The Memories Our Bodies Tell [Part 2]

"It was the beginning of winter in the year 2007, and a new transfer student had just enrolled in our private high school: Setagaya Saito, the handsome boy with a devilish grin. The girls on campus immediately began to lust after him, and unfortunately, Sora was no exception. While no one had been brave enough to ask Saito out on a date, Sora swooped in like a hawk, showing off her talons- in this case, her assets- and asked Saito to be her boyfriend. Of course, not having been aware of Sora's negative history, Saito agreed. He would have been foolish to turn her down, given just how adorable and small she was. The kind of girl you want to cuddle and protect, but had an attitude so strong that she could handle herself in any circumstance. Saito admired her resilience and cuteness, accepting her proposal without a second thought."
Enki poked at my back a bit harder each time she mentioned Saito's name, seemingly unaware of the pain she was causing me. I winced a few times, bearing the pain while she continued to talk.

"It had only been a few months since Sora and I became best friends, and I was certainly happy for her, having found a boyfriend who lasted more than a couple weeks. Normally, Sora would spend much less time with me when she wanted to see her boyfriends, but insisted that Saito was the one who wished to join our hangout sessions, often saying something like, 'He's still new to school, so he wants to be your friend too, Enki-chan.' Of course, I thought nothing of it, and welcomed the handsome-faced boy into our secret circle without a moment's hesitation. Saito appeared to be as average as my own crush, Naota-kun, but he had a much more alluring face and personality. He would often peek at my sketches when Sora ran off to retrieve tea or snacks, and chat with me about how beautiful my pencil work was. Naturally, I would blush and thank him, accepting the idea that Saito truly was a perfect boyfriend for my beloved Sora."

"But what changed?"
I asked her, trying my best not to mention how hard she was poking the hari needles into my back.
"Saito sounds like an amazing person. How could he be responsible for my mother's death?"

"Sometimes, even the most normal of people hide the darkest secrets, Mika-chan. For instance, statistics say that the average person walks past a murderer more than a few times in their life. It's similar to how with each year passing, manga artists and celebrities alike get caught possessing child pornography. Saito was no exception: a murderer hiding in plain sight. It wasn't until the one-month mark of Saito and Sora dating that we learned his secrets. Saito belonged to the notorious yakuza group, the Kawaguchi Clan. Not only that, but Saito would soon be the successor of the Kawaguchi Clan, due to Kawaguchi Yasujiro's battle with cancer having gone south. I'm sure you've at least heard one story about Yasu's exploits, and how even a single yen missing from your payment would get you killed... or so the rumors said."

I nodded my head.
"Xianshi told me. I also heard about how Charlotte killed Kawaguchi Yasujiro, claiming his entire fortune and status, ultimately ending the organization as a whole and giving birth to the Bara-gumi."

Enki refilled the ink on the hari once again.
"Ah, so you do know a little bit. I suppose this is where I can introduce Ninagawa Charlotte then."
She wiped the droplets of blood from my back, positioning herself closer as she started carving the fine lines of my irezumi into my skin.

"Saito introduced Sora and me to a few students from his old school. At first, I found myself scared of the bunch, hiding behind Saito as a group of delinquents approached us in broad daylight in the middle of Shibuya. There stood Ninagawa Charlotte, a fifteen-year-old gang leader with a long, black skirt and a wooden sword positioned casually against the clavicle of her neck. The girls and boys behind her all wore the same style of coat, a school-issued uniform with the word, 'Bara-gumi,' embroidered on the backside in red thread. Sora didn't seem the least bit fazed, even accepting Charlotte and her crew into our friend group with a smile on her face. Charlotte's persona back then was even more ruthless than it is now. She would often meet up with Saito, dragging him along to help her fight rival school gangs after class ended for the day. Of course, being the supportive girlfriend she was, Sora accompanied them to watch the brawl, always gushing about how cool Saito was when he fought."

I grimaced at the mention of Charlotte as a young girl. I could only imagine what kind of meaningless battles she had instigated, all to make a name for herself like the dictator that she is.

"I had no interest in such vulgar pastimes, and often doodled in my sketchbook while Saito and Charlotte beat the daylight out of those poor boys from a rival school. It was around that time when Sora and I would accompany them that Saito and Charlotte tried to get closer to me. They studied my sketches like a Bible, often worshipping my skills as more than just doodles on paper. No, Charlotte and Saito wanted my drawings plastered on their backs in permanent ink. I begged and pleaded with them to rethink their decision, but when they purchased a real sashibo, equipped with multiple hari needles and tattoo ink, they somehow convinced my underdeveloped mind that inking them would be of great benefit to me. Sora did little to convince them otherwise, and even considered having me ink her back as well, which I was lucky enough to avoid doing for the few years that I knew her. I began tattooing as just a one-time thing, a favor to the friends of my best friend, but it quickly spiraled into a career. Not only did Saito and Charlotte show off their fresh ink to the members of the Kawaguchi Clan, but they even convinced their existing members to pay me massive sums of money to tattoo them as well, or occasionally retouch their previous irezumi."
Enki bit down on her lip, her eyes threatening to spill more tears than before if she didn't pause for a break.

