Kuroba Asashin's Arc

Chapter 12 of 44

Jackie slept in the yard that first night and did not leave. By morning he was hauling water before Ona woke, the metal arm dumping buckets into the trough without spilling. Kuroba watched from the porch and said nothing. The boy had chosen the dojo. The dojo had not yet chosen him. Kenji tapped his stick against the boards and pointed at the wash house. "He needs a roof," the old man said. Kuroba nodded. There was a small room off the back hall, empty except for dust. He told Ona to give the boy a mat and a blanket. He did not think to tell Tish. Tish rose before dawn as she always did and went to wash. She still wore the heeled shoes she had traveled in; she set them outside the wash room door and stepped inside barefoot on the cold stone. Steam already filled the space. Water ran. She pushed the inner screen aside and stopped. Jackie stood under the pipe with his back half turned, the metal shoulder wet, tattoos dark against his ribs. He turned his head. The blue eye caught her and narrowed to a pinprick. Tish did not scream. She stepped back through the screen, picked up her shoes, and walked out into the yard without them on her feet. At the noon meal Jackie sat across from her on the porch step. "Sorry about the wash house," he said. "Nobody told me nobody told you." Tish kept her eyes on her bowl. "It's fine." "You got pretty eyes, you know that?" She set the bowl down. She stood. She went inside. Jackie looked at Kuroba. Kuroba looked back and did not help him. Ona snorted into her tea. "Leave her," she said. "She sleeps rough three weeks and still wears the heels. She doesn't need you looking." Jackie held up the metal hand. "I was being nice." "Be nice quieter," Ona said. Kuroba found Tish behind the hall, in the shade of the jasmine rail. She stood very straight, arms crossed, shoes in her hand. He had seen the posture before, in students who carried shame in the shoulders. He did not speak of the wash house. He said, "The back room is his now. The east room is yours. There is a bolt on the inside. I should have set it yesterday." She nodded once. "Thank you." "He will not come near you again unless you allow it. I have told him." She looked at the ground, then up. "I can cook the evening meal. If you want." "Yes." She put the shoes back on and walked past him toward the kitchen, heels finding the flat stones between the cracks. Kuroba went to the porch and told Jackie the rules of the house. Jackie listened. The dojo now had walls between its people, and each person knew which wall was theirs. Tish finds herself recalling what she came across when she saw Jackie that morning… and to her surprise, she remembers it fondly