A Scandal in Edo

Warning:The next part has some girl-on-girl. kissing.

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Like the other dancers, singers, actors and comedians, Oshiitsu had to leave the Yoshiwara at ten o’clock. They fell in with a troupe of kabuki actors Kaguya knew and a number of Naruse-san’s peers, all bearing their instruments and costumes with them while bitching collectively about how some hall owners would not let them store their props unless they paid rental fees.

It was quite a lively journey all the way out of the Yoshiwara and into the streets of Shitamachi. One of Naruse-san’s friends lived just up their street in Asakusa and it was decided that Tamaki-san would see them home and save them all the price of hiring a lantern-bearer.

Tamaki-san was a talkative man who kept them all amused with overly-grandiose narratives of his drumming expertise on the way back. The four of them reached the house without incident and Tamaki-san continued to swagger up the street.

Aunt Kaede and Uncle Odou were probably in bed by that time. Nanari was, as Kaguya predicted, in bed and asleep when she went to check on her. Satisfied that Uncle Odou had come through for once, Luluko went to help the performers out of their kimono. Each kimono had to be stored away carefully, or else Aunt Kaede would have a fit.

Then Kallen helped her to fetch basins of lukewarm water for all of them to wipe away their make-up and wash up. It was a much more relaxed atmosphere in the common room as they literally let their hair down.

“Ow,” Luluko muttered as Kallen helped her to take out the hairpins. Her scalp ached from having her hair up for so long.

“That’s better, isn’t it?” Kallen asked. “My scalp will never get used to it.”

“Aah, you’ll never make it out of apprenticeship at this rate,” Kaguya complained. It was an old refrain that Kallen did not take to heart. Luluko slipped away to fetch the tea-making tools and snacks. Aunt Kaede usually did not approve, but she was fairly helpless against Oshiitsu and Kaguya, who were obdurate and overwhelming personalities respectively. Luluko had the sneaking suspicion that the performers had chosen to stay in a house where they could basically have their own way. For all of her nagging, Aunt Kaede was a pushover when stronger personalities were around.

She returned to a discussion of monthly earnings. Performers were not shy about talking about money amongst themselves. Luluko made tea as talk about stingy patrons and the current going rates flew over her head.

“Looks like you win this month, Oshiitsu-san,” Kaguya said, shaking her head ruefully. “At this rate, I will have to take up begging outside the shrine.”

“Says a woman who paints shunga as a sideline,” Oshiitsu said over the lip of her cup. “I know you’re making extra on the side from those books.”

“Times are hard, times are hard,” Kaguya said in a spot-on imitation of Aunt Kaede, complete with hand-waving and the look of someone who had been sucking on sour plums.

Kallen laughed outright while Luluko buried her mirth behind a sleeve.

“Not that many people want to sit around and listen to the old classics anymore,” said Kaguya, who could recite The Tale of the Bamboo-cutter verbatim. “And so many nobles want pillow books for instruction.”

“Show us the latest in erotic bed-time reading,” Kallen demanded. “Show us this educational material you make.”

With some prodding, Kaguya fetched her work-in-progress. As she had come by some of the new Dutch pigments and paints from someone in Nagasaki, she was able to do darker lines and more intense colours, she explained proudly to an audience who was not really listening to her as they perused the painted erotica that Kaguya produced under a pseudonym. Even Kallen turned a little red at the blatant scenes as she turned the pages.

“This is . . . from real life?” Luluko could not imagine watching the acts portrayed on paper, much less sitting down and painting it while it occurred.

“Mostly posed, though some of them were getting a little too turned on in the middle of it,” Kaguya said thoughtfully. It was hard to remember, at times like this, that Kaguya was barely older than Nanari.

“I really like how you magnified just about everything in this one,” Kallen snorted. “Is that a man or a horse?”

“Some customers are very myopic when the lights are dimmed,” Kaguya said. “What are you staring at, Luluko? Something got your attention?”

