{ FIC } If you could see me now
Edo 1648 spring~ Saturday Shitamachi market place.
Four young children both boys and girls ran past Kame, Ueda and Koki as they walked down the steep stone steps into the lively market place. Some other children in the streets could be seen laughing and playing tag, while their mothers yelled at them from a distance to stop the game because they were running into people on the busy and narrow streets.
Kame looked to his left and stepped away from Ueda to look at the first stall, which displayed different toys from somersaulting dolls to long skinny wooden dolls and spin tops. Staring at the red swirls made by the spin top brought a nostalgic feeling to Kame. He thought about his older brother Kira and remembered the rainy days spent indoors where they would have numerous competitions in the evenings to see whose spin tops could out-spin the other.
The owner stood behind the stall and looked at his potential customer, asking Kame “Would you like to buy this young man? I can give you a great offer.” Kame stepped back slightly from the stall and thought about the price, before he politely refused the owner’s offer and returned to Ueda who was waiting for him. Koki was further ahead of the two, trying to find a tea stand that sold his favorite sweet sticky dumplings.
Kame continued to gaze at the different stalls as they walked by. Some stalls sold similar wooden objects, while other stalls sold items such as colourful paper flowers, coloured cotton fabrics, decorative hair pins, and straw sandals as well as the odd wooden mechanical tea serving dolls.
Ueda stopped closer to a crowded poster stall that held paper paintings of the most famous kabuki artists and courtesans within Edo. Majority of the customers were males but there was also a small handful of females that huddled in front of the stalls to buy the pictures of their latest admirations.
He pointed out the painting closest to the stall owner and whispered in Kame’s left ear “That female in the picture is uncle Takizawa.” Kame’s mouth opened slightly in shock, and replied. “Are you serious?” Ueda nodded. He then continued to direct Kame‘s gaze to the poster hanging on the far right of the stall. On it hung an over-dramatic painting of a man, who had red streaks smeared across his painted white face. Ueda laughed at Kame when his mouth dramatically hung open, after he told Kame that the hideous looking man in the picture actually depicted Koki during one of his popular performances.
When Kame asked Ueda where his picture was, Ueda replied “Not yet Kame, but someday I’m sure both our pictures would be up there too and our devoted fans would line up to buy them.” Kame smiled and nodded in agreement with him.
Koki shouted at the both of them through the noisy crowds, “Oi!! You two, I have found us some seats. Hurry up, I’m hungry!” Ueda pulled Kame by the hand towards Koki. The three of them sat down on the bench, eating sweet dumplings and drinking green tea.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
His expression reflected one of a child that had just entered a candy shop and gazed with fascination at the wide selections of boiled candies. Jin stood at the top of the steep stone steps, with wide eyes as he looked at the crowded street filled with different stalls selling a vast variety of items. As he bounced down the stairs like a happy child, Yamapi and Ryo followed behind him.
Jin stopped and leaned the top half of his body over the first toy stall, eyes focused with fascination at the different wooden toys and lastly he watched the colourful spin tops, rotating on the same spot. Out of the yellow, red, green and blue spin tops, Jin pointed at the red one and asked Yamapi to pay the owner, to which the owner gladly received the bronze coin with an open palm, before bowing deeply in thanks to his customer.
He continued walking excitedly down the streets while pulling onto the sleeve of Yamapi’s jacket. The further they walked the more purchased items Yamapi had to carry. Those items in his arms included a somersaulting doll set, as well as a wooden cup and handle game set.
Yamapi could predict Jin’s intentions when he kept staring at the wooden mechanical doll serving set, as the owner showed other customers how it functions. When Jin was about to point at the doll, Yamapi stopped him by saying, “Jin. You know we can’t carry so many things home.”
Even though he remembered both his mother‘s and Kaoru-san‘s instructions, Jin still tried to persuade Yamapi, “That item is small enough to hide in my room.”
“NO!” Yamapi shook his head with determination, as he spoke.
