Street Commerce 101

[takanimegumi]

Date: February 6

Time: Late Evening

Place: Lower District, New Meiji

Characters: Megumi, Kenshin

 

There was slush in her shoes.

With a sigh, Megumi looked down at the nearly dilapidated pumps she’d “borrowed” (long term, without permission, no return date in sight) from a less than observant owner of a forth rate clothing exchange store. They were ghastly things, two sizes too large and Megumi suspected that the original owner had been sufferer of bunions by the lumps on the sides of the toe beds. She sighed again, bent down and gingerly pulled off the pumps that had seen better days, her cinnamon eyes clinically looking at the state of her toes. They were bright red, nearly purple. Megumi tilted her head, quickly calculating how much longer she had before her toes froze. Again.

Calculations complete, she quietly dropped the shoes  and walked forward barefoot. It was uncomfortable and would, as the evening progressed and the temperature continued to drop, become painful for a measure of time, but there would be no lasting damage. Hypothermic digits were better than walking around in ugly, lime green pumps and that was that. Megumi smirked and wearily slinked down an alley, where perhaps the streets were not as thick with the industrial grey sleet and sludge. Cold feet aside, she was tired and after three days without more than the occasional complimentary cup of coffee, she was shaking violently with hunger.

It didn’t take long for Megumi to realize that other denizens of New Meiji’s less than savory side had had similar ideas. Normally, the side streets of what she now knew were the outskirts of one of the larger pleasure districts would be empty, save for the occasional AMP’d out shell of an addict, alcoholic or speed chaser. Tonight, they alleys were crawling with men and woman whose appetites and desires were darker than the winter sky.

Head down, she tried to vanish into the background, pulling the also “borrowed” men’s trench coat tightly around her body as she brushed past a crowd of rowdy men and brassy, hard eyed women who seemed hell bent on making a little extra money this evening. Meg glanced down a side alley as she ducked beneath a rusting metal stair well and was horrified to see a woman pressed up against a wall, dress up around her exposed hips as a man thrust into her. Occasionally the woman would moan, pause, and moan again as if she was reading some horrible script that only she could see. The man for his part was apparently inspired by the performance for with a groan and shudder and a sigh he was done and the business at hand was blatantly concluded. Dress went down, trousers went up, money was exchanged.

Wide eyed, Megumi looked away, her pale face flushing with embarrassment and shame, not because she’d never seen people having sex (she hadn't but that wasn't the point) , but  because she suspected that if she didn’t find some sort of permanent situation,  one where she could earn a living without garnering unwanted attention, she’d soon find herself in a similar situation. A familiar ache, one that had nothing to do with cold feet or an empty stomach caused her eyes to well up and she stumbled past the side alley, knowing that in all aspects that mattered, she’d already prostituted herself, to men far more despicable than anyone she was likely to encounter in this alley.

Evening turned to night and as the temperatures began to plummet and the slush became crusted, then slick with ice, Megumi continued to wander, turning left, then right until she was hopelessly lost, and desperately cold. Pulling her coat tight around her she came to a dingy intersection of alleyways and looked right then left, before stumbling forward.

.