Tsubame walked faster.
Being out at night didn’t bother her as much as it used to, but this was a rough neighborhood and she felt indecently exposed in the Western-style dress that was Tae-san’s new look for the Akabeko staff. They had been so busy she hadn’t had time to even think about changing into a kimono before Tae-san sent her with food for Kitamura-san. She had stayed to play with the baby and talk with Kitamura-san about her husband, a friend of Tsukioka-san’s who was in jail for speaking against the government. Tsubame didn’t really know what to make of that. To her the government was the law that made it so she didn’t have to belong to Mikio-san and steal for him, it was Yahiko’s friend Shinichi-kun and the policemen who had helped bring Kaoru-san back when everyone thought she was dead. And speaking against the government was the men who came to the Akabeko and drank too much and argued about politics and caused trouble. But Kitamura-san spoke of taxes people couldn’t pay, of girls like herself forced to work in horrible conditions, of men beaten, imprisoned and even killed for trying to stand up for themselves, as if this were still the bad old days when a commoner’s life was nothing. Anyway, she had stayed a lot later than she wanted to, and now it was dark and she was alone in a bad neighborhood, in a dress that left her legs exposed and shoes that felt stiff and awkward on feet accustomed to geta.
She wanted very much to get out of this neighborhood. The alley was too narrow to get around any obstruction; she had to step over a man who had apparently chosen to sleep in the street, leaning against a dilapidated house with a ragged blanket wrapped around him and pulled over his head. She wouldn’t have seen him at all except for the faint light of an aka-chochin; apparently rundown as it was, the building housed a drinking-shop.
“Hey, pretty girl.”
She found her way blocked by a group of young men. They were all smiling, but they didn’t look friendly.
“Ex-excuse me,” she stammered and tried to duck past them.
“What’s the matter, pretty girl? Don’t you wanna be friendly?
“Maybe she thinks Japanese guys aren’t good enough for her.”
“Yeah, look at her, dressed like a gaijin!”
“Come on, girlie, show us some fun too!”
Tsubame took a step back and cowered against the building. The toughs had surrounded her, she couldn’t even get back to Kitamura-san’s house. Please somebody, anybody…
Something rushed by, a wind, a gray blur, and two of the menacing toughs were gone and the rest of them weren’t paying attention to her. It was the drunk she’d stepped over a moment ago, only whatever he was, he wasn’t drunk.
He was very tall, even taller than Sanosuke who was the tallest man she’d ever seen. His hair was white, but he wasn’t old. Muscles stood out along his bare arms, he had to be strong, maybe even as strong as Sano or Kenshin-san. And there was something wrong with his eyes, they were dark holes in his pale face and they were strange, distorted, at a weird angle – then she realized that what she saw was not his eyes, he was wearing small rimless spectacles with darkened, cracked lenses, askew on his nose.
He swayed a little on his feet. “You shouldn’t go around hurting girls,” he said to the remaining toughs.
“Aw, shaddap, y’old drunk!”
“Yeah, we was just tryin’ to be friendly!”
“You get in our way you’re gonna get hurt!
The strange man grinned. It wasn’t a nice grin. It promised defeat, and humiliation, and serious pain. Tsubame shrank back against the building.
The toughs charged.
One of them crashed into the wall right next to Tsubame. She shrieked.
Another flew off down the alley and landed with a splash. Tsubame didn’t want to think what he’d landed in; it hadn’t rained for days.
The third started to back away. “Don’t hurt me, mister, I’m sorry, we were only havin’ a little fun…” He turned around and broke into a stumbling run, and vanished into the dark.
The strange man turned to face Tsubame.
Tsubame had never been so scared in her life! Not when Mikio and his gang had beaten Yahiko up, not even when she went to Rakuninmura to get Kenshin-san! She wanted to run, but her legs wouldn’t move. She wanted to scream, but nothing would come out.
He took a step toward her. “Don’t cry,” he said. His voice sounded odd, rusty, like he wasn’t used to speaking. “Girls should smile.”
Yahiko-kun, Kenshin-san, somebody help me!
“Oi, what’re you doin’?!”
Yahiko-kun! Tsubame had never been so glad to see him in her life! He was still far enough away to blend into the shadows; it made him look larger than he really was. Slowly he emerged into the dim light. He looked so small compared to the figure towering over her…
The white-haired man raised his head and peered into the darkness, raised a hand and pushed up the cracked dark glasses. He stepped back, away from Tsubame… and seemed to shrink. “Nothing,” he muttered, then turned around and shuffled into the shadows, clutching his ragged blanket around him. “Girls should smile.” She could hear him repeating the phrase as the darkness swallowed him. “Girls should smile.”
“You okay, Tsubame-chan? That bastard hurt you?”
“Yahiko-kun!” She clung to him, sobbing with relief. “No, it was the others, a gang… he stopped them…”
“What’re you doin’ here anyway? You shouldn’t be in this part of town by yourself, even in the daytime!”
“Kitamura-san… and the children… I didn’t mean to stay so late…”
“Che. You sure that guy didn't hurt you?”
She shook her head. “All he said was ‘girls should smile.’”
“Huh. Sounds like a crazy. Anyway, c’mon. Let’s get out of here.” He led her through the maze of alleys, back to main streets and light and respectable people.
“Poor man,” Tsubame said.
“Huh? What’re you talking about?”
“He was really strong, like Kenshin-san… but he was… almost like the men in Rakuninmura. I wonder what could have made him like that.”
“Aw, forget about him, Tsubame. He’s just nuts.”
“He kept saying that over and over. Girls should smile…”
Yahiko frowned. Big… white hair… dark glasses… nah, it couldn’t be him. Or could it…
“You ain’t goin’ back there, Tsubame. That guy’s bad news.”
“Yahiko-kun…”
“I mean it. That part of town’s dangerous enough, but with a nut runnin’ around… if Katsu wants to help his radical buddies he can get those university layabout friends of his to be useful for once.”
“Even if I went with Kaoru-san?”
Yahiko froze. “No way!” he exploded. “If she went, then Kenshin would worry, and if they ran into that nutcase…” I can’t tell Kenshin about this… better just pass the word to Shinichi and let the cops handle it… He forced himself to grin. “He’s right about one thing, though. You oughtta smile.”
“But Yahiko-kun, I want to know more about the things Kitamura-san was telling me, about the girls who work in the silk factories…”
NOTES, EXPLANATIONS ETC.
I got the idea for this from “Full of Grace” by Larraine Lage.
There was a growing reform sentiment at this period, not exactly anti-government but against the policy of channeling all the nation’s resources into urban industrialization. Many of what would today be called liberals advocated land reform and more resources being devoted to improving conditions for farmers and people in small towns. Working conditions in the silk filatures were as terrible as those of any Lancashire cotton-mill of a generation earlier; girls worked under terms of indenture not very different from those of brothels, were overworked and underfed, and many were driven to suicide. Radicals tend to flock together and a university is fertile soil for them; I can well imagine student radicals congregating in the offices of a dissident newspaper. Also, I can well imagine Tae wanting to help the family of one of Katsu’s arrested friends.
Tsubame, of course, has never seen Enishi and has no idea what he looks like.