don't you go to school? I thought all Japanese boys were made to attend a compulsory education."
"Only if you're a townsperson. I grew up with my own tutors,"
"Hm."
This was getting nowhere. What the hell did this guy even want, anyway? Naoto kept walking, though he looked rather pale with watery eyes. Maybe the sun was getting to him.
"I ain't seen you around before." They walked past a few trees. "You new?"
"Yes…I work here in town." He paused and spun around. "Actually, well, not really. I investigate things in town, but I don't work or live here." Was that sweat on his brow?
"You one of them fancy rich types from Tokyo?"
Naoto just looked down.
"Look, it's great you want to spend time with me, but I ain't interesting. Why don't you tell me about yourself?" That's what you did, right? You asked the other person about themselves?
Naoto just stood there, silent, staring listlessly at nothing. It was starting to freak him out. Hell was this guy's problem? Was it the clothes? Must've been. The dye from those bright colors was making him loopy. Maybe this was a bad idea.
"There's nothing to say." He finally said. "You're very odd though, do you know that?"
"Odd?! Hell do you mean by that?!" He demanded. Several different options ran through his mind, each one worse than the last. Was it his demeanor? His interests? His clothes? His…
No, he couldn't keep losing his composure like this. He had to get back on track.
"If you don't live here, where do you live?" He tried one more time to get a proper response out of Naoto. This time, he briefly glanced up before his eyes widened in sheer terror. Kanji thought maybe the question was too unexpected before Naoto choked and coughed to bring up a splattering puddle of bright green bile. He coughed a few more times before he collapsed, Kanji grabbing him before he did. "Shit!"
Naoto sighed in pain, his mouth slightly open. His body was hot to the touch and his face was a mix of white and red.
"Shit shit shit! I gotta take ya home, quick!" The sooner the women dealt with him, the better. He didn't want to look at him anymore. "Can you walk? No, wait, no. Uh, here, hold on!" He very quickly stood Naoto up before shrugging him over his shoulder, his head staring down at his back. He was surprisingly very light. Kanji then did his best to both sprint but also be steady, afraid of jostling the cargo. When they were halfway home, Naoto gagged loudly and threw up down his back and on the road again before he fainted. Shit.
He burst through the door and startled both Ma and Tomiko, the latter of which dropped her sewing needle. "Ma, do something, quick! He's burning up! Real bad!"
That was all the two needed to hear before they set up a warm cot in a spare room, helping Kanji to set Naoto down gently. He discarded of his haori the first chance he got and just watched Naoto, squirming around and moaning in pain.
"I'll get some herbs to reduce the fever." Ma said, completely in her stern and serious persona. "Do you know what this is?"
"No." Kanji sighed. "He's just running a fever and vomited."
"Okay, okay, could be a number of things. I'll get water. You undress him." Tomiko said.
"W-What?!" Kanji blushed hard, harder than he wanted to admit to. "I can't strip him naked! That's weird! You do it!"
"You're both men, do it." Tomiko left and Kanji growled to himself. Damnit!
"Let's just make it quick…" At the very least, his coat had to come off. There was no way he could wear that still. Carefully but quickly, Kanji sliced open every button with one gesture, letting it fall open to reveal a plain white shirt. Naoto arched his back and groaned. Next, Kanji ripped open his shirt and nearly had a full-blown heart attack.
Underneath his shirt was a very tight binding of cloth and a laced-up corset right below that.
Kanji wasn't quite sure what happened next, only that he saw stars and blackness.
The next day and a half were torturous. Nobody knew what disease it was, but they had experience with fevers before so they just kept force-feeding Naoto herbs everytime her eyes opened. Her…his…Kanji didn't even know anymore. He was the one in charge of actually watching Naoto to be sure he was handling the medicine well, a job he hated. He hated being so close to the smell of sickness and feeling the heat radiating off his body. Worst of all were his fevers. Sometimes he muttered nonsense and picked at his blanket while other times he sat up and cried or screamed in a panic, confused as to where he was. A few times he cried out to his grandfather, not wanting to be a boy, but most of the time he called out to nothing in particular. A scary moment occurred where he somehow managed to crawl out of bed on his knees and shivered, crying.
"Put me in the oven, Maman! Put me in the oven, Maman! I'm sick, I'm sick! Maman, Maman! I need to be in the oven!" Despite his kicking and fighting he did pull him back into the cot. He didn't want to know what he was hallucinating about.
