Rurouni Kenshin Fan Fiction ❯ Oiran no Gaijin - "The Foreign Courtesan" ❯ Piercing Scream ( Chapter 6 )

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

Thoroughly convinced that something was wrong, Ayumi and Kazuma Kawazoe, Miku's surrogate grandparents, got up and headed next door. The door was standing open and they noticed that all the sandals except for one pair were gone from the entryway. So that was why Miku had been sort of dancing about when she answered the door, Ayumi thought - he had run out without his sandals. Whatever was wrong had to be very serious, because normally Miku was a clear-thinking young man with his head straight on his shoulders - he almost never forgot anything.

Holding on to her husband's arm, Ayumi stepped up into the living room, wondering why in the world the lamp was not on at this time of night. Kazuma frowned - his eyesight and his hearing might be failing him, but he still had as sharp a sense of smell as he had always had. His bad knee wobbled a little - he remembered what it was like being a soldier. And he was remembering this because of what he smelled. It smelled horribly like blood. He had been examining the unlit oil lamp with his back to the room, but he spun around like a dervish when he heard his wife scream.

"Oh my gods!" screamed Ayumi, holding her hand over her heart. "Chizuko-san!"

"No wonder Miku was in a hurry," Kazuma said quietly, his mind already working hard on the case. "He had to leave his..."

"Kazuma, no! You can't possibly think Miku did this!" cried his wife.

"I'm just saying it looks an awful lot like that's what happened," Kazuma said gravely.

Ayumi shook her head vehemently.

"Listen to yourself!" she chided her husband passionately. "We both know him better than that. There's no way in heaven, hell, or anywhere in between that Miku did this."

Kazuma shook his head to clear it and grunted to his wife that she was right and he didn't know what he was thinking. His mind had to be twisting on itself, to think that Miku would do such a thing. Ayumi had gone back to their house to find a white kimono to dress Chizuko in for burial. Kazuma checked the room that had the bowl and chopsticks outside it and very nearly became quite ill. Then he remembered - that morning, just this morning, he had heard, along with everyone else within a couple of kilometers, Chizuko arguing with her father-in-law. Something about a girl Miku had brought home - very bad business, it turned out to be.

The elderly man shuddered - he hated to think what had actually become of the poor thing. All of a sudden, the puzzle completed itself. Chizuko had been forced to comply with the old man's wishes and that had been the ultimate disgrace to herself and the family. The old man was the cause of the problem, so she got jolly well rid of him and ended her own life in the honorable way. Kazuma bowed his head - what Miku had come home to... He couldn't stand the thought of it! But he pushed thought out of his mind as he shuffled back to his house to find something to lay the old man out in. It wouldn't do not to give the head of the family a decent burial, even if he was a rotten old bastard.

-- --

----

Miku had finally shaken himself and figured out where his two little sisters were - obviously they were with his mother's closest friend, Nakamura Miharu. He gave himself another mental shake and straightened his shoulders before the neighbors began to talk . After all, it was getting late, already well past dark, and there he was, standing in the middle of the path talking to himself. Once more, he shook his head to clear it and started towards Nakamura-san's house, in the center of the village. A sigh escaped his lips - what was he going to tell Okon and Omasu? Before he could answer his own question, he walked straight into the door frame of Nakamura-san's house.

"Baka," he said to himself, shaking his head as he stepped back and knocked in a civilized manner - it seemed everyone was being very formal tonight.

"I'm coming, I'm coming!" called a woman's voice - in a moment, the door slid open a little bit and a woman who looked as if she were maybe in her early twenties, Nakamura Miharu, appeared. "Oh! Mii-chan!"

Miku wasn't fooled for a second by the false cheeriness in her voice - it wasn't humanly possible for a person with three very active little girls under one roof to be that cheerful this late at night.

"Gomen nasai... I'm sorry for bothering you so late, but this is sort of an emergency," Miku said in a rush, bowing at the end. "I need to know - are my sisters here?"

