Chapter 10: Language

It hadn’t taken long to find a courier post to drop off the letters. Yoshiwara sat at the heart of the city, and the official start to the five highways of the Gokaido system was all but on its doorstep. 

Finding a shop that sold bokuto took a bit more effort, but a city awash with samurai meant it wasn’t too hard to ask for help. 

The actual tasks out of the way, Ranmaru headed back to the wealthy neighbourhoods to the south of the city. He wasn’t overly familiar with that part of Yamanote, but was good enough at directions to slowly make his way to the Muraji estate. Slinking along, around the back of the home, he was relieved to see a tree growing just inside the walls of the estate, a few branches overhanging enough he could pull himself up. 

Looking around, to ensure no one was watching, he leapt up, pulling himself into the tree. From within the safety of the leaves, he looked around, checking for guards, only to have his heart quicken when he saw Asa alone in the yard area, sitting at the base of a smaller tree near a pond. Now he just had to figure out the best way down from the tree.

Those thoughts were interrupted when an angelic voice hit his ear. Turning, he became entranced by the lamentful and haunting beauty of Asa’s song, regardless of his inability to understand the language it was sung in. Each note seemed to stretch on forever, and emotion dripped from every second of it. Ranmaru’s curiosity told him he had to learn what the song was about, to learn what could inspire such beautiful music.

Slowly, the song came to an end, Asa simply going quiet when she’d reached the end, her face turning down towards the pond. It took Ranmaru a moment to remember to move, but he made his way down the tree as quietly as he could.

Crossing the yard, on alert in case anyone entered view, Ranmaru tried to figure out what to say to introduce himself. Before he reached what he expected to be a good range for a conversation, Asa leapt to her feet, eyes wide with worry as she stared at him.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you,” Ranmaru said, raising his hands passively and bowing slightly. 

“Who—soft eyes?” Asa said, her accent heavy.

“Mei Ranmaru is my name, but I thank you for that descriptor,” he replied, trying to keep his voice as calm and respectful as he could manage.

“Sorry. My Japanese is...weak,” she replied. “Why... why are you back?”

“I... I couldn’t forget you. Your eyes. Your smile. I wish—I wish I knew your tongue, so I could describe how wonderful you seem,” Ranmaru stammered, stepping just a little closer despite himself.

Asa, for her part, matched his step forward with a step back, uncertainty in her onyx eyes. Her hands raised defensively as well. “You touch and I scream.”

Ranmaru felt his heart plummet into his stomach. “No. No. I wouldn’t—not ever. Something like that—to another woman... I could never.”

He silently cursed himself for his incoherence, especially in a situation where clarity was so important. Would she understand?

After a moment, Asa let out a breath, her hands lowering. “You talk fast. But... how to say... eyes always soft? Does that work?”

“I think so? I... I hope so, at least,” Ranmaru replied.

Asa gave him a thorough once over at that point, and he swore he felt the force of her gaze. While there was a language barrier between them, he could see the intelligence in her eyes as she studied him. She was efficient, like the Yarite or Fuji, but it was far less cold. If anything, he found himself enjoying her gaze, especially as it returned to his face, and the pair locked eyes again. For a moment, he found himself lost in the dark depth of her eyes. He hoped his own brown eyes were half as nice of a view.

“What now?” Asa asked, her tone soft with curiosity.

Ranmaru froze up. He’d, in perfect honesty, had no plan. Only the gut desire to see her again. Adding the complication that she’d been taught so little Japanese, and... well, his initial instinct to shower her with compliments befitting her heavenly beauty fell flat on its face.

“I can teach you Japanese!” Ranmaru declared, as the thought hit him. 

Once he said it, he realised he’d been a bit loud, and turned to check that no doors or windows opened from the house in response. When there was no movement, he let out a sigh of relief and turned back to Asa.

“Sorry—sorry. I got excited,” he said with a grimace.

Asa gave him a gentle smile that sent his heart aflutter. “I like learning.”

Eyes darting nervously back to the house, Ranmaru had an idea. “We should go behind the tree. It’s more private.”

“Priva-oh! Privacy. Private. Yes,” Asa said, nodding and following him towards the shaded and hidden area at the base of the large tree.

After a little thought on how to proceed, Ranmaru grabbed a stick and tested the ground. It was soft enough that he felt he could draw some basic kanji. A moment later, he’d dug out a simple rectangular kanji that seemed a decent enough proof of concept.

