Weiss Kreuz: Lady Killer 4 -- Onnagata: Geisha
by K.Huntsman
released 24 December 1999

 

Spring.

They were back in Magician's room after a day of observing their three targets. She'd made more tea and sat at the table with them this time, between Ken and Youji. Her silence was on the verge of discomfort, though Youji didn't think it was because she was angry. It was more like she felt self-conscious around them. Uncomfortable, maybe.

"How will you plan the attack?" she asked, her voice low, not looking up from the sheaf of printouts she held.

"Did you have an idea?" Ken inquired, looking at her.

She nodded. "The teahouse called Hanago."

"Why there?" Aya asked.

"Because of what Tsukiyono-san was able to find out when delivering flowers to Hanago. 'They are served sake by two geisha.' It's elegant."

"'Elegant'?" Omi questioned.

Akayuki looked around at the four of them. "If this were me, I would go in as the geisha, kill them, and leave without anyone ever having known I was there. However, if you have another plan, I'll abide by that." Her eyes fell back to the paper and Youji suddenly wondered if she was unhappy about having to work with them. If she was, he'd have to talk with Manx about it. It wasn't good to add an unwilling new member to a proven team, much less to make a woman unhappy.

Ken propped his chin on a fist. "Doesn't sound like a bad plan."

"You think you can do it?" Aya asked Magician.

She nodded. "I know I can."

Youji's eyes continued from where she was reading and ran across the numbers. "Isn't that too many people for one geisha to be expected to serve?"

Shirayuki's blue eyes flickered to the numbers as well, and she sighed, the idea deflating in that sigh. "You're right, Kudou-san. It would be too suspicious. I'd never get past their security."

"Isn't security a moot point?" Ken asked. "Given that we're planning to kill them all...."

"Perhaps. But the woman who runs the teahouse lives there with a small daughter. I wish the child no harm."

"Hmm, that is a thought." Youji stroked under his chin as he looked at the ceiling and considered. "But it is the most vulnerable time at which they could be attacked."

"What if there was a second geisha?" asked Aya suddenly.

Youji blinked and looked at him. "You couldn't be suggesting--"

Aya didn't answer, which was answer enough.

"No way!" Ken exploded. "I am not dressing up like a girl again!"

"Do you see another option?"

"But Aya-kun...!"

Aya's cold expression silenced both of the younger members of Weiss. Youji sighed out loud. "It's impossible," he opined. "None of us could pass ourselves off as geisha."

"It... could be done," Magician said quietly, drawing all eyes to herself. She looked up at them, surety in her eyes and voice. "A geisha's makeup will remove gender along with other bits of identity."

"Who do you want to go in with you?" Aya asked.

Her eyes flickered over each of them for a moment, considering. "Fujimiya-san, your voice is too deep. You couldn't pass as a woman. Hidaka-san, also, though in your case it's a matter of a geisha's restrained movements, which you would lack. Kudou-san, you might do well, but your height would serve against the targets being off-guard. Men tend to feel less threatened by smaller women. Therefore, Tsukiyono-san, you would be my first choice. Your voice is soft, your mannerisms somewhat refined, and your appearance non-threatening." Shirayuki's eyes were fastened onto Omi's. Blue looking into blue. Oceans into seas. "Will you play the other geisha?" she asked, her voice simple.

 

Omi knocked on Shirayuki-san's door the next evening. They'd agreed that he needed a night to get used to the makeup and to learn what he could about passing himself off as a woman. This was going to be a lot more complex than wearing a stewardess' uniform for ten minutes. They would be going into a room where everyone carried a weapon except them, and they would have to time the poisonings just right to get out alive.

Shirayuki-san opened the door, clad in a simple white kimono. Her earrings had been removed. "Come in," she invited in a soft voice.

Omi left his shoes at the door. "What do I need to do?"

"Follow me." She led him to her living room, where, along with two cups of steaming tea, a number of items lay on the table. She gestured for him to sit behind one of the two cups, then took her own place at the other.

"Shirayuki-san, what is all of this?" he asked.

