Chapter 1 The pages are well worn. The parchment is dusty from the continued exposure to the harsh environment of Rakuminmura. I sit in my usual spot against a make-shift shack as I read my sister’s diary for what must be the millionth time. ‘Onee-san…you were in love with him…?’ I can’t believe it. Then, why did she die? Did Battousai not return her love? Is that it? I look toward the transparent visage of my sister. She gives me a sad smile and fades as if she’s leaving me to my thoughts. It has been a year since the revenge failed, yet there are still no answers. The lack of knowledge is driving into me like a virus. It eats away at my soul causing me to journey deeper into my insane confusion. “Hey! You can’t come in here! Get away little girl!” My eyes switch their attention to the newcomer. She’s struggling to get past the village’s “bodyguards”. The girl seems scared witless. She is babbling…at least, that’s what everyone thinks she’s doing. Somehow, I seem to catch a few words. “Qing! Bang wo!” “What the hell is she sputtering!? You understand her?” One man raises his hand as if he will strike her. She immediately flinches and waits for the blow. When it doesn’t immediately come, she returns to her struggling. “I got no idea!” “Qing! Qing!! Qing ni bang wo!!” She looks desperate. Her face is pale, except for the bright red lipstick and growing black eye. Mandarin. She’s speaking Mandarin. What is a little Chinese girl doing here? “Oi! Tang Gei Mu! Where ya goin’?” Yakusa. By the look of their clothing, it looks like they just got off the boat. Eye candy? Is that what they called her? If they’re from Shanghai, why are they speaking Mandarin? They have the wrong dialect for Shanghai. That’s just weird. I take a look at the girl. Somehow, her face has paled even more. She is as her nickname implies. Her long black hair is pulled up in an ornate design that rivals the pleasure women of Shanghai’s red-light district. She is petite and slender. Her black and gold dress fits snuggly to her figure. At first glance, she looks like she’s about fifteen, but her eyes are much older. They are tired and scared, yet have a level of maturity that far exceeds the yakusa behind her. “Qing! Bang wo! Ni bang wo! Qing!!” “They don’t know what you’re saying Tang Gei Mu.” Oh, so they’re sort of smart yakusa. They know the residents here don’t speak Chinese, so they’re using it for their own purposes. “Hey. This is our girl. She’s not all there, ya know. If you’ll kindly give her back to us, that would be great.” They smile as they switch to Japanese. This doesn’t concern me, but I find myself rising anyway. ‘Onee-san…’ There she is again. She’s watching the girl struggle with a frown on her face. ‘I see, so you want me to help.’ “Ni hao…” I step forward. Everyone gasps. I haven’t really spoken during the year that I’ve been here. At least, I haven’t spoken to anyone but Oibore. He seems to have this way about him that demands you join in on his conversations. Who am I to deny him my noncommittal answers? Her face instantly lights up. She pushes her way through the crowd. They don’t bother to stop her. They’re all too shocked to hear me speak, not to mention in Chinese. “Help me! Please! They’re very bad men! Don’t believe them! They make me-” “Save it for later.” I quiet her frightened rambling and turn to the yakusa. Smirking, I wade through the crowd making sure to speak in Mandarin so that no one can interrupt my interrogation. It seems one of the men recognizes me and gasps. I give him a particularly intimidating smirk as I push my glasses up on my nose. “You don’t belong here.” “G-give us back Tang Mu and we’ll leave.” One scrawny bastard thinks he can be smart with me. Is that it? “I don’t feel like it. Leave.” The same scrawny bastard takes a threatening step forward only to be stopped by the obvious leader. He stutters between the two languages, “no…We’ll come back later for her! You better be ready Tang Mu! We’re bringing the weapons if we have to!” Weapons? Idiots. Like I don’t know how to fend off my own weapons. I give the girl a quick glance. Her slanted eyes have widened with fear. Apparently, she’s seen the so-called weapons. “They won’t be back for a while. Relax for now.” I give her a rare grin. For once, it’s genuine. My sister is smiling at me. I did well. She’s smiling a lot more lately. That fact is the only thing keeping me alive at the moment. “Duo xie…” She bows and stares at the ground. This definitely isn’t a girl from the pleasure quarters. Then, why is she dressed like one? My sister glares in the direction the yakusa went. I see. So that’s what the girl meant by “very bad men”. Very bad men indeed. “Don’t mention it…” I turn to go back to my usual spot, leaving her to do what she wants. A few of the other members of this little rundown village try to follow. They all look confused, like they don’t know what to make of me rescuing a strange girl who can’t speak their own tongue. I shoot them a predatory glare. No one will be bothering me today. I don’t care what their questions are. “That was quite a show young man.” Oibore sits next to me. He never was afraid of my glare like the other people. It was a constant annoyance when I just wanted to be alone. “What of it?” I pick up the diary again and leaf through the pages with rare disinterest. “Nothing. Nothing. That was just very