Jin turned his head back to the stall and took a last look at the tea serving doll before turning away from it.
As they neared a poster stall, Jin stood fascinated as people yelled out loudly and pointed excitedly at the names of the paper posters that they wanted. He pulled Yamapi towards the stall to see what the fuss was all about. Yamapi looked over his shoulder at Ryo who was pointing to the tea stand further ahead and mouthed and mimed the words “meet you there to eat.” Yamapi nodded.
As Ryo approached the tea stand, he looked around trying to find an empty bench in the busy place. He caught sight of a group of three that was preparing to leave. Ryo could see a tanned skin man with spiky hair and grey jacket standing up, along with an attractive looking young boy in a purple kimono that followed him.
Ryo pushed his way through the crowd trying to get to the bench before someone else got to it first. In the process of pushing forward to the vacant bench, Ryo almost knocked the boy in the black kimono to the floor. He prevented the person from falling as he wrapped his arms around the latter’s slender waist and shoulder pulling him into his chest.
In doing so, the person’s chin leaned against his left shoulder. Ueda slowly lifted his chin in annoyance at the man who currently held him in his arms. During that time Ueda had the full intention of striking the man that attempted to push him over with his fist but stopped when he felt his heart skipped a beat, as he met a pair of sincere eyes staring at him.
Ryo blushed deeply as he stared at the striking man in his arms. He has never been attracted to any man before, let alone any male in general. This man however, was different and he knew it, especially when he felt himself drawn into the other person’s black orbs.
Ueda felt awkward at the close proximity between him and the man that embraced him for longer than necessary. Looking over the man’s shoulder, Ueda could see Koki grinning at him; expecting to see a fight, which never eventuated as the man let go of him slowly, before bowing profusely for almost causing an accident. Ueda bowed back, accepting the man’s apology before walking to join his group.
Ryo sat down on the empty bench with a dreamy look in his eyes as he watched the striking man in a black kimono and jacket walk away from the tea stand. He didn’t even notice the man hitting his companion wearing a grey jacket hard on the arm.
Ryo came back to reality when Yamapi distracted him by waving his hand and covered his vision.
“You okay?” Yamapi enquired. Ryo responded by nodding wordlessly, before he stood up on tip toes, trying to see if he could locate the striking man again. To Ryo’s disappointment the man was nowhere in sight amongst the crowd so he sat back down on the bench.
Jin settled himself beside Yamapi and ordered sweet dumping sticks as well as three cups of hot green tea. When the food finally arrived the two of them ate like hungry wolves, while Ryo chewed mindlessly at the sweet sticky dumplings.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
As they came to the end of the market stalls, Kame walked a few meters behind Koki and Ueda. In his hands was his new purchase, which he proudly bargained for with the owner. Kame smiled as he hugged the honey-coloured, wooden jewelry box tightly to his chest and thought about placing his mother’s comb inside.
He looked up at the clear blue sky and the midday sun, not noticing as a small colourful paper ball flew past him or even someone running backwards trying to catch it. He did however, hear two voices in unison shouting out the same name and warning that person to be careful.
“JIN!” Yamapi and Ryo both yelled at the same time, trying to stop him from bumping hard into another person, as he jumped into the air backwards trying to catch his paper ball.
Kame felt like he was falling to the ground in slow motion. He remembered holding tightly onto his jewelry box with his right arm, as he pushed his left arm out against the stone wall and tried to break his fall, but ended scraping his left arm against the jagged stone as he landed on the uneven stone pavement.
Hearing both Ryo and Yamapi’s shout, Jin knew it was too late when he felt himself knocking into something or someone. Jin turned around hastily, only to see the sight of someone wincing, face down and trying to get up. Jin assumed that the person was a young female as they had fair skin and they held tightly onto a jewelry box with their right arm.