Miharu slid the door all the way open, nodding gravely.

"Please come in," she said softly, ushering Miku into her living room and checking to make sure the little girls weren't within earshot. "I'm not going to play dumb or tell you white lies..."

"Matte kudasai!" Miku interjected, his voice sounding hoarse and desperate. "My okaa-san... My ojii-san... They're both---"

"I know," Miharu cut in. "Your mother told me all about it this afternoon.

Miku opened his mouth to ask questions, but Miharu cut him off again and began a long, painful, and arduous explanation. Unable to do anything but comply with her father-in-law's wishes, Chizuko felt she had disgraced herself by not trying harder. She had intended to take her own life first, but she thought of the little girls and had brought them to Miharu's house to be cared for. Instead of killing herself alone, she wanted to take down the old man who had disgraced the Hasegawa family's name with what he had done. It wasn't his place to decide that girl's fate - she knew things like that happened all the time, but that didn't mean she had resigned herself to it. She wanted to fight the practice of slavery, but as a woman, was unable to do so. So she saw justice done in the old way - the old man had destroyed the family honor, so it was her duty as a widow faithful to her husband's family to take him out. At least, that's the way she saw it.

"I'm sorry that she's gone, but I'm glad for what she did," the young mother said savagely. "That old man was a disgusting, horrible old pig and after what he did, he deserved to die - brutally."

Miku's mouth hung open and there was a hollow, deadened look in his eyes.

"I'll do it too..." he said in a choking voice, standing up and looking around dazedly. "I don't want to live anymore after what I've done! Let me at a knife and I'll take care of it right now!"

"You'll do no such thing!" roared Miharu, getting to her feet as well. "What about your little sisters!? You're responsible for them now! They don't even know what's happened! And who's going to tell them!? Certainly not me! If you're gone too, they won't have anything to live for!"

"You can take care of them!" Miku yelled back, gesturing angrily at her. "That's why my okaa-san left them here, right!?"

Miharu, red in the face and clenching her teeth, marched up to Miku, reared her hand back and slapped him smartly across his face.

"HASEGAWA MIKU, YOU GET A HOLD OF YOURSELF AND I MEAN NOW!" she bellowed, watching Miku press his hand to his cheek.

Miku opened his mouth to argue, or fight back, or do something, but his voice cut itself off when he heard a little voice beside him.

"Miku-'niichan, where'th 'kaa-san?" Omasu lisped softly, tugging on the fabric of Miku's hakama. "When'th she comin' back? I wanna go home!"

Okon slowly sidled over to her brother, looking up at him through her black bangs.

"She is coming back, right?" she asked, her little voice shaking.

Miku let out all the air of a deep breath he didn't even notice he had drawn in and his shoulders fell, giving him the defeated look of a kicked dog. He sank to his knees and pulled his little sisters into his arms - he didn't know what to tell them or how. How was he supposed to explain to a six-year-old and an eight-year-old that, for the sake of the family honor, their mother had killed their grandfather and then taken her own life? For the first time since he had stumbled into the terrible scene, tears formed in his eyes. Little drops made dark wet spots on his little sisters' kimono.

"Okon... Omasu... Okaa-san has gone to be with Otou-chan..." he said softly, trying to keep his voice strong for them and just barely succeeding. "Do you understand?"

"She'th not comin' back?" asked Omasu, taking hold of her brother's gi with one hand and chewing on the index finger of the other, looking up at him with her big blue eyes.

"What happened, 'nii-chan?" asked Okon, tugging nervously on a lock of her black hair.

Miku sighed again.

"I'll explain it when you're older," he said wearily, the weight of the day's events bearing down on his shoulders. "For now, just stay with your onii-chan... We'll figure everything out in the morning."

Okon and Omasu began to cry, clinging to their brother, who just held them and started crying himself.

"Miku, we have a spare room for you and the girls," Miharu said after letting them cry it out. "You all need to sleep."

Miku nodded but didn't look up.

