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Entering the room, she noticed a stack of futons as well as chests. Laying her yukata and things in one of the open, empty ones, she exited the room. Noticing some cleaning rags and a bowl of water laid out in the kitchen, she picked it up, heading to the front porch of the okiya. Mizu hiked up the skirt of her faded kimono as she began to wipe the woodwork. Presently, she began to sing, remembering other times she had done the same thing.

"When the days grow long with troubles,
And your soul grows heavy with weariness,
Remember I am always with you,
No matter where you go.

Whenever you feel the chill,
Of dark and lonely nights,
Remember this song I sing for you,
To watch you through your life.

So do not cry at any time,
There is more to life than tears,
For I am always watching you,
And pride for you I feel...."

She wiped away the tears that had filled her eyes at the memory of her mother and father, laughing slightly to herself.

"I ought to sing happier songs, Okaa-san of the Okiya would not like it if I got my salty tears all over this porch," she mock-chided herself as she scrubbed away the evidence of her moment of loneliness.

((Seven))

Mizu looked up from her work with a shy smile.
"Hai Geisha-sama," she answered.
She returned back to scouring the porch and the floors of the inner chambers only after the gate had clicked closed, leaving her alone once more. By the end of her work her arms were aching, but she grinning to herself anyway.
"It feels like home again..."
She was interrupted by the growling of her stomach. She shushed it before wringing out the soaked rags and picking out a broom to sweep the front yard with. The colored leaves were beautiful, but it was ginko season, and they shed leaves so quickly that the yard was littered with their bright yellow fans. Knowing all okiya prided themselves in cleanliness, she began working on the leaves, humming as she went. The work was relaxing and monotonous enough to let all her aches from the scrubbing quickly flitter away on the breeze that came by.

((Eight))

Mizu rounded the corner of the house to notice that the benevolent geisha was still there, apparently waiting for her maiko.
"Ano...Geisha-sama, could I get you something to drink while you wait?" she asked hesitantly, her grip tightening on the broom in her hands.

((Nine))

Tora straitens her pink kimono and steals a glance at herself in the mirror. "I'm as ready as I'll ever be Onee-sama Serena," Tora said nervously. She was scared to death, this is her one chance to make a good impression on the patrons and to become a true geisha; she can't blow it.

Mizu noticed the maiko and watched her, trying not to be too envious. The girl was very pretty and obviously well on her way to becoming a geisha herself.
Sweeping away leaves, she piled them against a wall with a small smile.

"Maiko, geisha, and me, the maid. If only I could be like them..." A look of sadness touched her eyes, turning them a lucid cerulean blue.
"If only I could be like Kaa-san..." She shook her head, clearing her thoughts. "I AM going to be like Kaa-san...it'll just take patience," she told herself firmly.
With new resolve, she put away the broom and wondered what else she could do to clean the okiya.

((Eleven))

Retiring to the kitchen, Mizu wondered what else she could do. Another maid had completed the dishes, and there was much time until any meal needed preparing. She had scrubbed the porch, swept the grounds, and served Serena-sama a root beer. Mizu finally decided she might take a few moments for herself and disappeared into the maids' room.

It was devoid of other people, so she looked through the folds of her yukata and pulled out a picture frame, large enough to cover both her hands just barely. Within the picture were three figures: a pale, beautiful lady with long, flowing black hair and laughing rose-amethyst eyes, a man with dark, black hair and eyes of deep blue-indigo with laugh lines around his lips, and a little girl with shoulder length black hair tied back, who was reaching out to the falling sakura blossoms as the picture was taken.

It was only when a salty tear fell to the glass over the picture that Mizu realized she was crying. The picture was one of the only ones she had left after she had been forced to sell her belongings to survive. Without income or a means of getting money, she had had to do away with the furniture and the house, though she had, according to her mothers' wishes, stored away two of the best kimono for herself, donating the rest to surrounding okiya in the Gion area. Then she had come away, to a place that knew nothing of her or her mother's fame, to fulfil the dream she had had since her childhood.

Wiping away her tears, she unwrapped a yukata to reveal the blue-silk kimono hidden underneath, as well as the purple one behind it. "I'll wear you both when I become a maiko," she whispered, "and when I become a geisha too..." She placed them back into the chest, covering them with yukata as well as replacing the picture frame underneath some yukata and a small bundle of hair ornaments and perfume from her mother. "Someday..."

((Twelve))

"Mahika, it has been soo long since I have seen you!'Serena greeted warmly.