After the incident, a large crowd had formed quickly around the scene. Both Yamapi and Ryo rushed to Jin’s side in concern. Jin, without thinking, took the jewelry box out from under the injured person‘s right arm and handed it to Yamapi. He then knelt quickly to the ground, lifted and carried the injured in his arms. Jin looked around, past the crowd, trying to locate a medical physician‘s house.
Kame felt the pain shoot through his left side as he felt himself lifted up from the ground by someone. He kept his eyes shut and bit his bottom lip to stop himself from screaming out in pain. Jin couldn’t see the person‘s face properly as it was covered by most of their hair and the said person continued to whimper in pain. He felt even more anxious when he saw streaks of fresh blood slowly flowing down the length of the person‘s left arm.
When they heard a shout, Ueda and Koki turned their heads to see where Kame was, only to find that the young boy was missing. They looked up ahead and saw a large crowd standing in a circle. Ueda inhaled deeply and prayed that it was not Kame, as he and Koki pushed their way through the crowd. Seeing Kame bleeding in the arms of another boy, Ueda rushed towards the boy carrying Kame and tried to take him out of the boy’s arms.
Jin noticed that the feminine-looking stranger was trying to take the injured person in his arms away, so he tightened his grip, not wanting to let go. He turned to look at Ryo and Yamapi for assistance but they were busy trying to explain to a rather angry spiky haired man, who fisted the front of Ryo’s jacket, demanding to know what happened.
Amongst the anger and misunderstanding, Jin shouted out for all of them to “STOP!!!” The four of them stared at Jin, who looked frantically back at them as he stared at blood that slowly stained the sleeve of his jacket.
Koki let go of the man’s kimono and looked at the boy carrying a wounded Kame. He sighed in frustration as the stubborn boy refused to hand Kame over to him, so he gave instructions for them to follow him. Ueda recognized the face of the previous man that tried to knock him over; as he walked past Ryo he gave him a glare before following Koki.
The six of them passed through some narrow and cramped streets, before Koki finally stopped in front of a small wooden house. He knocked on the door three times and waited for a response from within.
A croaky voice called out “Who is it? And what do you want?”
Koki replied and said “We have an injured person, Takahashi-sensei. We need your help.”
The wooden door slid opened revealing a short and stout man coming out from inside the dark house. He looked at the five men standing at the door before he turned his attention to the injured boy. Takahashi made a ‘tsk’ noise before motioning for the boy carrying the injured to enter; he stopped the other four and told them to wait outside.
Jin stepped forward as instructed with the person that he carried in his arms. He slowly lowered the injured gently onto the tatami mat. As he took a step back to allow for Takahashi to inspect the wounded, he was stopped by a hand pulling his jacket and a whispering softly in a frightened voice telling him, “Don’t leave me alone! Please….. Stay…..”
When Jin heard the request, he looked down at the hand that currently held tightly onto his jacket and stood completely awestruck as he stared at the owner of the hand. It was the first time Jin actually looked carefully at the injured person that he had laid on the tatami mat. He saw that the person was slightly younger then him, and that they had fair skin, a pair of beautiful almond eyes that stared pleadingly at him at the moment, a well- shaped nose and soft pink lips. Jin mentally slapped himself and thought, “What am I doing staring at her like that? She’s a young lady..... I can’t believe I was stupid enough to knock a beautiful young lady over. Now I am never going to hear the end of this from both Yamapi and Ryo.”
When Kame noticed that the older boy had remained still, he let go of his jacket and closed his eyes again saying “thank you”.
Kame cried out in pain as he felt Takahashi pick up his wrist to examine if it was broken. Which prompted Kame to stretch out his uninjured right hand blindly, trying to search for something to hold onto, as Takahashi continued to test the range of movements in his left shoulder.
What Kame had not expected was for a warm hand to grasp tightly onto his. Kame opened his eyes and stared at the older boy. Seeing his eyes laced with worry, Kame tried to hold back the next scream as Takahashi pulled his left arm out of his jacket and cleaned his bleeding arm with water.