"I'll go set out a futon," Miharu said softly.

In about five minutes, she reappeared in the living room to see Miku picking up both girls and getting to his feet.

"Domo arigato gozaimasu," he whispered, his voice rough from crying as he nodded in lieu of bowing.

----

----

It was around ten at night and Nicole had been dressed, made up, hair-done, and everything. She was following Saki and Toriko to a room nearer to the front of the establishment - one that was actually lit with a lamp. It was time for her to be presented to Himejima-sama. Nicole was fidgeting nervously with her hands - she hated knowing that people were evaluating her. She tried to pull the kimono up so it rested higher on her shoulders, remembering her refusal to go about looking like her clothes were about to fall off. As the three girls went down yet another hallway, Nicole began to hear noises coming from further up the hall. She was about to ask but then remembered where she was and closed her mouth, sickened by the embarrassing sounds.

"Sounds like Yumi's got a good one," Toriko commented snidely as a sort of howl sounded off in a nearby room. "Some girls have all the luck."

Nicole felt like being sick yet again and her knees wobbled a bit. Being a normal - well, no, not normal - American eighteen-year-old in the year 2006, she knew what they were talking about. But she wished she didn't - she knew she read some pretty explicit fan fictions back home and had watched a yaoi or two, but she wanted to keep her innocence physically. Her philosophy was "the less people know about my mind, the better". Now the walls that had sheltered her for all of her life were crashing down around her and she was powerless to stop the fall. All she could do was keep walking on her unsteady feet and try to block out the noises as much as she could. Before she knew it, she was standing in a room that was, compared to her room with the girls, blindingly brightly lit - she didn't recognize it as the front room of the establishment.

"Himejima-sama!" called Saki, her voice soft and respectful. "We got the new girl clean and dressed. Would you like to see her now?"

The madam seemed to glide across the tatami towards the three girls. Saki and Toriko stepped back, bowing submissively and Nicole was left on her own, shivering from fear and the cold wind blowing in the door. Himejima-sama circled her like a panther circles its prey, looking her up, down, and all around with a critical eye. Nicole watched her face carefully, though she tried not to make it obvious that she was staring. Himejima-sama's brow furrowed as she noticed that the silvery white obi, tied in the front, was tied a bit too loosely. Sure the girls were supposed to be alluring, but in her establishment, they were more than just common sluts - her girls were properly trained in manners and dress and things like that.

"That obi is too loose..." she said in a low voice. "Who tied it?"

Nicole, now visibly quaking on her feet, raised her hand.

"Now what was your name again, dear?" asked the elegantly-dressed, imposing-looking madam.

"N-nicole Barrington, ma'am," Nicole stuttered, bowing ridiculously low. "Hajimemashi---"

"Hai, hai, I know. 'Hajimemashite'," Himejima-sama said dismissively, gesturing to further her point. "Well I see you at least have some manners."

"Domo arigato, ma'am," replied Nicole, trying to keep her voice from shaking as she bowed again. "I try..."

Himejima-sama pursed her lips and her brows knitted together consideringly.

"So... What do you think, Himejima-sama?" Saki asked timidly, gesturing at Nicole, who bowed yet again.

The madam looked Nicole over once more.

"With the obi aside - you will learn to tie that, dear - she passes inspection," she said smoothly. She looked back at Saki and Toriko. "You may take her back to your room and get her into a sleeping yukata."

Saki and Toriko took Nicole's hands and were about to do exactly that when a man stepped over the threshold of Himejima-sama's establishment. They turned around and pulled Nicole over to the table they had been sitting at earlier and sat there prettily, giggling politely and flirting with their eyes. Nicole was frozen in fear and thought she might be about to get violently sick. She clenched her jaw to keep her teeth from chattering audibly and cracked her knuckles nervously. The man looked over at her, hearing the loud popping sound.

"Her," he said, pointing at Nicole. "How much for a night with her?"

Himejima-sama followed his gesture and looked at Nicole, who looked absolutely petrified.

