Being Okashira
Chapter One: A girl? A woman?
He stopped, staring up the hill at the modest building.
The Aoiya.
He walked to it, stepping inside the bustling restaurant. Yet despite its crowd, a young woman still ushered over to serve him.
"Hello," she greeted happily. "Will you be dining alone today?"
"I'm here to see Okina." His voice was flat and toneless.
Immediately, the woman's smile faded. "I see. May I have your name?"
"Shinomori Aoshi."
She merely nodded. "This way please, he is expecting you."
He followed her through the busy restaurant, their presence hardly noticed. Through the kitchen they went also without any notice and into a back hall.
"Straight back and to the left is the door. You can't miss the path; it will lead you back to the main Aoiya building, the sleeping quarters, the training hall. It's a short walk."
He nodded briefly in thanks and moved on, but his temporary escort was already gone. He breathed in deeply the fresh air, a heavy pack on his shoulders. He peered around. A gravel path beneath his feet led to a sprawling set of buildings hidden in the dense woodland. This was the Aoiya - the Oniwabanshuu headquarters he'd heard so much about from others.
He approached it slowly, in awe of its greatness. So many skilled ninjas had learned, lived, and died at this place. He approached the building, sliding the door open without hesitation. He was not surprised to find it empty, so he kept on, stepping inside.
The main room was traditional. There was a table, cushions, and other furniture items lying about. A discarded tea set was spread over the table. He headed for the back door rather than the stairs. He stepped out into an enclosed courtyard only to discover the first set of his Oniwabanshuu brethren.
A girl, young, and a man, older and strangely masked. He watched them; the female in a typical Oniwabanshuu uniform flipped backwards gracefully calling his eye with her movement. He saw a glitter of light and then watched as a set of kunai hurled toward the masked man only to be just as excellently deflected.
They were both good, not on his level of skill, however. Everyone here was talented. Everyone here was dangerous, and if they weren't they were not worthy of the Oniwabanshuu name. He turned away silently only to stop and stare at the arrival of an elderly man. The man, shorter than himself, had a strange pink bow tied around his beard. His eyes were trained on the girl.
"Lovely girl, don't you think?"
He spared the girl a glance before turning back to the man. He seemed to smirk.
"You must be Shinomori Aoshi."
"Aa. You are?"
"You may call me 'Okina'," he replied. "Come then, we have things to discuss. You will meet Misao and Hannya later."
He followed the man, leading him back to the building he'd been in before only this time they took to the stairs and turned left leading down the hall and stepping into a room.
"I am glad you could come. I have had many recommendations for you." Okina smiled at him, but Aoshi remained stoic and unemotional. "I am pleased you are interested in the position, but there is more involved than perhaps you realize.
"You are among three candidates currently being evaluated for placement as the Okashira's consort. Being chosen, however, does not guarantee a union between yourself and the current Okashira or the transition of power from her to you, that is still very much her decision given that she is currently the acting power, even I could not make her marry."
Aoshi nodded. He knew why he was here. The position of the Okashira's 'consort' only existed when there was a female Okashira. A male consort would be chosen to assist her and if all went well, business and personal, the two would marry and she would step down from the Okashira position. What was mostly important was how well the woman and her consort got along together, a strong partnership was necessary given the power they both held over the organization.
"You will meet her later, we do not want her to know exactly why you are here yet."
Aoshi looked up from the table he'd been staring at. "She doesn't know?"
"The death of our former Okashira was quick and unexpected, his replacement is young and not strong enough to hold the title even though I know she tries her best for me. That is why I've summoned you and the others so quickly after the expiration of our leader, our new Okashira needs someone to balance the weight that has been dropped on her shoulders."
Aoshi nodded. He could do that. He was determined to win her.
The Aoiya was an impressive place. The training grounds were plentiful including a dojo, a wild field, a woodland area, the weapons hall, and an interior and exterior courtyard. There was also Okina's garden, a lovely little place to sit in the mornings and evenings. He'd yet to encounter the Okashira however, but he had only been here since yesterday. The young woman's identity was a closely guarded secret, he'd not even heard her name, she was simply called 'the Okashira'.
He mingled silently among his fellow Oniwabanshuu seeing, but not responding to their curious glances. Although it was a largely male group, some females were about here and there. Perhaps most notably were Okon and Omasu, the women who primarily worked in the Aoiya's restaurant out front of the property. There was one other female he knew by name, a young female, loud and boisterous, but cheerful. A young female by the name of Misao. He'd not spoken to her, only watched her train with her male companion, Hannya, and she in turn watched him.
There was something special about those soulful eyes looking at him. Something different than the rest of the women who vied for his attention. If she weren't so innocent, he might have said something sensual, but she was a wild, carefree person by appearances. Her smile was bright and given freely. She seemed completely out of place here in this world of spying and death.
He was disappointed when she had not shown up at dinner last night confounded by his own desire to meet with her again. His wanted to stand over the small woman and speak her name. He was currently climbing the stairs intending to head to his chambers after returning from training. She hadn't been there either. He had just reached the top when he heard a shrill shriek.
"You did WHAT!"
