"Excuse me."
Hiromi, Shinobu and Chigaiko stopped on hearing that voice before all three turned to see a very pretty girl standing in their path. Appearing to be a high school sophomore, she was quite well-formed, with long brown hair centre-parted on the head and divided into two pigtails tied off near the ends with ball barrettes and bright green eyes under round-frame reading glasses. She was dressed in a pair of stylish jeans and a knit sweater over a T-shirt, running shoes on her feet. Noting the magatama hanging off her ear — coloured to denote her as being D-rank as tōshi across Kantō would rate things — Hiromi then smiled as she bowed. "Konban wa. Is there something wrong?"
The other woman found her cheeks reddening as Hiromi's dark brown eyes seemed to lance right into her very soul, and then she giggled in embarrassment. "I'm sorry," she then apologised. "I was riding the subway to Ikebukuro and fell asleep along the way. I woke up and got off, not realising I got off at Tomobiki-nishi instead!" She then shook her head as the three Tomobiki natives tried not to laugh at her predicament. "By the time I realised what had happened, I got lost! Could you show me where one of the stations on the Ikebukuro line are so I can get back home?!"
Hiromi blinked, and then she reached over to gently squeeze the other woman's shoulder. "It's alright! It's alright!" she assured her before she waved to her companions. "We just came from the direction of Tomobiki-chūō ourselves. I was about to head home, but if you need a guide there, I can certainly…"
The other woman waved it off. "Oh, no! No! No! I don't want to impose on you! If you just got back, I don't want you to travel out of your…"
A deep squeaking noise then escaped from somewhere near the visitor's stomach, which made her turn as red as a cherry in embarrassment. Hearing that, Hiromi's eyebrows arched, and then she smiled. "I think you're going to come with me to Tampopo's, where we're going to get a meal into you so you don't faint on your feet before you need to get home. I assume you currently attend Seito." On seeing the other girl nod, Hiromi then waved her down the street. "Come on! I'm famished and if I'm going to eat, so will you!"
Before the other woman could protest, Hiromi grasped her by the hand, and then dragged her down the street towards downtown. Shinobu and Chigaiko watched them head off, and then they exchanged a look and a smile before they moved to follow…
"What the hell is Ryūbi Gentoku doing here?!" Ryomō Shimei wondered aloud as she watched the scene from behind a conveniently thick tree some distance away.
Behind her own tree across the street, Ryofu Hōsen was wondering the same thing.
Near Tomobiki High School, a half-hour later…
"And here you go! One Onii-san Special Gyūdon, all for you!"
Gentoku blinked as the rather BIG bowl of rice, shirataki noodles, sesame oil-cooked beef, mixed greens and garlic shrimp was placed before her, and then she watched Hiromi — who had got changed into a very flattering yet hardly-revealing waitress uniform, her name written in hiragana on a nametag on her left breast — serve Shinobu and Chigaiko. "Anything else you need before I go to work?"
"No thanks, Hiromi-chan," Shinobu said as she and her classmate grabbed chopsticks and broke them open so they could eat. "We can help our friend get back home. You better get busy or Tampopo-san's going to freak out all over you."
Hiromi laughed as she headed off to another table to take an order. Gentoku watched her go, and then she gazed on her current guides. "You call her 'Hiromi?'"
"That's her name: Moroboshi Hiromi," Chigaiko supplied as she and Shinobu dug in.
The visitor from Chichibu blinked. "She's related to Moroboshi Ataru?!"
"Adopted sister," Shinobu provided. "Her birth-name's Koro Hiromi."
Silence.
"What…?"
The Tomobiki natives stared at Gentoku. "What is it?" Chigaiko asked.
The leader of Seito blinked, and then she sighed. "My name is Koro Sonami."
Shinobu and Chigaiko gaped at her, and then the former leaned closer to her. "Um, don't mind if I ask you this, Sonami-san, but what's your battle-name?"
"Ryūbi Gentoku."
More silence.
"Holy…!" Chigaiko gasped.
"What was the relationship between Liú Bèi and Liú Hóng?" Shinobu asked.
The other girl hummed. "They were separated by quite a few generations, Shinobu-chan. Liú Bèi's family were stripped of any of their royal titles back at the time of Emperor Wǔ. That was all the way back in the second century before Christ."
Shinobu nodded. "Does Hiromi-san have a battle-name?" Gentoku asked.
"She goes by 'Ryūkō Kyōrei,'" Chigaiko provided.
The leader of Seito hummed as she considered that, and then she blinked as she recalled the early chapters of the Sānguó Yǎnyì. And one particular ruler's birth-name.
"She's Reitei-sama?" Gentoku then eeped out.
Shinobu and Chigaiko looked at her…
At their own private booths close by — which were served by different waitresses — both Shimei and Hōsen were wide-eyed as their minds nearly crashed from that utterance from the leader of Seito.
'REITEI?!' both of them howled in their heads…
"I personally don't care to be called that, beloved kinsman."
Gentoku gasped on hearing that weary-sounding voice, and then she turned slowly to her right and looked up to gaze in Hiromi's sad face. "But…"
Hiromi sighed. "How much do you remember of those times?"
The leader of Seito blinked, and then she sighed. While she found it almost impossible to understand the truths that currently ruled her life, she did know that many close friends DID accept those truths as totally sacrosanct. "Very little," she then admitted. "And even then, it only comes in dreams I can barely remember. And even then…!"