After another day, though, his fever broke, and he could sit up. Ma made him a simple broth and changed him into a light grey kimono and blanket while his other clothes were thoroughly washed. He looked terrified as he glanced at his chest.
"Look, secrets are safe. I don't get why or how, it ain't my business." He held up his hands. He sat up and stared out the window, a cup of tea in his hands.
"I have to go to work, I've been away for far too long. Why did I drink that? Yes, it must've been that orange drink. It was fizzy yet too warm. I must have gotten sick from that." He mumbled like Kanji wasn't even there.
Once his outfit was dry, he slipped it on and thanked his mothers, apologizing for the inconvenience and heading out, despite limping from still being in recovery. Kanji didn't know what to make of him, or why he did the things he did.
Maybe it would be better to put that entire experience from his head. He had more important things to worry about, and he was sure he'd never see Naoto, the very slender boy, ever again. It was just a wild circumstance.
You've got to be kidding me. Yosuke grumbled as he flipped through the various pamphlets. He didn't want an uneventful day to end with him getting an eyeful of something truly grotesque, yet here he was. He didn't even know if he meant his thought to be a regular thought or one he sent telepathically. He just knew he needed everyone to know his distress.
On the glossy paper was a painted full-body image of Kanji, entirely naked minus a loincloth. Much like Yukiko, he was blowing a kiss and showing off his body, but it seemed far more obscene somehow. The comments littered the page once more.
"So manly, the picture of true masculinity!"
"He's the best guy in town! Everyone weeps in his presence!"
"Hot and hung, yummy…"
Kanji himself had a speech bubble, though instead of being placed near his mouth, Yosuke was disturbed to see it was close to his large crotch, an area in which the loincloth left nearly nothing to the imagination.
"Want to have a forbidden romance? Guys like me just know the best spots to hang around at. Maybe this time we could try a nice steamy bathhouse!"
He shuddered, not needing to see any more of that.
Sir Kanji is missing! Yukiko's panicked voice filled their heads. He froze. His mother said he just went out and he always does that, but I feel it's more than that.
It definitely is, saw his image in the tabloids. Yu answered calmly.
Oh no…
Don't worry, we just have to go in there and get him out like we did with you! Yosuke tried to cheer her up. Tomorrow after school, we'll all go.
Their minds were silent after that, their goal decided upon. Yosuke knew he wouldn't be getting much sleep, so he just tossed around in bed and rushed through his assignments, wanting to get a move-on. They met up at the photography area and jumped in, hurrying over to Raccoon.
"Hey! We need your help again. Did someone get thrown in here?" Yu greeted nicely.
"Yes, but…" Raccoon sniffled, his back turned to them. "I just don't know where…!"
Yosuke sighed. "Aren't you just overthinking stuff? You could find Amagi-san just fine!"
"I don't know, I just can't get a scent…" Raccoon sighed. "Maybe if you brought me something of his, or some really important information, that could help."
"That could work!" Yukiko nodded.
"I just need something that says who he really is." He continued.
"But that's the problem, nobody knows anything about him! There's just rumors about his violence as well as his very traditional family. Nobody knows the real him." Chie sighed.
"There's some. I know him. I could ask his mother and other elders in town," Yukiko said.
"It is as good of a start as any." Yosuke nodded and the four split up once they got to Junes, running off to other parts of himself remained in Junes, wandering around and asking anyone he thought looked fitting.
First, the elders, who just shook their heads.
"Lord Tatsumi's been so different ever since his father died. He used to be so sweet and helpful."
"That boy was so kind!"
"If he ever gets married, he should seek out that Amagi girl."
Nothing there, somehow. Didn't old people love to talk excessively about the good old days? Sometimes they'd take forever in the lines just because they wanted to chat and ramble on about nothing in particular. It was yet another annoying aspect of life out here in the country.
Couldn't rely on them, but what about the gossipy housewives? They were always ready for gossip, but he fell short with them too as most just talked around him, completely ignoring him and talking about unrelated subjects anyway. He yanked on his hair in frustration despite knowing it was a bad habit of his. What next? He was sure the others were doing better than him. Nobody could reject girls, and Yukiko seemed to have connections. Yu was just so cheerful nobody could say no to him. Where did that leave Yosuke then?