Takahashi continued to clean the open wound and wiped the blood from his patient‘s arm. He grabbed a small wooden stick and placed it in between his patients’ lips for him to chew onto. Then he handed the standing boy a dry cloth and asked him to wipe the sweat that dripped down on his patients’ forehead and informed his patient that he would need to disinfect the wound and stitch it.
Jin moved himself so that he could sit beside the ‘young lady’s’ forehead to help wipe away the sweat. He squeezed ‘her’ hand again and gave a reassuring look as Takahashi returned with a lit candle, a thin fishing line, a sharp needle and some rice wine.
Kame bit hard into the wood that lay in between his lips and felt tears flow out from the corner of his eyes, as Takahashi poured the rice wine directly above his open wound. He had to close them again when he saw Takahashi placing the tip of the needle into the flame.
He squeezed the older boys hand tighter in fear. Jin looked down at the hands that clung tightly onto his. Jin felt extremely guilty for allowing a ‘young girl’ to experience so much physical pain, but somehow Jin also felt that for once he was actually needed and useful to someone else even though he was at fault for causing another’s pain. Jin continued the task of wiping away the sweat, while whispering reassuring and encouraging words into ‘her’ ear. Kame relaxed slightly at the slow stroking motion of the other boy’s warm hands that had somehow managed to help him feel safe.
Jin looked up at Takahashi and asked “How long is it going to take Takahashi-sensei? Is she going to be okay?
“Not long now. He will be fine.” Takahashi mumbled
“Pardon?” Jin tried to clarify.
“I said not long now, he is going to be fine.” Takahashi repeated himself louder.
Jin sat in his spot, stunned at Takahashi’s words as it slowly dawned on him, when he looked down at the figure in pain. The young boy bit hard into the wood again, so Jin snapped out of his thoughts and focused on the task at hand. Jin continued to soothe the young boys’ forehead and damp hair while whispering reassuring words. Takahashi finished his task when he wrapped his patient’s left arm with a cloth.
~*~*~*~*~*
Outside Takahashi’s house the remaining four men waited impatiently and looked up every time they heard a muffled scream coming from inside. Ueda and Koki leaned against the frame of the wooden door, while Ryo and Yamapi stood beside the opposite wall, facing them.
Koki threw a sideway glance at Ueda and he could see that the man was rather upset at today’s event. So he gave Ueda a pat on the shoulder, telling him” He will be fine Ueda. Kame-chan will be okay.”
Ueda looked over at Koki and gave him a tiny smile before saying “Thanks Koki.”
Ryo and Yamapi stood listening to their conversation. Over hearing their names, Yamapi decided to apologize to the both of them on Jin’s behalf. “Um…. Koki-kun and Ueda-kun. I am terribly sorry that my friend caused this accident to happen.”
Koki’s anger flared and he rudely replied “Who exactly are you to call me Koki-kun? Did I give you permission to call me by that name?” Yamapi looked at Ryo for help.
Ryo stepped forward and said to an angry Koki “Look it was an accident, he didn’t….”
Ueda raised his voice and interrupted the speaking man by saying “You look here, SIR! How could it have been such a coincidence that firstly you tried to push me over and then it’s your little friend in there, bumping straight into mine? How do you explain two incidents happening in ONE day, from the members of the SAME group?”
Yamapi interrupted and said “Maybe it was fate that something like this was supposed to happen.” Ueda and Koki both rolled their eyes at the same when they heard the comment made by the taller man.
Ryo than said, “Look! Can we please start from the beginning again?”
Koki spat out “Why? So we can repeat this accident again?”
Ryo rolled his eyes at the spiky haired man’s comments before saying in an irritated tone, “NO! I meant introducing OUR NAMES. Do you even know what an introduction is?”
Koki walked up to the man that just insulted his intelligence and pressed his face closer and in a menacing voice he said “And why would I want to know your name?”
Ryo held his ground and calmly replied, “In case anything happened. You would still know who to find.”
