Tomo was on her way to the store room when she heard two young attendants making a ruckus. She decided to quieten her steps on the wooden floor. She slipped her head around the corner. It was the new girl who had recently been sold to the house. Her heart sunk to think that her life would be another one of them, indentured to a life of pleasuring men in polite terms. Though that wasn't much of a surprise these days. Instead what shocked and bore pain into her heart was witnessing her favourite little friend Aimi pulling on the young girl's hair who didn't fight back, though she whined in pain for Aimi to stop.
For a brief moment she pondered on whether she should interfere or how she should go ahead doing so. Tomo took a big breath in and exhaled. She decided she'd keep it as normal as possible as she knew the adults around here were more than happy to raise their voices and slap the young attendants and future courtesans as they pleased if shown any . Smack first ask questions later seemed to be the mantra of all adults around here. "Why were adults always so mean and terrible?" Tomo pondered as she made her way down the corridor to the outdoor verandah largely unfrequented at this time of day. As she got closer it seemed the two had been tasked with wiping the verandah floor when something didn't go to plan.
"Hi Aimi."
Tomo's little friend jolted back as did the new girl.
When Aimi did come to her senses and she grabbed Tomo's hand and started to whine incoherently whilst pointing at the new girl who was sulking in self pity and equally paralysed by fear.
"Aimi, remember what I told you. Come on, deep breath in with me."
The little girl looked like she was about to break into a full tantrum, by which Tomo grabbed her by the hand and knelt down next to the two girls.
"Aimi, listen. Do it with me, deep breaths in and out."
Tomo had to hide the internal disappointment, never in a thousand years did she think Aimi would be the bully in any situation until she stumbled upon this scene. "She's a child." Tomo had to remind herself.
Tomo sighed in relief when Aimi did as was told. It never failed to humour her when the seven year old would bring her shoulder up to her head and let go of her breath dramatically and do it all over again on Tomo's instructions.
"Sorry, I haven't met you yet. What is your name?" Tomo said softly but with a commanding tone like a teacher would command when speaking to the new student when she turned to the new girl.
She could feel her little friend's hand tightening in simmering fury. She believed Aimi would control her outbursts. Equally in Aimi's mind she had to show Tomo she was growing up, unlike the last time she threw a tantrum and was teased by her older friend.
The girl grumbled something under her breath. Tomo might have caught the words "Fuck off." slip from the girl's lips.
"I don't like her!" Aimi pipped. "I don't want to do this with her! She doesn't listen to me!"
"Aimi, I know you have better manners than that. Can you show them?" Tomo gave her a stern stare.
Before they knew it the girl burst into tears and ran away.
"It's not my fault. It's her fault! I hate her!"
Tomo hugged Aimi. "I know you're feeling very angry right now because she isn't working with you. It isn't your fault but remember when you first got here? How did you feel?"
The tantrum within broke out of Aimi like any child who found it difficult not getting things done their way. It reminded her of her younger days dealing with her brother and his spoilt brat personality. Not that Aimi was in any way close to being spoilt in this house.
"Aunty is going to whack us if we don't get the floor cleaned up. She yells that she'll beat harder if we tell Madam Hysosaku about it!"
Tomo sighed inside.
"It's alright. We will get it together done ok?"
Her little friend was in no state to instantly agree.
"Come on. The floor won't clean itself. We can make it a challenge though. How about Let's pretend there are tiny little invisible yokai on the floor and when we wipe them over we kill them."
Tomo could see her little friend fighting off a giggle whilst trying to keep being angry.
Tomo tied her sleeves up and wringed the wet cloth the other little girl had dropped on the floor and begun wiping down the floors by down the corridor on all fours.
Aimi was not about to be bested by her big friend who had wiped her way across the verandah and was nearly at the corner, ready to turn around.
"You won't win. I will!".
Tomo kneeled to a stop and let her little friend rush past. She too remembered how she despised when her mother would ask her and her brother to wipe down the verandah on the weekend. Her brother would run off half way and to go play, leaving in her younger self in utter frustration with no adult willing to listen nor help.
In the corner of her eye, Tomo caught the little newcomer peeking from behind a corner but decided to pay her no extra attention and continued with her floor wiping business.
"See it wasn't that bad after all."
Aimi was less convinced by Tomo's back cracking and groaning when she stood up.
"Alright. I better move on." Tomo cocked her head to one side and winked.
The two pals high fived each other. Aimi carried on with her duties after Tomo disappeared back into the house. She wringed both cleaning cloths and set the aside on the verandah. She was careful not to let the bucket of water spill as she picked it up and aimed its greyish water at the bushes. Unbeknownst to her, the water callously splashed onto the bed of the pruned peony bush. She heard a gasp. When she looked up, her eyes locked with the newcomer girl whom she despised.