“That . . .” Luluko pointed at one particular image. “I think . . . I think I saw that in one of the rooms at Heaven’s Gate.”

“Oh, that,” Oshiitsu said as she leaned in for a closer look.

“Kissing?” Kallen asked in surprise.

“It’s not something practiced in public, so of course it looks strange,” Kaguya said as she spread out the page entitled “Courtesan and patron engaging in seppun”.

“Oh it’s fairly simple . . . Like this,” Oshiitsu said and before Luluko could protest, she had pressed her lips against hers. Frozen in place, Luluko did not know what to do until Oshiitsu stopped and sat back as though nothing had happened.

“Oh you’re terrible, Oshiitsu-san! Luluko’s going so red!” Kaguya exclaimed.

Valiantly trying not to flush, Luluko pressed on. “I mean--I mean does the woman or--or the man start it?”

“Depends,” Oshiitsu said. “Sometimes, the man likes to be in charge. And sometimes, he likes the woman to be bolder.”

The performers seemed amused that Luluko was taking an interest. It was a thing that well-brought up ladies did not talk about with entertainers.

“But you have to be careful. When a man does this,” Kallen said, dramatically cradling Luluko’s face in her hands, “and looks into your eyes--”

“And tells you you’re the most beautiful woman he’s ever seen--” Kaguya cut in.

“It’s time you punched him in the gut because it’s another cheap line to get you in the sack,” Kallen finished.

“Huh?” Blinking in surprise, Luluko looked around in bewilderment at the others.

“Ne, you’re so cute like that . . . can I kiss you?” Kallen whispered and took advantage of the fact that Luluko’s lips were already parted.

“My!” Kaguya and Oshiitsu were treated to the sight of Luluko turning three shades redder than she had been previously.

“Ka--Kallen-san!” Luluko exclaimed when Kallen stopped kissing her. It had been . . . strange, but oddly exhilarating. When the other girl had her tongue inside her mouth--

“Kallen, you were talking advantage of Luluko,” Kaguya lectured her. “You hypocrite!”

“W--Well, I asked first!” Kallen protested.

“You didn’t give her much time to reply,” Oshiitsu murmured.

“You’re just as bad, Oshiitsu-san! And you kissed her first!”

“But not like that.”

“But you’re the--the most experienced one,” Kallen said and one could hear a pin drop in the silence that followed. No-one asked or mentioned or even referred to Oshiitsu’s age obliquely. No-one dared. Even Luluko--who had known Oshiitsu since the moment she set foot inside the house five years ago--did not know her real age.

“Oh? I’m experienced, you say?” Oshiitsu arched an eyebrow in the way that only she could. “Well then, let me show you girls how a woman does it. If Luluko does not mind . . .”

“Er, I--I . . .” Luluko looked down, wondering why she did not feel as guilty as she should for this. “I don’t--actually--mi--”

“Saa . . .” Oshiitsu slid closer to Luluko and tilted her chin up.

“Nmmm--” Oshiitsu’s lips were gently urging her own to part. And at that moment, Luluko could not think of a reason not to. Nor could she find any coherent thought as a warm wet tongue caressed her own--

“Um,” she sighed as Oshiitsu ended the kiss. That had been . . . different from Kallen’s kiss.

“I think that’s enough for now,” Oshiitsu said, noting the high colour of her cheeks and the slightly glazed look in her eyes. “You should go to sleep now.”

“Aah, that’s probably for the best,” Kaguya said carefully. Kallen could only stare.

“Ah! Yes, right,” Luluko muttered. She had to get up early to make breakfast for the whole house after all. But something had changed . . .

* * * * * * * * * * * *

“Ne, was that wise?” Kaguya asked after Kallen and Luluko had left the room.

“Wise or not, what’s done is done. I suspected she was a complete innocent, but not that innocent,” Oshiitsu muttered irritably.

“I mean, she spends all her time doing housework and taking care of her sister--it’s not like she even has the time to think about that sort of thing,” Kaguya mused. “Or else she really was too repressed . . .”