He was about to give up when he noticed a face that he couldn't place but knew he recognized. The blue fedora covered up most of their distinguishing features, but Yosuke pulled on their arm anyway.
"Hm?" Yes, it was the tiny boy who was with Kanji the other day! Surely he'd have to know something, right? He briefly glanced at the crate full of imported vegetables. "Not much variety. No beets. But there's still some other good stuff here that I've never seen before. Must be why this is a popular hangout spot in town." He kicked at the crate absentmindedly, some dirt clumps falling off his boot and into the vegetables.
Yosuke didn't have time for whatever the boy was trying to do, even if it was just an idle chat. What the hell even were beets, anyway? And what was he even wearing? Yosuke was not one to scoff at fashion, he'd admit, favoring bright colors and even colored cufflinks to set himself apart from the drab dark colors of his other male peers, but this was really too much. He wore all blue with a long double-breasted frock coat and checkered pants, a white shirt and blue tie visible underneath. Really the only things not blue were his shirt, black boots, and white gloves, and really, who didn't wear white gloves? Even Yosuke did despite the other fashionable customs he ignored happily. His gloves right then were white!
This was Kanji's type?!
"Do you know anything about…Tatsumi? Big tough guy? Hard to miss him." Yosuke forced himself to stay focused. It was all for the mission.
"Not very much. However, I think he might have a…complex, of sorts. I made an offhand comment about how he was odd and he took it roughly and not too well. I couldn't get into the specifics, but it's possible he might be pretending to be someone else to hide something." The boy looked up at him. "Was that all you needed?"
"Yes, thank you!" He ran out of there, wanting to get as far away from this weirdo as possible. He met up with the other three, looking at their faces. "Anything?"
"Nothing." Yu said in defeat. "I asked a little boy and he said Tatsumi-kun might be by the river, but that was a dead end."
"I couldn't get anyone to take me seriously!" Chie cried. "They all just ignored me!"
"I had tea with his mothers, but they couldn't tell me anything either." Yukiko said.
"I got something! That weird boy he was with the other day, he is hanging out here and thinks he is pretending to be someone else! That's got to be good enough for Raccoon!" Yosuke announced triumphantly. The other three nodded at him. "Next time we go, we'll tell him!"
The four then said their goodbyes and headed home for the evening, deciding they would go in a day or two, whenever all four of them were free again. Yosuke didn't have work that day so he grabbed his bike and started to walk out of the store, pausing at the sight of two little boys at the drink stall. One was clearly still very young, as he was wearing a female kimono in bright red and toddled around, jumping up and down. The older boy looked to only be a year or two above him, but still carried himself with maturity.
"I wan dat!" The toddler pointed eagerly at the two teacups the older one had, cheering and gulping his down.
"Hey, what do you say?" The older one gently scolded him.
"Tanks, Big Brother!"
The two smiled and hugged and Yosuke felt a sudden pang in his chest. He quickly rode off on his bike to get away from them. Saki-senpai had a brother too, he knew that. She never went to school but every afternoon she'd show up during the lunch period to give him something to eat and walk around the school with him. She even doted on him like a brother, someone sweet and young to be protected. Yu didn't have any siblings, or any worth mentioning, but he still had Nanako who called him 'Big Brother' and clearly saw him as such. He gripped the handlebars so tight his knuckles turned white and he steered it to the side of his house, sighing.
He first walked over to the outhouse on the other side, knocking several times before noticing it was locked and grumbled. "Just hurry up! I can't wait forever!"
His house had several rooms and was one of the biggest in the entire town, but most of their rooms lay empty with no reason to use them. If he could, he would've stored his bike in one just so they would have something in there. The only extra room they even needed was one for his dad's office, otherwise they got along just fine. That was what happened when you were the son of a merchant family, he supposed.
Yosuke sorted through the mail but tossed it all into the table, finding it uninteresting. Even the tabloids were stale. They already saw Kanji the other night, after all. Everything else was the usual scandal and affair stuff.
His parents didn't even have siblings, so maybe that was just their curse to bear. Yosuke's dad was named Jiro and came from a long family of merchants, as was done back then. Unlike the others who were happy to move around pushing carts, Jiro had a vision of a major store where everything was sold in one place by one person, making everything more convenient than the current market squares. He was rich and loved throwing money at Yosuke to spoil him, but he was frugal where it mattered. He would never get money if there was an easy solution to a problem and also wouldn't get money if it was believed he would be irresponsible with it.
