Post by Rika Lefcourt on Oct 11, 2011 11:22:42 GMT -8
September 18
Prancing into the lion’s den wasn’t really what most people would have called smart. Though, she wasn’t really prancing anyway. Still, the lion’s den remained. Was lion even the right term here? It was more of a dragon. Lurking. Waiting. Watching. Observing. Looking right at her. And she was looking straight back. Many people would have called the idea of accepting this invitation utterly stupid. Maybe even suicidal. As it was, they were not on good terms, to say the least.
“That’s a nasty habit,” she finally said.
Her opposite’s eyes narrowed. Then the woman took a puff from her pipe. It was a long, slender thing, with a very small head which allowed only a very small amount of tobacco. It was a kiseru, a traditional Japanese pipe. However, after that the woman remained silent.
It was an informal meeting. Extremely informal, as her own clothes indicated. She had been invited in secret and, after some hesitation, had accepted it. Her journey to Niigata prefecture had been kept as secret as possible, covered up by at least three clans. In order to avoid detection she had primarily used muggle transports.
Joetsu was ancient Uesugi territory. Of course, since the Uesugi had ruled the lands things had changed drastically. Their castle was gone, what was left was a museum, remnants of the moat and basic walls. Everything else had simply disappeared, withered away by time. Yet most of the tourism in the town lived off the Uesugi of old. Uesugi Kenshin was still quite popular among the people -she was still trying to figure why exactly, in her opinion Kenshin had been an alcohol addicted warmonger, but similar things could be easily applied to the Hojo, or the Nikaidô respectively- and there had been attempts of getting his heirs involved in these tourist traps.
However, the Uesugi of today had little interest in these things. Tourism was basically a muggle thing. Muggles and muggle born. That was one way to look at it. The Hojo did it the other way around. The Hojo still were popular as well and they were using the tourist traps on their side of the country for a small, but steady income.
The woman took another puff and observed her. It was almost like a game of chicken. Who would blink first?
“It was quite surprising,” a male voice behind her said suddenly and her gaze shifted a bit in reply. “Voting against your cousin, so openly.”
“You owe me a thousand koku,” the woman said suddenly.
Lord Nakamikado snorted. “Yes, yes. I’ve not forgotten about it. You were right.”
“You were betting on this?” she added finally.
“Oh yes. We had different opinions on how far you would go. Apparently Lady Kiku won.”
“It’s nice to see that this rather uncomfortable turn of events brought you two some amusement.”
“Snarky,” Kiku noted.
“Maybe so,” Sayoko replied looking straight at her, “but I’m not necessarily in the mood for playing games. I have a lot of work to do.”
“Point taken.”
Nakamikado rose and joined them. “You understand why we invited you?”
“There aren’t many reasons.”
“Proposing an alliance would be... preposterous, we know that just as well as you do. However,” he let that hang in the air for a second or two. “However, there are a few things which both of us find rather... intriguing.”
“You’re not listed as animagus”, Kiku said in a rather un-ladylike, blunt way.
Sayoko stared at her a bit taken aback. It didn’t surprise her that the Uesugi had access to such data. Infiltration and espionage were an important part of this game. “Because maybe... I’m none?”
“Your cousin is registered, however.” Kiku clearly referred to Sayoko’s younger cousin Mayumi, who, as a gotoku neko, had chosen to be listed as an animagus, simply because she had too much fun with the shape shifting.
“You know how it goes,” came the reply.
At that Kiku relaxed a bit and shifted into what was her actual natural form. A gotoku neko. A slightly shorter, anthropoid feline with a long tail. The tail, however, was curled up under her kimono. Fashion came with certain costs. Nakamikado joined her shortly afterwards. Even in their natural form their age was, of course, clearly visible.
Sayoko was used to this, after all she had grown up around gotoku neko. The Hojo’s ancestors had been such creatures living at the old imperial palace and many other old clans had similar roots. Over the centuries they had turned into master infiltrators and had learned how not to be seen among muggles and human wizards alike. The ministry still listed them as magical creatures, and as such they didn’t have any particular rights. One of the results of this was that all the smarter gotoku neko clans and families kept the knowledge of their true nature among themselves. Of course, there were some who succumbed to the somewhat foolish notion of civil rights and similar, but those were usually extremists and black sheep. The truth was that all the gotoku neko clans knew each other and went to great lengths to keep it that way. Which, in retrospect, made her uncle’s relation with Minami a bit more complicated than it already was.