"That sounds... really rough. I'm sorry you had to go through that, Enki."
I adjusted my tired shoulders, trying to glance at my own back and see the progress she had made.

Quickly, Enki turned my head back around, smiling again as she said,
"No peeking, Mika-chan. I'll show you when I'm done."

I complied, finding a comfortable position for her to continue.

"Things were progressing smoothly, and I was making more money than I knew what to do with. Sora and I loved the idea that we could finally buy luxuries we hadn't experienced before, such as dining at a steakhouse or buying the most high-end clothing that Tokyo had to offer. Sometimes, I would even go so far as to buy Sora and Saito suite rooms in luxury hotels so they could... you know..."
Enki grimaced.
"Ahem... but besides that, I hadn't realized just how heavily my newfound wealth was affecting my friend. Sora had secretly been adjusting to that high life, often asking me for more favors by the day. When I refused to buy her things like drugs and alcohol, she figured she would earn the money herself. I hadn't meant to hurt her feelings by denying her what she wanted, but I simply didn't want to see her go down such a dark path at her age. Oh, we were both seventeen at the time now, and spending time with Charlotte and Saito was just part of our normal routine at this point. My father had disowned me when he learned about what I was doing, but I had more than enough money to buy my own place and necessities, so I wasn't really bothered by it."

"I see. So, this is around the time when my mother became a prostitute?"
I asked her, not realizing how insensitive of a question it really was.

"Mika-chan... you shouldn't refer to your own mother as a prostitute. Though, it's hard to deny that she really was one."
She was now tattooing the top of my back, having finished the line art for the bottom and middle half.
"Sora... heard from a member of the Kawaguchi Clan that selling her body to rich men would earn her quite a hefty sum of cash. Saito hadn't been aware at the time, but Sora was spending her days sleeping with adult men more than twice her age. They would pay her in the millions, even going so far as to give her drugs and alcohol just to make the sex last longer when she was unconscious. Sora was a very petite woman, more so than myself, so the older men valued her youth, often purchasing her services for multiple days at a time just to share her with their friends and colleagues. It made me sick when I learned what had happened to my beloved friend, and I immediately got into a fight with Saito over it. Saito grew furious with both Sora and myself. He hated Sora for cheating on him, and hated me even more for not sharing my wealth with her, claiming I was the reason she ended up the way she did."

"But that isn't true! You only tried to save her, Enki!"
I shouted in anger, feeling my own sense of justice surge at the mention of her past.

"I'm aware of that, Mika-chan. Saito's words didn't affect me. It was when I ended up winning that brawl that Saito grew murderous. He called upon the entire Kawaguchi Clan to ensure I was killed, and with no one to turn to, I relied on Ninagawa Charlotte to protect me."
Enki's words trailed off toward the end of her sentence, sounding regretful despite still being alive to tell the tale.
"Charlotte, still having owed me a favor for tattooing her back, agreed to help me under the condition that I be her gang's personal artist for life. Naturally, I agreed. I would do anything to ensure my own safety, as well as Sora's. I'll spare you the details, but Charlotte ended up winning that fight, leaving a trail of Kawaguchi blood in her wake... and Saito's life along with it. Now with the Kawaguchi Clan out of the way, and a few stragglers left unemployed, Charlotte announced the birth of the new Bara-gumi, taking in the remaining Kawaguchi members as well as Yasujiro's only daughter, Harumi. I was safe, and Sora would no longer have the connections to those awful men she had been sleeping with. Our lives could return to those happy days we spent in her room, sketching and watching movies together as we gossiped about boys and manga all night."

Enki started to cry. I hadn't realized at first, but her voice grew softer the longer she spoke. Unable to comfort her, I stayed silent, allowing her tears to fall on my tender flesh.