A male voice replied, but he couldn't hear what it was. Beckoned by curiosity he moved toward the sound stopping several doors down from where they were speaking in case someone made a hasty exit.
"I did not tell you because I knew you would overreact. You should know the rules of the Oniwabanshuu at your age, Misao!"
Misao, he thought.
He heard the slide of material as someone presumably stood up.
"Why should I behave more like an adult when you still treat me like a child? I grew up here, Jiya, did you really think I didn't know this was going to happen?"
He could hear her footsteps approaching the door.
"Misao!" Okina called back to her. "There's one other thing... Soujiro is coming back tomorrow."
'Soujiro'? Who was 'Soujiro'?
"What for?" She asked, her tone terse.
"I am surprised you need to ask - Soujiro is one of our best. He is a candidate."
"'A candidate', is that what you're calling them?" She laughed and he cringed at the tone. She sounded bitter and maybe hurt. "I'm surprised there's so much effort to be made when all you really need them to do is get me pregnant, right?"
If she really thought that, all his thoughts suddenly froze.
'...Get me pregnant...'
Her!
She...She was the Okashira?
The door slid open and she stepped out. She looked toward him, sliding the door closed with a prim 'snap'.
"Ah, Shinomori-san. Really, how could I have overlooked you? Naturally that's why you're here... Silly me." She murmured stepping past him and continuing down the hall.
Aoshi was stunned. That young woman was the Okashira, no wonder she needed a consort! However drawn to her he might feel she was not Okashira material. He was basing his opinion entirely too much on his impressions of her, but she was making it easy for him. Determined not to be on bad relations with her so soon, he followed.
Young and immature aside - she was the Okashira, and his opinion of her wouldn't change that.
He followed her along an unmarked path through the woodland and out toward a lake. A large lake, he corrected staring out into the murky waters. He pondered briefly the possibility of leeches.
She was staring uneasily past him over the still water.
"Okashira?"
Should he call her that?
He approached closer coming to one side of her and yet keeping several feet of space between them. He turned his eyes to her face, surprised to see tears on her cheeks. She expressed herself so easily.
"Why do you still call me that? You are one of the men Jiya chose to marry me, and yet you still call me 'Okashira'. You make me feel old."
"As opposed to calling you Misao-chan and making you feel young?" It slipped before he could stop it. She turned her gaze to him, startling him with the emptiness of it.
"You want to be the Okashira, Aoshi?"
His reply was silence.
"How did you get that scar across your chest?"
He almost smirked. He liked that about her - her lack of preamble. She said what she wanted the way she wanted to say it. She'd seen the large scar across his chest the day before in training when he'd walked out of the room, discarding his shirt. He was sweating and the damp cloth had been bothering him.
"Tell me why you are crying and I will tell you where my scar comes from," he replied thinking it a fair exchange. The wound had been a painful one, but her memory too was something painful. Their relationship needed to have some base to it and with what he was discovering about her emotional state he worried she might be cold toward him.
It would be to his advantage anyway if she had a liking for him. Especially if he was chosen to wed her, otherwise he still wished to maintain a good relationship with the Okashira, even if she was giving up the title to the man she married, she was still a powerful woman.
"I fell in love with someone who loved someone else and am stupid enough to keep crying over it."
"Is that it?"
"Soujiro is coming back tomorrow, if he had any luck he probably brought her back with him."
"'Her'?
"Komagata Yumi, my competition for Soujiro," she replied. "Well, I'm not much competition for her. If I was a spiteful person I'd be happy she was in love with someone else, but I'm not."
He knew who Komagata Yumi was, a well-known stage actress and a top of that a very sensual woman. It was no wonder Misao felt unable to compete with a woman like her, but Misao was also much younger.
"You are not on an equal level with Komagata."
She turned to glare at him. "You didn't have to point that out!"
He cursed his bad wording silently. "I meant, she is much older. You cannot expect to have her knowledge or experience enough to compete on the level that would place you on." Seeing she was clearly offended he continued hastily. "Komagata Yumi is not..."
She started him by breaking off into laughter. When she finally settled down a moment or so later, her eyes were bright and almost glowing again with life. "I appreciate the thought, but you are awful with words."
She looked away from him again, her happiness dimming.
"The scar - we had an agreement."
She didn't look back, but he knew she was waiting for his explanation.
"I was obsessed once, with proving myself to the former Okashira. I left the Oniwabanshuu for a year, traveling, determined to make myself stronger. I met a man in Tokyo, stronger than myself. He defeated me in fair battle, but I wouldn't let it go and went back to challenge him again. The only thing that saved my life was his vow never to kill an opponent."
He looked over, and was surprised she was smiling at him. "Oh. I haven't done anything like that, but that's probably a good thing." She motioned absently to the Aoiya. "They would fall apart without me."
He didn't realize it yet, but in the coming weeks he would discover just how right she was. That Makimachi Misao was the entire centerpiece of the Oniwabanshuu headquarters family and they all would give everything to protect her. Nor did he realize he too would be drawn into her sweet web, giving everything he had for her.
End Chapter One.
Minor revisions: 02/15/05