"What you will need to become a geisha," she replied, her voice low and modulated. It made him feel like he was in the middle of some ceremony of hers. "There is a geisha's wig within that box. The bottle next to it is wash-out black hair dye. I believe in verisimilitude, and would rather not risk having your blond roots showing. The bag contains geta and tabi in your size. You and I are of similar enough build that one of my kimono should suit you. Additionally, Manx has provided me with a second pair of 'special' colored contacts. They will double for your infrared goggles, as well as disguising blue eyes." Her own blue eyes bored into his. "I warn you, I will be an impossible taskmaster in this mission. I do not work well with others. If you feel that you may not be up to my diva attitude, say so now. After you commit yourself, there will be no backing out."

Omi met those blue eyes. "I've never backed out of a mission before. I'm not going to start now. I'll do it."

She smiled. "Then drink your tea, and we'll start with that blond hair of yours."

 

"What'll I tell people?" Omi asked some time later, waiting with a towel around his neck for the dye to finish soaking into his wet hair. "My hair will be kind of noticeable."

She shrugged. "Tell them you lost a bet."

One corner of Omi's mouth quirked up. "I'll tell them that Youji-kun put me up to it." Youji-kun had been entirely too amused at his being chosen to cross-dress again.

Shirayuki-san nodded. "Take out your earring, and then it's time to rinse your hair."

 

He sat seiza-style in the main room again, hands on his knees, eyes closed as soft brushstrokes painted his face and neck. He was aware of the contacts on his eyes; they still felt weird. His newly black damp hair was clipped up out of the way and Shirayuki-san had told him not to put his shirt back on. Omi shivered a little as her brush swept gently up and down the back of his neck, raising the fine hairs there.

"Relax, Bombay," she said. "I'm almost done." She finished with the brush and set it down. He heard her pick up something else and then felt a light pressure over his eyebrows. "The makeup covers your eyebrows, so I'm pencilling them back in," she explained. It didn't take her long. "Open your mouth," she said next, and he obeyed. He felt another brush, this one tiny, painting on his lips. "Tomorrow night you'll be wearing the same lipstick I do," she said, "the poisoned one. Before its application I'll give you a pill which will counter it. For tonight, however, this is normal lipstick. The same shade Manx uses, actually." She set down the brush. "There, done. You can open your eyes." He did and found her right in front of him, considering her handiwork. She nodded. "Not bad. Shall we choose a kimono for you?"

She rose and motioned for him to follow her into the empty room which was the bedroom. Inside her closet were a half-dozen kimono folded neatly on shelves. "Do you have a preference?" she asked him, gesturing towards them. Omi picked out a lavender one. "The color of Fujimiya-san's eyes," she commented, and took it and a darker purple under-kimono off the shelves. The lavender kimono was decorated with silver cranes. It was very beautiful. An obi with a pattern of pale waving grasses completed the choice. She set the clothing on the pristine floor, along with a pair of tabi and a tying cord. "Call me when you're ready," she said, and left him alone with the women's clothing.

 

By the time Omi had figured out all the ties and fastenings and made sure to cross the kimonos left over right and gotten the tabi on (they fit perfectly; how had she known his size?), Shirayuki-san had done her own makeup and hair and the person he saw when he opened the door was neither his upstairs neighbor nor the assassin code-named Magician.

He was met by a beautiful, timeless geisha clad in kimono of red silk.

She tied the obi for him and wordlessly led him out to the main room again, where she carefully pinned his hair up and fastened the wig to him. Then she led him into the bathroom, where she closed the door and he saw himself in the full-length mirror on its back.

Omi swallowed hard. There was nothing of himself in the image, nothing of "Tsukiyono Omi." That person had vanished completely and in his place remained a beautiful geisha, fresh in the bloom of her youth.

--"Face it, Omi, you're just too pretty."--

Youji-kun.

--"Tsukiyono-kun, maybe you should join the drama club. They need a princess for the school play...."--

And Takaku-kun, during his first year of high school.

--"Omi, you're just beautiful."--

Ken-kun, once, when he'd gotten drunk on Youji's wine, depressed after a nearly-botched mission.

Looking at his reflection, Omi began to tremble.

