InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Kiyou Nitsuite Amedare: Ten, Tentou, ken Touhou ❯ Juuni Bundan ( Chapter 12 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

"And once again, I felt a little more of precious Kagome dwindle away beneath my fingertips, and I... Kikyou... was unable to prevent it."

Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Hentai / Samurai / Romance | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 12.19.2007 | Pages: 2 | Words: 1.9K | Visits: 393 | Status: Completed

Juuni Bundan

"You... You brazen half-breed filth! How dare you imply something such as that?! Get out! Get out this instant!" Obaa-san was shrieking like a spectre in the night at me. Nigou-san stood next to her, appearing as if her jaw might fall from her face. It hung so low I was not sure it could sustain the weight of itself. She was speechless, which for the Nigou-san, was a feat in itself. I had never seen such a sight, and it unnerved me a bit, but I allowed that coolness to lead the way.

I must not allow myself to be emotional. I had to be strong, to stand up proud. I must be strong for my Okaa-san... for Inuyasha...

Though she demanded I leave, I would not be uprooted. I did not wince at her insults, and I did not allow her anger to faze me. I knew what I risked... I knew the beating I was asking for.

But I knew the darkness of the future was far more threatening that her rod striking me.

It had taken me a month to gather the courage to say what was so dire in my heart.

I had to become a Geisha.

I kept my eyes transfixed on Obaa-san. I willed myself to be as calm as a lake, only breezes skimming the surface but not disturbing the water below.

"I said leave this instant! Remove her from my sight at once, Hitomi!" Obaa-san continually screeched, thwapping the tatami mats with her rod in emphasis. Nigou-san was still shocked, looking from myself to Obaa-san. I stood my ground, an unmoveable tree.

"I do not wish to displease you, Obaa-san. I only wish to glorify the Okiya and make it prosperous," I spoke cooly, allowing the words to flow easily. I had praticed my flattery day in and day out. It was the only way to stroke Obaa-san into temptation... you must make her feel exceptional, and feed her greed with suggestion.

This was my strategy. I drew off my strength of this, remembering the days my mother and I would play shogi. While we did, she would speak to me of her days as a Bushi lady. The days she had to defend her village from intruders, protecting the women from what horrors may have happened otherwise. She told me of how it was in this way she met Otou-san, accidentally mistaking him and his troop of samurai for bandits.

It was during the Edo-jidai, not too long before the Meiji-ishin. By then, she told me, she had already been courted by several men all of which were too weak to satisfy her. At the time, she had seen the passing of 17 years. She had no parents, both having been killed during a feud between a Daimyo and the Shogunate. She did not speak of them much, and I felt not very lovingly.

But as she spoke of this day, there was reverence in my mother's eyes, causing them to shine like the sun on the sparkling banks of the riverside.

My Otou-san... he rode before the village, looking far too ragged for the samurai he was. He had been in a ferocious battle, and they had been barely victorious. Many men were in desperate need of attention, so he sought a shrine and shelter in Okaa-san's village. My Okaa-san attacked him as he dismounted, and he barely escaped her naginata with his life- something very few men had done.

She did not relent, feeling the need to defend the village. My Otou-san defeated her in battle, and his men watched their leader in admiration. Okaa-san told me he was glorious... he moved like the wind, swiftly and cunningly, in ways Okaa-san would have never imagined.

And as she lay on her back in defeat, shamed and angry, she told me how Otou-san held out a hand to her, and asked for her forgiveness. He said he did not wish to harm her, or her kin. They simply needed shelter.

After they had settled and the days had passed, my mother grew shy with him in a way she never felt with any other. His strength, his generosity, his politeness... he truly followed the way of the Bushido, and he captured Okaa-san's heart quickly.

She told me, that was another conversation for when I was old enough to be courted. A conversation we never got to have.

But she told me, as we played quietly in mid-afternoon, how he taught her political strategy. What people want to hear... and my mother imparted some of this knowledge upon me.

What it is people want the most.

And I hoped to use this to my advantage.

Only, I did not expect the truth of which Obaa-san was to tell me that day. The truth of my heritage.

"You have more than displeased me, you ungrateful otome! And how, pray tell, would you make this Okiya prosper? It is laughable! The Okiya suffers now as it is! No one would pay a half-breed Geisha for company! You're impure! No one would want you for your bloodline!" she spat at me viciously, coughing at the passion of her outburst. Nigou-san began to protest her fervent accusations, but Obaa-san ignored her.

