Chapter 22: Kabuki

Ichi was a bit distant as Ranka tried to run her through lessons that week. She understood why, and continued to beat herself up for having gotten the young girl’s hopes up so. She certainly hoped this mysterious doctor wouldn’t take too long to arrive, so that the waiting part could be done at least. 

She’d long considered waiting one of the worst things in life, a time when your heart could dream up the highest hopes and your mind the darkest tragedies, and you had no way of knowing where the truth might be. So much of her own life had been wrapped up in waiting, even now she was constantly waiting to see Asa again, and to hear how Tousui’s fundraising had gone... she didn’t want to see Ichi stuck in a similar life. 

Thoughts of seeing Asa again caused her mind to drift a bit, even further from the shamisen practice she had been supposed to be doing. Trying to concentrate some more she found herself wondering if she could smuggle the shamisen out to play for Asa on her next visit. It was probably best not to risk it, though. A shamisen was reasonably expensive, and, if they got close to the price of her freedom by the deadline, selling it and other high end items she owned might be able to get her just enough. 

Pulling out some paper and ink, Ranka began to make rough estimates of how much she thought most of her more expensive possessions could earn. The result, after about an hour of analysis, was less than she’d hoped, but definitely enough it seemed plausible as an emergency option.

Disappointed, she put the paper away, and returned back to her shamisen, hoping she could focus now. As she sat down, ready to play some more, her apartment door suddenly slammed open, revealing one of the older accountant shinzou women, her face red with rage. Being held by the wrist beside her was Ichi, looking deathly embarrassed. At the woman’s other side was another kamuro girl about Ichi’s age, looking more confused than anything.

“Mei, you have some explaining to do about your ‘kamuro’,” the woman said, eyes narrow.

“Did she do something wrong?” Ranka asked, suspecting she knew what had happened, but ready to be as stubborn about it as possible.

“Don’t tell me you’re unaware of this child’s sex?” the accountant woman asked.

“Well, depending on how tired I am, I am, on occasion, unaware of my own. At this moment, though, I think I have a decent idea of Ichi’s form, why?” Ranka asked, her tone as patronising as possible as she walked over, all smiles the whole time.

The woman paled a little, apparently having been so enraged to have forgotten whom, precisely, she was talking to. “Is... is this child like you then?”

“She’s similar enough, yes,” Ranka replied with a false smile.

The accountant woman’s standards for ‘similar enough’ were probably rather different from Ranka’s own, but the woman had no way nor need of knowing that fact.

“You... you should have informed the Yarite,” the woman snapped, clearly embarrassed at having lost her argument so quickly.

“Ichi is merely a kamuro. Her condition is of no relevance to her duties, nor the Yarite’s pocket book,” Ranka replied. “As she grew older, I may have said something, or I may have found her a home outside Yoshiwara.”

Eye twitching slightly, the woman stormed off. No longer needing to maintain her calm demeanor, Ranka crouched down to hug Ichi.

“I probably should have said something earlier. I had thought we could keep things quiet for longer,” she told the girl.

“It was my fault. I’ve been in a bad mood over the news from the shrine and... I got sloppy about when I took a bath,” Ichi mumbled as she returned Ranka’s hug.

“L-lady Mei, I... I want to say that I’m sorry,” the other kamuro girl said. “I didn’t mean to tell on Ichi. I was just confused, and wanted to ask someone older because she ran off. I didn’t know it could have gotten her in trouble.”

Ranka turned to the other girl and smiled. “That’s fair enough, but... it probably would have been best to ask me or one of the Hanamoto sisters. Since Ichi lives with us and everything.”

The girl nodded. “Understood.”

After the other kamuro hurried off, Ranka led Ichi back into her apartment. Digging around a bit, she found the jar of rock sugar she kept and offered one to Ichi.

“It really hasn’t been your week, has it, kid?” Ranka said as Ichi took a candy.

“I guess not,” Ichi muttered, before popping the candy in her mouth.

Ranka nodded. “What do you say, the next night I’m free, I take you to a kabuki play to get your mind off of things?”

“Mounds gud,” Ichi replied, careful not to let the candy escape her mouth.

Ranka couldn’t help laughing. “A nod would have sufficed you know.”