"When I had finally found Sora after over a month of losing contact, she had been suffering all alone in an alleyway somewhere deep in the red-light district. Her face had been completely sunken in, like she hadn't eaten in decades. She told me all about what had happened after the Kawaguchi Clan's demise, and how a politician she had been sleeping with had impregnated her. I remember feeling as if my heart had stopped, seeing the look of despair on my best friend's crying face. In order to escape having been killed, Sora ran away, claiming that she didn't want an abortion, but wanted to have the baby. She felt strongly that her unborn baby should be saved, and pleaded with the politician to spare her. Turns out, he had put a hit on her head to silence her. If word got out that he had an affair with a seventeen-year-old girl, he would lose his job and his family in the process. Naturally, I took Sora into hiding in my own apartment, having no official ties to the greedy men that were after her life. She was completely safe with me, and I provided her with everything she needed for a steady pregnancy."

"I'm assuming... that means I'm the daughter of Umeda Sora and a certain politician?"
I spoke softly, realizing exactly what Enki meant when she called me a 'miracle baby' earlier.

"That's exactly right, Mika-chan. You're half Sora... and half of the current mayor of Arakawa-ku..."

The mayor of Arakawa-ku?! I'm... the daughter of the mayor?! No, that's impossible! The mayor of Arakawa-ku impregnated a teenage girl?! The mayor wanted my mother and me dead?! Politicians are really that evil?!

"It was around the time when Sora turned eighteen that I received that note. There, in my humble one bedroom apartment in Tokyo, Umeda Sora said her final goodbye to me on a single piece of paper. I still remember the exact words she had written.
'Dear, Enki.
Thank you for everything. You have been more than a friend to me. You were my savior; my light in the darkness. I'm not sure when I'll see you again, but please know that I'm leaving for your own good. They've found me, and I simply can't stick around and let you get caught up in my affairs. Be good, Enki-chan. I love you.

PS. I'm thinking of naming my baby girl Mika! Isn't it just such a perfect name? Mika, meaning 'Beautiful fragrance,' much like the fragrance of your cheap perfume that I love so much.'
She attached a picture of your ultrasound to the letter, and it still hangs on my fridge to this very day, Mika-chan."

I found myself crying once again. I buried my eyes deep into the pillow of her tattoo table, sniffing heavily as Enki finished the very final poke on my back. It was exactly as Masaaki said; my name really did mean 'Beautiful Fragrance.'
It wasn't just any fragrance; it was the scent of Enki's perfume that led my mother to name me Mika. I had been connected to this woman my entire life, yet only met her a few hours ago in my thirteenth year of living.

"All done, Mika-chan. How does it look?"
Enki smiled down at me, snapping a photo on her cellphone before showing me the results of my irezumi.

In the picture, I gazed lovingly at my nude back. The once-scarred flesh had been transformed into a portrait of Inugami, the dog god of Japan, nestling himself deep into a soft, pillowy cloud in the sky. On his ears resided a pair of headphones, and musical notes showered from the clouds like rain onto the waves below. Despite the irezumi not having been colored yet, I could almost picture the bright blue hues that would soon serve as the symbol of my vengeance. I was no longer the same Umeda Mika as before; I had been reborn into a true god. My name, Mika, translating to 'Resembling God,' now with an actual god tattooed on my back. The god of dogs, Inugami- a very fitting display for the loser dog of Tokyo.

I wiped my tears from my eyes, standing up and giving Enki the deepest embrace I could offer.
"I love it. Thank you for everything..."
I whimpered against her chest.

"You don't need to thank me for anything, Mika-chan. Your existence is enough to help my tattered soul rest easy at night. Knowing that you're here, living in this world... it's more than I could ever ask for."
Enki stroked my hair, allowing me to hug her for as long as I needed, which ended up being quite some time.

* * *

Before my departure from her store, Enki and I exchanged contact information. She told me all about survival in my line of work, and encouraged me to keep the ones that I trusted very close. While she couldn't save me from the inevitable, she made a very firm declaration.

"Promise me you won't be a hero, Mika-chan. Promise me you'll prioritize your own safety above anything else, and to call me if you ever need anything. Promise me you'll wear those tattoos with pride; that your mother lives on through the art on your back."

Naturally, the only words I needed to say were,
"It's more than a promise, Enki-chan. It's a vow. I vow to put an end to the Bara-gumi once and for all, and to come back to you stronger than ever. By the next time you see me, when you finish the colors on my back, I'll be a girl you can't even recognize."

With the locking of our pinky fingers, we sealed our eternal bond that night. I left the tattoo shop, Kioku, with my head held high. The time was well past midnight, and the hustle and bustle of the red-light district painted my vision in bright, neon tracers. I didn't call Masaaki, Kazuya, Xianshi, or even Harumi to come pick me up. I gazed up at the stars, wandering aimlessly toward the one place I desperately wanted to visit. I arrived at the back alley of Hidaka's Ramen and Beer, using my knowledge of lockpicking to sneakily enter the place I once called my home.