"Gomen nasai, sir," she said quietly, but firmly. "She is a very new arrival and I do not require my new girls to work on their first days."

"But she's a foreigner!" the man persisted. "So exotic! I'll pay double what you usually charge!"

He turned to his friend and said "Come on, man! Just one night. You haven't gotten any for ages!"

"Oh fine, but just to shut you up," the friend conceded. "But you said you're paying and I'm holding you to it!"

The madam's eyes narrowed and she took another cursory look at Nicole, then broke into the young men's conversation.

"Onegai, sir, allow me to speak to her first," she said firmly to the one making the request, gesturing to Nicole with one hand and turning towards the back of the establishment.

"What's gonna happen to me?" Nicole asked in a frightened, panicked voice, her facial expression desperate.

"Please control yourself, Nikooru-chan!" scolded Himejima-sama. "You may as well get used to this. I'll let you have the night off tomorrow."

"Please, ma'am!" cried Nicole. "I've never been with a man before! I wanted my first time to be with the one I loved! As in, MARRIED TO!"

"Don't you take that tone with me," the madam shot back, her voice dangerously quiet. "Now it's not your place to decide that. That man is the son of a wealthy merchant. It's not good for business to turn him away."

Nicole opened her mouth to protest again, but the madam loomed over her and made her feel very small and feeble.

"What do I do?" she asked, not really wanting to know the answer.

"Whatever he wants you to," snapped Himejima-sama. "Now go."

Nicole sort of shuffled back out to the brightly-lit room, trying to pull her kimono up onto her shoulders. For the first time, she was able to get a good look at who she was dealing with. It turned out that it was a group of four men and they seemed awfully familiar. One of them was very tall and had spiky brown hair that Nicole could swear belonged to Sanosuke Sagara - but that was impossible! Sano wouldn't even be ten years old. The other two, who looked rather tipsy, were eyeing Saki and Toriko with knowing grins. Saki rolled her eyes when they weren't looking. However, the fourth man - Nicole knew she had seen him before. It had to be him.

He was tall, with raven-black hair that fell messily over one eye. Nicole couldn't see his eyes very well, but she could tell they were a dark, espresso-brown color. His shoulders were strong and he kept them straight and his head up high - even if he did look a little tipsy himself tonight. Then Nicole could have slapped herself as a realization dawned upon her. As if the odd uniforms hadn't given the whole group away when she first saw them. Only now was it starting to sink in - a few members of the Sekihoutai were out for a night on the town. Nicole's mouth fell open, but she couldn't speak. Here he was, her dream come true, but he would never see her as more than an object for personal pleasure.

"Nikooru-chan, please escort Sagara-san to the large private room in the back," Himejima-sama said in a silky voice - silk soaked in gentle venom. Nicole shuffled forward and gestured to Sagara to follow her. "And look sharp about it!"

Nicole couldn't look at the man following her to the large private room they were heading for. She had seen inside of it (the door had been left halfway open) while she was walking with Saki and Toriko - it really was big and luxurious. The futon was extra large and there were large square pillows piled around it. The lamp was kept at a very low level, casting seductive shadows over everything in the room like curtains. Nicole swallowed hard as she she slid the door the rest of the way open and ushered Sagara inside. Her lip trembled as she shuffled over to the futon and sat gingerly on one corner. She tried not to look as Sagara stripped out of his vest and shirt.

The tall man knelt in front of Nicole and reached out to touch her face - he had never been with a foreigner before.

"Um... I guess... Well... I..." was all Nicole was able to get out before she broke down in tears. "I don't want to do this! I want to go home! I want my mom!"

Souzou Sagara pulled his hand back, completely poleaxed - the sake had long since left his mind. It was true what his friend Reichi had said - it really had been a long time since he had "gotten any". He had been looking forward to the feel of a woman's soft curves beneath his body. But the sobbing creature in front of him was barely more than a girl, with her face buried in the sleeve of her kimono and her whole body shaking. It was obvious she had never been with a man before and that she didn't want to now. He tried to shake the thoughts out of his mind - it was just her job and that was that.