“You can of course join us,” Nakamikado said calmly.
Sayoko looked at him blankly for a second or two. How would she do that. She wasn’t one of them.
“Of course, if you don’t want to, that’s just as fine.”
“How could I? I’m none.”
There was a moment of silence until Kiku broke it. “That would be five thousand koku. I told you she didn’t know. But I’m surprised it never crossed her mind.”
“What are you talking about?”
Nakamikado shook his head. “You really don’t know?”
“Know what?” Sayoko demanded.
“That you’re one of us?”
“Nonsense,” came her reply with a forced laugh.
“The Hojo are gotoku neko. So are the Nikaidô. Both trace back to the old imperial court, you know that, right? Your cousin found out about it, so did we.”
“And?”
“Your mother was one of us. So was your father. You know what that means, right?”
Technically it meant that she was one as well. But... Shiori was doing all that research, she found out about a lot of things. There was no way that Shiori would lie to her...
Yes, there was.
Sayoko was staring at Kiku and it all started to make sense. Slowly but steady the pieces were falling into place. Shiori knew. Sayoko had just never had the time to think about those implications. But Shiori knew. She had to. Her uncle knew as well. Why had none of them ever told her? No, it couldn’t be. But the facts were there, had been there for years. Her parents were gotoku neko, that meant that she, too, was one. There was no way around. Her mother was a half gotoku neko. Their traits were passed on dominantly. The child of a gotoku neko and a human would always be a gotoku neko. The child of a half gotoku neko and a pure gotoku neko could only be one thing. A gotoku neko. Logic and simple facts dictated that.
Still. Why had Shiori not told her. She must have known for a while, yet, she had kept this secret to herself. This secret, like so many others.
But maybe all of this was just a trick by her opponents. That chance, too, existed.
Prancing into the lion’s den wasn’t really what most people would have called smart. Though, she wasn’t really prancing anyway. Still, the lion’s den remained. Was lion even the right term here? It was more of a dragon. Lurking. Waiting. Watching. Observing. Looking right at her. And she was looking straight back. Many people would have called the idea of accepting this invitation utterly stupid. Maybe even suicidal. As it was, they were not on good terms, to say the least.
“That’s a nasty habit,” she finally said.
Her opposite’s eyes narrowed. Then the woman took a puff from her pipe. It was a long, slender thing, with a very small head which allowed only a very small amount of tobacco. It was a kiseru, a traditional Japanese pipe. However, after that the woman remained silent.
It was an informal meeting. Extremely informal, as her own clothes indicated. She had been invited in secret and, after some hesitation, had accepted it. Her journey to Niigata prefecture had been kept as secret as possible, covered up by at least three clans. In order to avoid detection she had primarily used muggle transports.
Joetsu was ancient Uesugi territory. Of course, since the Uesugi had ruled the lands things had changed drastically. Their castle was gone, what was left was a museum, remnants of the moat and basic walls. Everything else had simply disappeared, withered away by time. Yet most of the tourism in the town lived off the Uesugi of old. Uesugi Kenshin was still quite popular among the people -she was still trying to figure why exactly, in her opinion Kenshin had been an alcohol addicted warmonger, but similar things could be easily applied to the Hojo, or the Nikaidô respectively- and there had been attempts of getting his heirs involved in these tourist traps.
However, the Uesugi of today had little interest in these things. Tourism was basically a muggle thing. Muggles and muggle born. That was one way to look at it. The Hojo did it the other way around. The Hojo still were popular as well and they were using the tourist traps on their side of the country for a small, but steady income.
The woman took another puff and observed her. It was almost like a game of chicken. Who would blink first?
“It was quite surprising,” a male voice behind her said suddenly and her gaze shifted a bit in reply. “Voting against your cousin, so openly.”
