Chapter 16
The beginning: 2 years worth of months and days 5
Author’s note: This story might be a little unclean .
Today is classics day .
As we were learning from Oyaji-sama, we were made to study an outrageous story .
“There’s no way someone would steal the poop of the person they liked!!”
“Rangiku, be quiet”
Rangiku yelled and Oyaji-sama scolded him .
You might be wondering what this guy is yelling about all of a sudden, but right now I also feel like shouting that .
It was a day like any other; we lined up and were being taught . It was a nice day, with the bright sun shining in from the lattice window, and from the balcony the sakura trees had changed to green and a fresh scent was wafting in .
The story Oyaji-sama was telling us, on this refreshing afternoon, was written in the Heian period .
“Oyaji-sama . Wouldn’t another story have worked just as well?”
“Right, right”
Shuusui and Nagikaze, looking exasperated quietly protested at Oyaji-sama .
“Well, this is actually . Kind of a moral lesson,”
Said Oyaji-sama, with a serious face even while laughing .
What we learned from Oyaji-sama with that kind of expression was this old story from the classics .
It was a story about a man and woman of certain rank during the Heian period .
A certain beautiful man was suffering from his feelings of yearning .
He told this yearned for woman of his feelings and was rejected harshly, but didn’t give up in the least .
This man, wanting to be free from these painful feelings by any means possible, thought of something .
“Ah, wouldn’t looking at her poop work?”
He thought that if he saw his beloved’s unclean side, he would come to his sense from these feelings of love, and would no longer burn with passion .
Then one night .
He snuck into that woman’s residence and forcibly took the box containing her poop from a servant girl .
Returning home, he promptly opened it, only to find—
“W,what a great smell!!”
This was a surprise .
What the man had imagined was that stinky waste . He had thought it was the filth that would disillusion him, but what wafted out of the box was something that smelled very nice .
What had happened was that this woman had understood this man’s obsession, and predicting this would happened burned incense in this box, and changed the contents of the box to something that looked like poop .
No matter how much she disliked this man, she just couldn’t bear to have anyone see her… that, resulting in this situation .
But because of this, the man fell even more in love with that woman, and as a result continued to be plagued by the pain of this love .
And from this worry and suffering, he fell ill, and consequently died .
How absurd it was, for it to come to this . Both the man and the woman’s sins were deep .
And that’s how the story went .
“To sum up, these kinds of things happen, so men shouldn’t get so worked up over women, is what this story is about,”
Oyaji-sama gave us a pacifying gaze, and though he had been standing up until now, sat down to meet the eyes of us little kids and started talking .
And then, looking up once more at the sun that was now low, he pretzled his legs and put his elbow on his knee, resting his chin on his hand before looking at us once more for confirmation .
For some reason, all of our backs straightened .
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W,what is this? This is a weird feeling of tension .
“All of you will become prostitutes . Your business partners are women, and there’ll be times that you’ll fall in love with them . But falling in love in this world is like being in hell . When you get serious about a single woman, you have to hurt your heart and paralyze it and do business . I’ve seen how many poor bastards that have lost themselves over the years”
“But no matter how many warnings, there’s no one out there who can tie down the heart . That’s just something you can’t do anything about .
“I can’t release you until you turn 35 . Well, if the other person brings up ransoming you it’s a different matter .
“I won’t tell you to not fall in love with anyone . Loving someone isn’t something you can help . Just don’t die from burning with too much passion, if you’re alive, good things will come to you eventually . ”
After saying all that in one go, Oyaji-sama patted each of our heads .
Even this late, I am once again made aware that that’s the kind of world this is . I had forgotten because all of the brothers of Amatsuki were so bright .
I wonder if the brothers had worried over love before . Jyuugi nii-sama was 32, so it wouldn’t be strange for him to have fallen in love at least once .
I can’t help it if my heart squeezed a bit after thinking that, can I?
“I’ll neeeeever fall for a customer!!”
Rangiku, who had been obediently listening, suddenly clenched his fists and insisted strongly .
Just where does this confidence of yours come from?
“Rangiku seems to be the devoted type . Oh nooo how dangerous”
“W,what’s with that Nagikaze!! Just what do you know about me!!”
Sigh; shaking his hands and head, Nagikaze was clearly toying with Rangiku .
Rangiku really is Shuusui and Nagikaze’s toy .
“Well, Nogiku’s a girl . Speaking of which, there’s some things I need to talk to you about, about what’s gonna happen from now…, Hey you all, we’re done for today . Go back to your room . Nogiku, you stay”
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After everyone went back, Oyaji-sama sat with a knee propped up in front of the still-seated me .
“Nogiku . If you’re fine with it, how about we have your contract end when you’re twenty, and then you come study to be a brothel owner with me?”
“You know that I don’t have children, right? Though I have a wife . You’re someone I had to take in, in a way . ”
For some reason I’m suddenly being advised a job change .
“As I’ve been watching, it seems that you’re doing fine even as a girl . Courte… . . no, as a top class geisha what you could earn in five years would probably be enough to take care of your food cost and your kimono cost . Because you don’t have any debt . … . How about it?”
“Uh, um…that…”
“Well, that’s a long time from now . Talking about this to a seven year old is one thing, but think about it . Well, being a cook at Amatsuki’d be fine too”
“……Yes”
I don’t know what Oyaji-sama’s thinking . What worries me more is that what I was told in the beginning’s begun to gradually change .
It’s not like I hadn’t noticed, but right now all I’ve done so far is eat . Though it’s called work, it’s mostly just helping the brothers, and I haven’t actually done anything .
I see… . working for five years… .
But, becoming the owner of the brothel means I would end up having to sell everyone .
And is that something that I am capable of…?
“I caaaaaan’t!!”
“Shut up Nogiku”
After hearing me shout suddenly, Shuusui scolded me immediately .
Sorry .
But I’ve been thinking about it ever since then, and in the end this is all I can say .
“I caaaaaaan’t”
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“Shut up Nogiku”
It became night, and the four of us were laid out in our futons . I was the farthest back, by the lattice window; next to me was Nagikaze, next to him was Shuusui, and then next to him was Rangiku . Rangiku was furthest away from me here too, but it’s not like I dislike him . It’s just that when Ran-chan’s near, he’s always so noisy .
Though he probably doesn’t want to hear that from me right now .
Being the closest, the moon I could see through the window was very beautiful, and it just happened to be a full moon . I stared intently at it while lying down, wanting to see if there were rabbits making mochi up there .
Oho, the markings on the moon really could be seen as mochi…but, oh no whatever should I do . I got hungry just looking at it . The moon has started to look like dango, it’s incomparable to just some rabbits making mochi .
“Hey, “
As I was suddenly attacked by hunger, Rangiku started talking to no one in particular .
Even though he was the farthest away, his voice carried well .
As expected of the Representative of the Noisy .
“The four of us, when our contracts are up, let’s all go on a trip . ”
“Trip?”
Nagikaze parroted back .
Perhaps being influenced by today’s story and becoming uneasy, Rangiku suggested going on a trip .
A trip, huh… One more thing that came out of the blue .
There were just too many things today that happened all of a sudden . Guess I’ll call today AllOfASudden Day .
“We’re going to leave Yoshiwara and see the world . ”
“All together?”
“All together . ”
Author’s note: Truthfully, Oyaji-sama wanted to make Nogiku his own child, but there was an unavoidable reason why he couldn’t . There are still a lot of unknown common sense and customs of this world, but that’ll be for later on .
Incidentally, this Heian era story actually appears in “Konjaku monogatarishuu” volume 30 .