 

Yuki stepped up behind the shaking youth and put her hands on his shoulders. "Don't let it rule you," she advised in a soft voice. "It's not you, Tsukiyono-san. That person in the mirror is a mask, nothing more."

He backed into her, stepping away from his reflection, shaking his head. "I can't be... I'm not a girl...." His voice rose higher.

"Tsukiyono-san," she said quietly, "does what you look like matter to who you are? Does it matter if you have black hair or blond, if your eyes are black or blue? Does it change the heart of 'Tsukiyono Omi,' the person who is inside and important?" She stared at the mirror, at the wide, frightened eyes of his reflection. At the one geisha holding the other. "Why does that girl in the mirror frighten you? She's not real. She's only a reflection."

"...Because...." Omi's voice faltered and failed.

"Because why?" she prompted.

"Because she's beautiful," he whispered, still shaking like a leaf in her arms. "I'm.... I don't want to be a girl!"

"I see." Yuki closed her own eyes and remembered.

--"Shirayuki-san... please, accept these!"--

The girl, one of the others who trained at her hall, had thrust the flowers at her and run away blushing.

"You've been approached by others of your own sex, haven't you?" she asked gently, feeling that she understood now. "And it got to you."

He nodded and closed his eyes.

"What happened? What did you do?"

She hadn't handled Amako well. She still regretted that, wished she could have done better. The girl had had talent....

"I... told him no." Omi's eyes were closed now. "I said I wasn't interested."

"What did he do then?"

"He went away," he said. "I never saw him again; we were in different classes. I think he transferred out the next semester."

"Is that all?" Omi's back was still tense against her despite the confession.

"...Ken-kun...."

"Hidaka-san?!" she said, surprised. "You don't mean he's--"

"No!" Omi's eyes popped open. "At least, I don't think he is. But we all got drunk once on Youji-kun's wine after a mission. It was before Aya-kun joined us. The mission nearly ended in disaster. We needed something to steady our nerves. Ken-kun tried to kiss me...."

"Oh." Yuki blinked as she tried to picture that. "Where was Kudou-san during this?"

"Watching," Omi mumbled.

"Hmm." She lifted her hands from Omi, let him stand by himself, stepped over by his side. "So Hidaka-san got drunk and tried to kiss you. Is that why playing the geisha frightens you?"

"...No," Omi whispered, looking at his feet. "It's because I wanted him to."

That put a slightly different spin on things, she thought. "Ah. Do you still want him to?"

He looked up at her. "Of course not!"

"So what are you worrying about? That you might be slightly bisexual? That being like this for a little bit might open up that other side of you, change who you are?" She studied him. "Are you afraid that if Hidaka-san knew that you'd wanted him to kiss you at that time, he'd reject you now?"

"...Yes."

She crossed her arms on her chest. "Tsukiyono-san, either you know who you are or you don't. Make up your mind before it interferes with the mission. That person in the mirror is a mask, nothing more. You should not let an outward appearance be what defines you. If you harbored feelings of attraction for a friend, then you did. Let it go. Everyone has had experimental thoughts at some time or another. Please keep in mind he was the one trying to kiss you."

She watched him deny it. "Ken-kun was drunk!"

"And how many glasses had you had?" she questioned mercilessly.

Omi's eyes fell to the floor again. "I don't remember."

"Then count it as enough," she advised. Then she sighed. "Tsukiyono-san, we all have problems and hangups. If you feel this uncomfortable looking like a geisha, I can call off this plan and we'll find another. I'll cover for you with the others; you don't deserve to lose face before them over this. Failing all else, we can kidnap the little girl and then go in."

His eyes raised to hers again, angry now. "No! I said I'll do it, and I will!" He burned. "I will not let this mission fail on account of me!"

Yuki nodded. He was past it. "Good. Then let's get started, shall we?"

 

After a day at the shop, Omi was in Magician's room again, this time getting painted up for the mission and trying to remember everything she'd taught him last night, about how to sit and speak, to remember to hold his sleeve back when pouring tea or sake or opening a door....

"Flirt if it seems the situation requires it," she advised now, putting feather-light strokes of black over his whitened eyebrows again. "Laugh and talk and immerse yourself in the role. For tonight, you are Shirahime, the young geisha I have trained. Tsukiyono Omi has taken a night's vacation."

