Chapter 11
The beginning: Two years worth of months and days 1
It’s been two years since I came here .
About a year ago, instead of where the prostitutes live, I started living with Oyaji-sama . Inside the limits of the brothel master’s daily life .
Not just me, but Shuusui, Nagikaze, and Rangiku too .
We became elite kamuro .
Elite kamuro were the promised elite of the future, in that it was certain that we would become courtesans, so to speak . More so than regular kamuro .
7, 8~11 were elite kamuro, 12~14 elite junior courtesans, 15~ were courtesans .
Normal junior courtesans still had the chance to become courtesans but their education was just so-so, so the probability of their becoming outstanding courtesans were low . In contrast, it was certain for elite junior courtesans .
Then what’s the point of having junior courtesans!! It’s too vague!! Is what you might think, but it was just that this probability was ‘hidden’ so it was certain but perhaps… . ? ––those kinds of kids were gathered . If their looks didn’t improve as they grew, then that was it, but if they did then they would become a courtesan, etc . ……Though this is really rude to the actual people .
For the elite, children who were certain to become handsome men were chosen .
Though it’s true that it didn’t make sense for all tiny kamuro to be beautiful, or for all not-so-pretty children to be able to do well enough to become a courtesan .
When I heard this I was dumbfounded .
It was totally different from what I had been told in the beginning . Oyaji-sama, wasn’t it that this was something kamuros in the brothel became before they were ten years old?!
Wasn’t it that you would just take care of the stuff around you, learn the arts, become a junior courtesan and then a full-fledged courtesan?!!
Well, but instead of a courtesan I’m becoming a geisha though?
Apparently he’d wanted to make us elite kamuro earlier, but since there were only four of us kamuro, if we became elite then there would be no normal kamuros, so he stretched it out .
After I’d been there about a year, four more kamuro came in, so he had chosen this time to carry it out .
Actually, weren’t kamuro rare?
When I said this,
“Well, we do have three courtesans . Normally, there’s about one per place . But for starters, we were searching pretty hard for good kamuros at the procurer’s .
As it was, Shuusui and the others would have turned twelve without having become elite kamuro, so they scrambled to find new kamuro . Whether these kamuro were pretty was a separate matter .
I found out later, but I had no idea that Amatsuki was a pretty high-class brothel . Thaaat’s why there were so many courtesans .
If it went on like this, with the elite kamuro becoming courtesans, then in the future adding three would make six courtesans .
But I was perfectly fine still being with the brothers? I wanted to stay there and be a kamuro . As someone who was just going to get by with the arts, I could have progressed around the brothers without having to become an elite kamuro . So why? So many questions .
With Oyaji-sama, we would be taught these arts even more strictly than when we were with the brothers . With the koto, my fingers felt like they were gonna fall off .
Elite kamuro would get special education from Oyaji-sama until they were twelve, then they would return to the brothers and be attached to a courtesan, and then would finally start learning the art of seduction . In short, learning arts and refinement were what happened with Oyaji-sama .
And then after that you would become a junior courtesan and be raised carefully in the brothel .
And then I noticed something suspicious . Well, it was something I had been thinking from the start, but .
“… . Wasn’t I going to become a male geisha… . . ?”
“Well, yeah . But when I saw you for the first time, I thought that being a loveless courtesacough cough cough… . . ”
“Uh, well, I thought that I’d have you become a top class geisha, yeah!”
Becoming uneasy, I had gathered up my courage and just asked, but the second half of his answer was kind of mumbled so I don’t know what he was saying . What was with his “well, yeah!”? I was suuuuper curious .
Normally, kamuro could go out during tatami room, but when I asked why me and Shuusui weren’t allowed to,
“It wouldn’t do to show the ones we’re planning on making into elites to customers,”
He says .
It seemed I had been tricked right from the start .
It seemed like the brothers all knew from the start, and Kiyomizu nii-sama and Co . were all “We were so prepared to be apart, but it’s still lonely after all,” and revealed the reluctance in their hearts .
Since we had entered the limits of Oyaji-sama’s daily life, we couldn’t go to where the brothers were and the brothers couldn’t come here . We had just moved right next to the brothel, but it was absolutely forbidden for prostitutes to come here .
Since we had become elite kamuro we were told that we weren’t supposed go to the brothel where the customers were . If I became an elite kamuro, I would go back to the brothers in five years . It was when I became twelve, so we wouldn’t be able to meet for a long time .
Although Shuusui and them were older than me so they would get to go back faster . Unfair .
