2
BROTHELS HAD A UNIQUE SMELL to them. There weren’t many shops specializing in bath services in the Dove District, but there was still a sweet, musty smell in the air. The smell was less like that of flowers and more akin to ripened fruit. It was a smell familiar to all red-light districts, one that hadn’t changed even as the industry did.
The night grew long. Midnight passed, and the red-light district came to life. Men entered Sakuraba Milk Hall, tempted by sweet smells, and ogled the waitresses as they tried to make a choice.
The ice melted with a refreshing crack. Jinya leaned against the counter as he always did and drank indifferently.
“Just here to drink again?”
“Yeah. Sorry.”
“I don’t mind, but…” The manager glanced toward the waitresses and grinned.
Jinya followed his gaze and saw one of them looking his way with a huffy glare. Her name was Akemi, he faintly recalled. She averted her gaze when their eyes met. It seemed he was disliked.
“Perhaps I teased her too much?”
“It’s fine. Akemi-chan is proud, but she doesn’t hold grudges forever. She’ll forgive you in time,” the manager said with a smile.
Jinya nodded, then took another drink of his whiskey. The fragrance wafting to his nose had an elegance that Japanese liquor lacked. It had made him frown when he first tried it, but he was used to it now. One could get used to most things with time. Whether that was a good or bad thing, he did not know.
“Is tonight’s drink not to your liking?” The manager’s question had nothing to do with the drink. He saw something was on Jinya’s mind and was giving him an opportunity to talk without pressuring him to do so. If Jinya didn’t wish to open up, he could simply say the drink was fine, and the manager wouldn’t push any further.
“I found the sex worker I was after,” Jinya replied. He didn’t have to tell the truth, but he did it anyway.
“Well, isn’t that good?”
“I wonder. It might’ve been better if I’d never found her.”
“Is that so? Why might that be?”
Jinya took another drink, then let out a small sigh. A warmth seeped through his stomach, and he formed his words before it could cool off. “This sex worker is my niece…”
The manager would probably misunderstand what that meant to Jinya, but there was nothing wrong with that. Jinya just wanted to grumble. Whether he was understood or not wasn’t important.
“Ah. You didn’t want to see her become a sex worker?”
“It’s not that. My relationship with her mother—my sister—isn’t the best. I wish I hadn’t met her at all.”
“But you looked for her anyway. Why?”
Jinya was at a loss when faced with that question. He fiddled with the glass in his hand as he thought. It was true that he didn’t want to meet this daughter of Magatsume, but he’d looked for the sex worker with the name of a flower anyway. He was puzzled over why that was, but if he were forced to give an answer, he would say…
“…It’s probably because I felt lost.”
It wasn’t because he wanted to discover the truth of this Dove District that shouldn’t have existed. He’d looked for her because he was lost, and nothing more.