"What if they drink too much and try something?" Omi asked.

"Go with your instincts. Play shy if you want to, or play along. If someone tries to kiss you, just keep in mind the poison on your lips." She'd given him a small purple pill for that earlier, before she'd even started on his makeup. He'd swallowed it with a cup of bitter green tea. "And if everything gets blown, you have your weapons accessible, right?"

"Right." His darts, with their own poison, had been ruled inconspicuous enough and were safely stowed in the sleeves of the kimono he would be wearing. "...Shirayuki-san, may I ask a question?"

"Mmm." She nodded and put down the black pencil.

"Why do you paint yourself like a geisha for your missions?"

Her eyes leveled onto his for a second, then she picked up the smaller brush she used for the lipstick. He obediently opened his mouth. "Because it's power," she said softly, beginning to paint the glossy red poison onto him. "Because it's a mask. I don't have to be myself, the one constrained by day. I can be Magician, the killer, the one without a conscience. The paint creates that person, or at least the illusion I let myself have sometimes that we're separate. The mask lets me be the seductress who kills." She dipped the brush into the red again and continued, "I am someone who is very confused sometimes about light and dark and the role I play between the two. Am I a fiend from Hell or an agent of Buddha? The geisha, the mask, the Magician, has a simpler view. Her role is to remove the darkness. That is all." She finished and put the cap back on the pot of red.

 

"Soyoko-san and Yumeko-san fell ill earlier this evening," Omi lied in a sweet voice. The two geisha in question had been intercepted by them earlier and were now peaceably sleeping in a safe alleyway far from the tea house. "They know how important it is that this evening go well, however, and requested that we take their places."

"How do we know you two can keep your tongues?" the guard growled.

Shirayuki-san lifted her head to look the man in the eye. "We are professionals," she replied in soft steel tones. "Client confidentiality is what we are best at."

The guard glared at her and Omi knew they weren't going to get in. It was blown already.... But Shirayuki-san just kept looking at the guard, and he relented, moving aside to let them pass. Omi started. "It's the last room on the left," the man allowed.

"Thank you very much," Shirayuki-san said as she stepped past him. She looked back at Omi. "Shirahime-chan, aren't you coming?"

"Yes," Omi said, hurrying to catch up to her. As they went down the hall, further away from the guards, he whispered in her ear, "I thought they weren't going to let us pass...."

"A woman's touch," she replied lightly. "Ah, this would be the room. Are you ready?" Omi nodded and she slid open the door, bowing to the roomful of their targets. Omi bowed as well and they stepped in.

The fusama slid shut behind them.

 

Omi walked home in the morning sun beside Shirayuki-san. She was still quiet from earlier. He wondered what she thought about what they had done that night. Working with the other members of Weiss hadn't been anything like working with her. The mission had made him appreciate her subtlety. Even he hadn't seen her slipping the poison into the cups of sake, and he had been watching. She had been the perfect geisha; one would have wondered if she could ever have been anything else.

He thought he understood now what she meant about the mask being power. After the party's business had been concluded and it had turned into a drinking session, he'd flirted with several of the men. It hadn't felt like him at all... it had felt like he'd been transformed into someone else, someone capable of realizing that power and taking it. That other person had almost liked that power of making men want. Was that what Shirayuki-san felt as Magician? Was that the reason for the poison, the lipstick, the long, lingering death kiss?

Was it human to try to connect, even that way?

"You did very well," she said softly. He turned his head to look at her. She didn't return the glance. "I had underestimated your adaptability, Tsukiyono-san. I apologize; it will not happen again."

"...Are you all right?" he asked, looking at her, at how distant and fragile she seemed. Youji-kun would know what to do, or Ken-kun would. Omi found that he didn't.

Her chin lifted a little. "I killed twenty people in cold blood last night. I murdered them without compassion. Every single person in that teahouse except its owner and her daughter is dead because of me."

"I helped some too," he protested, wanting to take the guilt off of her.

