by India Millar
“By all the gods, this one is spirited! Get her from your side, Hideki!”
I would not be deceived twice. I saw one of the other men dart forward, but I ignored him and concentrated on the man behind me. I kicked back hard, striking him on his knee. The blow must have hurt, as I saw his face contort with what I thought was pain. But to my surprise, it had little effect.
“Leave her to me!” he called, and Hideki stood still immediately. I raised my staff in warning, but the man I had hit took no notice. He lunged forward and I hit him on the side of the neck. I thought I must have misjudged the blow when it appeared to have no effect. He threw his head back and laughed.
“Delicious! If that’s what an anma can do for a man, I must try another one. Come on, anma. Want to hit me again?”
I was astonished as he clutched at his robe and tugged it aside, baring his chest to me.
“No good showing her, Tadayo,” Hideki called. “She can’t see you. You’ll have to tell her what you want!”
Even Choki had shaken off his pain and straightened up. He and the other two men watched me and Tadayo avidly. I was thrown off balance and confusion made me careless. I took the nearest target that was offered to me—Tadayo. Not bothering with my staff, I grabbed his kintama and twisted them. He should have been on the ground in a moment, wailing in agony and freeing me to concentrate on the others.
He was not. He gasped and bent over, snatching my hand away from his kintama, but he was straight again in a flash.
“By all the gods, she has some fight in her!” he said. His eyes were shining and he licked a dribble of saliva from the side of his lips. “I do so like that in a woman. But can she take as good as she gives?”
All the men stood back a pace, forming a circle around me. I pretended to worry, clutching at my throat and panting. Tadayo snaked his hand out and grabbed my hair. He tugged at it so hard my scalp screamed. I kicked out and hit the large muscle in his thigh with no effect at all. I was about to try again when his fist connected with my jaw and I crumpled to the ground, my senses reeling. Quite casually, Tadayo kicked me in the belly. He was bare-footed, but the blow was still hard enough to knock the breath out of me. I choked back nausea and rolled onto my side, curling up as if he had hurt me very badly.
“Leave her alone!” The girl who had lured me here in the first place had left her corner and launched herself at Tadayo. She barely came to his waist, but even so, she was flailing at him with bunched fists and was trying to kick his legs. He seemed amused by her assault, holding her at arm’s length.
The circle of men exploded with laughter as Tadayo tossed the child to one side. She immediately jumped straight back at him and he tucked her beneath his arm. I watched from beneath my now loose hair as he bent down and bit her naked buttocks hard enough to draw blood.
Enough. I had my breath back. I had come here to rescue this child, and now she was suffering on my behalf. The civilized part of my mind was embarrassed at the ludicrous turn-around. I quickly pushed the thought away. For the time being, I would exist on instinct.
And that instinct told me that now was the moment to act, while the men were distracted from me.
I focused on Tadayo. If he was happy to both accept and give pain, he was going to be more of a problem than the rest. I got to my feet as fluidly as a snake. Tadayo was laughing as he turned toward me. He had blood on his lips. His tongue poked out with the intention of licking it away, but I didn’t give him the chance. I was standing to the side of him at the perfect angle to strike his temple. I do not have large hands, nor do I have more strength than the average woman. Thanks to my sensei’s training, I knew that what I had would be more than sufficient.
I made a fist and launched a short, hard blow at the side of Tadayo’s temple, level with his eyes. His head rocked sharply. I thought for a moment that my blow had been misjudged, but then he fell to the floor as if he were boneless. As he fell, his arm dropped outward and the child he was holding bounced off the tatami. The rest of the men stared from her to Tadayo.
It was so very easy to take advantage of their shock. The one called Choki went down with a punch just above his abdomen. One of the others lunged at me and I kicked him in his kintama. Unlike Tadayo, who had obviously enjoyed the experience, his face turned an ugly greenish color and he fell to the floor retching. The last man didn’t bother to wait about. He backed away and was sliding open the screen door before I could lay a finger on him.
