The beginning: The fifth year 4
Today I’ll definitely say it.
I plan on telling nii-sama, who as usual is sitting on my cushion, munching on fried dough cake, today.
Have courage, Nogiku, you have to be brave, ask him innocently! Not unnaturally, but casually, like ‘did you cut your hair?’
Powerrrrrrr~.
“Um, Jyuugi nii-sama.”
Hm?”
“Er, um”
“What’s up?”
What’s wrong with me!! What’s there to be afraid of!!
And plus there’s absolutely nothing natural about this anymore!!
“Um, this just reminds me, but”
“?…..ah, that reminds me”
“That remi….eh, what?”
“Today Rangiku cut his hair off”
“Eh, Ran-chan cut his hair!?”
The ‘not unnatural at all’ like “you cut your hair?” was already used–.
So Rangiku cut his hair, huh. In my memories, the only thing I could remember was my last image of him, with his long pretty red hair tied into one, so it felt kind of weird to try to imagine.
I feel like his hair was short when we first met, but I can’t really remember.
But it surely suits him. Well, more like any hairstyle would suit him, even being bald would.
That’s so nice, I’m jealous. I wanna be a cool handsome guy after all.
“And Kiyomizu did too. Though to around his shoulders. But it was to his waist, after all, so he really cut it all off”
“What!!?”
Kiyomizu nii-sama cut his hair?
For that person, the only thing that came to mind was the image of him with long hair, so I couldn’t imagine it at all…………..ah…….wait a minute……….. with his bangs like that and the back like this, and if the sides were like that, then it might be like this…..
And so I tried imagining it, but four whole years had passed, so his face had probably changed a bit too….
Well, he’s twenty now, twenty! Ramon nii-sama is 22 now, and Ujino nii-sama is 25. Looking at the numbers like this, time sure does go by fast…. This just makes me feel it keenly all over again. Even though the time that we’re not able to meet feels this long…
I wonder how Shuusui and Nagikaze are doing. Though Jyuugi nii-sama frequently talks about them, in the end, it was just talk, so all I could do was guess.
“For some reason, I can’t really imagine it”
“Really?”
“Y,yes. You’re fine because you can see it, Jyuugi nii-sama”
“Well, that’s true”
“It kind of reminds me of ‘a thousand autumns in a day’””
“Would you really use that here?”
‘A thousand autumns in a day’ was when time felt extremely long, just like as if the seasons had gone and passed many times within a single day, like autumn had come a thousand times. That’s what it is. You could liken it to waiting eagerly for something.
But doing the actual calculations for a time span of four years was 365x1000x4 which was 1,460,000. Which means that it would feel like not having met them for one million four hundred sixty thousand years.
One million four hundred sixty thousand years…. that’s a bit….. It was so long that I couldn’t really picture it, so the actual feeling was questionable.
“Umm, then.
Kono koro ni sen nen ya yuki mo suginuruto ware ya shika omou mimaku horekamo “
“Oh, that’s direct. ‘It feels like 1000 years have passed so hurry up and come see me?’ Well, besides the part about coming to see you, I guess that’s pretty close to how you feel”
“Jyuugi nii-sama, have you found a good lady yet?”
“?”
There!
I smashed it in here–!!
Natural, it was natural, wasn’t it?
Ahh—-even just that required so much courage.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. .
“….wee—ll………”
“……………”
……but, well. huh. Huh?
After thinking about a lot of things and asking because I was curious, once I think about it rationally…. isn’t asking a former prostitute of the hell of love Yoshiwara taboo?
Stupi———AAAAAaaaaaaaaaa what do I do!!!!!
Like falling for a customer, but she had a husband! Or fates that are destined to never be entwined! Or that they’re no longer of the living…..What should I do if it was like that!!
Stupidstupidstupid idiot! Dumb idiot bird-brain eggplant!!
My curiosity was so strong that I didn’t think about it at all.
Quickly taking a peek over at Jyuugi nii-sama, for some reason he was looking upwards with his hand on his chin.
Ah, aaaaaaa! Maybe it really was the heaven route!!
I’msorryI’msorryI’msorryI’msorryI’mreallysorryI’msorryI’msorryI’msorr….
“I’m so sorry!”
“What? So suddenly…. Haha, if it’s a good lady, there was one”
“!”
I tried apologizing with my forehead scraping the tatami, but it ended with being laughed off. Raising my head and looking at Jyuugi nii-sama, I could see that he was laughing with a gentle face.
And then looking out the lattice window in the back of the room, he slowly opened his mouth.
“Just once, I saw her out of the room’s lattice window. I was sold at 13 so maybe when I was 20? She was a beautiful woman with black hair, wearing a wisteria-colored kimono. It was still noon, when all the brothels were still closed, but she was walking through this town of Yoshiwara. And by herself, you know? Even though there was nooooo one else around”
“Could have been that she was working at a brothel like Airi-chan?”
