Chapter 7
The beginning: daily life 5
Today was waka practice. (waka is a kind of Japanese poetry)
The teacher is Ujino nii-sama.
“You see, waka is a kind of weapon that male courtesans can use to grab the hearts of their customers.”
He was someone who spoke kindly and forgivingly.
Ujino nii-sama was twenty years old, a courtesan of Amatsuki Brothel.
With purple hair brushing his neck and black eyes, he was a very beautiful pale skinned person.
Since it was before it was time to go to the tatami room, he was currently wearing a casual purple kimono.
Though with his slightly slanted eyes he gave a somewhat severe impression, he wasn’t like that at all.
….well, sometimes he would cut through and just frankly say whatever he was thinking, so maybe to some people he seemed severe.
But with his refined conduct and his courteous regard for his customers, and then the poems Ujino nii-sama would read would keep hold of the hearts of customers and not let go. Just being read a first-rate love poem by a good man would cause anyone to melt.
“Love poems are perhaps the most recited. Do you remember the one we read before?”
“Omoitsutsu, nureba ya hito no….mietsuran, yume to shiriseba samezara mashi wo”
“Meaning?”
“Ah, since I fell asleep thinking about that person, did that person appear in my dream? But if I knew it was a dream, I wouldn’t have woken up….”
“Yes, correct. Here, I will give you a candy.”
Ujino nii-sama always gave candy when you answered correctly.
He was like an old lady from Osaka. (kind of like a stereotype, that they always have candy or plastic bags)
Ooo, it’s a candy, candy!
But even though I remember weird stuff like Osaka old ladies.
Just why can’t I remember myself? It was too weird.
“Then next is Rangiku, please recite a love poem that you remember”
“Utataneni koishiki hito wo miteshiyori yume tefumono wa tanomi hajimeteki”
“Meaning?”
“It’s, ‘in the dream I saw while dozing, I saw the person I yearned for, so I started to believe the dreams that told me you were thinking of me’”
“Correct. You chose a poem about dreams to go with Nogiku’s, yes? Here, I will give you a candy”
The one sitting next to me, practicing waka together is Rangiku.
Rangiku was seven years old, a kamuro two years above me.
His appearance was short red hair and reddish-black eyes. Though he had healthy looking skin, through the sleeves of yukata his right arm bore a burn scar.
I’d never heard anything about the particulars about his burn scar, but it wasn’t like I was dying to know so I never asked.
It’s not like I wanted to know, but his scar looked like a rabbit and was cute, so sometimes I would just end up looking at it.
He had apparently come to Amatsuki Brothel half a year before me, so though it wasn’t for the same reason as Shuusui, we sometimes ended up learning together.
And now incidentally about the clothes we kamuro wore: everyone wore white tunics with black nohakama to work.
Nohakama were basically hakama with smaller cuffs.( vs)
They were close to normal pants and their main feature was that they were easy to move in.
Right now it wasn’t time to work, so we were wearing the navy blue yukata for kamuros.
Unexpectedly, we wore matching couple’s clothing with all kamuros.
“Hey you, what else do you remember?” (Rangiku)
“..eh? Umm, chigirikina…. Katami ni sode wo shiboritsutsu, sue no matsuyama nami kosaji to ha….”
“You….of all things that one poem…”
“Oh?” (Ujino)
If I remember right, the meaning was,
We made a firm promise, did we not? As we both wrung out our sleeves wet with tears over and over; that just like how the top of Mount Matsuyama cannot be overtaken by a wave, no matter what happens our hearts will not change. But even so, how could you…
To put it bluntly,
“Heyyyyy!! You said you’d always love me, what’s up with you betraying me? Huh?!”
is what this poem about being betrayed by a lover is about.
“You’re really dumb.”
“Shut up Ran-chan”
Rangiku always made fun of me like this.
One day, one jibe.
….Oh my, it sounds just like “one day, one good deed.” (a saying to do one good deed a day)
But even with all of this fuss, he still looks after me so I think he’s a tsundere.