nice of you.” He lets a bird land on his finger and smiles. I wish these damn birds would leave me alone. They seem to be around a lot lately. I overheard, once, that the things only hung around Oibore. I heard from someone else that birds only hang around kind people. Man how wrong these ones were. I’m just a monster. Even if I did manage to do this one nice thing for this girl, I’m still just a murdering monster. My revenge didn’t work. My sister stopped smiling at me because of some unknown reason. I kidnapped Battousai’s woman. I made him think she was dead. I spent years dedicating my life to leading a weapons dealing operation. I’m just a monster. “Um…may I sit?” I look up to see the girl. Where did Oibore go? Numbly I nod and look away. “I don’t speak Japanese. I can only talk to you.” She has taken her hair down and wiped the lipstick from her lips. At least she looks a bit more comfortable now. I regard her for a moment before nodding again and looking away. “May I know the name of my rescuer?” Her voice is soft and high as is the custom for good Chinese women, or so I’ve heard. Silently, she brings her knees to her chest, but rethinks the idea when she realizes the slit on both sides of her skirt reveal a bit too much skin when her legs are in that position. She blushes profusely as if she hopes I didn’t notice the clear view she just gave me. Of course, I did notice, but I choose not to let on. “Yukishiro Enishi. You?” My sister smiles for me. She seems very pleased with the introduction and almost seems to be laughing at my reluctance to be friendly. “Xu Liya…” She is silent for a moment. I can feel her watch me. Is she waiting for a reaction? A continuation of the conversation? “Thank you again for saving me. If there is anything you need in return, I will gladly give it to you…within reason of course.” “I don’t need anything.” She smiles weakly and rises. Giving a small bow, she leaves me to my loneliness. “Hey, new girl! Hey!” The smell of dinner starts to permeate around the village. Nonchalantly, I regard how Liya is reacting to the men calling her. As I expected, she has no idea people are trying to get her attention. She’s busily trying to find a place to stay for the night. Most of the good spots are taken. “Hey! New girl! Che! She can’t hear me!” “She can’t understand you. She doesn’t speak Japanese.” Once again, I find myself rising. A man has to eat at some point. “Liya! Dinner!” I call. She stands up from the spot she found and rushes over to the stew pot. She must be hungry. I wonder if those yakusa even fed her. Her body is a bit too thin to be very healthy. “What does she speak then?” I hear the man from before ask. “Chinese.” I find myself offering her a seat beside me. After all, I am the only one here who speaks her language. I guess I’m going to have to force myself to be her interpreter for now. “Xie xie.” She accepts the bowl of stew and chopsticks. Humbly, she begins to eat. It seems the others in the group have taken her response to be that of gratitude. They didn’t look at me for a translation or anything. As expected, her hunger betrays her and she finishes her meal rather quickly. Her eyes dart around noticing the meagerness of the stew pot and the quantity of people eating. Tomoe coaxes me to give up my portion for her, but I am already almost finished eating. She does look like she needs the nourishment though. Others seem to notice this as well, but food is too scarce to act on this observation. Her eyes look hungrily at the food still left in the pot. Clenching her fists, seemingly to control herself, she rises and leaves the group. I watch her slowly make her way to the spot she found before. She sits and leans against a wall of some sort. Her legs curl up as the rest of her body descends to the ground. I guess she’ll sleep off her hunger then. Briefly, I consider what she used to do while she was with the yakusa when they didn’t feed her. Did they only feed her when she did what they asked? Did she often refuse their advances? Is that why she’s so thin? She’s obviously educated. Her speech patterns are very articulate. How did she come to be with those bastards? I vaguely remember the leader mentioning something about revenge. That’s why I sold him the custom weapons as opposed to the cheaply made ones. He was speaking my language. Was she included in the revenge they were speaking of? Time will inform me. For now, I should sleep. I had been reading Tomoe’s diary all day…again. It always makes me tired. * * * Author's Note: I only took Mandarin Chinese for one year...and I've been forced to take French this year...so I haven't taken Chinese for a while. If I wrote anything hideously off, please tell me. Qing = please bang = to help ni = you wo = I, me xie xie = thank you duo xie = many thanks tang = sugar, candy gei = of, etc. mu = eye I wanted her nickname to be eye candy, but I didn't know how to show that in Mandarin. I hope tang mu is good enough. yakusa = I figure this is a general term for gang, so that's what I'm using it for. xu liya = liya is the Chinese name my teacher gave me. It was supposed to match my given name, Carolyn Lea, and match me as a person. Li (beautiful) and ya (elegant) don't really match me, so I thought I'd create a character that does match the meanings of those words. xu means gentle. I hope she lives up to her name.