"Hey!" Aimi shouted.
The other girl flinched but had nowhere to run with the corner of the estate behind her.
A part of Tomo wanted to run and grab Aimi to stop her from causing a commotion though her body refused to make a move. It seemed it wanted to see how children these days dealt with their issues.
At that moment the real world seemed to melt away for Aimi. It was just between her and the new girl.
She dropped the bucket and lunged forward like a tiger. Her hand clawed into the new girl shirt collar like an eagle grabbing its prey. The anger inside her body from the all the unfair abuse she copped, every wrong move that got her a beating. Unknown to her seeing herself when she first arrived in this new girl made her feel things a girl her age didn't have words to describe. All those things turned into voices that coaxed her like tempting poison for her taking it all out on the new weakling for being a pain.
In retrospect, Tomo regretted not intervening, she didn't quite know why she couldn't either. But in that moment when Aimi's palm smashed into the girl's face hard, her impression of her young playful friend shattered like a mirror colliding with the floor. Utter shock fell into a pit of disappointment only for a small spoonful of rationalising to soothe the pain the scene had unexpectedly caused.
"Get a grip Tomo." A voice said in her mind. "You're in Yoshiwara. Lethal competition and abuse starts young. Stop being so surprised." She tried to shake off her mind's voice and marched towards the two children wrestling on the ground.
"Oi." She yelled as her arms swooped in.
Thankfully both of them weren't heavy enough at their age. She dragged them both screaming and kicking by the back of their collar and pulled them to their feet.
"That's enough. You two finished fighting yet?" She yelled.
The two girls seethed at each other, ready to pounce if it wasn't for Tomo's iron grip on their bony little shoulders.
"Look at yourselves! Aunty might beat you both next for fighting like this. Let's get a move on!" Tomo scolded and pulled on Aimi's arm. "You better get changed and wash your clothes quickly."
"Let go of me!" Aimi tossed and twisted against Tomo's iron like grip.
Tomo tried to calm herself down again. She knew yelling at children never went down well.
"You can tell me all about her when we get inside. Alright?"
-
Hyosaku found indescribable sharp pain in her pelvic area. Her head hurt as much as her heart raced with worry about what it might be. In recent days, using the bathroom often caused a burning sensation when urinating. She also noticed an abnormal habit had developed, the urge to pee all so frequently, yet little fluid would pass each time. It puzzled the great courtesan but she was too scared to tell anyone. She tried to dissuade her lovers from inserting their penises into her after painful encounters made her yelp, embarrassing them for the remainder of the night for both in the process. When her lover wished to console her, she tried to play it down as an accident whilst absolutely feeling the burning and pain inside. The memory made itself vividly clear, that sense of desperation, how she wished dawn again in an instant. That taste of an awkward night that followed never left Hyosaku's mind.
Strangely, the magic all cure pill that the doctor had given on his last visit was touted to her as a wellness pill illness wasn't working either. It had always kept her coughs and sneezes away but maybe this was a punishment or curse from an unsatisfied client.
Or worse, had she enraged some unknown spirit entity? Would this become worse? What was going to happen next? Would she become disfigured by ugly red itchy rashes all over her body? Her mind was so fraught with anxiety it made her feel dizzy and physically sick. The only way to deal with it in Hyosaku's mind was to lay her head in her hands on the low table and wait for it to end all like a dream. She had not noticed her bodyguard enter the room. For all she knew, Tomo could have spoken and it would have been deaf to her ears.
Hyosaku did not stir until Tomo rested the back of hand on hers.
"You're not well at all are you?" Tomo said in a matter of fact manner, much like a doctor making initial judgements of their patient.
Hyosaku instantly shot up, her back straightened like a tired student pretending they didn't fall asleep at their desk.
"I'm fine."
Hyosaku melted a little at the sight of Tomo's raised eyebrows. Their sharp curve was enough to cut through her momentary illusion.
Tomo noticed how clammy and sleep deprived her mistress looked. Concern rolled around in the pit of her stomach.
"Tell me, what has been happening."
"I-I can't. I've got to get ready-" Hyosaku winced as she tried to get up.
"Ready to do what, get sicker?"
"As I told you, I am fine." Hyosaku insisted. It irked her that she also felt a bit dizzy when she was on her feet.
"Telling me that you're as fine is about as true as the sky's ability to rain gold coins."
Tomo came a little closer to look at her mistress' face.
"You're breaking out in sweat. You're worried over something aren't you. Sit and tell me."
