Wisteria Eyed

4

I lived in a brothel. 
In fact, I was born in a brothel.

My mother of this lifetime was the head courtesan or, what people commonly knew them as, the Oiran. That is, the woman who entertained men paying and visiting here — let it by music, dance or even their body.

And as bad as it may sound, it actually wasn't that bad. The courtesans were, in fact, treated very respectfully as they were distinguished from the ordinary prostitutes, or rather yūjo, in the way that they were entertainers, and many became celebrities even outside the pleasure districts. And in that aspect, my mother was one of the most paid and respected entertainers in our whole district.

In fact, what surprised me more than her occupation was the fact that she decided to be pregnant with me regardless of her current occupation. I mean, why? Wasn't a baby just a hindrance in her work?

With that question in my mind, I soon realized that I was nothing but an extra mouth to feed, especially since I was too young to entertain anyone.

'Not that I want to entertain people.' I thought, a bit bitterly.

I was not made for these things and I didn't even want to be made for these things. And the only way to get out of here was to learn everything as soon as I could and find a source of income to provide my share to the brothel.

With that in mind, I started learning everything and anything I could get my hands on. With my mother busy most of the evenings and nights, I started practising sewing again by recalling all the lessons I took in my previous life along with the people in this life guiding me through it once more.

After more than a few attempts and quite a few drops of my blood being sacrificed to the bigger-than-my-hand needles, my still chubby hands successfully relearned the art of sewing. And from there, I started sewing together small handkerchiefs and scarves out of all the scrap kimonos and hoaris — especially those which were beyond any repair, as declared by even the elder workers of the brothel.

I also took up koto after some informal lessons from the best koto playing courtesan of the brothel. It wasn't as difficult as one would initially assume, and was rather soothing to the ear as well. 

Yeri-san, the one who taught me the koto, was very surprised and rather proud of my progress. In fact, almost everyone in the brothel was. However, it was my mother who seemed to be the most, out of anyone. Her grey eyes shone with adoration and pride when I performed as a way of proving and showing off my 'talents' in front of everyone. 

If only people knew that I wasn't a prodigy — just an imposter in the body of a toddler.

Putting that existential crisis aside, my mother of this life was rather beautiful — in fact, she was the most mesmerizing woman out of all those who were living in the brothel. With her beautiful grey eyes and almost knee-length scarlet hair, she was a breathtaking sight altogether. And not only that, but she was quite skilled with many instruments as well as dance and singing.

Overall, she was very talented and I admired her for all she was. The most unfortunate thing though, was that she didn't have much time to spend with me as the days went by. And because I was her child and almost identical looking to her — mostly my face structure and skin tone, that — I couldn't just roam around when she was working as men often felt uncomfortable, or rather bitter, when they saw that their courtesan had a child running around.

Though, other than my face structure and skin tone, my hair and eyes were quite a different shade than hers. With my pitch black hair and bluish-violet eyes, I was way more ordinary looking than her. And honestly, I was happy about it since I didn't want to attract much attention to myself anyway.

Regardless of that, I continued to learn any skill I could and spent all my time reading books and improving my Japanese — if I was to leave this brothel, then I needed to start preparing as early as I could. And even though I had the advantage of being an Asian even in my previous life, I didn't have the luxury of the perfect pronunciation as the Japanese did due to my Indian accent slipping in more often than not.

Yes, I was an Indian in my previous life and I really did love that culture still, even if I didn't remember all of it for now.

I was determined to be prepared for my life here in any and every way possible. The olden times were much more dangerous and challenging than the modern era and now that I had the advantage of foreknowledge, maybe I could prepare myself better.

Hopefully, I wouldn't get thrown into something I didn't ask for. Again.
Well, who am I kidding? Of course, I would.

I was a trouble/drama magnet in my past life and most likely, the streak would continue in this one too.