“Hey now, you two. Now we’ll look at this collection of waka, and choose one you would like to recite to each other.”
So saying, Ujino nii-sama handed us a few volumes of waka collections, like ‘100 poems by 100 famous poets.’
Incidentally, this world’s writing was as I had feared, looking just like worms crawling.
There was no way I could read such speedy writing.
But, I could understand the language and speak it, so when I was taught I was surprisingly able to read pretty quickly.
Of course, writing was the same.
But even now my understanding of the composition of waka and the language used was still poor, so I had to be taught each and every little thing or else I would have no idea what they were talking about.
“It is important to be able to create poetry by yourself, but we still first need to practice giving poems that match the circumstances.”
“Is anything fine?”
“Yes, if it fits anything is fine.”
I flipped through the pages, deciding to just look through them first.
Ujino nii-sama had written the meaning next to each poem, so it was really easy to understand.
Since there were a lot, I thought I’d find one right away, but it was harder than I expected.
In the first place, what kind of poem would even suit Rangiku?
Was there even a poem that would fit this tsundere human among the beautiful words of this waka collection?
“Then I will go first.”
“Yes, then we will start with Rangiku.”
So fast!!
I still haven’t found one though?!
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“Natsukashiki iro tomonashi ni nani ni kono suwetsumu hana wo sode ni furekemu”
“Meaning?”
“If anything, I didn’t want to deal with you… is the meaning”
“Watch it, Rangiku! …. Nogiku, you don’t have to pay any mind.”
But you said if it fit then anything was fine—-, Rangiku’s expression seemed to say, looking away with a pouty face.
A more detailed explanation would be, “Even though I don’t even like you I got involved. If I knew it would be like this, I wouldn’t have touched you,” apparently.
But I wouldn’t get mad from something like this.
Because I’m an adult. An adult!
Yeah, that’s why I’ll only glare.
“……….”
“….what?”
Heh.
Did you get scared from just being glared at a little, you tsundere?
But, well, with this kind of comrade, or rather, friend.
Even if I’m called a moron day in and day out, I would still find it fun.
Being alive, getting angry, laughing, crying, being surprised.
The people here who painted colors on my world.
And Rangiku’s just one of those people, so.
As I was thinking about that sort of thing, I spotted a waka that was kind of perfect.
“Akenureba, kururu mono to wa, shirinagara….naho urameshiki, asaborakekana”
“Oh? That is a good poem. Rangiku is lucky.”
After I read it, Ujino nii-sama smiled gently, and rubbed my head.
I’m happy. I’m happy, but the brothers here pet my head so much that I’m honestly worried about going bald.
Rangiku furrowed his brow, seemingly not getting it.
“What’s it mean?”
“It means, that I know I will see you again tomorrow, but when night comes I’m a little lonely after all….”
This poem was really about the break of dawn, but in my case it was kind of linked to how I felt when it was time to go to sleep, so I read the dawn part differently.
“So you read this kind of thing to me”
“Yeah”
“You’re still a dummy after all”
Even though he said that, trying to make fun of me, but I could still see the corners of his mouth lift a bit. He’s a tsundere after all. Probably.
“Ujino—You there?”
“Yes, please come in”
Ujino nii-sama answered the sudden call.
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The one who came in was Ramon nii-sama, followed by Kiyomizu nii-sama.
Both of them, as well as Ujino nii-sama were dressed casually, since it wasn’t time for the tatami room yet, with Ramon nii-sama in scarlet and Kiyomizu nii-sama in bright green.
All the brothers were so colorful I never got bored of seeing them.
And in the hand of that Ramon nii-sama was some sort of box.
And some kind of delicious smell was wafting about…
Ah! The crest on that box!!
“Oyaji-sama gave us some manju, so let’s eat em together”
“That’s why we’re here. How about a break?”
