Chapter 11: Little Sister

Edo was a chaotic city. That everyone knew. The culture was in flux, new arrivals streaming in from across Japan, bringing customs, accents, and more with them.

What fewer realised was that said ‘more’ included yokai from across the nation, drawn in by that same chaos. Kitsune were especially drawn in, in part by that same gender imbalance that so drove the business of Yoshiwara, as it meant a Kitsune in the form of a human woman could easily swindle or torment a samurai or a servant who was lonely. There were, in fact, enough Kitsune that the vulpine yokai had their own gathering places.

Ranmaru, thanks to his gifts in seeing through yokai disguises, had stumbled upon a few by accident, and found himself rather partial to one or two. His choice tonight was a small restaurant, run by a tanuki and famous, at least among Kitsune in the city, for its deep fried tofu. 

Though tonight Ranmaru had only minimal appetite for the divine food, instead ordering his third bottle of shouchuu spirits. 

“I’m deeeaad,” he groaned, taking a swig. “Completely and totally. Curse my stupid heart.”

He usually drew the eyes of a few of the Kitsune clientele when he visited. Few humans ever came to the restaurant, and fewer still came alone, rather than being lured in to pay for a Kitsune’s food. Tonight, however, his drunken dramatics had the whole restaurant gathered around him.

“Why are you dead? Is it a sickness?” one asked.

“I suppose you could call love a sickness,” Ranmaru muttered, swirling the bottle a little. “But I’m dead because I’m an oiran. I’m not allowed to fall in love. If I do, the only options are that my remaining contract be purchased or I sign a suicide pact... and my love has no money at all.”

“That seems harsh,” another kitsune muttered.

“Humans are so strange,” the first kitsune replied.

“I have a solution!” a third kitsune declared, hurrying forward and dropping a bag in front of Ranmaru.

After a quick swig of shouchuu, Ranmaru slowly opened the bag, uncertain what sort of solution a wild kitsune might offer for such a situation. What he found was that the bag was full of leaves.

“That should be enough, right? It’s a good haul of leaves. A little magic, and they’ll think it’s enough fortune to buy your freedom,” the kitsune explained, a smile on her vulpine face.

“You’re adorable, you know that?” Ranmaru replied, drunkenly ruffling the fur on the top of that kitsune’s head. “I’m human though. I don’t have that sort of illusion magic.”

“You don’t? Oh no! I... I’m out of ideas.”

“What if you trick someone else into buying your freedom, and then run off with your love?” another Kitsune offered.

“I... y’know, that coouuld work. It’d take some effort, but... hmm,” Ranmaru muttered, growing lost in thought.

Around him the Kitsune let out cheers and yips of excitement, obviously convinced they’d solved his crisis. Ranmaru, drinking a little more shouchuu, tried to think through his regular clients for an easy mark. Being rather drunk, he’d ended up repeating options, and was far from giving each an appropriate analysis. Still, the glimmer of hope left him feeling certain there was a solution of some sort, even if he couldn’t figure it out quite yet.

“You’re here! You’re here!” A childish voice announced, lifting Ranmaru from his deep and meandering thoughts.

Looking down, he spotted a Tofu Kozou. The childlike Tofu Kozou were a yokai that had appeared from lands unknown, or perhaps emerged from Edo’s chaos itself... Ranmaru had heard conflicting rumours. What was known about them, however, was that they were often employed by shops like this one to serve as delivery boys. The one before him right now had served Ranmaru many times, when he’d been unable to escape Yoshiwara for a period, and had also been unable to escape cravings for deep fried tofu.

“What’s going on, little pal?” Ranmaru asked, as his brain processed the excited look in the small yokai’s eyes.

“I think I found another like you!” the Tofu Kozou announced, a sharp toothed smile spreading across his face. “A human child. Says she’s a girl, but smells like a boy. Also says she has no home. You always looked so lonely, I thought you’d like to find another of your kind!”

Ranmaru blinked, before trying to shake some of the drunkness from his head. After the moment of queasiness that led to had passed, he turned back to the small yokai.

“Can you show me to her? If she truly lacks a home... I’ll find some way to help her.”

“Yep! Yep! She’s not too far!”

Ranmaru stood up and did his best to hurry after the excited childlike delivery yokai, made harder by his drunken state. The cool air of the April night helped sober him up enough he was barely stumbling after a block or two.

After a few minutes of walking through the twisting chaos of Edo’s streets and alleys, on a route not quite suited for a fully grown human, the excited Tofu Kozou pointed to a small alleyway. Getting a little closer, Ranmaru saw a small child huddled there, a haori wrapped around her with a bag in her lap and a small doll on top of it. The girl looked maybe 8 or 9, though Ranmaru admitted to not being the most familiar with children. Whatever her age, she was deep enough in the alley that passersby would likely miss her for the shadows, and looked barely able to keep her eyes open.

“Here she is! Right here!” the small yokai declared, jolting the girl awake with his inhuman voice.

