NOVEL NEXT Chapter 2: Volume 1 (Act 1): Bakeneko
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It was an evening in a brightly lit, bustling red-light district bustling with people and sexy women inviting customers into their brothel. Most of them are men who come here, as if going to a festival, they stand to watch performance of a Geisha on her way to meet a client and talk about the brothels, the beautiful Oirans or the money they are having in their pocket, there are people who talk about "entertainment" topics.
All this bustle creates the atmosphere of a red light district, but it also has its dark side. Women who became pregnant with their customers contracted syphilis and had to stay in low-class, dirty brothels without clean water or adequate food, Kirimise
In contrast to Kirimise, there are higher level, well-lit brothels with more customers. At the end of a street in the red light district, there is a brothel larger than all the other brothels on the street. From the entrance to the courtyard are courtesans serving customers tea, singing and dancing.
Entering the main brothel, this is a grant hall where is full of fragrant smoke with a light scent of flowers mixed with the scent of makeup powder and the scent of fragrant tea and sake. There were many courtesans singing and dancing on the floor in the middle with customers sitting at tea tables around the stage, clapping and laughing.
A staircase leading up to a middle area covered by Byõbu, then there are two more staircases on both sides of the hall leading up to the upstairs rooms which are private tea rooms. The third floor is a place for prostitutes to "spend the night" with customers, while the top floors are where prostitutes and workers live.
In the middle of the area where the stairs led up there was a silhouette of a woman behind Byõbu. That woman just lay down and propped herself up, holding a pipe and smoking behind Byõbu. She ordered the two courtiers next to her to pour tea for the guests she received. Judging by the silhouette and voice, they all knew that it was a very beautiful woman.
"Who's that up there?" There were some curious samurai who told each other to ask and point to that area. The prostitutes around them covered their mouths with their sleeves and chuckled softly. A prostitute was pouring tea when she stopped and she smiled then replied.
"That's our manager, she's very kind. All of us have never seen her beauty, but we're all sure that she has beauty that can make the Oiran in other brothels blush."
"Yes yes, we all want to see our manager's beauty once!" The other prostitutes were all happy and giggling when talking about the woman.
"Hahaha! So your manager is also a prostitute? Then tell me the price, I can make her serve me personally!" A drunken samurai rudely interrupted the other samurai's words. He held a bottle of sake in his hand and put his arms around the shoulders of two other courtesans. He laughed loudly and talked loudly, making the other cavalry girls worried, constantly looking up at the figure of the woman sitting behind Byõbu. "Tell me the price hahaha!"
Then a slapping sound rang out, causing the other prostitutes to stop what they were doing and look in the direction where the slapping sound came from. It was a courtesan playing the Koto, she had a cold and proud face, her Hikimayu eyebrows furrowed as she slapped the samurai, "You have no right to be so rude to our manager!"
"Hm? Yuna, Mei.... What's going on?" The slapping sound was so loud that it attracted the woman's attention behind Byõbu, she spoke slowly, waving her hand at the two courtiers who were pouring tea to ask what was going on.
"Uranaishi-sama, there was a samurai who spoke about you improperly so Haru-san the courtesan playing the Koto slapped him in the face." The courtier named Yuna knelt neatly to the left of the other woman and answered.
"Do you want us to use 'strong measures', Uranaishi-sama...?" The courtier named Mei knelt to Uranaishi's right side and asked softly into her ear.
"No need, you guys just go down there and save Haru-chan out of there first." Uranaishi said with a blank expression, pointing at the angry samurai.
"Yes, Uranaishi-sama" The woman's two retainers disappeared.
"Huh? What did you say you whore!?" The angry samurai picked up a cup of sake and threw it on the prostitute. He angrily pulled out his sword and grabbed the courtesan's hair, causing her hairpins to fall rattling on to the floor, she's screaming and struggling to escape.
"Sir, our lady requests that you please leave her brothel in peace." Mei suddenly appeared in front of the samurai and tightly grabbed his hand that was holding Haru's hair. Mei's grip was so tight that the others could hear the bones in his arm cracking.
"You brats!" The samurai hissed in pain used force to punch Mei's face causing the girl's face to swell and one eye to bruise. He was about to swing his katana to slash Mei, but Yuna appeared and crushed the samurai's wrist, causing his katana to fall to the ground. Red flames slowly appeared around the hall, causing the surrounding scene to blur, the faces of the other courtesans also blurred, leaving only two children, the samurai writhing in pain and the woman with Uranaishi's name is still clearly visible.
