Kasuga Yoshi wrote: ↑Fri Sep 10, 2021 12:47 pm
"Aimi-san, doing stupid things and still profiting from them is what the Tortoise do best." Yoshi pulls out his kiseru and pulls it to a brazier to light it. "But I would like to hear. Now...was I right about the Warrior's Journey?"
"It was a good guess, Yoshi-san, but no," Aimi smiles faintly, and shakes her head, "I'm not a clan samurai under a false name. I am, depending on who you ask, not a samurai at all."
She exhales slowly. It feels strange, admitting this after a life hiding it, but... well she's already planning to ruin what scraps of reputation she had among people who cared about this miai anyway, so why not.
"I was born a peasant girl," she says, as though this is an idle conversation. "One among many, no position or heritage to speak of. And then, when times were tough and hunger began to set in, my parents sold me. I went to the geisha house. It's where I learned my manners, my singing, all the delicate little touches which made me seem like a true samurai in disguise."
She hums, and turns over her hand so that it lays flat on the table. A moment later the water flask hanging from her belt uncaps itself, and a stream of shimmering water emerges, dancing between her fingers like silk. "Then the kami spoke to me, and I knew - from what I'd picked up from clients and peers - that I wasn't meant to be there. That I was shugenja, and that shugenja were samurai, not geisha. But I also knew that if I went to the local lord, why, I'd be taken in and adopted and trained... and I'd just trade one life in a gilded cage for another, my birth held against me by everyone who knew. So I ran. Stole money and clothes, asked the wind to help me time it right, and just... left."
She shivers slightly, and shrugs at Yoshi, an apologetic smile on her face. "So you see, I'd make a terrible match regardless, for just about anyone."