"You can't do that." She hissed, partially from her pain as she lowered her body.
Tomo's unwavering stare of a parent by their child's lie made Hyosaku sighed and her body collapsed back on her cushion.
"Not that anyone can help". She mumbled. "Well not without costs." She added, this time a little louder. "If I have to go see the doctors at the hospital, it'll only add to the mountain of debt that is already as tall as Mt. Fuji itself. I will never leave this place alive."
Tomo was surprised that her lady of grandeur would ever talk about the shackles that wrapped around her feet, hidden by her lavish and long silks dresses.
"Don't say that!" Tomo said dismissively. She cleared her throat and continued in an assuring tone. "You can't be the best for your clients, if you are not well. That much you know as well as I do. Hm? And you won't repay your said debt when you are not well." Tomo tried to reason sternly.
Hyosaku found no saliva in that instance to respond to her body guard's hard words.
"But I can help, only if you tell me what you have felt." Tomo rested her palm on the back of her mistress' hand and wrapped her fingers around hers.
Hyosaku raised her unsure eyes to Tomo's then looked away. As if to say 'alright, not that I have any choice."
"This pain, it's just not going away... down there." Her mistress revealed gingerly. Her eyes glanced sideways to avoid any contact
"Are there red or sore bumps down there?"
"No... but it's just very painful... how do I explain it? It's like there is this fire burning inside me when I need to... you know, go to use the bathroom."
Hyosaku looked squeamish, like she was talking about the most absurd, disgusting thing happening in her known universe.
It did want to make Tomo laugh but she knew any hint of mirth would send her mistress' ego in a million pieces.
"I don't know what is happening." She continued to whisper. "Please don't tell me I am going to burst into rashes and sores! Will it go away? Will big boils grow on my face and make my nose fall off" The horror stories of courtesans being exiled from their house after contracting mysterious disfiguring illness frightened the great courtesan as something very vividly real in that instant.
"Cloudy urine? Weak urine flow?" Tomo continued to ask without a pause to divert her mistress' panic elsewhere. She tried to put a stop to her humour as she found her mistress becoming increasingly anxious. Maybe that was slightly mean on second thoughts.
"How do you know?" Hyosaku moaned.
"I-... it's none of your business." Tomo gave her a confident sneer and crossed her arms to throw her off guard.
Suddenly it clicked in her mind. "Do you have it too? How- did you get it?" Hyosaku's eyes became wide as rice bowls.
"I won't say." Tomo cut her off with a flick of her hand and turned her face to the side, her eyes focused on the ceiling.
"Please I need to know. How are you not in pain from it?" Hyosaky begged, she almost clambered up towards Tomo, over her low table. Tomo felt bad for showing mirth on her face.
"I didn't say anything. Tomo raised her hand and got up from her seat position.
"Is it serious?"
"I don't know. That's something the doctor can work out." Tomo crossed her arms again, this time she looked down at Hyosaku's bewildered face like everything precious to her would vanish in that moment.
Unfortunately, she was not born a son like her brother, as a female offspring, Tomomi did not receive her father's traditional medicinal tuition on how to diagnose patients through their pulse. Instead her father tried every will and way to teach her brother, holding to the family tradition that the male descendant would be the heir to his medicinal knowledge, but her brother just wasn't destined. His readings were mostly off no matter how much he tried and practised, much to their father's dismay. He always flinched whenever he got it wrong in the face of their father, waiting to twack the bamboo ruler at the back of his head at his son's vague or incorrect diagnosis. It was common high stakes practise, embarrassing both father and son in front of the patient who had volunteered. When Tomo asked to try after countless rounds of spectatorship her father dismissed his daughter to be too dumb and unsuited as a individual of the female kind to learn at all.
Despite that, it wasn't the first time she had overheard of these symptoms, every so often flustered housewives and other prostitutes would turn up looking for help for this hellish recurrence. As she did hover around her fathers consult room retrieving the medicinal prescription list to pack. Her main duty was to pack herbal combinations into parcels pulling out roots, leaves, fruits and flowers out of her father's herbal drawers that lined the wall. But not limited to tending to the boiling medicinal teas out the back of the clinic for the ill and injured at her father's clinic. She knew the herbs her father would prescribe. And in most cases would predict her fathers prescription once he announced his diagnosis. Usually the mix of herbs and their quantity were tailored to the severity of the patient's condition and the patients had to come back weekly for acupuncture treatment.
The very idea of needles scared Tomomi to the core, let alone the idea of inserting needles into other people. She always left the room or flinched whenever someone gasped in pain as her father would insert his special needles and give a slight twist at a certain pressure point. Something she had to come to regret not being able to overcome.