She nodded. "That's true. You did. But I did most of it; it was my choice and my weapon." She sighed as they turned the corner and Kitten In The House came into sight, with Magic House just beyond it. "I think I'm just tired."

"Is Magic House going to be closed again today?" Omi asked. Unlike with Kitten, there was only Shirayuki-san running the shop. "You really should hire some help."

She laughed a little. "Like who?" She shook her head. "People shouldn't get involved with killers like us; it would be foolish and stupid to hire someone. No, the shop will just have to have infrequent closings."

Omi sighed. "Are you going up to bed, then?" he asked.

"Yes. And you, Tsukiyono-san?"

"I think I'll go into Kitten and see if Youji-kun can guess who I am." That caught her attention hard; Shirayuki-san even stopped in her tracks to look at him. Then she smiled and laughed again, this time for real.

"In which case, hold a moment, Tsukiyono-san," she said, reaching into her kimono's sleeve. She pulled out a package of tissues. "Take off the lipstick with this."

Omi obeyed, rubbing at his lips until they felt a little raw. Then he opened his mouth again as she took out a tube of regular lipstick --"The same shade Manx uses, actually,"-- and applied that to him instead.

"There. You'll break hearts," she declared. Omi grinned. "Let me know later how it went," she said, parting from him at the building entrance furthest from Kitten. Omi nodded and waved at her as she unlocked the door and climbed up the stairs, disappearing from sight. Then he went on towards the flower shop.

 

Youji looked up as the bell on the door rang a chime. A delicate young geisha stood in the entrance looking around. It made him wonder how Omi was, when he'd be getting back from the mission, and how the mission had gone. Surely it wouldn't take that much longer until he returned, even given the morning rush on the trains.

"Good morning!" he said, greeting their first customer of the day. "What sort of flowers are you looking for?"

Large black eyes looked up into his, and a soft voice said, "Freesia." She was a China-doll beauty all right.

"We have them right here," Youji said confidently, leading the girl over to the display case which housed the flowers. His hand rested casually on her shoulder. "What colors would you like, and how many?"

She hesitated and seemed to think for a minute before answering, "A dozen white freesia, please."

"Beautiful flowers for a beautiful lady," Youji said, pulling out a dozen of the most perfect stalks. "We don't often see geisha in this neighborhood. Is there a reason you're here?"

Soft lips pressed against his cheek. The gentle voice murmured into his ear, "Youji-kun no baka."

Youji stood frozen for an instant. Then, "O-Omi?!" he yelled, jerking away. Ken and Aya looked up from their tasks at his shout.

The geisha smirked, and it was definitely that little bastard Omi's smirk. "Youji-kun no baka," he repeated himself in his normal voice.

"Omi?!" Ken demanded, sounding just as incredulous as Youji felt. None of them had seen the youngest member of Weiss in his disguise the night before. "That's you?!"

"Good morning, Ken-kun!" Omi chirped.

"Omi. How did the mission go?" Aya asked, recovering from his momentary surprise.

"Went perfectly," Omi replied, gathering the freesia from Youji's frozen hand. "Shirayuki-san is a pro. And these are for her, by the way." Youji felt on his cheek where Omi had... kissed him. "Don't worry, Youji-kun, I switched lipsticks before coming in here. I didn't want to poison you, after all."

"Omi!" Youji shouted. "You ever do that again and I'll--"

"You'll do what?" Omi asked, suddenly serious. "Unless I'm mistaken, you were hitting on me. Get a grip, Youji-kun." Then he yawned and stretched his arms over his head. "In any case, I've had a long and very tense night, worrying every minute about blowing the mission, so I am going to go upstairs, give these flowers to Shirayuki-san, wash this stuff off myself, and go to bed. Don't wake me." He waved as he went into the back of the shop and the entrance to the building there. "Later."

Youji stared dumbfounded at the retreating teenager's back. Then he turned around at Ken's snickers.

"Youji," Ken said, starting to break into full-fledged laughter, "you should have seen your face!"

 

Omi paused for a second to listen to Ken-kun's laughter, smiling to himself, then began the climb up three flights of stairs to Shirayuki-san's apartment.

He had a feeling she would want the freesia for her mourning.

 

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