[GK] tori tonari | 鳥となり

Vasha sat at a breakfast table outside, sketching, when suddenly a well-coiffed lady stepped into her view.

It wasn’t uncommon for a Japanese woman to wander the streets of Port Arthur these days, most were recent widows who had crossed the sea to collect their husbands' remains, assuming they could even figure out which parts belonged to whom. Many couldn’t bring themselves to enter the morgue. And that was if their husbands had made it there at all, rather than being blasted into a million uncollectable pieces.

She had seen many of these women before—pale, thin, fragile as leaves in the wind, always dressed in humble clothes that mirrored their grief.

But this woman was different. Her attire was simple yet unmistakably expensive, with birds embroidered into the pale violet silk, although subtly, as if her refined taste were a secret meant only for the discerning eye.

But that didn’t escape Vasha’s notice. She lacked the smooth watercolor to capture the vibrancy of the woman’s silks, but her charcoal would suffice for the jet-black hair and void-like eyes. That hair was coiled into an immaculate bun, fastened with a shiny pin. A delicate bird was dangling from it, swaying with her compact steps.

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