As I stood in the room that the liar Oyaji-sama gave me, I looked at the sakura and tightly grasped a piece of folded up paper .
“Here’s this”
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“Read it when you get over there,”
Kiyomizu nii-sama said as he gave this paper to me, but even after one year had passed I still hadn’t opened it and read it .
If I saw nii-sama’s handwriting I would probably get a little homesick, so I left it sleeping in the chest of drawers .
But I was still curious, after all, so sometimes I would take it out and look outside while holding it .
Wonder what was in it .
“Nogiku, what’s that?”
“Wah, it’s Ran-chan . You scared me”
As I gazed at the paper, Rangiku, who must have finished his training for the day came back into the room . As he approached, he was cracking his knuckles as if his hands were all stiff from playing the koto .
Ran-chan, your joints are gonna get fat so you should stop that .
Two years had passed, but I don’t really know how Rangiku and everyone had changed . We were too close . I thought that they had all gotten a bit taller, but I had been the shortest from the start so there was no way I could tell by looking . Since they hadn’t cut their hair, Shuusui and Nagikaze and Rangiku all had hair down to around their shoulders so it was certain that it had grown . Rangiku bundled up all his hair into one, so he kind of looked like a girl . If I told him he’d definitely get mad at me so I won’t say anything though .
“A letter from Kiyomizu nii-sama? I think”
“Letter? Why is that a question”
“Because I haven’t opened it yet”
Rangiku came towards the balcony where I was at and sat down next to me .
In order to get used to the courtesan’s kimonos, we were all wearing the long outer kimonos casually, without haori . Of course, me as well .
They were navy blue, and once again all four of us were wearing couples’ clothing . Kind of like we were siblings .
“Give it here a minute”
“Eh, why?”
I don’t know what he was thinking, but Rangiku, who was sitting next to me snatched the paper out of my hands . What, is this some kind of grudge for the fried manju?!!
And this rude person read its contents in a way that I couldn’t see . What are you doing, ignoring the owner!?
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“Tsk, what a pervert,”
“?”
He spat, as he went towards the lattice window in the opposite direction of the balcony, seeming like he had finished reading . What does he plan on doing while still holding the letter? Actually, if you’re finished looking I’d like to have that back .
As I thought this, the hand holding the letter suddenly went through the lattice .
Eh, whatwhatwhat?!
At that moment, a strong gust of wind blew .
“Ah!”
“ahh, sorry,”
The paper in Rangiku’s hands left, and was completely blown away by that gust of wind and fell somewhere .
No way!! I haven’t even read it once!
Rangiku, you! What have you done!!
“What . What did it say? … . stay well, work hard, that kind of thing”
There’s no way that’s what I wanted to say .
You, youyouyouyou!! What did you do!!
“Ahhhhh, jeez!! Stupid Rangikuuuuuuu!!!”
I shouted, as I dashed outside, hoping it was still close .
“Yeesh, was that Nogiku just now?”
“Rangiku probably did something again . Anyway is it okay to throw this away? There’s no name, do you think it was for practice?”
As Shuusui and Rangiku ended their training and made their way back to the room, a white paper bobbing on the surface of the small pond in the courtyard entered their view .
Oyaji-sama loved this courtyard, so if there was some trash or it had gotten dirty he would get really mad . They knew this, so they hurried to remove the paper .
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“Naniwagata mijikaki ashi no fushi no ma mo awade kono yo wo sugushite yo to ya”
Looking at it, it seemed to be a paper with a poem from the ‘100 poems by 100 famous poets . ’
The letters had bled, but that was definitely what it said .
Why was something like this in the courtyard’s pond?
“It’s fine, isn’t it? You can’t read it anymore and you can’t use it at all anyway”
“Hmm–, that’s true . Then I’ll have them burn it in the stove to get rid of it . ”
“Come to think of it, wonder what’s for supper today . I hope it’s that herring roe that Nogiku hates, Oyaji-sama gets mad at her for eating so slowly”
“You’re pretty mean, Shuusui”
“It’s not here either… . ”
Where could it be, where could nii-sama’s letter be?
If I had known this was going to happen I would have opened it and read it .
“I’m grateful for everything!”
“Yes . But we’ll meet again”
“Yes! Um, please be well,”
“Wait, Nogiku, here,”
“Read it when you get over there . ”
[難波潟 みじかきあしの ふしの間も あはでこの世を すぐしてよとや]
The poem’s meaning:
“I love you dearly . That’s why a life without being able to see you isn’t worth anything . ”
—-Ise, from 100 poems by 100 famous poets .