Post by Rika Lefcourt on Jan 15, 2011 15:23:57 GMT -8
Time had flown in Japan. In Kamakura the Lady Shiori of the Hojo family had been raging for a while. Her cousin’s move to Hokkaido had already set her off pretty badly and, even though Shiori was known to not lose her cool easily, she had actually punched a hole into one of the shoji doors. But that had been some time ago. Then Sayoko had gone to Great Britain to finish some stupid, unimportant business there. The Lefcourts, they were irrelevant. Britain was irrelevant. Shiori knew about Sayoko’s worries about money. The Nikaidô were bankrupt, by everybody knew that and it was likely that many, especially her opponents, had known for a while anyway. It was possible that their agreement on allowing the Nikaidô back had partly been based on this knowledge.
And then, not even an hour ago, the news had struck. Sayoko had been arrested in London. For murder. For murdering that stupid... Shiori stopped. What was her name? Anna... something. It didn’t even matter. She was dead, or so Shiori had heard and Sayoko was locked up for it. That was ridiculous.
Yet she was still in Hokkaido. Not having bother to wait in Kamakura Shiori had simply apparated to the Nikaidô mansion. That had caused quite some issues with the guards, her own and Sayoko’s. Of course Shiori had certain access to the mansion, since she was essentially family, but such unannounced visits when the leader wasn’t there weren’t really helpful either.
Luckily Sayoko’s uncle was present and now Shiori was facing him in the reception hall.
“Arrested,” Shiori hissed. “Arrested. And this is all your fault.”
“Why is it my fault?” Takeshi said. It was clear that he hadn’t slept a lot in the past night.
“Why?” She spun around to face him, the expression on her face more than just angry. “You were the one who was ranting about letting her go. I’m pretty sure it was you who talked her into this ridiculous idea of moving up here, too! And going over to Europe! You could have stopped her. Tell me! Why are you doing this? Why are you so desperately trying to break our family in half?”
At that he simply rolled his eyes. So that was it. Of course he had heard the news too, but there was a particular difference. In these past few months Takeshi had gotten to know his niece quite well. He had seen her strength and determination when dealing with the whole issue and he was now convinced that Sayoko was a lot stronger than Shiori. He also know that, right now, there was nothing he could do. It was in the hands of the Ministry now. They had specialists for such incidents. They could handle it.
And not to forget that Shiori had been brought up for this. She had been groomed for this position from a very early age. She was well educated and intelligent, but she was also somewhat naïve. Sayoko, while being well educated and intelligent herself, had never been prepared for this. Yet Shiori’s reaction showed clearly that the past events had put a certain strain on her. She was behaving somewhat irrational. Takeshi knew that worrying too much over loved ones was not really a good thing. Worry was fine, but overdoing it was bad.
“Sayoko is a smart girl,” he said finally.
Shiori snorted.
“There are specialists working on this and there is nothing you can do.”
“I can go to England.”
“And do what?”
“Get her out.”
“And get in the way of the people trained for this? Really? Is that your idea? Is that the best the mighty Hojo can come up with? Running in like a-“
“Shut up!” Shiori was fuming now.
“Running in like a moron?”
“Shut up!” she ordered again. “How dare you?!” And with that she started towards him.
Takeshi, however, got quickly on his feet. “How dare I? How dare you, Lady Hojo? This is the Nikaidô mansion. You are a guest here. You don’t call the shots here, Lady Hojo. Until my niece returns, and I’m sure she will return, I’m in charge. And you will either behave properly or leave.”
For a second Takeshi wondered if, with the right spell, it would have been possible for steam to come out of Shiori’s ears.
“You... You are just... I won’t forget this!” She spat at him and stormed off.
“She is worried, and I can understand her. If that was my cousin...”
Takeshi turned to see Minami standing in the smaller door on the side. “I am worried, Mina-chan. I am. But I know there’s nothing I can do right now. We have to wait, no matter how annoying it may be.”
She nodded. The things she had learned in the past few months had finally settled in and she had accepted them as facts. “It’s just...”