As Ichi blushed a little, Ranka ruffled her hair. The pair then spent a good portion of the afternoon letting Ichi draw away to her heart’s content, at least until it became time to get ready for the evening’s work.

---

It was a couple more days until Ranka had a free evening. To her surprise, Fuji proved to have the night off as well, and she joined Ranka and Ichi on heading to the Kabuki theatre.

After a bit of indecisive hemming about, Ranka decided to grab a bit of rice, reasoning that there’d be less trouble for the group with a man in it. After getting changed, Ranmaru found himself rather surprised to see Fuji dressed in a rather normal manner. She was still wearing fashionable clothing and with well done makeup, but neither her makeup nor her hair were styled in an oiran like manner. 

“I wonder if people will mistake us for a normal family,” Ranmaru said as they headed out into the evening air.

“I think I look a bit old to be you two’s kid,” Ichi protested, as she walked confidently along in front of them.

Ranmaru laughed, though was surprised how forced Fuji’s added giggle sounded. He wasn’t exactly sure what had her so annoyed, and decided to let her have some quiet. 

The theatre wasn’t too far away, then again, nothing in Yoshiwara was. It managed to be a city within a city by cramming people and businesses on top of one another, rather than being particularly large. The theatre had managed to grab hold of a rather substantial bit of land, however, due to sheer popularity. 

Ranmaru scooped Ichi and placed her on his shoulder as they approached the chaotic crowd filing into the playhouse, worried that a simple held hand might still lose her. Sliding through, Ranmaru and Fuji paid the entrance fee, and were soon thrilled to have some degree of breathing space once through the choke point of the front entrance. The theatre interior was still crowded, but Ranmaru felt safe enough to put Ichi back on the ground as the trio headed off to grab some food from one of the vendors in the large building. Ranmaru’s options were limited, but he was quite used to that by this point.

A few minutes later, they found a place to sit, and waited for the performance to begin. A young woman stepped out, giving an announcement of the play's name, and a brief summary of what to expect from the performance. It was apparently a farce covering a tanuki, looking for a free meal, impersonating a samurai. Only to find himself caught up in a world of political and romantic intrigue. 

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Glancing across the crowded theatre, Ranka couldn’t hide a grin at the fact the large audience included more than a few disguised yokai, and the tanuki present with other yokai were prodded by their friends (usually kitsune).

The first portion of the play was the sort of loud and raunchy humour to be expected of kabuki. The outfits of actresses actually playing women left little to the imagination, while the majority of those playing men were full of jokes about masculinity, femininity, and the supposed inability for the two to understand one another. Ranmaru found the entire thing quite hilarious. The inclusion of many other simpler jokes proved more easily noticed by Ichi and kept the young girl entertained, though Ranmaru would be lying if he said none of those got a laugh from him either. 

One actress stood out though, which Fuji also noted: the one playing the proper samurai trying to assist the bewildered tanuki character. She felt strangely familiar to Ranmaru, and she was doing such a good job in her role as the main serious character, actually feeling reasonably convincing to both of them. 

When an intermission came, Fuji led Ichi off, to let the girl stretch her legs (among other things). Relaxing a bit, and nibbling on some dried fruit, Ranmaru was surprised for a moment when someone sat beside him. Turning and seeing that someone was Tousui answered why the tall samurai had sat beside him, but left the question of what a man like him was doing at a Kabuki performance in the first place.

“I thought that was you, with the silver hair. Is the woman... well, the woman?” Tousui whispered, his tone conspiratorial as his eyes shifted about.

“That was Fuji and Ichi, we had the night off and decided to head out for a bit,” Ranmaru said, trying not to laugh at his friend’s attempt at being incognito.

“Oh... I was going to wonder about you going after a woman old enough to have a child. I suppose there’s nothing wrong with liking older women though,” Tousui replied.

“You know, I just might. I’ve not actually asked her age, now that I think about it,” Ranmaru said, raising a hand to his chin as he thought the matter over. “If there is a gap, I don’t think I’m that much younger.”

Tousui nodded, looking a bit confused. It was probably curiosity, as Ranmaru had had to be quite cryptic over matters. How Tousui would respond to learning Asa lived with Muraji, one of Tousui’s father’s business partners, Ranmaru couldn’t guess, so he’d keep quiet.