"We're merchants, my boy. We're cursed to be successful and have the envy of others. The least I can do is to be sure you don't act crazy over your wealth." He said to Yosuke one night as a little kid, still short enough he had to peek over the counter.
Supposedly his dad did indeed originally have a sibling, hence his name, but the brother died from influenza as a toddler. The third child took the mother with her in birth and nobody even bothered to properly sex the child.
His mother, Haruna, Yosuke knew even less about. It wasn't surprising, after all, women were just brought up to be forever children and moved around from house to house. He knew from her accent she lived up north somewhere originally, likely also the countryside, and was an arranged marriage as all marriages are and must've also been from a merchant family. He didn't know her family or even her maiden name. Didn't even know the name of her old city. All he really knew was she gave birth to him and sat around sewing and mending, taking care of the household while he helped his father with the business.
"You're home? Oh, were you the one banging on the door earlier?" His mother teased him, a surprised look on her face.
"I wasn't banging! I was just knocking!" He insisted.
She laughed and he hurried outside to use the outhouse, coming back and seeing his mother starting to cook. He wondered if his father would come out of the office to eat or if it'd be like usual where he just ate in his office. He wondered why the siblings from earlier wouldn't leave his head. He wondered why Kanji looked so grotesquely sexual in the tabloids. He wondered why he had a group to hang out with and yet still felt as lonely as ever.
-Kanji's opening soliloquy is referencing the Japanese proverb that's translated as 'the best blossom is the cherry blossom, the best man is the warrior'. The samurai were often associated with cherry blossoms thanks to Kabuki theater popularizing the image during the 1700's. The association stuck due to the perceived similarities, the samurai were glorious but tended to live short lives snuffed out by military service.
-The fight he's referring to is the infamous and short-lived Satsuma Rebellion in 1877. Kanjj would've been only four years old at the time. There was another, bigger rebellion, the Boshin War, about a decade prior, but I'd argue this rebellion is more famous in the West. It was started by former samurai who were displeased by the direction the government took by removing their privileged status and embracing Westernization. They fought hard but were no match for the Westernized military who crushed them and forced the remaining samurai to accept the changes happening to the country. This is of course very oversimplified but there's not enough room here to super dive into the Satsuma Rebellion or Boshin War so look up more sources if you're still curious.
-The samurai who lost their titles were forced to take on new jobs, usually in agriculture, retail, or government. Many opened up textile shops because they had prior knowledge of mending and sewing.
-Men in Japan prior to the Meiji era could take a second wife if they wished, though this was mostly limited to the samurai and merchant classes. Mistresses were out in the open and polygamy was more tolerated for men due to the laws saying only male heirs could inherit things, so men had multiple wives or partners to help produce lots of sons.
-Russian ovens are actually massive and can fit a full-grown person inside, thus they were often used for putting sick people in to help them recover.
-Naoto's 'mystery illness' is typhoid fever. Spread through contaminated food and drink, it's most famous for reddish flushes on the body and a fever that spikes, goes down, spikes, goes down, etc for up to a month. Also called 'the nervous fever' because patients hallucinate and get the jitters, mumbling and picking at their blankets. The disease can last for weeks to a month, but due to brevity I made it only last for two days.
-Fedoras got their start in the 1880's as fashion for women, after a play popularized the look. They later became associated with women's rights movements. Colored cufflinks were only associated with overly-showy men or dandies, as was wearing any form of bright color. You'd wear colored cufflinks while out with friends and show you were a fun-loving guy. Colors were scorned by men for fashion unless you were super fashionably eccentric like city-boy Yosuke or a member of the Aesthetic movement like Naoto, which I'll describe in more detail in later chapters. Also, unless I say otherwise, every character male or female who wears Western fashion has gloves on sans children! I keep forgetting to describe them but everyone's wearing gloves due to customs of the time.
-Marriages back then were almost always arranged and rarely for love because they were about increasing the political power or prestige of two families, especially back when social classes existed and you had to marry within them. After the class system got disbanded, any group could marry whoever, but the marriages were still arranged. Despite dying down somewhat after WW2, they never fully went away and today major Japanese companies marry their kids off to each other.