“Come on. You need to get dressed. Where’s your robe?” I said briskly to the girl. “Stop that!”
She was kicking Tadayo as hard as she could with her bare feet. I grabbed her arm and pulled her away.
“He hurt me!” she panted.
“And now I’ve hurt him,” I snapped. “Get dressed quickly.”
She darted to the side of the room and picked up what looked like a bundle of rags. A heartbeat later, the rags were on her back and her hand was inserting itself into my fingers.
“I’m ready,” she said simply. “I haven’t got any sandals.” She tugged me toward the open shoji and I followed her, feeling my surging fury transform into amusement. At the door, she stuck her head out and looked up and down the street carefully, and then ducked back in. “I think it would be safest if I pretended to guide you. Nobody will notice a blind anma being led about.”
She was right, of course. The man that had escaped had probably gone to find some help. He could be back very quickly. I picked up my staff and put my other hand on the child’s shoulder, urging her forward. Just as we were about to pass through the door, she wriggled out of my grip.
“Just a moment,” she said urgently. Choki lay in a heap where I had left him. I watched in disbelief as the child scrabbled in his obi and came back to me clutching a purse in her hand. “That’s it. We can go now.”
I was so astonished, I allowed her to guide me into the street without another word.
She led me at a brisk pace. I gathered that she was very familiar with the Floating World; she walked confidently and appeared to know where she was going. We turned right and then left, walking forward until my guide steered me into a busy teahouse.
“Please, anma,” her voice was suddenly high-pitched and polite. “May we stop and take tea? And perhaps daifuku cakes? I’m very hungry.”
I was going to refuse but realized that I had nowhere to go, except home to an empty house. Empty apart from Matsuo, of course. And I was intrigued by this scrap of a girl who appeared to have as many facets as a fly’s eye; she clearly was not the helpless child I had taken her for. She not only knew how to take care of herself, but was also, I was sure, perceptive enough to recognize that I could see as well as she could. I sat down on the bench the child led me to.
A disdainful waiter was at our side quickly. “Got enough to pay for it, anma?” he sneered. Before I could answer, the child spoke for me.
“Of course she has. My elder sister is one of the best anma in the whole of the Floating World. And probably the best rewarded.”
The procession of expressions that passed across the waiter’s face was so clear it took a great deal of willpower for me not to laugh out loud. He glared at my companion, switched his fierce expression to me and—when neither of us flinched—obviously became confused. Finally, he bowed his head and walked away, smiling unctuously.
“What’s your name, sister?” I said quietly.
“Niko.” She beamed at me. “And your name, elder sister?”
I was tempted to laugh out loud at the paradox of the situation. A few moments ago, we were fighting for—if not our lives, then certainly our virtue—and now we were exchanging names as if we had just met at some polite party. Niko inclined her head, waiting for my answer patiently.
“I am called Kamakiri.” Even as I spoke, I wondered at the way I had phrased my answer. Niko raised her eyebrows but didn’t comment.
Our order arrived then, and Niko was silent as she stuffed the cakes in her mouth. She was hungry,
I realized, not greedy. I broke one of the cakes in half for myself and pushed the rest toward her. Only when the platter was empty of every last crumb did she speak again.
“Oh, that was good. I’ll pay for it,” she said. I almost laughed at her and then remembered the purse she had taken from Choki. I was about to refuse, to tell her that the money was stolen and not hers to spend, but then I saw her dignified expression and instead I smiled and thanked her. What if the money wasn’t really hers? The poor child had suffered enough at Choki’s—and his friends’—hands to earn it. And I knew that she would have been deeply offended if I refused her.
“Thank you,” I said gravely.
She sat back with a contented sigh and I stared into space, careful to preserve my anma personality. Not that it mattered greatly. Although the teahouse was crowded, nobody had chosen to sit near us. Niko was in rags and I was blind and obviously equally poor; nobody would want to sit near us in case our bad luck passed to them.
