Akira were alone.
"You have to clean up? What do you mean?", Heiji looked around. There's nothing around, except for a few wooden swords.
"I have to scrub the floor. Every day a different one, and since you got dirty here again, I have to go again ..." Akira snorted.
Heiji looked at the floor, but only where Akira and Shinji had been, one saw prints: "Well, are you at least doing something gender-specific ...""What?", Akira drew her sword and held it under his nose: "How was that, please?"
"Do you want to hurt me with that?", Heiji grinned at her: "If you have to go faster, you are clearly too slow. But you know what? I'll pick you up tomorrow evening. But then you are also a woman and not a woman would-be man. "
"A wannabe ... you're just ... HEY! COME BACK!" Akira yelled after him, but Heiji was already gone.
+ ~ * ~ +
"Akira?" Shinji flew backwards from his chair. He had just eaten and his sister came into the room in a kimono that was far from being laced properly.
"What ... what are you wearing?"
"Shut up! I'm a woman, aren't I?" Akira wanted to know pissed off. She didn't know why she'd put on the kimono herself. After all, it was about some stupid imaginary shinobi who pissed off her.
"Yeah, but that you behave like that is strange ... Besides, you have it on the wrong way round ...", Shinji sighed and got up again."Rwau!", Inu Kami wagged his tail and seemed to want to make fun of Akira.
"Eat, you mutt!" Akira snapped at the dog and sat down on one of the chairs: "Where's mom?"
"Ridden away with father until the day after tomorrow, don't you? You wanted to go on vacation for a few days," Shinji recalled: "Why have you put on the only kimono you have now?"
"Um ... well ... I want to prove to this inflated ninja that I can be both a woman and a man," Akira blurted out. She didn't have it in the back of her mind, but the explanation was very good. She wanted to show Heiji that she was perfectly able to behave feminine and still be a samurai of the upper class. Good and strong.
"Heiji-san?", Shinji asked: "Well, if you really intend to do that, then you still need help. He's sure not to do it for you. You know what? I'll get Kagome. She lives next door and anyway she knows about it ... "Akira gave Shinji an angry look: "No, you don't! Then she knows that I'm a girl! I forbid you to tell Kagome, I'll manage it somehow!"
Shinji held his head: "Aki ... You don't even know how to lace it and you can't do it alone anyway. I know even less about it than you do, so please, sis. Let me help you. Kagome won't help you betrayed. You know her, she is nice and trustworthy. "He was serious. Shinji held Kagome in high esteem. Her humanity and clumsiness made her very lovable towards him. He had known her for a long time because they had always played together as children.
"No, I don't want ...", Akira broke off her outburst when there was a knock on the door.
Inu Kami immediately jumped up, pleased, and pawed at the door.
"Who is that?", Aki asked and got up: "I'll disappear into my room before I get exposed."
"Okay ...", Shinji got up and waited until Akira was out of the room, then he opened: "Yes?""Hello ...", Kagome looked at him shyly: "I baked a cake ... But unfortunately too much, I thought, because your parents are not there ... It's too good to throw away ..."
"Thank you ... Come on in!", Shinji offered with a smile: "Tell me, Kagome, you know about kimonos, right?"
"Um ... Yes?", Kagome wondered and put the cake on the table: "Why do you ask that?"
"Akira ... well ... Come with me!", Shinji took Kagome's hand and pulled her into Akira's room.
"Wahhh!", Akira screeched when she opened the door behind her: "Out with you! You peeper!"
"Akira? What?", Kagome frowned and looked at her: "What are you doing that? Take it off, I'll help you. Shinji, you go, please, even if she's your sister you don't have to look. "
+ ~ * ~ +
"Ouch! Not so tight!", Akira complained when Kagome finally tied the last lacing of the kimono. It had taken them a long time to get the kimono with the embroidered clouds in place. At first Akira had also complained that Kagome now knew her secret, but then she had left that.After all, there was something good about it, and she was now dressed as it should be for the young women of the village.
"So that's it ...", Kagome wiped the sweat from his forehead. The kimono was a little too small because Akira had had it for so long, and she had to cover it up somehow. But now it was finally done: "Sit down, I'll do your hair."
"What? No, that's okay ...", Akira protested: "Mine are so short anyway, you can't do anything with them."