“So, this is called ‘sun’ in Japanese,” he offered, only to get a confused stare from Asa.

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“What is it?” she asked, glancing at the kanji, then back up to him.

Ranmaru buried his face in one hand as the problem hit him. “Right. You’re from China, but you’re not Chinese. I’m an idiot.”

“Chinese... I know little Chinese. Little little,” Asa replied, looking embarrassed at her lacking vocabulary. “More Japanese.”

“That was my bad,” Ranmaru muttered, as he dug the stick into the ground, debating what he could still manage. He could try drawing, but, with a stick and the dirt he wasn’t sure how clear his art would be. He lacked Saki’s skill in drawings.

Pointing to features of his body he could manage though. Setting off, he was glad to know Asa knew the word for ‘hands’ already, so she worked out what he was trying to explain. ‘Fingers’ she’d heard, but seemed to have not quite known the specifics of. ‘Fingernails' was a new term. With hands explained, he showed some basic verbs, of grabbing, holding, and other easy to show gestures.

The explanations lit a spark in Asa’s eyes, bringing a smile to Ranmaru’s face. How he’d move on to more complex ideas later, he wasn’t sure, but he had something to work with now. As well as gaining hints of Asa’s intelligence. She’d decided to challenge herself to conjugate the verbs he was showing her to negatives and past tense, and had the basic logic of those tenses down already.

Thrilled, he moved on to the less easy to see verbs of the senses, telling her the word for ‘ears’ as he pointed to his own, then the word for ‘listen’. ‘Eyes’ and ‘see’ were next, her copying his gestures. For ‘nose’ and ‘smell’ she continued the copying.  Then ‘mouth’ and ‘talk’.

Only, rather than copying the gesture on her own face, she raised her hand up to his, a finger brushing softly against his lip. 

Somehow, the simple gesture sent a jolt down his spine, and he struggled against the urge to turn to butter in her hands. Was this how Tousui felt, he wondered? This was surely different, though. Asa was no oiran, trained to dispassionately give pleasure to a client. Her gesture was genuine.

“L-lips,” Ranmaru finally managed to mutter, his cheeks hot.

“Lips? Not mouth?” she asked.

Ranmaru lifted his hand, doing his best to say the word ‘mouth’ while keeping his own mouth open for as much of the word as possible. Then he moved his finger to touch his lip, and gave her the word for that.

“Lips,” Asa repeated, rubbing her thumb along his lips once more. 

Slowly, her face moved closer to his, and he swore he could hear the beating of his heart. Her own lips were less than a finger’s length from his own. And then...

“Oy! Woman! Where are you?” a gruff male voice called out from the house.

The clandestine pair froze, Ranmaru sure his eyes were as filled with fear as Asa’s. He slipped himself behind the trunk as best he could, while Asa mouthed what he was sure was ‘again’ to him. Then she stepped out from the tree and began to walk towards the house.

“What on earth were you doing back there?” the guard asked, his tone dismissive.

“Giving thanks to... to,” she began, before pausing a moment and then listing off what seemed like a long title in her own tongue.

“Ugh, whatever. Muraji doesn’t pay me enough to bother trying to understand your weird foreign rituals. Just get in here,” the guard grumbled.

Ranmaru watched, from behind the tree, until the pair had disappeared into the home. Feeling safe to move again, he scrambled up the tree, over the wall, and set off at the fastest speed he thought he could manage without attracting too much attention.

He managed it for about three blocks before his legs turned to jelly and he slumped against a small fence. He was in love. There was no question about it. It was terrifying, and exhilarating, and everything his heart had craved after years of merely existing through life.

It was also, thanks to the contractual obligations of an oiran, quite possibly a death sentence. Love was only allowed if the target was rich enough to buy an oiran’s contract. Otherwise... otherwise... 

He needed a drink.

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Sorry about the lack of update last week, I got a bit distracted by setting up a publishing account on Amazon. The good news for those of you who don’t like waiting, though, is that the full novel is now up on Amazon, for both ebooks and paperback:

I hope to have an itch account up as well soon, but as I’m also travelling next week I’m not certain when exactly I’ll get that set up.

For those of you who just want to stick to scribblehub, I’ll still be aiming to post about a chapter a week until it’s finished.

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