InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ My Flower and Willow Girl ❯ Chapter One ( Chapter 1 )

My Flower and Willow Girl.

This is my story though; I don't own The Inu Yasha cast, just my own fleeting imagination.

 

“Straighten your back, you're not a peasant!” Tawanaka-San, the etiquette instructor barked at the class full of young girls. Kagome held her back just as straight as a board, counting in her head to keep her patience with the difficult woman. After a bit more counting, the teacher let them up, giving the weaker-minded girls a chance to glare at their wrinkled torturer. Her aging face and body took no toll on her posture, which made kagome a slight bit exasperated.

`An old woman has better posture than me, I guess that's why I'm not a maiko yet' Kagome looked down at the plain blue and white cotton kimono that she was given that morning, a sign of not having been debuted yet.

“One day, several of you will be geisha, entertaining the rich and powerful, and having the world in your palm, and the rest of you,” she held her face in a sneer at the girls “the rest of you will be scrubbing the floors in this school to pay back the cost of your lessons. Maybe even sold into prostitution! The point is, that men do not want a slumped over geisha serving them tea.” The class remained silent through the verbal abuse, used to the vituperation from the teacher. The older woman dismissed the class and kagome headed back to the okiya for supper, knowing that after eating her food she would have chores to complete before bed.

Though she wasn't treated like a princess, she wasn't Cinderella either. Every girl in the okiya, save the geisha, did chores, and what a large okiya it was. It was of the most prosperous in all of Kyoto, with 8 working geisha, 10 maiko and 18 girls in training to become maiko not mention the numerous servants that did the more menial labors of cooking and cleaning the kimono.

Kagome pushed open the gate at the front of the house, and walked inside, greeting the servants and other occupants of the house.

“What's cooking Aki? Kagome asked her favorite cook as she took a seat at the table in the kitchen, one that was reserved for the servants and non-working girls of the house. The servant looked down kindly at kagome, with a motherly fondness right at her eyes.

“You know all we eat back here is rice, pickled vegetables, and fish whenever mother allows.” She said this as she stooped to place a plate of afore mentioned foods on the table in front of kagome. Aki stood back to her unnaturally tall height of six foot and continued plating dinner for the rest of the girls that should be arriving shortly. The door of the kitchen swung open suddenly, and the flash of bold red silk and black hair that flew in came straight for the table.

“Kagome, how is my favorite little sister?” The flash of red/young lady asked kagome, while wrapping her arms around her shoulders.

“Sango!” Kagome turned to address the full fledged geisha, marveling at the amount of hair she had grown out since she was just 9 years old, and now it sat in a pool around her on the ground. “You know I'm not even half way to becoming a maiko. I feel like I'll be stuck as a shikomi forever.” The younger girl's voice dropped as she finished her thought.

“You stop that right now.” Sango gently pulled her up by her chin to look her square in the eye. “I've already been negotiating with mother about you becoming a maiko, I want you to be my little sister, you have great potential kagome, you are a beautiful girl with a lot to learn, but you're doing very well in your lessons.” She stood back up and went to the door. “Unfortunately, I have to eat with mother tonight, she insists.” Sango finished with a roll of her eyes and departed the kitchen for the dining room.

The maiko and all above them ate in the formal dining room at a much nicer table, with better food, but with the woman that owned them all, the mother of the okiya. It was the one thing Kagome was not looking forward to when she finally debuted. The rest of her shikomi sisters arrived for their meal and they chatted away happily about their lessons and how wonderful it would be once they were earning money. To be a working geisha meant you could buy your freedom from the okiya and keep more of your earnings, in turn having some control over your life.

The girls finished their supper and started the work on their chores. Kagome walked with Rin to the bottom of the stairs, chatting idly about one of the slower girls in the okiya, and what they could do to try and help her.

“Perhaps some form of back bracing.” Rin suggested thoughtfully. “She seems a bit hunched over.” Kagome just giggled in response, not sure that a back brace would help this particular maiko in training. As they began their sweeping and scrubbing of the stairs a soft voice crept down the stairs.

“Kagome,” she called “Come up to my room.” Kagome's eyes grew wide in recognition, and Rin shrank in place, a reflex taught to her by the especially cruel geisha of the house. “Kagome, Now” The call came sharper this time, at which point she was shocked out of her stunned state and she climbed the stairs.

“Yes Kikyo-san?” The younger girl knelt at the threshold of Kikyo's door, tremulously right at the entrance, not a hair or breath inside the frame. Just the previous winter, the bad-tempered geisha had pushed a maid down the stairs for being in her room while she was there.

“Come in Kagome,” The elegant figure in a sage robe tied loosely about her gestured to her. “You have my permission to enter.” Swallowing her trepidation, Kagome walked into the chamber of the beast, half bent in a bow to show as much respect to Kikyo as possible.

“What can I do for you Kikyo-san?” Kagome's eyes only flitted up to the mirror Kikyo sat in front of, catching the geisha's face for a moment, pale as the moon and smoother than the bay at night. She wasn't even wearing her make-up for her evening engagements.

“Well my young shikomi, I have a favor to ask of you.” Kikyo turned to face the young girl finally. She reached down, clutching Kagome's chin in her thin cold fingers, jerking Kagome's face to hers, so that fawn eyes met with chocolate. “Now little Kagome” Kikyo added pressure to her face “Listen very closely to me, I have a friend coming by tonight and he lives in the capital,” Kagome's eyes widened a great deal to the mention of a male visitor “so he won't be here until late tonight. When you hear a knock at the door after everyone goes to sleep, ask who it is and he will then tell you he is Onigumo and that he wishes to see Kikyo, understand?”

Kagome gave a very frightened nod, hoping that Kikyo would release her face before she bruised. Kikyo smiled and released her hold on the shikomi. “Now remember, this is a secret, so don't tell mother.” Another quick frighten nod from Kagome “Now go back to your chores like a good girl.” Kikyo stood with her and forced Kagome out into the hall, slamming the screen behind her.

The rest of the evening continued as though that conversation had never taken place. The Geisha got dressed, the Maiko got dressed and they all left the house, leaving the shikomi and house staff to clean up their rooms. Around midnight, the majority of the house staff left, and most of the other shikomi went to sleep by one am. Kagome though had door duty as Kikyo had discovered, and waited by the door until every last geisha came back from their last party. As the door watch this night, Kagome would help the maiko and geisha remove their shoes, and climb the stairs if they were too drunk to do so by themselves. Kikyo came back in the middle of the bunch, shooting Kagome a glare as a quick reminder, totally sober.

Later into the wee hours of the morning, right as it seemed that the sun might consider rising, a gentle knock came at the door. The visitor announced himself as Onigumo through the door when prompted; Kagome opened the door and bowed him into the okiya. She made the move to lead him to Kikyo's room, but he already was padding softly up the stairs, making a bee line for the geisha's door.

Once he was inside Kikyo's room, Kagome reflected on his appearance, blood like brown eyes, dark clothing and onyx black hair that hung limply around his shoulders with no restraints to keep it in check.

At this point, little Kagome was an exhausted young girl, and gave into sleep at the front door, on her thin futon, fading in and out of dreams that were more like vague nightmares that would haunt rather than terrify her. The girl awoke the next morning with only whispers of her night visions in her foggy mind. She put away her futon and headed upstairs to change for school. She made her way downstairs to eat breakfast, before heading off to her lessons. Before her freshly cleaned tabi touched the bottom step, a scream echoed through the okiya's halls.

AN: This is me just checking formatting on the fan fiction sites, do not adjust your monitor.

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