Tomo reminded herself that she would have to go in blind, as if she was feeling along the wall of a pitch black cave. She would go with a medium potency herb mix and up the potency if Hyosaku did not respond well. The symptoms her mistress agreed to much resembled damp-heat in the lower bladder area.
"Did you not tell the doctors during your weekly health inspection?"
"I was feeling fine then. Not so much now..." Hyosaku said meekly.
"Well can I suggest I'll accompany you to the clinic?"
Hyosaku flinched. "That can't happen! No one can know about this!"
"Or you prefer rumours of the great courtesan who is unhiding unknown sickness..." Tomo knew her mistress was going to be hard to keep down. There was no easy way out of this.
Hyosaku looked through Tomo at the back wall.
"Will this go away on its own?" She asked again, hoping this was all a scare and the answer would be yes and you can carry on like nothing is wrong.
Tomo shrugged. "Would it be better to know that it is treatable." She assured.
"Wait. How do you know all this? Are you a doctor?"
Hyosaku's eyes shot up looking at her assistant with sharp suspicion.
Tomo flinched. For a split moment she wished she had kept her mouth shut and said nothing more than insisting that she go visit the doctor and have it checked out.
She wished to say something but decided other words were more appropriate..
"Look, I know a tea that can help with the pain and discomfort. And no I am not a doctor but I have encountered this problem as you cleverly worked out before."
Hyosaku lit up and interjected.
"Tell me what is this tea? Does it mean I won't have to go for a doctor's visit?"
"I can, but you will have to promise you will go down to Aunty's office and tell her about this and will go to get checked in the morning."
"I can't tell her. I'd-"
Tomo sighed.
"Just bring me whatever tea you speak of. I'll be fine." Hyosaku almost seemed like a desperate teenager ready to initiate any shady suggestion to avoid parental punishment at all costs.
Both had forgotten that their raised voices travelled through these thin walls. A nondescript working staff of the house perked up and leaned in as he caught hold of their conversation. He quickly hurried over to Fujie and her sisters getting dressed.
As the three witches plotted away the prophecy they could dream of for the downfall for the top courtesan of the house, perhaps the gods had heard Fujie's plea when the staff appeared at her door.
"Any mention of her name makes my blood boil. Don't think for a second! I allowed her to get away since her poor attempts to humiliate me."
"How should we make her pay?" Fujie's assistant hissed in her mistress's ear as if to provide steam for her mistress's ever simmering fury since that incident she couldn't forget.
"May the gods have mercy on me and the poor hand I've dealt." Fujie moaned. Pounding her fist on her thigh.
Fujie waved him over when he made a hand gesture that he had something important to tell her.
The courtesan's eyes turned into overjoyed up turned slits like a cunning fox when the staff member told her of what he had overhead.
One of the younger courtesans Fujie decided to mentor, caught her older sister in great mirth.
"Oh do tell us, big sister, what is the good news?"
"I knew it. She is a hideous snake that likes the pretend she is pieous. Listen, Hyosaku is ill but she has been hiding it." Fujie flipped a coin and swung her hand out to catch it like a striking cobra.
"That is great news." Another courtesan cooed. "She should have known better to have reported it. You are right sister Fujie. She was never worthy of the tayu status in this house. She should be ashamed of herself."
In Fujie's mind it couldn't have been better on this auspicious night. An important guest and soon to be regular client and now this.
"Indeed." Fujie slipped a coin into the man's hand and he bowed and hurried away.
"Perhaps it will be my time to shine, sisters!"
Fujie got to her feet and twirled around.
At last her chance had come, the gods had heard her and agreed that she would not suffer humiliation in silence from that mutt guard dog of hyosaku. For all these years, she had been given second rate clients that couldn't get their hands on the top courtesan of the would pass if they weren't up to her standard. Some of them turned out to be decent clients but others were sleazy tasteless men but she had no power to deny them. That was only reserved for the top courtesan.
But she couldn't wait for her status to bring the most powerful and richest men begging to be her patron. Oh the lavish silks she would be able to adorn herself with and the respect she badly lacked. But tonight the sweet release couldn't come sooner, the magistrate's son had seeked to be introduced to her and her most despised rival was ousted by sweet, sweet sickness.
-
Despite negotiating with her mistress, there was no avail. As the idiot who felt ever responsible for the mess around her, Tomo felt the burden to speak up weigh heavily on her shoulders.
Tomo felt the butterflies when she approached Aunty at her table looking over the schedule of guests booked for the various courtesans for the night.
"Um." She cleared her throat.
