Laughter is the Worst Medicine, Part 9

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8

“Cho, are you gossiping again?” One of the women asked her.

“But she’s working with the yellow robe,” Cho insisted. The first woman shook her head. Silly young girls.

“Wait, let me see him,” said a second woman. Cho motioned the breeze kami towards her. The image didn’t make it to her before blurring, so Cho pulled it back where she could concentrate on it. The second woman looked carefully at it.

“I know that human. The kami listen to him, unlike the rest. If you’re really working with him, watch out,” she said to Gin.

“He’s cute!” Cho giggled. Gin giggled with relief.

Ichiro soaked as long as he thought he could get away with before getting out. I haven’t had a bath since that day in the hot spring, he realized. Now that he was clean, he could smell his old clothes and didn’t want to put them back on. He put on his new kimono and asked one of men he’d been chatting with, “Where can I get this altered into an under kimono?”

The man wrinkled his nose and gave him directions to a place nearby. Ichiro didn’t blame him, it stunk. “There’s a laundry around the block,” the man added. Ichiro nodded at him and told the breeze kami around his old kimono to smell like the incense in the human market. He walked over to the high window that separated the men’s and women’s sides.

“Gin, Gin! It’s time to go,” he called. He heard cries of “Gin, Gin, someone is looking for you,” from the women’s side. He heard Gin splash when she got out of the tub and her light footsteps approach the window.

“Ichiro, is that you?”

“Yes, Gin, we need to go,” Ichiro said with as much patience as he could muster. The alteration will have to wait because I’m out of money. It’s one more thing to think about.

“Ok, Big brother. Wait there for me. I don’t want to go outside alone,” she added. Another pair of footsteps stopped in front of the window.

“Is that your brother, what’s he look like?” A few seconds later Ichiro heard a giggle.

Did Gin just show that other girl an illusion? Ichiro sat against the wall and waited for his sister. It’s better than being with that onmyoji and facing whatever killed everyone. He closed his eyes and dozed off. The breeze kami left his old kimono and six months of body odor permeated the area until another Kitsune begged the kami to smell like fall leaves.

The sun, halfway to noon, shined over The Capital.

Reizo had stared at Taru Papermaster’s paper until the ink in his pen dried out. He couldn’t decide which spells to create. Gogo is a very smooth ride, so I’ll do it on the way when I know what resources are available. Like if those two Kitsune ran or not. He sighed and put the pen down. I still smell Suki’s hair. I don’t need that distraction today of all days.

Reizo selected a traveling outfit and went to the manor’s tiny bath house. He crossed paths with a fully dressed Suki who had just finished her own bath. They stopped and awkwardly avoided eye contact for several seconds.

“Is there anything special you need for today’s journey?” She asked finally.

“Pickled eggs. Taru likes pickled eggs,” he replied after a time. Suki nodded and passed by him. Reizo caressed a strand of hair that had escaped her ponytail and put it behind her ear. Her hair was wet and her ponytail clung to her back, but still a strand escaped. “You…look nice today,” he finished.

Suki gave him a half smile and turned her head away, but not before Reizo saw her cheeks flush.

Suki loaded Gogo herself. When she’d first arrived here, one of Reizo’s cousins acted as her personal servant. Suki sent the woman away after Reizo refused to send help to her father’s province because she was probably reporting everything Suki did to her husband. I don’t want him to know how much I cry, she’d thought on more than on occasion. Then Lady Fujiwara had written her a letter and she’d become friends with the older woman and Junko Papermaster. She cried less after that.

Suki missed her old personal servant, spy or not, now. She felt the same about the gardeners and housekeepers as she did about her husband’s cousin. Servants gossiped and connived with each other for their master’s favor. Part of her felt like a prisoner in what was ostensibly her own house.

There was so much to load and rearrange. She got all sweaty in the summer morning. “Gogo, blow some cool air on me.” She remembered Gogo listened to her if she spoke into Junko’s paper. Suki was resting inside Gogo when Reizo arrived. He took one look at Gogo and asked her, “Suki, why did you pack so much stuff?”

Suki bristled at the impatience in his voice. “There was a lot of stuff to take,” she snapped.

“We have to fit five people in Gogo. Not even three will fit with all that stuff!” He counted on his fingers as if she were a slow child. She glared at him and he quickly continued, “What did you bring?”

“I told you I was getting clothing for those Kitsune who lost everything. I took some of the old servants clothes and shoes from storage.” Suki lost patience in the heat. “And these are pickled eggs, and these are dried chicken. You told me to get pickled eggs!” She pointed at the jars and sack.

Reizo pinched his nose. “We don’t need three large jars of eggs and a rice sack of dried chicken! And did you get every scrap of servant’s clothing you could find?” He took a deep breath. “Who let this go this far?” He looked around for the guilty servant and was surprised to find none.

“I did all this myself.” Suki stood up and bumped her head on Gogo’s roof. It embarrassed her and fueled her anger. “I do everything myself because I have none of my own servants. Just yours, who report to you,” she said as if it were the worst thing in the world, and instantly regretted it.

“Rai! Rai!” Reizo called to the gardener who was weeding behind some bamboo and ignoring the whole fight on the other side of the garden. He stood and walked to Lord and Lady Taira.

“Yes, Lord Taira?”

“Take all this crap out of the carriage,” Reizo said and instantly regretted it. “Why didn’t you help Lady Taira load it all in the first place?” He demanded.

“He was busy,” Suki snapped at him before Rai could answer. Rather than watch all her hard work be undone, Suki marched off. Reizo grabbed her hand, aware of how dainty it was compared to his own.

“If you insist on doing something, go get smaller jars for the eggs,” he said. Suki shot him a venomous look and stomped towards the pantry.

Reizo sighed and glared at the mid morning sun. This trip is a nightmare and it hasn’t even started.

Picture by Daphne Zaras - http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/headlines/dszpics.htmlOriginally uploaded at en.wikipedia; description page is/was here., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2130165