I could not contain myself. I had to speak up or else be wasted.

"My father was Samurai and my mother was Bushi. Forgive me, but may I ask why I would be so unwanted because of this?" I would not waver. I must speak strongly. I must be even.

"Your father samurai..." Obaa-san considered me, glaring at me as if I were stupid. Then she began slow, but rose in volume with a barking laughter, reminding me of a yipping dog that was anxious.

"Samurai?! Your father hardly was samurai! I have your documents, Higurashi Kagome, and hardly was your father samurai!"

I was confused. My Otou-san was samurai. He had died during a battle, one of the final battles of the samurai to uphold the ways of the Meiji-ishin to quell the rebellion... He had died an honorable death. My Okaa-san had told me this.

"My father died an honorable death. Please do not disgrace his name," I spoke softly, but I had difficulty keeping my own rising passion in place. He had done much for the country and he deserved every ounce of respect his name held.

"Your actual otou-san was a gaijin, baka... Your late Okaa-san's honorable husband was away when she was raped by a oobakamono who thought she was a common peasant. Where was it you believed you got those hideous eyes of yours?"

I stood in disbelief.

It had to have been a lie. Okaa-san would have told me. Otou-san cared for me.

How could he have loved a bastard child?

I had nothing to say to her. My entire life, my most hated existence among the life of the Nicchuukan finally made sense. My isolation, the prejudice I had suffered. Why I was so hated. Why I had been called impure... half-breed...

I was.

It was true.

"Perhaps she would be of value..." Nigou-san quiered Obaa-san.

Obaa-san sneered at the mere suggestion, "How could such a dirty child be of any such value other than gaishou? No person would accept her, be her danna and pay much for her mizuage."

Nigou-san smiled a queer smile, the sides of her lips quirking making me feel as if she had some scheme. And I was involved.

"But think, Obaa-san... if the gaijin paid for her schooling to be a geisha, and we simply paid as we have been continuing to pay, and Kikyou-chan is indeed seen as the rare and exotic flower she is among Nichuukan..."

Obaa-san lifted her head to regard me as if she were an empress looking down upon a slave.

"Rare and exotic flower? A half-breed?"

Nigou-san gestured toward me with one hand, increasing in emphasis her mention. "A beautiful water lotus, singular in a lake filled with nothing more than similar looking weeds."

I felt myself trembling, wondering what change of events had happened. Hardly could I contain my passion at my newfounded truth, and here I felt destiny bending down toward me from the heavens.

It was much for me, but I tried to calm the squall that was raging within me. The furious rainstorm that wished to be unleashed...

Nigou-san placed her hands on either side of my face, to draw attention there. "Let us examine. What is considered perfect beauty? If this child had eyes of any other color, I am sure she may have been a child of mention... not shame."

Turning my face gently to the side, she showed my profile to Obaa-san and indicated something I could not see with my eyes. "She is showing every sign of what every Nichuukan desires... among men and women. What women wish for themselves and what men desire to possess."

Obaa-san was staring at me critically. I could feel her eyes, as two hot coals burning into my flesh.

"Of her eyes?" she questioned.

"This is a unique thing we should take advantage of. She has been blessed by the river spirits to have such water in her," Nigou-san was persuading, pushing, making me feel as if I were a horse she were trying to bargain off.

"...I see what you say, Hitomi. I will speak to the gaijin... at this moment, I want the half-breed out of my sight."

Nigou-san bowed and by the force of her hands upon my body, I followed her lead.

I was pulled from the room, and my shaking could not be stopped as the whimpers spilled forth from my mouth. I had promised mother I would not cry anymore. I would be strong.

But I was filthy. I was dirty.

I was everything those people had said.

"Hush child, you have just been granted a great opportunity!" Nigou-san reasoned with me. "You are lucky if the gaijin agrees to this, because then you will become our child in a time after that... and you shall be geisha. Appreciate the fact Obaa-san has a taste for greed and an eye for opportunity."

I nodded merely, looking down at my feet.

I felt the shame of my existence then, and though perhaps Nigou-san was trying to change my disposition in life...

I had only that day realized what my true life was that day.

And once again, I felt a little more of precious Kagome dwindle away beneath my fingertips, and I... Kikyou... was unable to prevent it.

Glossary:

Edo-Jidai- Edo period
Meiji-ishin- Meiji Restoration
Oobakamono- great utter fool
Baka-idiot
Nicchuukan- Japanese