Upon hearing my question, he twisted his neck slightly and making a sound in his throat, he started laughing.
“Nah. Well, I think that she probably someone working at a branch store in Yoshiwara or something,”
“I see”
“Then. She was walking just right where I could see her from my room. And then that woman dropped some cloth? or something like that, and it seemed like she didn’t notice so I called out to her”
‘Heeeey—! You dropped something–!”
‘!’
“is what I said, with a big voice. Without thinking”
“Without thinking?”
“Yeah, without thinking”
“And then, the moment she had picked up that cloth she put her hand up to the side of her mouth”
‘Thaa—–aank yo—–ouuu—-!’
‘!’
“I was surprised. Since she answered back with such a loud voice. Like ‘what’s with her!’ kinda. Even though I did the same thing. ….well, but anyway, it was from far away, but her laughing face then was reeaaally cute.”
Jyuugi nii-sama’s face in the midst of his remembering was very happy, but at the same time terribly lonely.
“See, it’s normal for customers to expect something from prostitutes, right? Even if I do something for them, it’s expected, something that’s taken for granted. That’s why I haven’t really had someone be thankful for me or thank me”
“So that’s how it is”
“Yeah, that’s how it is”
That’s right, come to think of it, we’re the ones who serve. Our job is to entertain the women who pay to come and play with us. More like, we’re supposed to be thankful that they came and spent their money here.
“….I never thought that I’d be thanked with such a smile just by saying ‘You dropped something–!’”
“……………”
“It’s just, what is it…. I can’t really explain what kind of feeling it was in words”
“Wasn’t it that you were happy?”
“It’s a bit different from that. What would you call it….”
And then suddenly, Jyuugi nii-sama brought the fried dough cake in his hand up to my mouth. D,does he want me to eat it?
….gobble.
Yep, delicious.
“Nom nom…. Er, ah….”
“Until then, and ever since, that was the only time I’ve felt like my heart might cry from seeing a woman. It’s not like I fell in love enough to call it love, but even when gently embracing someone I’d never felt that way. Thinking back on it, though, that might have been love….”
So saying, even though it should have been a bitter story, Jyuugi nii-sama’s eyes were sparkling.
“Yeah, that’s my ‘good lady.’”
Until then and ever since then, only you.
“Nogiku, you’re a good lady too, you know?”
“I am a boy”
“No, a good la-“
“I am a boy”
“A good—” “I am a boy”
“….is that so”
“Yes!”
The beginning: The fifth year 4
Today I’ll definitely say it.
I plan on telling nii-sama, who as usual is sitting on my cushion, munching on fried dough cake, today.
Have courage, Nogiku, you have to be brave, ask him innocently! Not unnaturally, but casually, like ‘did you cut your hair?’
Powerrrrrrr~.
“Um, Jyuugi nii-sama.”
Hm?”
“Er, um”
“What’s up?”
What’s wrong with me!! What’s there to be afraid of!!
And plus there’s absolutely nothing natural about this anymore!!
“Um, this just reminds me, but”
“?…..ah, that reminds me”
“That remi….eh, what?”
“Today Rangiku cut his hair off”
“Eh, Ran-chan cut his hair!?”
The ‘not unnatural at all’ like “you cut your hair?” was already used–.
So Rangiku cut his hair, huh. In my memories, the only thing I could remember was my last image of him, with his long pretty red hair tied into one, so it felt kind of weird to try to imagine.
I feel like his hair was short when we first met, but I can’t really remember.
But it surely suits him. Well, more like any hairstyle would suit him, even being bald would.
That’s so nice, I’m jealous. I wanna be a cool handsome guy after all.
“And Kiyomizu did too. Though to around his shoulders. But it was to his waist, after all, so he really cut it all off”
“What!!?”
Kiyomizu nii-sama cut his hair?
For that person, the only thing that came to mind was the image of him with long hair, so I couldn’t imagine it at all…………..ah…….wait a minute……….. with his bangs like that and the back like this, and if the sides were like that, then it might be like this…..
And so I tried imagining it, but four whole years had passed, so his face had probably changed a bit too….
Well, he’s twenty now, twenty! Ramon nii-sama is 22 now, and Ujino nii-sama is 25. Looking at the numbers like this, time sure does go by fast…. This just makes me feel it keenly all over again. Even though the time that we’re not able to meet feels this long…
I wonder how Shuusui and Nagikaze are doing. Though Jyuugi nii-sama frequently talks about them, in the end, it was just talk, so all I could do was guess.
“For some reason, I can’t really imagine it”
“Really?”
“Y,yes. You’re fine because you can see it, Jyuugi nii-sama”
“Well, that’s true”
“It kind of reminds me of ‘a thousand autumns in a day’””
“Would you really use that here?”
‘A thousand autumns in a day’ was when time felt extremely long, just like as if the seasons had gone and passed many times within a single day, like autumn had come a thousand times. That’s what it is. You could liken it to waiting eagerly for something.