"Then, in many ways, Sonami-san, I envy you very much," Hiromi then said. "Unlike you — and, from what I gather, unlike most others such as you and I — the memories of my life as Liú Hóng are as fresh as fallen snow in my soul. Atop that — through means I don't understand — while all of the noble souls who were born and lived in that time were reincarnated again and again and again as they traversed through the ages and across China and Korea here to Japan, I was forced to watch what happened to all of you — you and your sworn battle-brothers from the Peach Garden, not to mention Lord Zǐlóng, Lord Mèngqǐ, Lord Hànshēng — so many others…"
"That's enough, Hiromi-chan."
A supportive hand gently squeezed Hiromi's shoulder, which made her jolt as she looked left into the concerned face of Kamekichi Tampopo, the middle-aged proprietor of Tampopo's Ramen and Beefbowl Bar. "Sorry," the younger woman breathed out.
"Why don't you let Sonami-chan stay here tonight with you so you can catch up on old times?" Tampopo then suggested, her deep brown eyes twinkling knowingly. "She can take one of the early trains back to Chichibu tomorrow so she doesn't miss classes."
"You wouldn't mind?" Hiromi asked.
"No, I wouldn't. But what I DO mind is YOU slacking off, young lady!"
A swat on Hiromi's butt by Tampopo's pizza-sized flipping spatula caused her to yelp in shock before she scrambled off to another table to get their order. As Tampopo turned to head back behind the counter, Shinobu and Chigaiko both laughed while Gentoku tried not to gape in disbelief as her mind rolled over what she had just been told…
Hours passed…
As the sun crept down to pass behind the peaks of the Kiso Mountains, Gentoku finished up with the late supper she had been allowed to have, and then she took the chance to enjoy some tea as she chatted with Shinobu and Chigaiko about themselves, their friends and the events that had shaped their lives to date. As they talked, Gentoku was quick to sense her current guides glossing over the most recent events that had rocked Tomobiki, especially when it came to the fate of Hiromi's adopted brother. Still, she didn't press either Shinobu or Chigaiko about that.
Finding out about her spiritual "cousin" had just filled her with joy.
Like most tōshi of her generation, Ryūbi Gentoku often felt cut off from the wider world beyond the tight-knit community that kept those either attending or affiliated with the "Seven Battle Schools of Kantō" — as the Nan'yō Academy, Yōshū High School, Rakuyō Senior High School, the Kyoshō Academy, Gogun Prefectural High School, Seito High School and the Yoshū Academy were called as a group — within a grip of solid iron. Because she often felt that sense of disjointedness when it came to what was happening beyond Seito's walls, she gladly welcomed any chance to form any sort of bond with something that was, in any way, "outside" the world of the tōshi. Hence, her willingness to stay close with a paternal cousin three years her senior who had been born as Koro Kimiko and was known during her days at Seito as "Ryūhi Eisen" (despite the fact that Eisen was currently a member of the renegade bōsōzoku gang called the "Kōshi Kasshi" in tribute to the Yellow Turban rebels of 1800 years ago), who was currently seen by "mainstream" tōshi — even her best friends Kan'u Unchō and Chōhi Ekitoku! — as a traitor, a literal "non-person" to be forgotten forever by "proper" tôshi.
And now to meet another "cousin"…
One who, while acknowledging herself as a tōshi, lived under her real name.
One who clearly seemed willing to reject any attempts at forcing her to "conform" to what was "normal" for tōshi, regardless of which school they attended.
And — which was especially shocking given who Hiromi once was — one who clearly rejected any bad things the past might try to force on her.
Wasn't that a good thing?
For two other tōshi, the hours at Tampopo's were simply nerve-wracking.
As far as either Ryomō Shimei or Ryofu Hōsen knew, the man known these days among the ranks of tōshi as "Reitei" had NEVER been reincarnated since the death of the man born Liú Hóng in the late spring of 189 CE, the fifth year of the Era of Zhōngpíng. There HAD been times when the spirit of Liú Hóng's second son — the last Emperor of the Hàn Dynasty, born as Liú Xíe and known in Japan these days as "Kentei" — emerged as a tōshi over the generations, the latest being a mysterious man believed to be attending the remote Nanban High School out in the Izu Islands these days. But certainly NOT his father, the "filial and inattentive" emperor who allowed his court eunuchs to completely run the government, sold political offices to anyone with money and totally ignore what was happening to the people Fate had placed him in charge of so he could live a life of decadence among a sea of beautiful concubines.
And yet…
If what they had heard this "Ryūkō Kyōrei" confess to Gentoku was REAL…
What would it mean for tōshi as a whole?
Hell, what would it mean for both of THEM?!
For Shimei and Hōsen, that was truly the question they now faced…
Well after nightfall…
"So you really don't mind, Hiromi-san?"
"No. Not at all, Sonami-san," Hiromi assured Gentoku as Tampopo switched the sign on the window to read CLOSED. Shinobu and Chigaiko had left a half-hour before so they could get home and go to bed so they could feel fresh and rested for classes in the morning. Shimei and Hōsen had also departed sometime before, having not said a thing to either Hiromi or Gentoku during the whole time they were there. "I'll set the alarm early enough so we can get you to Tomobiki-chūō first thing tomorrow morning so you can get back to school." She then perked as she stared in concern at the other girl. "Do you have some means to tell your friends where you are?" she asked.
"I do have a cell phone…" — a faux-guilty look then crossed Gentoku's face, which made Hiromi gape at her — "…but, being the silly little girl that I am at times, I left it back at my apartment so that I don't have to be bothered by Kan-san or Chō-san sending me text messages wondering where I was."
Hiromi's eyebrow arched, and then she chuckled. "Your choice, then. Here, my room's up this way. I've got pyjamas that should fit."
Gentoku smiled as she followed her new cousin upstairs. Watching them go, Tampopo could only smile before her eyes narrowed as she gazed outside while we…
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(Posted Wed, 05 May 2010 05:43)
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