“Thank you for rescuing me,” Niko said. “I thought I’d had it that time.”
“That time?” I repeated in disbelief. “What do you mean, that time? Do you make a habit of being taken by strange men?”
“Of course not.” Niko looked so injured I almost apologized. When she continued, I was very glad I had kept silent. I listened in disbelief, understanding what Yo had meant when he said I had much to learn outside of the code of the samurai. “I’ve never actually been taken by a man yet. Mind you, I’ve been pretty close to it a few times, but never quite as bad as this morning.”
I licked my lips, searching for words. “You’ve been with men before?”
“No.” Niko looked irritated. “You’re not listening to me, Kamakiri. I’ve never actually been taken, I told you that. I’ve always managed to get away. Generally, if I scream really loud, they get worried enough to throw me out. If that doesn’t work, I give them a good kick in the kintama. I’d been worried when I saw there were four of them, but when you grabbed Tanaka there and it didn’t have any effect on him, I knew I really was in trouble. You were wonderful. If you hadn’t have come in when you did, I would have had it for sure this time. I owe you my life, elder sister.”
Niko looked at me with shining eyes. I gathered my scattered wits.
“You don’t owe me anything,” I said firmly. “I heard you screaming and sobbing and felt I had to help. It wasn’t personal. But I still don’t understand. How did you come to be there in the first place? Did they grab you off the street?”
“Of course not.” Niko smiled as if my question was absurd. “My father gave me to them. Or rather, he sold me to them.”
I was silent, absorbing her words in disbelief. My own father had been prepared to give me in marriage to a much older man. I had rebelled against the idea, but at least it was honorable. Could any father really choose to sell his young daughter to men to do with as they wished? And not once, but—if Niko was telling me the truth—over and over again?
“Why?” I asked finally.
“Because he needed the money, of course,” she said simply. “Father used to be a carpenter, and a very good one. But he made the mistake of arguing with his master and he lost his job. No one else wanted to give him work after that, and his savings were soon used up, so we went hungry. When Father couldn’t pay the rent, our landlord was going to throw us out, so I went begging for a while.” She sighed deeply. “I wasn’t very good at it. After a while, Father said he would have to sell me to a brothel. I didn’t like that idea at all. I asked him to give me a bit longer to see if I could make some cash begging, and he said I could. He’s very good to me,” she said with pride.
“But you didn’t end up in a brothel?” I managed to ask.
“No. I would have done, but one day when I was begging, a man gave me a coin and told me if I went with him, there would be much more. I knew what he was after, but I pretended to be innocent. He took me to a really nice ryokan, and once we were in his room in the inn, he told me to take my clothes off.”
“Did you?” I asked faintly.
“Of course not.” Niko looked at me scornfully. “I told him I was too shy to do that. He seemed really pleased, and he tried coaxing me for a bit. When I burst into tears, he said I wasn’t to worry, and he would take his clothes off first, to show me it was all right. You should have seen his tree of flesh! Bent as a twig, it was. After I saw that, I had half a mind to stay anyway, I was that sure he couldn’t do me any harm.”
Niko sounded so amused, I began to smile with her. The waiter approached at that moment, clearly intent on clearing us out. I stared straight through him and held a silver coin out in the palm of my hand.
“Will this keep our table until we’re ready to go?” I asked. He took the coin so quickly the movement was a blur and walked away without a word.
“What did you give him that for?” Niko asked. “I could have started scratching at my head, and he would have been so worried I had lice he wouldn’t dare lay a finger on us.”
“It was easier that way. Money can buy almost anything very easily,” I said wisely.
Niko nodded in agreement. “You’re right about that,” she said. I felt a pang of regret that this child should be so worldly-wise.
“So, tell me what happened,” I urged.