"What is it?" Aunty rested her magnifying glass on the page.
"It's about Hyosaku."
"Madam Hyosaku to you."
Tomo winced. What an easily avoidable mistake. "She is not well to be meeting any clients tonight." Tomo forced her mouth to vocalise.
"But Mr Tenya is coming this evening and she will be attending to his pleasure needs as she always does. What makes it different this evening?"
"Not unless she is given clearance from a doctor." Tomo upped the sternness in her voice.
"Who are you to say that?"
"Do you want the reputation of this house to suffer? Your most highest courtesan is clearly unwell." Tomo held strong to her point.
"What do you know about her sickness that she has been hiding?" Aunty's eyes narrowed in distaste and a tinge of curiousity of how this lowly individual would play her tale.
"More than you at this point, obviously." Tomo pushed a little more forcefully than she anticipated. Maybe the crossing of her arms and straightening of her posture helped as well. She felt her snarky wanderer alter ego slide back inside of her. Although Tomo also couldn't help but feel the anger at the lack of attention the supposed manager of the courtesans was giving at all.
"Those are big words from a street dog." Aunty retorted, she was not about to be bested and noticed for her lack of attention to her girls.
"A street dog that has seen many things... that you haven't even tried to notice." She kept the second part to herself.
"I have no time to entertain for the likes of you." Aunty put her glasses back on.
"I don't mind no entertainment madam. But you have to agree any unwell courtesan having appointments with her clients will not do well for the reputation for this house. She has damp heat in her bladder and it will only get worse if she sleeps with more male clients." Tomo did not mince her words to play on the severity of the situation.
"Has your skin grown thicker with your new found notoriety as a small time story teller?" She growled. "What is this damp heat you speak of?"
"The least you can do is speak to her yourself and bring her to see a respectable doctor tomorrow."
Auntie dropped her brush and rose to her feet.
"Very well. But if this is found to be an elaborate prank..."
Tomo interjected. "You have very little faith in me and it would be a poor reflection to question the tayu's professionalism. This is exactly why she has been refusing to tell anyone including myself until I pressed her to do so."
Aunty sighed and decided it would be a waste of her energy to continue arguing with this relentless individual and waved Tomo away. They parted in opposing directions as Tomo headed for her sleeping quarters to grab her belongings.
"Where do you think you're going?" Aunty turned on her heel to ask when she noticed Tomo was not following her.
"I'm going to buy some medicine for madam Hyosaku in the meantime. I don't wish to crowd the room when you have a heart to heart with her."
Aunty nodded in a 'whatever, do you as please, I've given up' fashion and continued on her way up to Hyosaku's room.
Tomo grabbed her sword, jacket and slipped her coin purse into the folds of her garment and entered the bustling streets of the pleasure district. Yoshiwara frowned upon swords in its quarters to avoid situations that had got her into this mess to begin with. She tried to hide her sword within her winter jacket as she made her way to the entrance of the house.
Stepping back on the streets on her own for her own means and not with the pack of the courtesans on their usual trip to the bath house or under her mistress' order to retrieve something was at least to say slightly daunting.
Tomo told herself to get a grip and started walking in the direction of the closest medicine shop she recalled seeing on her way into Yoshiwara. She jostled her way through the late afternoon crowd wishing she knew the back roads in this place better. Little Aimi would have been helpful if she was here to lend a hand to her big friend. Both her and Hana were used to running messages through the streets for her mistress to her various lovers across town.
Although on second thoughts, Tomomi decided it was probably best to stay in the sea of the crowd to avoid any unwanted attention. The fear of unsettled business from months before never left her mind but she was too scared to ask anyone how the police never step foot in the house during their investigation.
She was slightly relieved when she reached the edge of the Yoshiwara area that was surrounded by a moat. She jumped onto an idle ferry man's boat, rocking him to his senses. He grumbled a little and grabbed his oar. Without a hitch the boat left the wharf and headed towards the quieter part of Edo.
"You are leaving fairly early young sir." The man asked noisily.
Tomo coughed and tried to say she wasn't feeling too well to be out for too long. That was enough to shut off any further conversation.
Reaching the other shoreline couldn't have come sooner as Tomo threw the man his coin and hurried on. She hoped desperately the shop was still open and that her memory wouldn't fail her in remembering where she had last seen it. The streets here had less wandering folk in this part of town as the shops were beginning to close their doors for the day.
Tomo's heart pounded as the bewildering sense of loss got the better of her. Maybe it was the next street over or was it further down this street? She felt light headed and nothing seemed quite in focus. She ran aimlessly along the street until the unmistakable fragrant yet bitter smell of medicinal herbs drifted into her nostrils. She spun around and saw that the shop owner was about the put the last piece of timber to close up shop for the day.
