She said aloud, "But it's not true!"
What good did it do her, getting meekly and humbly arrested? Or meekly and humbly letting Takki sell her to a brothel?
Youko gripped her shrouded sword. If there was one thing she wished she had done differently, it was that when she first met Keiki she had possessed a bit more backbone. At the bare minimum, at least ask what this was all about. Where were they going? In what direction, to what destination, and when were they coming back? If she'd done that, she doubted she'd be in the fix she was in now, up the creek and without a clue.
Being weak was no way to stay safe. If she didn't push her brain and her body to the limit, she wasn't going to survive.
Survive.
She was going to survive, she was going home. Those were the only desires she would permit herself.
The outfit she had been wearing she sold to a used clothes dealer, along with Takki's things, taking a little money in exchange. Money in hand, she mingled in with the crowds moving through the gate. None of the guards flagged her down. Once inside she headed towards the heart of the city. She learned from Takki that inns got cheaper the farther away from the gate you got.
"What'll it be, boy?" she was asked when she walked into the inn. Youko had to smile to herself. Most inns ran a dining hall on the side. It was typical to get asked for an order right off the bat.
Youko glanced around the premises. You could tell a lot about a place from the atmosphere of the dining hall. This inn was no high class establishment, but it wasn't skid row, either.
"Are there any vacancies?" she asked.
The innkeeper gave Youko an inquisitive look. "You by yourself?"
When Youko nodded the innkeeper said, "Hundred sen. You got money, I assume?"
Youko answered by showing the purse. It was common practice to pay when you checked out.
The currency of the realm was coin. There were several kinds of square and round coins. The square coins had the higher value. Money was counted in "sen," and the value was engraved on the face of the coin. There also seemed to be gold and silver coins, but she hadn't seen paper money.
"You need anything?"
Youko shook her head. The only thing that came free with the room was access to the well. Everything else--use of the bath, food and drink--was a la carte. She'd figured this out on her travels with Takki, and so had already gotten something to eat at a food cart outside the gate.
The innkeeper nodded curtly and called out to the back room, "Hey, we've got a guest. Show him up to his room."
An old man promptly emerged from the back room and bowed in response. A smile frozen on his face, with his gaze he directed Youko towards the interior of the inn. Relieved to have so easily gotten herself a room, she followed after him.
4-2
They climbed the stairs at the back of the inn to the fourth floor. These buildings were all made out of wood and in big cities usually topped out at three floors. This inn apparently had a fourth. The ceiling was low enough that Youko could easily reach up and touch it. A big woman like Takki would have to stoop over.
She was shown a small room, not much more than six by six feet, with a wooden floor. A set of high shelves lined the wall at the back of the room, piled with some faded futons. There wasn't a bed. You slept on a futon on the floor.
Next to the wall, the shelves forced you to bend over, even kneeling down. You could stand up in the front half of the room. The back half of the room was for sleeping. The rooms she'd stayed in with Takki had high ceilings and beds and even a table. For the two of them it cost something like five-hundred sen a night.
Because this wasn't the safest part of town, in this kind of inn you locked your door coming in and going out. The old man handed Youko the key and started to leave. Youko stopped him and said, "Excuse me, but where can I find the well?"
When she spoke, the old man jerked around like a dog running past the end of his leash. His eyes grew wide. For several long moments he stared at her.
"Um … " said Youko. Thinking he hadn't heard her correctly, she repeated the question. The old man's eyes grew wider.
"Japanese … " he said, and all but ran back into her room. "You--you come from Japan?"
When Youko didn't answer he grabbed her by the arm. "You're a kaikyaku? When did you get here? Where you from? Speak Japanese to me again."
Youko could only stand there and look at him.
"Please, do like you was talking before. I haven't heard Japanese spoken for years and years."
"I, ah … . "
"I'm from Japan, too. Go ahead, let me hear you speak Japanese."
From within his eyes, deeply set in his wrinkled face, tears welled up, sparkling and clear. Youko felt herself start to tear up as well. What a strange coincidence this was, that in this strange land, in a corner of this big city, the two of them should have met.
She said, "You're a kaikyaku, then?"
The old man nodded. Over and over, impatiently, bobbing his head as if words would not come. He gripped Youko's arm with gnarled fingers. She could see in the firmness of his hold on her what kind of loneliness he had endured. She squeezed his hand in return.
"Tea?" he asked in a tremulous voice. "You want some tea?"
Youko bowed her head.
"You drink tea, don't you? Ain't much, but I got me some green tea. You wait here while I go fetch it, okay?"
"Thank you."
The old man returned a short time later with two teacups. Youko thanked him graciously. The sudden smell of green tea brought back memories of home. Closely observing Youko as she tasted the tea in her mouth, the man sat down on the floor in front of her.
"So happy to meet you. I told 'em I was sick and skipped out on work. Tell me, boy … no, girl, ain't you? What's your name?"
"Youko Nakajima."
Ah, the old man's eyes replied. "I'm Seizou Matsuyama. Now, miss, my Japanese is not too strange for you, is it?"
Youko wanted to nod, but shook her head. He did have an accent but she could understand him well enough.
"Well, then." The old man really looked happy enough to cry. Indeed, he seemed to be laughing and crying at the same time. He asked, "Where was you born?"
"Where was I born? In Tokyo."
Seizou gripped his teacup. "Tokyo? I can't hardly believe that Tokyo is still standing."
"Say what?"
He paid no mind to Youko's response, wiped his cheeks with the sleeve of his tunic. "I was born in Kouchi, in Shikoku. I was living in Kure when I came here."
"Kure?"
"Kure, in Hiroshima. You know Kure?"
Youko nodded, trying to recall her old geography lessons. "I think I remember hearing about it before."
The old man laughed bitterly. "A naval base was there and arsenal. I worked in the harbor."
"So you moved from Kouchi to Hiroshima?"
"My mom was staying at her parent's place in Kure at the time. The house got burnt up in an air raid, third of July it was. So she sent me to live with my uncle. He said he wouldn't feed me just for sittin' around all day, so I got a job. That's when we was attacked and the boat I was comin' into harbor on got near sunk, I fell overboard in all the confusion."
Youko realized that he was talking about the Second World War.
"And when I came to I was in the Kyokai. I was drifting on the sea when I got rescued."
The way the old man pronounced "Kyokai" was slightly different from what Youko was used to hearing, closer to "Kokai."
"So … that's how it happened."
"There'd been real bad air raids before then, too, even after the arsenal was reduced to rubble. There was ships at the naval base, but they couldn't help. The Setonaikai and the Suou Sea being all full of mines, the ships couldn't get through.