But doing the actual calculations for a time span of four years was 365x1000x4 which was 1,460,000. Which means that it would feel like not having met them for one million four hundred sixty thousand years.
One million four hundred sixty thousand years…. that’s a bit….. It was so long that I couldn’t really picture it, so the actual feeling was questionable.
“Umm, then.
Kono koro ni sen nen ya yuki mo suginuruto ware ya shika omou mimaku horekamo “
“Oh, that’s direct. ‘It feels like 1000 years have passed so hurry up and come see me?’ Well, besides the part about coming to see you, I guess that’s pretty close to how you feel”
“Jyuugi nii-sama, have you found a good lady yet?”
“?”
There!
I smashed it in here–!!
Natural, it was natural, wasn’t it?
Ahh—-even just that required so much courage.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. .
“….wee—ll………”
“……………”
……but, well. huh. Huh?
After thinking about a lot of things and asking because I was curious, once I think about it rationally…. isn’t asking a former prostitute of the hell of love Yoshiwara taboo?
Stupi———AAAAAaaaaaaaaaa what do I do!!!!!
Like falling for a customer, but she had a husband! Or fates that are destined to never be entwined! Or that they’re no longer of the living…..What should I do if it was like that!!
Stupidstupidstupid idiot! Dumb idiot bird-brain eggplant!!
My curiosity was so strong that I didn’t think about it at all.
Quickly taking a peek over at Jyuugi nii-sama, for some reason he was looking upwards with his hand on his chin.
Ah, aaaaaaa! Maybe it really was the heaven route!!
I’msorryI’msorryI’msorryI’msorryI’mreallysorryI’msorryI’msorryI’msorr….
“I’m so sorry!”
“What? So suddenly…. Haha, if it’s a good lady, there was one”
“!”
I tried apologizing with my forehead scraping the tatami, but it ended with being laughed off. Raising my head and looking at Jyuugi nii-sama, I could see that he was laughing with a gentle face.
And then looking out the lattice window in the back of the room, he slowly opened his mouth.
“Just once, I saw her out of the room’s lattice window. I was sold at 13 so maybe when I was 20? She was a beautiful woman with black hair, wearing a wisteria-colored kimono. It was still noon, when all the brothels were still closed, but she was walking through this town of Yoshiwara. And by herself, you know? Even though there was nooooo one else around”
“Could have been that she was working at a brothel like Airi-chan?”
Upon hearing my question, he twisted his neck slightly and making a sound in his throat, he started laughing.
“Nah. Well, I think that she probably someone working at a branch store in Yoshiwara or something,”
“I see”
“Then. She was walking just right where I could see her from my room. And then that woman dropped some cloth? or something like that, and it seemed like she didn’t notice so I called out to her”
‘Heeeey—! You dropped something–!”
‘!’
“is what I said, with a big voice. Without thinking”
“Without thinking?”
“Yeah, without thinking”
“And then, the moment she had picked up that cloth she put her hand up to the side of her mouth”
‘Thaa—–aank yo—–ouuu—-!’
‘!’
“I was surprised. Since she answered back with such a loud voice. Like ‘what’s with her!’ kinda. Even though I did the same thing. ….well, but anyway, it was from far away, but her laughing face then was reeaaally cute.”
Jyuugi nii-sama’s face in the midst of his remembering was very happy, but at the same time terribly lonely.
“See, it’s normal for customers to expect something from prostitutes, right? Even if I do something for them, it’s expected, something that’s taken for granted. That’s why I haven’t really had someone be thankful for me or thank me”
“So that’s how it is”
“Yeah, that’s how it is”
That’s right, come to think of it, we’re the ones who serve. Our job is to entertain the women who pay to come and play with us. More like, we’re supposed to be thankful that they came and spent their money here.
“….I never thought that I’d be thanked with such a smile just by saying ‘You dropped something–!’”
“……………”
“It’s just, what is it…. I can’t really explain what kind of feeling it was in words”
“Wasn’t it that you were happy?”
“It’s a bit different from that. What would you call it….”
And then suddenly, Jyuugi nii-sama brought the fried dough cake in his hand up to my mouth. D,does he want me to eat it?
….gobble.
Yep, delicious.
“Nom nom…. Er, ah….”
“Until then, and ever since, that was the only time I’ve felt like my heart might cry from seeing a woman. It’s not like I fell in love enough to call it love, but even when gently embracing someone I’d never felt that way. Thinking back on it, though, that might have been love….”
So saying, even though it should have been a bitter story, Jyuugi nii-sama’s eyes were sparkling.
“Yeah, that’s my ‘good lady.’”
Until then and ever since then, only you.
“Nogiku, you’re a good lady too, you know?”
“I am a boy”
“No, a good la-“
“I am a boy”
“A good—” “I am a boy”
“….is that so”
“Yes!”