She ran over and yelled for him to stop. "Hey!"
The owner seemed rather annoyed when he came over.
"Can't you see the shop is close. Come back tomorrow morning." he said and shook his head. As he was about to walk off in the opposite direction. Tomo grabbed his shoulders and turned him around. Startled by the move, the owner froze for a moment. He looked like a disgruntled man about the same age as her father with greying patches and thinning hair.
Tomo quickly realised her brutish conduct and bowed deeply and came back up with a more apologetic face. "Please... my master is feeling very unwell."
"People... these days." The owner mumbled and walked over to unlock the lock on his door. on the door.
Tomo's heart raced as the man's actions to open his shop door seemed to take eternity as if done on purpose.
She meekly followed the man in.
"What do you want?" He put his hand on his hips before sighing and heading behind the counter. "You're going to have to be quick." He added.
"Um... in her haste of getting to the shop Tomo's mind was too jumbled to tell the man what she needed. Her brain was stuck between trying to remember what herbs her father used or just straight up telling the man what sickness she needed medicine for.
"Are you playing games with me, young sir?" The old man raised an eyebrow before he ducked under the counter and pulled out his abacus.
Tomo shook her head. "Sorry." She looked down the depths of the shop with sacks of different dried leaves, barks and seeds for customers to fill their bags with.
Seeing as his warning to hurry did not hasten this strange client's actions, the owner ignored her and continued restocking his medicinal drawers.
"I-I want what you're filling in that drawer." Tomo called out.
"Hm." The man grunted and grabbed a scoop. He dug it into the drawer and poured several pieces of the bark onto his scale.
"That should be enough."
The man nodded and pulled weights along his scale bar to balance them before pouring them onto a piece of paper.
Naming the first herb managed to start the flow of naming the other several herbs her father used to pack for his patients.
"I'm impressed you managed to remember the doctor's script off by heart." The owner said as he tied string around to secure the paper bound parcels containing her precious herbs.
Tomo blushed a little, paid and left. She felt some relief having the bundles of medicine now in her hand despite being slightly poorer. As she walked down the road, she visualised pouring the medicine into a clay pot and fanning the fire and watching the tea in case it bubbled out.
Although in the real world, her attention was also hooked upon two individuals chatting in a hushed manner to one another as they looked at her and back at a poster with an individual's portrait on the community notice board. They dropped their conversation and dispersed when one of them noticed that their presence had caught her attention.
She waited a while for them to walk far enough before curiousity got the better of her, drawing her closer to the notice board herself.
In that moment when she saw the portrait for herself, her forbidden question that she tittered around the edges of had finally been answered, confirming her worst fear. Indeed, the portrait on the poster was a splitting image of her and her unmistakable scar on her forehead. Her heart skipped a beat. Ogawa Tomomi was a wanted criminal by the Edo police. That statement felt like a boulder that fell from the sky and she was watching fall towards her waiting for the moment it would crush her.
Tomo felt breathless and dizzy in the aftermath of slicing those men out in the open in front of so many spectators that damned night. Tomomi's mind was so fogged by shock and fear the rest of her became rock solid and numb. She didn't even feel the thin tweed string carrying her medicine bundle cutting into her fleshy palm. The eyes of the portrait felt like they were staring into her soul like a silent command to give herself up for punishment. The visualisation of being tied up and being thrown into a jail cell awaiting her death made her sweat profusely. Even such mere thoughts rattled her.
Footsteps of a passerby crunching against street gravel managed to crack her out of her nightmarish train of thoughts. Tomo looked around the streetscape, no one else was around to pay her much attention. She quickly made a dash down street back to the wharf to be carried back to her ironic safe house.
-
"Where have you been? Hyosaku has been looking for you." Rina came through the doorway of the cook house kitchen that supplied the house and surrounding pleasure quarters with their catering. She shifted inside to let one of the cooks carry boxes of fresh produce into the kitchen.
"Gosh, how did you know I was here?" Tomo looked up in surprise. She had to quickly catch the fan before the flames kissed it.
"One of the staff members spotted you heading into the local cook house. Let the kitchen hand tend to your brewing tea." Rina waved at her to get a move on.
"Oh no, there isn't long to go. I'll look after it." Tomomi said excitedly, the smell of the tea invigorated her.
"Madam Hyosaku would prefer for you to be tending to matters at the house than in the kitchen."
"Am I needed for anything urgently. I assure you there shouldn't be too long to go." Tomo repeated dismissively and returned to being hunched over in the front of the fire, avoiding eye contact with Rina.