“Get away!” the girl shouted, grabbing a loose plank of wood and stumbling to her feet. “I told you I don’t want any trouble, yokai! Just leave me alone!”

“She can see I’m not human. Clever, no?” the Tofu Kozou explained.

Ranmaru gave the little yokai a strained smile. The reason most humans failed to notice their unnatural appearance was their short stature and large hats, not any powerful magic. 

Instead, he turned to the girl, taking the most reassuring tone he could. “He just asked me to come and check on you. He said you were an unusual girl who might need some help.”

“Mhm! You smell like a boy!” the small yokai added, in tone deaf enthusiasm.

“Well, I’m going to fix that!” the girl protested, shifting her bag and doll to hold them better. “Somehow...”

“Do you have anywhere to stay? I’d be happy to walk you there, if you’re nervous on your own?” Ranmaru offered. 

The girl’s eyes fell. “N-no... dad was going to shave my crown. He said my mum had let me live like my sisters for too long. So I took my favourite things and ran. I’m not going to let anyone shave my head.”

“A noble goal. I’ve never let anyone shave my head either,” Ranmaru replied. 

“R-really?” the girl asked, before eyeing him suspiciously. “You dress like a guy though?”

“Sometimes, yes. For me, it makes some parts of life easier. I wouldn’t let anyone make you dress any way you didn’t want to if you came with me, though,” Ranmaru explained, giving the girl the softest smile he could manage.

“Mhm! Mhm!” the Tofu Kozou added. “Sometimes this mister definitely smells like a woman.”

The girl’s eyes lit up for a moment, before narrowing suspiciously. “I’m a stranger to you. Why would you help me so much?”

“Family isn’t always defined by blood, and you seem like the sort of person I would like to have in my family. Plus, my one adoptive sister always says I’m too kind to anyone with sad eyes,” Ranmaru replied. “So, what do you say to a warm bath, a roof to sleep under, and then me buying you some new clothes tomorrow?”

The girl put down the piece of wood she’d been holding and walked forward a bit. A couple steps from Ranmaru, she tightened her grip on her things again and eyed the Tofu Kozou suspiciously.

“You’re friends with a yokai and rather strange, so that should probably scare me. But... I think I kind of want to learn to be like you that way,” the girl said, finally walking up to Ranmaru. “If you turn out evil and eat me or something, though, then I’m definitely going to figure out how to turn into a ghost so I can haunt you.”

Ranmaru couldn’t resist bursting into laughter at that. “Fuji is going to like you, I can promise you that. Well, come on, it’s a bit of a walk to Yoshiwara.”

“Yoshiwara? Does that mean I’ll get to see oiran? I’ve heard they’re the most fashionable and beautiful women in all of Japan! The flowers of Edo!” the girl asked, her eyes sparkling under the streetlights.

“You’re seeing one right now,” Ranmaru replied. “Even if I’m not dressed up properly.”

“Really?” the girl gasped, giving Ranmaru a once over.

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The girl apparently grew lost in thought as they walked, until exhaustion took hold and she began to stumble. Ranmaru scooped her up to carry against his shoulder, where she soon fell asleep.

Returning to the gates of Yoshiwara so late, with a child in tow, raised some eyebrows from the guards, but his paperwork explaining his employment and the claim the girl was a recently acquired kamuro got him through. Then it was a short walk a couple blocks to the ageya.

He was so lost in thoughts of protecting the small girl, his still half drunk mind unable to focus on more than one thing at a time, that he half jumped out of his skin when he opened the front door to find the Yarite glaring at him.

“Took you rather a while to buy a bokuto,” the woman said, her eyes narrow.

“I, uh... I hadn’t had to buy one in a while, so I did a fair bit of browsing,” Ranmaru offered.

“And the girl? Don’t tell me you’ve just found out you’re a father or something,” the Yarite asked, her cold tone still cutting Ranmaru to the bone.

“A fa-no! I would have been barely twelve when this girl was born. I... I’ve decided to take her in as a kamuro. She has a fire in her eyes that impressed me.”

“Don’t expect me to reimburse you any for purchasing her,” the Yarite replied flatly.

“There was no price for her,” Ranmaru hastily countered.

“You took in a street urchin, didn’t you? Sometimes you combine a young woman’s excessive kindness with a young man’s foolishness, Mei,” the Yarite replied with a sigh.

Ranmaru could only offer a guilty smile, knowing that an exasperated sigh was the closest the Yarite ever got to proper kindness and humour. “I’ll take her to get washed up then?”

“Very well. Do make sure she doesn’t pocket anything while she wanders about. I don’t want to deal with arguments between you and the girls.”

Ranmaru bowed in thanks before hurrying back to the baths. Confirming they were empty at the current awkward hour of the night, Ranmaru put the young girl down and tried to wake her up. It took a few pokes before she slowly opened her eyes.

