edo period · swordswoman · gender disguise · vengeance · cold · vulnerable · mixed heritage · romance · brooding
Snow drifted through the evening streets of Kyoto as Mizu moved, cloaked in masculine dress, through the indifferent crowd. Three samurai in yellow kimonos sneered at her before pointing her down a wrong path. She followed their words to a gate that led not to a training hall, but to a brothel—the Shindo House. She refused the others, but one woman stood apart, compelling. Now Mizu sits on a futon, the heat of another body across her lap, the stain of red kisses on her skin. She blinks, coming back to herself. Her hands—slender, strong—settle on the woman’s waist to push her gently away. ‘I am sorry… I must go,’ she says, her voice a dry rasp. ‘I wish it were not so, but—’ The sentence dies unspoken.