Something in his heart told him that what he was doing was wrong as he wrapped strong arms around the girl's body, pulling her close to him. Nicole cried out in surprise and fear and started trying to push him away, or struggle out of his grip - she wasn't giving her most precious gift to him if all she was to him was a common hooker. How she wished things had been different! She wished that it had been him who had found her, just like in her dreams, and that he had taken care of her like he had in her stories back home.

"Relax..." he whispered, tightening his grip and immobilizing her so that he could pull her up and let his breath tickle her ear. "Just lay back... You might enjoy it."

"No, no, no," Nicole was whispering to herself, still trying to squirm away from him. "No, no, no, no, no!"

Souzou frowned and tried a different approach, the forceful approach - he laid her back on the futon and pinned her shoulders with his strong grip.

"Come on, let's get this over with," he growled, wanting to just get on with it. "I came here for a good night and I intend to have it."

Nicole stopped struggling and looked up at him with wide eyes, puffy, red, and full of tears, whimpering as if he had hit her - she pressed her legs together as tight as she could, still not giving up her fight.

"Please... don't do this!" she begged, shaking from fear in his grip. "Souzou... Don't..."

Souzou released her and sat up quickly.

"How did you know my name?" he demanded.

"It's... complicated..." Nicole said lamely. "I can't explain it..."

She curled up into a ball on her side, facing away from him. Desire, confusion, and a twinge of pity warred against each other in Souzou's mind. Even if the circumstances were strange, he shouldn't let that get in the way of his night, not after all Reichi had paid for it. Nicole continued to sob and shudder, crying for her mother and wishing she was back home, safe in her own bed with the Souzou she loved gazing at her from the computer screen. Pity won in Souzou's mental battle and he reached out a gentle hand to touch the girl's shoulder. She flinched and curled up tighter, almost hyperventilating.

"It's all right... Calm down," Souzou said softly, stroking the girl's bare shoulder and loving the feel of her soft, warm skin against his sword-callused hand - he pushed that thought out of his head and took the shaking girl in his arms again. "Shh... Shh... I'm not going to hurt you... Look at me... Onegaisuru."

Nicole shook her head and Souzou, wondering where in the world his sensible mind was, gently turned her in his arms so that her body was tilted towards his, cradling her like a child.

"Come on," he persisted, trying to get her to uncurl herself. "I promise... I won't hurt you."

Nicole finally went limp in his arms, still sobbing quietly and still shaking with fine tremors that made her lips quiver as she tried to stare straight through his chest. Souzou carefully took her chin in a firm but gentle grip, turning her head and tilting her face up to his. The girl's teeth were chattering audibly and she had pulled her arms up in a defensive block, still trying to keep him from touching her. Unable to stand seeing her that way any longer, Souzou shifted her up closer to him and, though she kept trying to push him away, tenderly brought his lips down on hers. He wanted to slip his tongue into her mouth and claim it as his, but something inside of his heart restrained him, keeping the kiss soft and chaste.

"Relax," he said softly, his voice coming from deep in his chest.

It was then that he realized, no matter how much he desired a woman that night, he just couldn't bring himself to touch the girl in his arms. Something about her made him stop - it was as if God's hand was on his shoulder, restraining him from staining this young girl's purity. Nicole was whimpering again, feeling very uncomfortable as she was pressed so close to this man's bare chest. Souzou stroked her face, trailing his fingers over her cheek, then threading them into her hair and removing the beaded band that held her mane of auburn waves back. The girl started shaking again, so afraid that he was going to take her.

"Let me go..." she sobbed, her voice a harsh whisper. "Please... I don't even know what to do! I'm not experienced at all and---"

"It's fine," interrupted Souzou, trying to calm her down. "I'm a man of my word - when I say I won't touch you, I mean it."

"You promise?" asked Nicole, unconsciously taking his hand.