Not too long ago she too spotted Rina slipping into Fujie's quarters. Not knowing what to think of it she kept it to herself and tried to tame her wandering thoughts of what might have gone on inside. But for now, she'd keep her lips tight around this one.
Tomo gave her an eye smile and started to hum an old folk tune from her part of the world. The never ending awkwardness was thankfully enough to bore the brains of Hyosaku's attendant causing her to leave much to Tomo's relief and delight. She never quite felt comfortable around this one.
Based on the instinct of brewing thousands of teas, she opened up the lid to check the water level, allowing a herbal steam to rise to her face.
"Hasn't the kitchen turned into a medicine shop thanks to you." Kametaro, one of the kitchen hands said as he filled his bowl full with cooked kelp."
"It smells good doesn't it?" Tomo teased.
Kametaro made a face of a sick person coughing.
"Come on it's not that bad. I am surprised the kitchen even has a medicine boiling casserole pot like this."
"Ohh the previous head chef swore by some herbal remedy that he'd boil to keep his energy up."
"Where did he go?"
"Into the sea."
"Oh, I'm sorry."
"Sometime when you try to catch fish, the fish catches you instead. So I heard." Kametaro cussed as the last of his kelp flopped out of her strainer like a fresh fish. "Went fishing beyond the bay area here on his day off and the sea did not return him." He added.
Tomo nodded as blew out the flame, scooped the light amber liquid into her bamboo water carrier.
She placed the tea in a bamboo thermos and helped herself to a bowl and lid and placed it in a vegetable basket lying idly near the door.
"You better bring it back later tonight." Kametaro.
"I will I will." Tomo waved nonchalantly. "What am I going to do, sell this cup and saucer lid at the flea market?"
Kametaro rolled his eyes.
"I'll give you a cut if I'm successful."
"Oh bugger off will you."
"You were asking for it with your stupid remarks."
Kametaro stuck his tongue out at her and went back to his preparation.
On her short walk back to the house, she spotted Hyosaku and her evening entourage returning from their parade.
Tomo hurried up the stairs
Tomo announced herself and entered.
"Did you try to run away again?" Hyosaku watched Tomo enter by the reflection in the mirror as an older staff member peeled off her luxurious outer coat.
Tomo gave a grim smile setting the bowl on the table and poured the tea from the bamboo thermos.
Hana and Aimi glanced at the tea set on their mistress' table.
"Here is some tea that will help ease your um discomfort." Tomo said as she place the saucer on top of the bowl to prevent more heat from escaping.
"I don't remember any doctor prescribing weird and wonderful teas." Hyosaku peered at the tea and back at her bodyguard from afar.
She waved at the female helper to leave and floated over to her cushioned seat.
Hana wiggled closer to the table and gracefully lifted the lid covering the bowl and brought it to Hyosaku's hands when she came over.
"I-I did." Tomo said keeping her head bowed and she kneeled in front of her mistress. She was too nervous to watch Hyosaku's reaction.
"You're not trying to poison me with your random concoction then?"
Tomo looked up at the ceiling to crack her neck and blew stray strand hair away from her face.
"That would do me no good. It is not 'random' My mother used to drink this tea whenever she had pain urinating. I'll drink it with you if you believe it is poisoned."
Hana grabbed a tea cup from a tea set displayed on the low cabinet behind Hyosaku and handed it to Tomo.
Tomo poured some of the tea, avoiding any clumsy spillage and drank it in front of her mistress.
Hyosaku heaved a dramatic sigh and lifted the bowl to her lips.
"Yes, Aunty came and spoke to me and lectured me about not keeping my health in good shape. I will go to the doctor's clinic in the morning with her. But I had to press on with the evening parade just now so as to not rouse more suspicion and gossip."
"Put your worries aside hm. Come on, drink the tea whilst it is hot. It will help improve your urination and relieve your pain. I didn't slave over a burning hot stove for an hour at the cook house for you to not drink it."
Tomo watched as her mistress as she sipped the tea cautiously.
"What about Mr Tenya?" Tomo suddenly asked in an untimely manner.
Hyosaku almost choked upon hearing her regular client's name setting off slight panic that she should have been preparing for him, only to remember Aunty had cancelled her client for the evening.
Aimi quickly grabbed a towel and dabbed Hyosaku's face as she coughed as Hana supported the bowl from underneath.
"Aunty disgruntledly cancelled his appointment and just sent a messenger to his residence. It's my fault for holding all this to myself. I should have known better. Now look at this whole mess..." Hyosaku cleared her cough. "Wouldn't be great if I could turn into a bat and fly away in the night sky."