“What’s brought you to a kabuki play anyhow?” Ranmaru asked.

“Ah, well, that’s simple. I had heard about how they had women playing male roles, and thought there might be some chance I could find some of those actresses handsome enough to try to hire... since, well, since your heart is taken,” Tousui replied.

“I suppose you thought the plays were rather more serious?” Ranmaru asked.

Tousui nodded. “That was the impression I had, yes. Only... perhaps three actresses seem to be in serious masculine roles. Out of them, only one plays a significant role.”

“Whoever she is, she’s done quite well to play the bastion of seriousness surrounded by such nonsense,” Ranmaru replied, noting the return of Fuji and Ichi.

Those two brought a shift in the conversation, Fuji and Tousui exchanging some general pleasantries until Ichi monopolised Tousui’s attention with her opinions on the play so far. As well as a story she’d read earlier that week. Tousui proved surprisingly attentive to Ichi’s tired story telling, only interrupting her as the intermission came to an end.

The most noteworthy part about the second act of the play was Ichi falling asleep in Fuji’s lap. Apart from that it was simply more chaos akin to the first act. Another intermission followed, Ranmaru taking it as a chance to stretch his own legs a bit, heading off to purchase a couple more snacks. 

The final act proved utter chaos, quite ridiculous effects being used to show the blood splatter in the final battle, the panicked tanuki star using the chaos of battle to make a break for it, and everything going sideways for the rest of the main cast. How they managed to make the majority of the cast dying comedic, Ranmaru wasn’t quite sure, but he found himself laughing along. Even Fuji joined in at certain scenes. 

When the play finished and the assorted actresses gave their bows, things turned a bit chaotic. Most of the audience headed out, bunching up at the single exit. Others headed to the stage, no doubt assuming the morning was still young enough to hire the actresses for their secondary services. To Ranmaru’s surprise, however, the actress who had played the stoic second role (covered in stage blood) hopped down from the stage and past a few admirers to head straight for his group.

“Well, that’s quite a surprise. I wasn’t expecting you to come here. Especially not the night the main number two is sick and I actually get to fill in,” the actress said.

“Um, hello?” Ranmaru replied, still not sure why this actress was so familiar. The stage makeup and hairstyle meant that, even now up close, her face was hard to place.

“Ha! So I get to confuse you this time, Mister Beautiful?”

Ranmaru blinked. The best actress in the show was the flirtatious waitress?

“I didn’t... didn’t realise you acted as well,” Ranmaru replied.

“Just an understudy right now, but it’s getting me noticed. Pays better than waitressing when I actually get on stage,” she replied.

“You’re an understudy?” Fuji asked, holding Ichi in her arms. “You were the most convincing actress on the stage.”

“Well thank you, my lady,” the woman replied. “I’m still a bit slow picking up the dances, though. Besides, most of our shows are comedies, it’s more about getting laughs than giving a heartfelt performance.”

Ranmaru found himself being passed a sleeping Ichi as Fuji stepped closer to the actress/waitress.

“Do you get to wash that fake blood off once you go backstage?” Fuji asked.

“Well, we have a bath, but it’s small, so seniority matters. Probably close to two hours before I’d get in,” the woman replied, her face revealing how unimpressed she was with that. 

“We’ve got plenty of bath space at the ageya,” Fuji said, taking the actress’ arm. “A performance like that merits getting to clean up quickly.”

“If that’s an offer you can make, it’s an offer I’d happily take. I’m sure your baths are much nicer,” the woman replied.

With that they headed off into the street, the air cool in that strange period that blurred the line between late and early. Tousui bid his farewell not far from the ageya. Stepping in, the accountant girl at the front desk had tried to raise a complaint about Fuji taking a customer that way, but had been forced to relent on the news that the guest was a kabuki actress, not a customer. With that sorted, the others split into two groups: Ranmaru returning to his apartment with Ichi, while the two women headed towards the baths. 

Tired as he got back to his accommodations, Ranmaru tucked Ichi into her futon, before heading to sleep himself. He was fairly certain he fell asleep about as soon as he lay down.

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