"Uranaishi-sama...." The woman was so indescribably beautiful that the samurai looked at her passionately and couldn't take his eyes off. She herself came out from behind Byõbu, slowly going down the stairs, towards the other three people. As she walked, she took a long drag from her pipe, then she slowly exhaled the smoke. She reached out and touched Mei's face and the wounds disappeared on their own.
"Ah yes.... First, you don't respect me at all. Second, you don't respect my courtier, third, you also don't respect those prostitutes..." Uranaishi took another long drag and leaned forward slightly, she looked down at the rude samurai. She spoke slowly and sweetly like a deadly snake, pouring death threats into the samurai's ears. She used the part to burn the tobacco leaf and moved it over the samurai's face to his chin, leaving a line of burns up to his chin. She pushed up the samurai's chin and grinned so sinisterly that her fangs were exposed.
".... Then you definitely have a death wish. Show him a lesson" She paused for a long moment to let the samurai feel the fire burning his skin, he screamed and cried in pain before she finished her sentence and turned away. Mei and Yuna turn into giant Mononoke and begin tearing him apart.
"Ack.... ack...." The red flames gradually dissipated and everything returned to the way it was. The samurai was scared to death, lying on the ground and foaming at the mouth. The events in the illusion that just happened were just a blink of an eye in the human world. The surrounding prostitutes were still bewildered when they saw the samurai suddenly lying on the ground and convulsing.
"Yare yare, looks like he's had a heart attack..... Where's the cleaner, put him out." Uranaishi burst out laughing, she said it loudly for the entire hall to hear. The cleaners began to carry the samurai and throw him out into the street. But the atmosphere in here was still gloomy, so she thought for a moment and called Yuna and Mei behind Byõbu to whisper. Her two courtiers nodded and then raised their voices to attract attention.
"Since the manager of this brothel is in a good mood today, there will be a free music and tea session this evening!" The other guests cheered in joy as the other courtesans regained their composure and began to play and dance.
Yuna and Mei returned to their places next to Uranaishi and Yuna began serving tea to the woman and a box filled with precious stones and exquisite decorations appeared out of nowhere and fell into Mei's hand. She opened that box and took out a jeweled gold comb, and gently combed her hair.
"Uranaishi-sama, why don't you kill him?" Mei asked Uranaishi for her curious sister while Mei took down the hairpins on Uranaishi's head to comb her hair.
"It would be so easy to kill him." The woman said, in her hand was a cylindrical box with divination sticks. She shook it nonchalantly before it landed on the floor a divination stick.
Clack!
"Hm..." Yuna held up to the Fortuneteller with both hands the hexagram with words only the owner of it could read. Uranaishi picked it up and flipped it over, she winced a bit but then giggled mischievously.
"Heh.... Hehe.... Interesting...." the Fortuneteller couldn't help but smile revealing a bit of her fangs, a smile when she had an "item" play" new. Mei continued to brush her mistress's hair, "I'm going to somewhere on the next morning, you two remember to wake up early to do my hair. And take care of this place while I'm not here."
"Yes, Uranaishi-sama", the two courtiers of the Fortuneteller answered in unison.
"I don't know what the story is this time..... It's worth looking forward to..." The woman's eyes lit up as she finished reading the hexagram, then the hexagram stick in her hand turned into red flames and dissolved in the air....
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In the Edo period, panic ensues when the Sakais' young daughter, , dies right in front of her parents and a trio of samurai bodyguards. Kusuriuri appears with a mysterious woman calling herself a fortune teller name"Uranaishi" and puts up paper barriers on the outside entrance, telling everyone to take precautions lest they end up in danger.....
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Time gradually passed and the sun gradually rose, signifying that a new day was about to begin. The road was still deserted with the sound of cicadas breaking the quiet of a quiet morning. There were only a few people passing by on the road, but among them there is a strangely flamboyant stranger with red paint on his face. He carried a large wooden box on his back like a luggage bag, striding seemingly at random, to the front gate of a giant mansion belonging to the Sakai family.
"Huh? Hey! Medicine seller!" A resident wearing a red hat standing nearby cried out when he saw the Medicine seller stop and look at the gate of Sakai's mansion. But the Medicine Seller didn't pay any attention to the man at all and just muttered silently to himself... Or to someone, "Today's the young lady's wedding day. You won't be able to sell any medicine."
Clack! Clack! Clack!.....
"Hey...."