Hyosaku raised the bowl again and drank it delicately covering her face with her long sleeve.
"I hope the bitterness was worth it."
"After bitterness comes the sweet." Tomo produced a small paper parcel from the fold in her garment and undid the string on the table.
Tomo noticed her little friend's eyes glimmered as she peered from behind her mistress and spotted the small pebbles rock sugar unveiled in the small parcel on the table.
"Greatly appreciated." Hyosaku said and popped a small cube in her mouth and closed her eyes to savour the sugary sweetness. Her ears honed in to the muffled sounds of loud out of tune jolly singing and music from beneath them. She could feel her eyebrows gather in the middle of her forehead as the jealousy she tried to suppress was beginning to bubble. Hyosaku tried to feign the uncaring exterior whenever the rival courtesans beneath her were successful in clawing in other rich and influential clients.
In her mind, miss loud mouth Fujie courting mr zealous son of a magistrate in this pleasure house was more than unsettling for her. All this time she had been paying him hush money to keep his policemen out of this house in pursuit of her bodyguard and now knowing of his physical presence was downstairs felt like he was breathing down her throat.
"Are you in pain? Are you alright?" Tomomi's worried shrill voice cut through her anxious train of thoughts. Only then did she notice how tight her bodyguard's hand hand gripped over her clenched fist. In a moment of unconscious response, Hyosaku pulled her hand away.
"Oh I should have known to ask if you were incompatible with anything. Stupid me." Tomo cussed at herself as she got up.
"Help madam Hyosaku to bed. She isn't feeling well."
Hyosaku opened her eyes and batted away Tomo's arms around her.
"I'm fine. I mean it's not the tea you gave me. It's just I need some time to myself. I have things on my mind that need quiet thought."
"Are you sure you're alright?" Tomo knelt down beside her.
"Yes. I'm quite sure."
Tomo nodded and gave her mistress a concerned smile like she needed absolute validation from her mistress that she was feeling like herself. In that moment it felt like an unspoken lock and key moment as a great urge grew within Hyosaku to soothe her bodyguard's concern.
"The worried look doesn't suit your face. I really appreciate your help. You've been my saviour today, Tomomi."
Hyosaku had so much to say but none arose to words that felt comfortable saying. Instead she ended her words with a sad yet hopeful smile. Hoping there would be a better time to express the intentions in her mind.
Watching her lips stretch into that smile made Tomo's insides flip and she felt flustered. The feeling of her mistress' soft fingers stroking her left cheek created this warm tingling sensation in the area. Her momentary flight response was to get away from this alien sensation. Though in this moment Tomomi exhaled and allowed herself to drop the heavy barrier she had been carrying in her mind that had kept her cautious and distant all the time she had been away from the family home. Time fleetingly seemed to stretch as Tomo could feel the warm tingling sensation radiate, washing over her scalp and to her toes. The sensation made her eyes close in full acceptance. It felt nice, was subtle and comforting, nothing more or less. Like a water seeping back into a long forgotten water hole.
The sound and shadow of people walking along the corridor outside broke their trance.
Suddenly a wave of embarrassment for enjoying the warm tingling sensation promptly sent Tomomi back onto her feet. She quickly collected the empty bowl and saucer from her mistress' table in one swoop back in the basket and backed away from the table.
"I-I better get going." Tomo stammered as she rubbed an itch on the back of her neck.
Hyosaku nodded in a way that Tomo knew her mistress knew her true feelings inside.
"Please ask Ms Oten to come back in. These hair pieces and kimonos have no lover to bedazzle tonight." Hyosaku in a dismissive tone with a tinge of tiredness.
Tomo hastily bowed and left for the cook house to tell Kametaro that no one at the flea market was interested in his unspectacular wares. Hyosaku smiled as she rose to her feet when Ms Oten returned. It was time to shed the layers of glamour in the absence of a lover.
"Aren't they having a jolly good time down stairs." Ms Oten said with a nervous laugh.
Hyosaku gave a small smile but remained silent.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to."
"Every courtesan has her day when the crest of the wave rises before the wave breaks and recedes and another wave rolls through to replace it."
Ms Oten nodded in agreement, only to think how ominous the courtesan's sentence ended."
Hyosaku felt like she could breath a little easier when the great obi was undone and dropped from her.
She looked at herself dead straight in the mirror observing every inch of her body and face. Even though her eyes were staring straight at her own reflection, her mind was like a theatre full of chatter before a show started, clouding her focus, unable to see the true self standing infront of her.
Hopefully she would be able to ponder about things that troubled her when she knew Hana and Aimi were fast asleep.