The fried manju oyaji-sama bought for us once a month from that famous shop! That springy white mochi-like manju, all smothered with salty-sweet miso and fried to that slightly burnt flavor: my favorite favorite manju.
“Yes, that’s true. Nogiku has just read us a lovely waka, so why don’t we pause for a moment and take a break.”
We all sat in a circle, with the manju box in the middle.
Yep, smells great.
Everyone reached out at once and grabbed a bamboo skewer.
The skewer I grabbed was the same one Rangiku to my right had chosen but I snatched it away.
Gonna ignore being glared at.
Heheheh. Thanks for the meal-!
“By the way, what did Nogiku read to Rangiku?”
As I was stuffing my cheeks, Ramon nii-sama sitting in front of me started asking about the poem.
“Poem? Akenureba, kururu mono to wa, shirinagara….naho urameshiki, asaborakekana…is what I read”
“Eh, a love poem?! ….that’s too good for Rangiku. Rangiku, what’d you read to Nogiku?”
Rangiku frowned a little upon being asked.
Ahh…. that ‘anti-Nogiku‘ poem of his.
“Na…natsukashiki iro tomonashi ni nani ni kono suwetsumu hana wo sode ni furekemu…..”
“….you… are you stupid?”
As Ramon nii-sama was being exasperated, from my left my shoulder was lightly patted.
It was Kiyomizu nii-sama.
Huh? He’s already done eating the manju.
Kiyomizu nii-sama sure eats fast.
“As a palate cleanser I will read you a poem from the ‘100 poems by 100 famous poets.”
“Palate cleanser?”
“Rangiku’s poem was inexcusable. So, a better one for you”
Even though I couldn’t care less about such a prickly poem since I consider that guy a tsundere.
Well, even though I glared at him.
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“Then….
Kimi ga tame oshikarazari inochi sahe nagaku mogana to omohikerukana”
“?”
“It’s a very famous poem, you know?”
With both of my hands still clutching bamboo skewers, they were tightly grasped by two hands with the skewers in the middle, making our gazes meet.
Ah. Wait, miso is gonna get on Kiyomizu nii-sama’s hands!!
“Nii-sama, miso….”
“Nogiku—?”
“Yes! Um, mi-“
“Aren’t you going to ask about the meaning?”
Was it about the poem just now?
But nii-sama’s smile is so coercive it’s spooky.
“What does it mean?”
“To put it simply, it means I want to stay with Nogiku together forever.”
…..it seems like there are a lot of pure oblivious people among the male prostitutes.
“T,then the miso,….”
“Nogiku, for ever,”
….well, if they don’t seduce anyone it wouldn’t be a business.
“Hey stupid Nogiku!”
“Wah, “
In the middle of being smiled at by Kiyomizu nii-sama while having both of my hands clasped, Rangiku called my name.
For some reason, even though he had been sitting next to me, he was standing over me with his hands on his hips….looking kind of self-important.
“Kaku to da ni eya wa ibuki no sashimo kusa sashimo shirajina moyuru omoi wo! …..I’m going to go to the bathroom!!”
“Yes, take care. Before that, here, I will give you a candy.”
After just having a poem read to me out of nowhere…
After taking the candy from Ujino nii-sama, he vigorously threw open the door and ran out, as if with the sound effect of ‘Dadadadada!!’
Oh my, there was one manju left on Rangiku’s skewer.
……heheheheh.
“Nom nom….what was that just now?”
“Well, Nogiku, we are still in the middle of practice. If you look in ‘100 poems by 100 famous poets’ you will find out, you know?” (Ujino)
“What was Ran-chan saying? Nom nom….”
“It’s fine if you don’t know, Nogiku. Well, you’ll probably understand eventually though. That’s probably enough study of ‘100 poems by 100 famous poets’ today” (Kiyomizu)
“Sigh… Kiyomizu, that won’t do” (Ujino)
“I think it’s fine to be done though” (Ramon)
“………..”
Nom nom.
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