"Oh....?" The other man no longer interfered and let Kusuriuri enter. His wooden geta clicked with each step up the stairs. At the last step, he suddenly stopped for a moment when he felt something. The corner of his mouth curled up a bit then he continued walking into the mansion's yard. The place where guests of the noisy and boisterous Sakai family gather to hold parties and drink sake. Since there were no guards around or anyone who pays attention to him closely, he managed to slip in unnoticed easily.
"Look, a medicine seller is coming."
"Yeah, it's a medicine seller."
"It's a medicine seller, all right."
There were a few samurai guests who saw him, but they weren't wary, but on the contrary, they were hysterical and pointed at the Medicine seller.
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"Yare yare, what kind of house has so many rooms! So troublesome!" A woman's voice came from the hallway leading to the kitchen. As soon as she opened the door, a mouse ran through the door and was caught by the woman. She grabbed the mouse's long tail and pulled it up and held it away from her. She immediately went into the kitchen and threw the mouse into the mouse trap, "And rats too!"
"Oya...? Is this Ojou-sama also a guest of the Sakai family...?" In the kitchen there was a man with blond hair and a girl with slightly dark skin who was clinging to the other man because she was afraid of rats. The gaze of the man with the purple bandanna focused on the woman who had just entered, seemingly thinking about this woman's identity.
As for the other girl, she blushed when she first saw the beautiful woman as if a god had descended to earth, making her freeze and her jaw drop, "I'm curious if any gods have just descended to this world?" The man spoke slowly but did not mean it as a compliment, it was more like he was mocking the other woman.
"Quite brave, I'll give you that...." The woman's eyes lit up when she heard the other man say. She wasn't angry at all, on the contrary, she looked amused, her smirk broadened, revealing a bit of her fangs. The woman walked closer to the two of them, taking a long drag from her pipe. She leaned forward, facing the other man, clearly she would not accept defeat when it came to sarcasm, "A medicine man, huh? You know, you dress more like a flashy bird that stands out in a crowd than a medicine man who wants to keep his identity a secret, Kusuriuri."
"Ehhhhhh..... H-how did you know...."
"Firstly, there were many medicines.... on the floor that he was displaying, secondly, I overheard your guys conversation.... When I was looking for the lavatory...." The woman interrupted the other girl's words, she slowly explained while tilting her head over and smiling sweetly.
"It seems... I have a worthy opponent..." The medicine seller spoke slowly, it looked like he had no expression at all but the corners of his mouth were jerk a little. Then he tilted his head and looked out in the direction of the mouse traps. "Come to think of it, there seem to be a lot of rat traps around here."
"Hm.... I just noticed now..." Uranaishi decided not to interrogate the man anymore, but she walked back to the mousetrap cages to look for clues. She still felt the man's gaze still only on her.
"Lots of rats here." The girl with tan skin responded.
"Why not just get a cat?"
"A cat? I suppose.... But somebody here can't stand them." The girl answered with a sad expression. Uranaishi took another long drag of her pipe and slowly exhaled the smoke. She was about to continue asking when an angry voice spoke first.
"Kayo! I've just spoken with Yahei. How could you be goofing off at a time like this!?" Another woman seemed to be the head maid of this place, she put her hands on her hips and scolded the girl. While the woman who looked like a goddess had disappeared without a trace.
"Anou.... A guest asked...."
"I was just recommending some rat poison...." The medicine man spoke up and rescued the girl. He knelt on the floor and answered seriously.
"We're not interested! Kayo! Go and fetch some water." The angry woman was not swayed at all and she interrupted the man's words, continuing to set another task for the girl named Kayo. "The water jar is completely empty."
"All righttt!" As soon as the head maid finished her sentences, Kayo had quickly put on her shoes and she answered in an annoyed tone. That girl looked around and wondered to herself where the woman with the hairstyle like an Oiran had disappeared to.
"Honestly!" The other woman still put her hands on her hips and grumbled, watching Kayo go out to fetch more water.
"I apologize for causing trouble. I'll.... leaving shortly", The medicine seller saw that and immediately stood up to walk out the door. Before wearing his geta, he turned to look at the head maid, making her blush because of his handsome face. He used his beauty as a trick to seduce the other woman. He spoke slowly with his deep, engaging voice. "But may I ask, is there.... A female guest here dressed as an.... Oiran courtesan...?"
"Huh...? No, no one here wears anything like that."
"Is that so.... By the way.... Who's the one that dislike cats?" Kusuriuri asked a question that looked quite natural but had a lot of meaning behind it, causing the woman to stutter, her voice a bit startled. The man was silent for a moment before the woman's vague answer and then answered, but his eyes were still full of questions about the woman. "Never mind"