"You can. Don't be so shy now, Aki. I've known you since you were born. I'll do it," Kagome contradicted and pushed her into the chair. That was one of the things Kagome loved very much, too. Preparing others and making them beautiful. Unfortunately, she hadn't had any luck with Sen. On the contrary, she had bitten on granite and almost received a slap in the face. So she was all the more pleased to be able to fix Akira and not always just Kyoko.
"Kagome, I ...""Nothing there! If anything ...", Kagome grabbed the brush and worked on Akira's hair. It didn't take long, then even Aki's short hair shone silky and with a butterfly clip from Akira's mother, she looked simply feminine and beautiful.
+ ~ * ~ +
"Here we are ...", Kagome opened the door and pushed Akira into the room.
"You want to be my sister?", Shinji was amazed when Aki saw it. He hardly recognized her.
"Don't look at me like that! I'm ..."
"Too late. I'm very much in favor of punctuality", Heiji Akira interrupted and looked at her: "At least it was worth it."
"What are you doing here? I didn't invite you!" Akira snorted.
"I let him in. After all, he made an appointment with you, right?" Shinji asked.
"I wish you a lot of fun, Akira and don't be so scratchy! He's a really nice guy, what do you want to do?", Kagome smiled and straightened a crease in the kimono.
"We will see.Come on, Aki-chan! ", Heiji grinned at her and held out his hand.
"You don't forget what I told you?" Shinji cleared his throat again.
"What's that supposed to mean?", Akira interfered.
"Nothing, little samurai. Come on, I want to show you something", Heiji objected and then simply took Aki with her.
"What ... So ... Stop that!", Akira released her hand and then walked next to him: "One thing is clear, I only do this so that I have a reason to kill you in the end. And I'm just dressed like that to please Kagome. Indeed, I am amazed that you had the courage to pick me up. I was sure that you are just a proverb and that you were with an easy girl at the moment. "
"Not that I have a shortage of women, but I don't feel like it at the moment", Heiji shrugged his shoulders not the fights on the battlefield, just the fact that you pretend to be something that you are not, "Heiji got to the point quickly."I'm not doing that at all!", Akira bucked.
"Yes, you are not a man!", Heiji replied.
"Oh, you mean ... I'd rather be one. You men are allowed to do anything and this is my chance to show that I'm just as good as a woman," sighed Akira.
"But you can't risk your life for that. You know, being a samurai is dangerous, life as a shinobi too, sure, but you're just crazy. Do you think you can go on like this forever? your colleagues notice that you are a girl. Your voice and your whole demeanor. The day when you can no longer deny it will soon be announced, "warned Heiji in a friendly and also concerned undertone. He was really worried about Akira, even if he didn't know her well, but he was always reluctant when people had to die without being able to show a valid reason for it. It would be like that with her, this lie, would break her neck."I am a master of my art! Nobody will ever see through me!", Akira defended himself against his accusation.
"Yes! What do you do when you fall in love? If at some point you want to have children or get married? You can never be with a man because you pretend to be a man. You are on a path that ends in an abyss Listen, you can still stop, you are still a beginner, you will be respected, "sighed Heiji:" Aki-chan, what do you promise yourself to live from such a stupid way? "
"Stupid kind ?! I don't have to accept that! I come from a respected samurai family and I am by no means inferior to a man! And I never wanted to be a woman either! I don't need to say anything else about you either I'm only wearing this to prove that I can be a woman too, but I don't want that. A samurai is an honorable person who puts his life on the line for his country and his masters. He doesn't have it necessary to behave underhand and he kills everyone who stands in the way of his masters and goals!Who do you think you are anyway? Akira hissed pissed off at him. He made fun of her directly and mocked her way of life. She really didn't have to do that to herself. She turned on her heel and wanted to go back.
"But you're a WOMAN!", Heiji took her arm and turned her around: "Whether you like it or not! If you want to fight, that's your business, but pulling off such a stupid masquerade is sick."
"Stop that! What do you know? You don't know me and I bet you wouldn't respect me as a ninja either!"
"That's not true! If you are good, we don't care if you are a woman or a man!"
"I don't believe you, you womanizer! Since you've been here, you've still hit on all women, don't you think I don't know? And now it's my turn and then this half child will surely come", Aki tried unsuccessfully to free.
"Sen? Are you crazy? Yes, she has something, but then I'd have to mess with Sasuke too, because he won't let her go so easily.In addition, she is too young for me. You, on the other hand, are different. Well, but I don't get involved with small, suicidal girls, "Heiji took a step backwards:" You both have the competition. You and your brother already lost.