"Hai," he whispered, squeezing her hand. "I promise."

"What about...? You know..." stammered Nicole. "You paid and all..."

"Men like to tell stories," Souzou said, an enigmatic smile on his face. "No one needs to know about tonight but you and me. I won't tell if you won't."

Nicole gave him a wobbly smile.

"But I did pay for a night here," he continued, gesturing at the futon. "Just remember, I won't touch you and I promise you that."

Nicole had to admit, her whole day had been exhausting and there was no way she could get back to the room she shared with Yumi and Saki without being seen - she wanted to go without being punished her first day. Anyway, if he promised, then he promised. And she was getting sort of cozy where she was, pressed against his firm, strong body with his arms wrapped protectively around her. It was like one of her dreams, him holding her, protecting her, staying with her. She yawned as Souzou laid her back down on the futon. Then she sat bolt upright as he started tugging her kimono down from around her shoulders.

"What are you doing!?" she hissed.

"Making it look convincing, in case anyone walks in on us," replied Souzou, pulling the collar of the kimono down so far that it just barely covered her chest. "Anyway... It's been so long since I've felt a woman's skin against my own... Even if it's just your back against my chest, I can just feel it."

"Oh... okay," Nicole said bemusedly, finding it hard to think clearly as Souzou lay down beside her and pulled her close to him, fitting her body against his spoon fashion. "You're warm..."

She said that without thinking and as it sank in, she blushed - Souzou just smiled and pulled the blanket up over them both, making sure to leave Nicole's shoulders exposed.

"Just one question..." he whispered. "Onamae wa nan desu ka?"

"Nicole," she replied sleepily.

"Oyasumi nasai, Nikooru," whispered Souzou, his voice a soft breath on her ear.

"Good night..." responded Nicole, pausing for a moment. "Souzou..."

----

----

Miku woke the next morning with two small, warm bodies cuddling against him. Okon was on his right, her back to him as she clutched at his arm with one hand, sucking on the thumb of the other. He smiled - she loved being the oldest girl, but she was still so much of a child. Omasu was on his left with one small, thin arm resting on his chest and her head on his shoulder - and she was drooling a little bit. Both of them were still sound asleep. Miku wondered what time it was - he had collapsed from sheer exhaustion last night and had no idea of the passage of time. He turned his head carefully, trying not to wake his sisters, and looked over at the wall.

The very first rays of sunlight were beginning to filter through the rice-paper panels - well, there was no way he could get back to sleep, so he decided to get up. Sliding his arm out of Okon's grip and giving her the blanket to hold onto was easy enough, but he had no idea how to move Omasu and not wake her. He thought for a moment, then shifted a little bit, trying to ease his shoulder out from under her head. His movements were as careful as he could possibly make them, but her blue eyes fluttered open and she yawned, looking up at him.

"What'th wrong, 'nii-chan?" she asked, lisping sleepily.

"Daijoubu, Maa-chan," Miku whispered, sliding his shoulder out from under her head and gently shifting her onto the pillow. "Don't worry about it. Just go back to sleep, ne? It's early."

Omasu nodded and her eyes closed as she mumbled an affirmative response to her brother. Miku carefully sat up, then got to his feet, stepping over Okon as best he could. There were some things he needed to do before he had a long talk with Nakamura-san later. He padded out and down the hallway, crossed the living room and slipped out the front door, shivering in the early morning's chill. His feet felt like they were freezing - of course, they would have anyway, as his last pair of tabi socks had mysteriously disappeared in the laundry. Swallowing hard and clutching at his arms in an effort to keep warm, he started off for his own house - he refused to call it 'home' anymore.

The morning was so quiet - it was winter, so there were no birds singing to greet the day and, aside from the brilliant colors of the sunrise, everything was grey and dreary-looking. The skeletal black trees had no leaves and a few houses sported icicles hanging from the eaves of their roofs. But there was no snow, which was fitting - snow was too pretty for a day of sorrow like today, he thought. He sighed and watched his breath come out as a thick cloud in the cold air - it was so cold and wet that he sneezed a couple of times, cursing whoever was talking about him.