“Not a lot.” Niko raised her eyebrows comically. “Once he had all his clothes off, I told him I had never undressed in front of a man before and was shy. The stupid man offered to close his eyes until I had taken everything off. As soon as he did, I shuffled about as if I was taking my robe off. I had seen his purse inside his obi, so I grabbed it and ran off. Not a lot he could do, him being stark naked and all. I was out of the ryokan before he even knew his purse had gone. Of course, I gave the purse to Father, and he was delighted. We paid our rent and had food for weeks. When that ran out, Father suggested I do the same thing again. But this time, he came with me. He took me right into the Floating World, and we just sort of stood about on a corner. I thought it wasn’t going to work, but eventually a man came up to us and chatted to Father for a while. I saw him give Father some money, and then he put his hand on my shoulder and tugged me away with him. That one was so pleased with me that he just took me down the nearest quiet alley and tried to have his way with me there. I let him get his tree out and then grabbed his kintama until he let me go.”
Niko paused for breath, smiling as if she had told me something she was proud of.
“And after that? Did your father sell you often?”
“Whenever we ran out of money,” she said simply. “I never had any real problems. More often than not, the men took me to a ryokan or a lodging house. If I screamed really loudly, they generally let me go in case anybody came to see what they were up to. If that didn’t work, I would sob at them and pretend to be really upset. If nothing else worked, I would shiver and let them think I was really terrified of them. Then when they got close enough, I would give them a good kick in the kintama and run away as fast as I could. I never took anything from them over and above what I thought they owed me,” she added virtuously. “Not until this morning. And anyway, I felt as if I’d earned what I took.” She was looking at me adoringly.
“You probably did,” I said briskly. “Well, you’re safe now. Get back to your father. And if I were you, I would tell him that this was the last time. You see how dangerous it was? Those men would have taken you if I hadn’t turned up. They would have hurt you very badly.”
“But you did turn up, didn’t you?” Niko breathed. “Anyway, I can’t go back to Father. Not now. I don’t want to do that anymore, and if I tell him that, he’ll be very angry with me. He’ll probably beat me. You wouldn’t want that to happen to me, would you?”
“No, of course not. But if you don’t go back to your father, where are you going to go?”
“With you, of course.” Niko’s face lit up in a wide smile
Fifteen
How does a pine tree
Count the children i
t bears from
Each one of its cones?
A sudden throb of pain behind my temple made me put my fingers to my forehead. Had I not been so exasperated, the irony of it would have made me laugh. Surely an anma should be able to heal herself?
“No, Niko,” I said firmly. “You are not coming with me. I’m only a poor anma. I barely make enough money to feed myself and keep a roof over my own head. Go back to your father. Explain to him what happened to you this morning. I’m sure he’ll understand that you can’t go on like that.”
“He’ll sell me to a brothel if I do.” Niko’s eyes were wide and bright, as if she was trying to hold back tears. “I’m still whole. He’d get a good price for me.”
“He wouldn’t do that!” I was appalled. How could any parent contemplate such a terrible thing? Then I remembered the danger Niko’s father had been happy to accept on his daughter’s behalf and was no longer so sure. “He couldn’t. You’re far too young. No brothel would accept you.”
Niko stared at me disbelievingly. Suddenly, I felt it was I who was the innocent, not her.
“I’m twelve,” she said incredulously. “Geisha have their mizuage when they’re thirteen and nobody thinks twice about it. There are brothels out there in the Floating World that specialize in children a lot younger than me. Father wouldn’t have any trouble selling me.”
“I thought you were younger,” I mumbled. “In any event, you can’t come with me.”
“Fine. If you don’t want me, I suppose I’ll have to go back home.” Niko heaved a huge sigh and passed her hand over her eyes, as if she was wiping away tears. I felt hugely guilty, but reassured myself it was for the best.
“Good girl. Tell your father he isn’t to sell you to a brothel. Tell him he’ll have me to deal with if he tries.”
An idle threat, of course. Niko had no idea where I lived, nor did I really suppose her father would be at all afraid of an anma. But for all that, it seemed to work. And I was relieved I had been wrong about Niko seeing through me earlier; she obviously thought I was what I appeared to be.