“You owe me a thousand koku,” the woman said suddenly.
Lord Nakamikado snorted. “Yes, yes. I’ve not forgotten about it. You were right.”
“You were betting on this?” she added finally.
“Oh yes. We had different opinions on how far you would go. Apparently Lady Kiku won.”
“It’s nice to see that this rather uncomfortable turn of events brought you two some amusement.”
“Snarky,” Kiku noted.
“Maybe so,” Sayoko replied looking straight at her, “but I’m not necessarily in the mood for playing games. I have a lot of work to do.”
“Point taken.”
Nakamikado rose and joined them. “You understand why we invited you?”
“There aren’t many reasons.”
“Proposing an alliance would be... preposterous, we know that just as well as you do. However,” he let that hang in the air for a second or two. “However, there are a few things which both of us find rather... intriguing.”
“You’re not listed as animagus”, Kiku said in a rather un-ladylike, blunt way.
Sayoko stared at her a bit taken aback. It didn’t surprise her that the Uesugi had access to such data. Infiltration and espionage were an important part of this game. “Because maybe... I’m none?”
“Your cousin is registered, however.” Kiku clearly referred to Sayoko’s younger cousin Mayumi, who, as a gotoku neko, had chosen to be listed as an animagus, simply because she had too much fun with the shape shifting.
“You know how it goes,” came the reply.
At that Kiku relaxed a bit and shifted into what was her actual natural form. A gotoku neko. A slightly shorter, anthropoid feline with a long tail. The tail, however, was curled up under her kimono. Fashion came with certain costs. Nakamikado joined her shortly afterwards. Even in their natural form their age was, of course, clearly visible.
Sayoko was used to this, after all she had grown up around gotoku neko. The Hojo’s ancestors had been such creatures living at the old imperial palace and many other old clans had similar roots. Over the centuries they had turned into master infiltrators and had learned how not to be seen among muggles and human wizards alike. The ministry still listed them as magical creatures, and as such they didn’t have any particular rights. One of the results of this was that all the smarter gotoku neko clans and families kept the knowledge of their true nature among themselves. Of course, there were some who succumbed to the somewhat foolish notion of civil rights and similar, but those were usually extremists and black sheep. The truth was that all the gotoku neko clans knew each other and went to great lengths to keep it that way. Which, in retrospect, made her uncle’s relation with Minami a bit more complicated than it already was.
“You can of course join us,” Nakamikado said calmly.
Sayoko looked at him blankly for a second or two. How would she do that. She wasn’t one of them.
“Of course, if you don’t want to, that’s just as fine.”
“How could I? I’m none.”
There was a moment of silence until Kiku broke it. “That would be five thousand koku. I told you she didn’t know. But I’m surprised it never crossed her mind.”
“What are you talking about?”
Nakamikado shook his head. “You really don’t know?”
“Know what?” Sayoko demanded.
“That you’re one of us?”
“Nonsense,” came her reply with a forced laugh.
“The Hojo are gotoku neko. So are the Nikaidô. Both trace back to the old imperial court, you know that, right? Your cousin found out about it, so did we.”
“And?”
“Your mother was one of us. So was your father. You know what that means, right?”
Technically it meant that she was one as well. But... Shiori was doing all that research, she found out about a lot of things. There was no way that Shiori would lie to her...
Yes, there was.
Sayoko was staring at Kiku and it all started to make sense. Slowly but steady the pieces were falling into place. Shiori knew. Sayoko had just never had the time to think about those implications. But Shiori knew. She had to. Her uncle knew as well. Why had none of them ever told her? No, it couldn’t be. But the facts were there, had been there for years. Her parents were gotoku neko, that meant that she, too, was one. There was no way around. Her mother was a half gotoku neko. Their traits were passed on dominantly. The child of a gotoku neko and a human would always be a gotoku neko. The child of a half gotoku neko and a pure gotoku neko could only be one thing. A gotoku neko. Logic and simple facts dictated that.
Still. Why had Shiori not told her. She must have known for a while, yet, she had kept this secret to herself. This secret, like so many others.
But maybe all of this was just a trick by her opponents. That chance, too, existed.