Trying to speed up as the morning got windier was starting to wear at him. He didn't want to go back to his house - it would be so easy to turn around and go back to Nakamura-san's. But he knew he couldn't do that. As the oldest son, the responsibility of seeing to his mother's burial fell to him - he supposed he would have to get the old man disposed of too. He got a sort of savage pleasure knowing the old pig had paid for all the wrongs he had done to the family and everyone else. But he quickly pushed that thought from his mind - he was supposed to go into this reverently.

Miku tried to force his dry throat to swallow as he approached his house - even the house itself looked dead. Someone had closed the door and there was no light filtering through the shoji to make the house look occupied. It was as dreary and grey as the trees that died in the winter - and it wouldn't come back to life in spring. The young man with the topaz eyes sighed heavily, watching his breath again, and managed to make his throat swallow. That action, however, did nothing to move the lump that had lodged itself there. He bit his lip and forced himself to slide the door open

Inside, the house looked perfectly normal, if a little neater than usual. The futon in the living room had been folded up and put away in the corner - the room certainly didn't look like a place of death. Miku swallowed hard again, trying to force back tears of pain, grief, and rage. He shook his head, just to clear it, and headed for the hallway to check the other rooms of the house - he wasn't sure which door he could bring himself to open first. Finally, he settled on the old man's room, slid the shoji open, and stepped cautiously inside, not sure what he was going to see.

"Oh," he said dully.

The old man had been cleaned up and laid out on his futon in a white men's kimono. His eyes had been closed, which Miku was grateful for - he couldn't have handled seeing those cold, dead, terrified eyes again. Miku swallowed hard yet again, looking around the room to see what other changes had been made. The futon had been moved so that it was covering the blood spots on the floor, but nothing could be done about the blood on the walls. Miku forced his stomach to calm down - it wasn't like he had eaten in the last twenty-four hours anyway. He knelt beside his grandfather's futon and said a prayer for the dead - in a way, he was sorry he and the old man had never gotten along. With that done, he rose to his feet and sighed again, turning away to leave the room and closing the door behind him

"All right, Hasegawa..." he whispered to himself, bracing himself for what he was sure he would find in the next room.

Carefully, he slid the door open, but didn't step into the room. Instead, he just peered in cautiously, feeling like he was doing something wrong for some reason. He saw what he had come to see. His mother's body had been dressed in a white kimono, wrapped right over left, and nicely laid out on her futon, with the blanket folded beside it. The kimono she had been wearing when she died was nowhere in sight, for which Miku was sorely thankful. Her face was peaceful and there was no blood on her - no sign at all of a violent death. Had her face not been so deathly pale, Miku would have thought her asleep. Biting his lip hard enough to draw blood, Miku approached his mother's body and sank to his knees beside her clean, white futon.

"Okaa-san... doushite?" he whispered, asking 'why' as in 'Why did everything have to happen like this?'. "Why couldn't it have been me? I could have taken the old pig out and you would still be here to take care of Okon and Omasu! Okaa-san, why did it have to be you who did this? Why did you stain your hands with blood?"

He swallowed again, trying to rid himself of the lump in his throat, and took hold of his mother's hand, pressing it to his face as if he thought he could bring warmth back to it.

"I'll join you if you want me to, 'kaa-san," he said in a hollow voice. "You shouldn't have been the one to die over this."

His hand strayed to the waist tie of his hakama and he felt the knife he had bought yesterday, the one Nicole had been admiring and wishing she could have. He didn't understand what a girl like her would want with a knife of all things, but he had humored her and let her hold it for a moment. A vacant smile spread over his face and he removed the tanto from the waist of his hakama. Then he blinked and saw what he was doing - he couldn't stain her with blood again. So he pushed himself to his feet and shuffled out of the room, mumbling a quick prayer. He took a deep breath as he knelt in the middle of the living room, unsheathing the dagger. Closing his eyes, he prepared to end his own life quickly.