“She wasn’t very repressed when I had my--”

“All right, I get the picture!” Kaguya put up her hands in a dramatic gesture to stop the flow of Oshiitsu’s words. “I would say she is fairly awakened now . . .”

And that might mean trouble--Oshiitsu could feel it in her bones.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

It was bad form to do things like attempting to duck one's lord in a horse trough when one was an adult. Suzaku kept this in mind while enduring Jino's endless ribbing. It was bad enough that his uncle had mentioned it.

But it all came to a head a week later, while they were on the common sparring grounds of the Nishnomaru, practicing battoujutsu. Well, at least one of them was practicing.

His--now semi-retired--mentor had told him that his kenpou needed work. Toudou-sensei had been extremely critical of his draw, back when they he had been in training.

"Your draw has nothing of your spirit in it!" Toudou-sensei would bellow during practice. "And it reflects in your sword forms as well!"

There were other, less complimentary descriptions of his sword forms but Suzaku kept the main gist of it in mind as he went through the forms with his wooden practice sword.

Jino had been his sparring partner for most of the morning, but was now taking an unduly long break in the shade because he was "not as resilient as a straw-mat target", he claimed.

"You know why you've got so much energy to use on those targets, don't you?" Jino was saying. "It's because you don't have any other outlets for it. While virtue is a . . . well, virtue, you're not a monk and--"

Suzaku tried to concentrate on the targets.

"--since your uncle has said something about it as well--"

Left then right. Stance. Firmer stance.

"--so as your friend and going-to-be-some-day-soon-now-employer--"

Ready for the draw. This had to be timed just right--

"--I took the liberty of arranging a girl for you--"

Suzaku froze in mid-draw.

“What?” He was saying that a lot these days, whenever Jino announced something completely unexpected. Suzaku had to pause and put down his practice sword least he injured Jino with it.

Jino grinned--not a good sign. “You’re so picky . . . so I thought of that girl you were staring at the night of Kiyoshiro’s party.”

“But she’s not one of the courtesans--”

“Well, a man at the Heaven’s Gate told me that he could arrange something,” Jino said. “Besides, if you’re worried about catching anything like poor old Norita, you should go for the fresher ones.”

Suzaku had not doubt that Jino had met such a man, the type who arranged backroom deals with unlicensed prostitutes. Edo was now a much more sophisticated city than it had been before--sometimes not in a positive way.

“If she’s a virgin, then you’re lucky. They say that a night with a virgin will ensure that you’ll be potent for a very long time afterwards,” Jino continued. “Of course that might mean that the price would be higher--”

That particular myth had been around for ages and was probably about as effective as tonic made from grated dried bulls’ pizzle and cobra’s blood. Suzaku was not some old man who needed help in resurrecting an erection. And he was very close to committing a crime on the person of the lordling he was supposed to be protecting.

“Jino . . .” Suzaku told himself that it was not really Jino’s fault. Being a noble had made him slightly . . . out of touch with the rest of the world. He was also fairly gullible and some of the other nobles’ bad habits might start rubbing off on him at this rate.

“That look on your face . . . means I screwed up?”

“You’re exploiting the fact that the girl’s family might be hard up. Or her house is hard up.” Or the fact that few people in Edo could say no to a member of the nobility.

Jino’s face fell and Suzaku sighed inwardly. He had been planning to ask his uncle for leave to travel as a special favour as his eighteenth birthday approached. Now Nagasaki might have to wait another year.

“I’ll pay . . . that man for her services, Jino. Don’t let your parents know you were ever involved in this sort of thing,” Suzaku said firmly. He did not like to ask his uncle for favours like this, but it could not be helped at this rate. “How much did he suggest you offer?”

When he heard Jino’s answer, Suzaku had to remind himself to breathe slowly so that he would not indulge in an unsightly fit of pique. There went the slim chance that whoever the girl’s keepers were would refuse because of the price.

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