The girl had remained groggy as Ranmaru helped her undress for the bath. Scrubbing her off, his suspicions about why she apparently smelled the way she did were fully confirmed, which only served to strengthen his resolve to protect her. The first order of business for that being keeping her from falling asleep in the warm tub, the girl was so tired. 

Having dried off and put her in some fresh linens, Ranmaru carried the sleeping girl back to his apartment. It took a little digging to find a spare futon, as the shinzou girls only slept in his quarters on especially busy nights with few available rooms, but he had the sleeping girl tucked in within a couple minutes. He watched her sleeping peacefully for a few moments, glad to have gotten her in from the cold, when a knock on the door made him jump a little.

Heading over and sliding it open suspiciously, he found a messy haired Fuji staring up at him with judgmental lidded eyes.

“Can I come in?” she said, more as a statement than a question.

Ranmaru nodded and let her enter. “It’s rather late for you to be awake and alone.”

“One of my clients is leaving back for his home province tomorrow morning. Wanted to bid me farewell with a short visit,” Fuji replied, taking a seat as Ranmaru closed the door.

He walked over and sat beside her, bracing for whatever she had to say. Fuji, for her part, took a breath and gave him a once over.

“You went back to see her, didn’t you?”

Ranmaru felt his cheeks go hot. “Maybe.”

That got a glare from Fuji.

“Yes,” he reluctantly corrected himself.

“Why would you do that?”

“I... I don’t know. It’s what my heart demanded. It’s hard to deny that,” Ranmaru muttered, finding himself failing to meet Fuji’s eye.

“Maybe it’s hard, but it’s necessary sometimes,” she replied, her tone hotter than Ranmaru had expected. “Will she really be any happier for your confession? When there’s nothing you can do to help her?”

Ranmaru felt a sickening mix of anger and outrage bubble in his stomach. “That man is treating her like little more than a caged animal. I can’t just ignore that. He’s barely letting her learn the language of the nation around her.”

“And what are you offering her? Besides a love that can never truly be and the risk of her master’s wrath if you two were ever caught?” Fuji hissed.

The accusation hung in the air, feeling like it was burning into Ranmaru’s skin as he hunted for an answer. Between the alcohol, the late hour, and the uncertainty in his heart, it was not the easiest question to answer.

“She was smiling,” Ranmaru replied at last, eyes returning to meet Fuji’s. “I’m ready to risk my life if it means making her smile again.”

The pair locked eyes, Ranmaru feeling a determination in his gut he wasn’t going to let extinguish, and hoping that Fuji would recognise it. After a moment, though, he swore he saw the glint of tears in her eyes, reflecting the moonlight from the courtyard window. He hadn’t seen her truly cry since that letter had arrived all those years ago, Fuji had locked her emotions away so thoroughly.

“You really are in love... I thought—I told myself you’d only ever have eyes for Kikunosuke,” Fuji said at last, her voice awash with a distant sorrow.

“I-I haven’t forgotten him. I’m just... I’m trying to follow the promise he had me make: to try and find happiness again, if he didn’t return,” Ranmaru replied, trying his best to seem reassuring.

Fuji nodded, though her tears seemed to keep flowing. Ranmaru moved forward and pulled her into a silent hug. She returned the gesture, holding against him for a length. 

Finally, she spoke up. “You’ve been drinking, haven’t you?”

“Maybe a little... I took a bath though. I didn’t think you’d be able to smell it,” Ranmaru confessed as they broke the hug. “Either way, I’m pretty well sober now, and I mean everything I said.”

Fuji seemed ready to leave with that, when her eyes drifted over to the bedroom. Or, more specifically, to the spare futon set up on the floor near the door.

“Who’s that?” she asked, eyeing Ranmaru suspiciously. “You didn’t smuggle your girlfriend in here, did you?”

“What? No! No... that’s a young girl I found. She was kicked out of her home. I thought she might make a good kamuro,” Ranmaru explained, getting a raised eyebrow from Fuji.

“You’ll adopt every stray cat, dog, and rooster in Edo next, at this rate. You can’t help every person with sad eyes you see,” Fuji muttered.

“The girl is a bit of a kindred spirit. I couldn’t just leave her on the streets... I’m going to take her to the shrine tomorrow, to see what they can do.”

“The shrine... oh! She’s... are you saying you’ve brought in a boy who wants to be a girl?” Fuji asked.

“Uh, something like that? She says she is a girl, so it seems most polite to refer to her as such. I’m not really one to make judgments on that front, now am I?” Ranmaru replied.

“True. You’re bad enough at remembering which one you are, if you miss enough sleep... I guess the Yarite can’t really complain, when she knows about you,” Fuji muttered, before shaking her head. “I’m too tired to think about all this though. Good night, Ranmaru.”

He bid her farewell and let her out of the apartment, before heading off to bed himself. It didn’t take long for the mixture of exhaustion and remaining alcohol to have him fast asleep.

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