Koki stepped back and allowed for the man to continue. “My name is Nishikido Ryo and you guys can call me Ryo.” which he threw in for Ueda’s benefit. Koki rolled his eyes at Ryo and grumbled out “Yeah, but we are NOT your friends.”
The taller boy spoke next “My name is Yamashita Tomohisa but I also go by Yamapi.”
A long pause followed as Ryo and Yamapi both looked at Koki expecting him to introduce himself. Koki groaned inwardly and swiped his palm down his face thinking, “I can’t believe we are introducing ourselves at a time like this.” So he returned their looks and said quickly “Tanaka Koki and the pretty man beside me is Ueda Tatsuya.” The introduction earned him a hard punch to his arm.
Koki ignored Ueda and continued by asking, “What is the name of the idiot inside that ran into my friend.”
Yamapi and Ryo both looked at each other before replying in unison; “Jin!”
Koki scrutinized the two with suspicion and questioned “That’s it? …Jin? …What, he has no family name?”
Yamapi thought quickly before replying “Yabuki!... Yabuki Jin…. But he prefers to be called Jin.” Ryo arched his eyebrows at Yamapi but played along and nodded at both Koki and Ueda.
It was Yamapi’s turn to question “What about your friend in there?”
Ueda replied “His name is Kamenashi Kazuya. We call him Kame.” Ryo and Yamapi both nodded.
After twenty minutes of waiting, the wooden door slid open again and Takahashi told them the results of his analysis, “He managed to gash open the top of his left arm, graze his left elbow and knee, slight bruising on the hip. Other than that, there was no evidence of broken bones. I had to put some stitches in his left arm and his wrist would be swollen for a few days so make sure that he doesn’t put any pressure on his arm and hand for the next two weeks.” They remained silent.
Takahashi continued, “You can tell Takizawa-san that I will come over everyday to take check the boy’s wound and make sure it’s healing properly.” Koki and Ueda both nodded and bowed in gratitude.
Yamapi approached Takahashi and pulled him to the side to quietly discuss the payment of the medical expenses. While Yamapi was dong so, Ryo looked pointedly at both Ueda and Koki and questioned them, “By Takizawa-san, I don’t suppose you mean Takizawa Hideaki, the famous Kabuki female role artist, do you?”
Koki nodded and asked “Why?”
Ryo explained to them that his parents were great fans of Kabuki, especially Takizawa Hideaki. Koki and Ueda both looked at each other and requested for Ryo to not tell anyone or his friends that the three of them are also Kabuki actors. Ryo nodded without really understanding at the time why he had to keep it a secret from Jin and Yamapi.
Takahashi stepped aside to allow the four men go into the room to see their friends. Ueda was the first to walk in but stood blocking the doorway as he watched the scene in front of him. Koki looked over Ueda’s right shoulder, while Ryo looked over the left. Yamapi was the tallest so he could see past the other three.
They watched as Jin was leaning over Kame; continuously stroking Kame’s forehead and hair with his hand as he hummed a soothing lullaby. The four of them could see that Kame had fallen asleep holding onto Jin’s hand. Yamapi smiled as he recognized the tune which Kaoru always hummed to Jin to calm him during stormy nights.
Koki narrowed his eyes as he stared at the sight and pushed Ueda aside. He walked up to Jin tapped him hard on the shoulder. Jin looked up as he saw the spiky hair man and stood up, still holding onto Kame’s hand. Koki carried Kame into his arms, which made the young boy groan without waking. As Koki turned to walk towards the door, Jin eventually had to let go of the hand that he was holding and brushed his fingers against the boy’s fingertips as he was carried past. Silently, Jin stood watching as the sleeping boy was carried out the door.
Chapter 5
AN: Sorry for making you guys wait that long for an Akame meeting, hopefully this meeting between the two was satisfactory for you as readers (Really want to run and hide at this point in time). (-_-)"
Hopefully you'll continue to read the next chapter!! If not thank you for reading this far........
Comments or constructive criticisms are welcome!!