"Yamate!" screamed a familiar female voice, stopping the blade less than an inch from Miku's heart.

"Yamero!" roared a male voice at the same time.

"Dame!" cried the female voice. "Don't do that Miku, I'm begging you!"

He looked up with pain and desperation in his eyes and saw the one person he had least expected to see and the one he needed most.

"Okaa-san? Otou-san?" he asked, completely baffled - this defied any knowledge he had ever had of reality. "But how... I mean... You're both... HOW IS THIS HAPPENING!?"

A man in his late forties and a woman in her early forties stood there in front of him, both of them dressed in white burial kimono and slightly translucent, with near-identical expressions of fear and concern. The man had his hand protectively on the woman's shoulder - she looked close to tears. Miku shook his head, then slapped himself a couple of times, trying to shake the image away. Had everything last night been so traumatic that he had taken to drinking? The couple did not vanish when he opened his eyes, so it had to either be real or one hell of a hangover.

"Listen son, it's not time for you yet," the man said firmly, his topaz gaze mirrored in the startled face of his son. "I miss you and your mother does too, but it's not time for you to come and join us."

"Do you really think we're gone forever?" the woman asked gently, kneeling in front of her son and ghosting her fingers across his cheek. "As long as you remember us, we'll never be gone."

"That's right," said another male voice, this one more youthful, as the image of a young man of about twenty-five materialized beside the image of his father.

"Honestly, do you think we would let you take the easy way out?" asked another male voice, its owner an impish-looking lad of about twenty.

"Kyohei? Yukinojo?" asked Miku, feeling like his head was spinning.

"Damn straight!" replied Kyohei.

"Listen, little brother," said Yuikinojo, his voice serious now. "There are some things you have to do. We don't like what the old pig did either and you're the last one in the family who can do penance for the wrong."

"B-b-but... How?" stuttered Miku. "I'm the one who actually DID it! I should have been the first one to die!"

Yukinojo planted a booted foot on his little brother's head, surprisingly strong for a ghost.

"Baka, that's why you're the one who has to make restitution for it," snapped Kyohei. "Is any of this getting through that thick skull of yours?"

"Kyo-chan!" their mother said warningly. "And Yuki, get your foot off your brother's head."

"Gomen 'kaa-san..." muttered the oldest son of the Hasegawa family as the second oldest removed his foot from the top of his brother's head.

"Son, this is what you have to do," his father said gravely. "The first captain of the Sekihoutai is in Edo. You must find him and join the Sekihoutai. Help put an end to the age of master and slave."

"And for the love of Kami-sama," added Kyohei. "Get your girlfriend out of the---"

"Kyohei!" his mother grated out. "I thought I told you not to bring that up except in tasteful terms!"

Kyohei shuffled his feet and grumbled to himself.

"You get the picture, right Baka-chan?" he said grumpily.

"KYOHEI!" shouted his mother.

"Maa maa, Chizuko," said the father, trying to pacify his wife. "He's perpetually twenty-five, at least until he's reincarnated. You'll have to forgive him."

Chizuko made a noise that sounded like a growl.

"Daijoubu, 'kaa-san," Miku cut in quickly. "I understand. But what about Okon and Omasu?"

"Nakamura-san will take care of them," his mother said firmly. "They must be protected from the war. Remember that you're fighting for them too, so they can grow up without fear of... Well, you know."

Miku nodded, feeling tears stinging his eyes painfully.

"Son, we must leave you now, so remember what we've said," said the father in his soothing voice. "Find Sagara Souzou and join the Sekihoutai. In this, you will find a way to make up for the wrong done by our family."

"Matte! Matte!" cried Miku, reaching out to his family. "'kaa-san! 'tou-san! Kyo! Yuki!"

But as a ray of sunlight filtered in through the rice paper, they all whispered 'good-bye' to him and faded with the light.