"Every morning just the same
Since the morning that we came,
To this poor provincial town. "
("Belle," Beauty and the Beast )
Rooster-San's crowing woke Kaoru at daybreak. Kaoru rubbed her eyes and grumbled. The damned bird did this every morning.
"I'll crack open some of your children and cook them for breakfast," Kaoru said. Thanks to Himura's tutelage, she could now make a decent-enough fried egg. "Then snap your neck and boil you for dinner."
"And good morning to you too," Himura said, folding up a futon to put it away.
Kaoru bowed her head. "Good morning, Himura," she said.
"This one trusts you slept well?"
"Very well." It was much more peaceful and quiet at night in the country than in the city.
"Kaoru-Dono has a little something…" Himura pointed to the corner of Kaoru's mouth and was actively trying to keep a straight face.
Kaoru wiped the drool from face. She and Himura had been living together for a couple months now. Three days at the onsen, a fortnight in Edo, two days on board that ship, a month in Kyoto, and another fortnight at the farmhouse. But Kaoru hadn't yet gotten used to sleeping in the same room as him. The impropriety of it all was bad enough with it giving him more material to tease her with. He'd already joshed her about how she'd talked in her sleep.
Tomoe snores like a bear, you know.
"I'll be right back." Kaoru took a bucket and went outside to fetch water from the well.
The heat and humidity they'd all suffered through the past week or so had finally passed. Today, the weather was perfect for Kaoru to practice with her naginata outside after she'd finished her morning chores.
After bringing Himura the bucket of water, so he could start cooking breakfast, Kaoru went to the chicken coup to feed Rooster-San and his wives. She sprinkled dried millet and ground soybeans at the foot of the persimmon tree. Rooster-San flapped his wings and jumped down from his perch. He crowed his thanks before pecking up every bit.
"You're welcome," Kaoru said. "Sorry for threatening to boil you alive earlier."
With the chickens busy with their breakfast, Kaoru gathered their eggs and brought them back to Himura.
"How about an omelette?" Kaoru said when she returned to the farmhouse.
Himura had already started a fire in the hearth and began cooking the rice and miso soup. He looked up when Kaoru walked through the door. "This one picked some chives and green onions from the garden yesterday," he said. "Would Kaoru-Dono like them in her omelette?"
Kaoru licked her lips. Yummy. "Thank you. That sounds delicious."
"What does Kamiya-Dono have planned for today?" Himura stirred the soup.
"I need to buy thread." She especially needed a specific shade of crimson to fix the ripped sleeve on Himura's red gi. Eight cold hells and sixteen hot ones, that man was almost as bad as Yahiko when it came to tearing his clothes. "What do we have to trade?"
The village operated on the barter system and money was useless even at Musa-San's general store, where Kaoru would have to buy her thread.
"We were lucky enough to have plenty of eggs this morning. Maybe Musa-San would take some of them?" A rustling sound coming from the rafters made Himura's ears prick up.
Even though being in the country helped Himura relax a little bit, Battousai's edginess hadn't completely left him.
"It's probably nothing," Kaoru said. Poor Himura. As one of the most notorious assassins in Japan, he had every right to be paranoid.
Himura sighed. "This one hopes Kaoru-Dono is right." He picked up a frying pan and started cooking the omelettes.
After breakfast, Kaoru took the remaining eggs to Musa-San's general store to trade for the thread she needed. In the center of the village was a shrine that put out news bulletins on its gates for the few villagers who were literate. Passersby often posted notices on the temple gates for friends and relatives following behind them. Kaoru had fallen into the habit of stopping to read these bulletins and notices whenever she walked into the village to run errands. Maybe Aoshi had left had left a message for her. At least she could learn what was going on in the world.
Kaoru's neighbor, Emi-San, stood outside the shrine, chatting with another old lady.
"Good morning," Kaoru said, bowing to the two grannies.
"That's the girl who moved in next door to me," Emi-San said to her companion. "You know, the house at the edge of the rice paddy. Sweet child, but her husband's the oddest person I've ever seen in my life. His mochi are actually better than mine."
Emi-San had invited Kaoru for tea soon after she moved in. Kaoru brought over some mochi that Himura made and when Emi-San complimented her on how delicious they were, Kaoru made sure to give Himura the credit. She pegged Emi-San as the town gossip. No doubt news of Himura's domestic skills had spread throughout the village and the local housewives would soon be coming to him for tips.
Musa-San didn't stock the color thread Kaoru needed. Apparently crimson wasn't a common shade for rural peasants to wear, so Kaoru had to make do with rusty brown.
Outside the shop, a little girl sat on the engawa playing with a doll. Two little boys, crossing wooden swords, came along and snatched the doll away from her. The little girl began to cry.
Kaoru frowned. Boys really were the worst. She took the doll back and returned it to the little girl. She dried her eyes on her sleeves. "Thanks, Big Sister," she said.
"You're welcome." Kaoru stroked the little girl's hair. She then shared a piece of wisdom with the child that she'd gained from years of dealing with annoying brothers. "The next time those boys pick on you, you kick'em in the balls."
The little girl nodded. "I will." Kaoru stroked her hair again. No doubt this advice would serve her well.
"Like a rock, huh-huh (Like a cloud)
You must be hard, huh-huh (I am soft)
Like an oak, mm-uh (Like bamboo)
You must stand firm, huh-huh (I bend in the wind)
Cut quick, like my blade (Creeping slow)
Think fast, huh-huh (I'm at peace because I know)
Unafraid (It's okay to be afraid)"
("Lesson Number One," Mulan II)
After returning to the farmhouse and having lunch with Himura, Kaoru brought a basket of dirty laundry to wash in the river, along with her naginata. She would practice while the clothes hung out to dry.
Kaoru lunged forward and thrust her naginata at an imaginary opponent. Two little girls peeked out at her from behind a tree. One looked to be about eight. The other must have been about five and held a doll close to her chest. Kaoru made a war face at them. The older girl hid behind the tree again but the younger girl laughed. She swung her doll around and cried, "Big Sister. Big Sister." It was the same little girl from outside Musa-San's store.
After putting down her naginata, Kaoru went to the children. She knelt down beside the younger girl.
"Your dolly is very pretty," she said. When Kaoru was these kids' age, she had ones just like it. "Does she have a name?"
"Keiko," the younger girl said.
"Nice to meet you, Keiko-Chan." Kaoru bowed.
The younger girl turned to the older one. "Ayame, Big Sister rescued Keiko today. And she told me to kick mean boys in the balls the next time they pick on me."
The older girl, Ayame, looked scandalized. "Suzume, Mama says that ladies aren't supposed to fight," she said.
Kaoru laughed. She was Samurai and women of her class often received combat training. They weren't expected to go into battle but they were the last line of defense for their homes. "Tomoe Gozen would disagree with you."
"Who is that?" Ayame and Suzume asked.
Tomoe Gozen, the legendary onna bugeisha, was a personal heroine of Kaoru's and she'd memorized the passages from The Tale of the Heike where she appeared.
Kaoru sat the children down on the river bank for a story.
"Tomoe Gozen lived a long time ago," she said. "She was very beautiful with white skin, long hair, and charming features and very brave, unafraid to fight a demon or a god with her naginata."
"Just like Big Sister," Ayame said.
Suzume nodded. "Big Sister is very pretty and very brave."
Kaoru laughed. "Aren't you sweet." She stroked Suzume's hair.
"Keiko-Chan thinks so too." Suzume lifted her doll.
"Did Tomoe Gozen fall in love with anyone?" Ayame asked. Of course, if a story is about a woman, then she has to fall in love with someone.
"Unfortunately," Kaoru said. The sisters blinked at her in confusion. Wasn't love supposed to be something positive? "Tomoe Gozen fell in love with the warlord Minamoto no Yoshinaka and became his trusted lieutenant. Whenever battle was imminent, Lord Yoshinaka sent her out as his top captain and she performed more deeds of valor than any of his other warriors."
Ayame leaned against Kaoru's shoulder. "Did Lord Yoshinaka love her back?"
"Did they get married and have babies?" Suzume rested her head in Kaoru's lap.
"Well, Lord Yoshinaka was defeated at the battle of Awazu no Hara and Tomoe Gozen was by his side." Tomoe Gozen's happy ending should have been to die beside the man she loved, but Lord Yoshinaka cruelly denied her of this, hence why Kaoru had never liked him. "He told her to flee the battlefield." Kaoru adopted a low, self-important voice which may or may not have been an imitation of Uncle Saito. "Quickly now, he said, you are a woman, so be off with you. Go wherever you please, but I intend to die in battle or kill myself if I am injured. It would be unseemly to let people say Lord Yoshinaka kept a woman with him in his last battle."
"He's mean," Suzume smiled. She pounded her little fists into the grass. Kaoru smiled. This one was a fighter, no doubt.
Ayame sat up and straightened her back. "Did Tomoe Gozen do what he asked?"
Kaoru shook her head. "Not exactly," she said. "Tomoe Gozen left Lord Yoshinaka's side but she didn't flee the battlefield. She resolved to prove herself to the man she loved. Ah! If only I could find a worthy foe. I would fight a last battle for his lordship to watch."
Suzume and Ayame cheered.
"She charged at a squadron of three hundred horsemen and cut straight through until she reached their commander, a giant renowned for his strength." Kaoru paused to breathe. "She grabbed him, ripped his head clean off, and rode into the sunset."
Kaoru ended her story there because she wanted Tomoe Gozen to have a happy ending. Something more heroic than how she actually ended up: as either the captured concubine of a lord who'd defeated her on the battlefield or as a Buddhist nun. And it was too beautiful a day for these sweet children to hear a sad story.
"This one visited Gensai-Sensei today," Himura told Kaoru later that evening as they were eating dinner. Gensai-Sensei was the village apothecary. "To give him some ginseng and angelica from our garden."
Kaoru poured green tea over the leftover rice in Himura's bowl. They were having ochazuke for dinner. "And how is he?" She said. Handsy, probably. The old man tried to pinch her bottom when she went to buy willow bark tablets from him.
Himura piled salted salmon and strips of seaweed a top his rice. "His granddaughters returned home from their play with bamboo sticks, saying that a lady samurai taught them how to fight."
Kaoru smiled. So Ayame-Chan and Suzume-Chan were Old Gensai's granddaughters. This village surely was a small place.
After Kaoru had finished her story, she cut bamboo staffs for Ayame and Suzume and taught them some basic forms. She would have her army of onna bugeisha after all.
The tare in Himura's sleeve had widened during the day and was almost completely separated from the shoulder of his gi. Kaoru's eyes wandered to it all throughout dinner.
"Take it off," Kaoru ordered Himura after they'd cleared the table.
Himura blinked at her. "Oro?"
"How can I mend it if it's still on you?"
Realizing what she meant, he removed his gi and handed it to her. Kaoru lowered her eyes so she wouldn't be tempted to stare at Himura's bare chest. Though short and slight, Himura was all lean, wiry muscle. His shoulders were broad and strong.
Kaoru did her mending by the light of an oil lamp. The russet-colored thread she'd bought from Musa-San didn't match Himura's crimson gi and her stitches stood out like a rust stain. She stayed up sewing until she'd burned through all the oil in her lamp and Himura had already spread out the futons.
The next thing she knew, Rooster-San crowed the beginning of a new day.