“I know. I would never forgive myself is something would happen to her. But...” he trailed off. It was pointless to discuss this any further. They had to wait. Though, it felt good to see that Minami was just as worried as he was. Apparently the two had, more or less, bonded.
“What about Shiori?”
“She won’t do anything. At least not without the approval of the Ministry and the clans. And she’ll never get the approval of the clans. There is no way. She could get one, maybe two votes, but the rest would be more than happy for Sayoko to stay in Britain forever.”
“What will you do?” Minami asked while approaching him.
“Wait. What else is there to do?”
But of course, such news weren’t bad news for everyone. Lord Nakamikado had been at the Uesugi mansion, doing his usual... evil stuff. Though, evil, what was that? Didn’t it solely depend on the point of view? People were so picky. And now that thorn in his side was in trouble, a quite entertaining fact.
Though, it left a certain bitter aftertaste and a strange nagging sensation in the back of his head. Nakamikado was no fool. He hadn’t survived that long with being an idiot. Nikaidô Sayoko was a problem, no doubt, and, apart from her being part of their illustrious society, the whole country would probably better off without her. Yet, whenever he came to exactly that conclusion, that feeling somewhere, deep down in his mind was popping up.
At one point he had truly believed that Sayoko would be following her cousin Shiori all the time. He had expected her to be a good minion, who Shiori would be using to tip the favor of the clans into her direction.
And then Sayoko had moved the entire Nikaidô clan to Hokkaido. If the rumors were true, and they often were, then Shiori had been quite angry about this. Though, that hadn’t been all. Sayoko had then left for Europe, where she had now been arrested for murder. Oh those foreigners and their strange definition of morals. Killing one was murder. Killing ten million was a statistic. Strange people. Nevertheless, it seemed that Sayoko was not just a fool who followed. She was not a minion. She was really the rogue card in this game, just how rogue Nakamikado and his allies had not even dared to imagine.
Allies.
Allies like the young woman behind him, inside the pavilion. He turned to watch her. She had been sitting like this for roughly two hours. Her movements had been slow, but to the point. Even from behind she looked perfect. Almost as if she had stepped right out of an ancient print. Lord Nakamikado had been sitting on the steps to the pavilion not even remotely as long. He watched her right hand rise and move a pair of silver scissors forward. A short metallic sound indicated that she had cut something off.
“You were right,” he finally said into the silence, but of course she didn’t reply. Uesugi Okiku was not only gifted with extreme beauty, intelligence, cunningness and the utter insanity of inbreeding, but also with an almost inhuman ability to focus on things. Though, given the fact that she wasn’t human, was it really surprising?
“I really thought that she would be doing Shiori’s bidding without question.” Another metallic clack was the only reply he received. “I wonder...”
“She’s moving against Shiori out of duty to her own clan.” Okiku finally said.
“Against is a pretty harsh term, don’t you think?”
She turned to face him and Nakamikado caught a glimpse of perfect beauty. “Maybe so, but she is putting the Nikaidô above the Hojo and the people she used to call family.”
Okiku had a point with that and he knew it. “Still, it is a surprise.”
“It is. In the beginning I thought the same way. Especially after the Harrowing I was convinced that she would be Shiori’s lapdog. But after a few days of looking through the reports of our spies, it became obvious to me that something wasn’t as it seemed.”
“And what are you spies telling you about me?”
“That, honorably lord Nakamikado, is for a different time.” She rose and walked the few steps towards the pavilion’s veranda. Though walking didn’t really fit. Floating was more appropriate. There she sat down in proper distance from him.
“What do you think will happen?”
The gaze from Okiku’s intelligent eyes focused on the mountains in the distance. “Sayoko has survived everything. Every attempt on her life. She survived them all. Every single one. In most cases she killed the attackers. Personally I don’t think she went there to murder this foreign whore. She has the resources for a more appropriate approach.” Assassins, of course. Okiku folded her hands in her lap. “I’m convinced that she will come back. And she will be the rogue card. But I doubt many will realize this until it is too late. Even Shiori seems to have troubles accepting this.”
“Family ties.”
“Indeed.” She closed her eyes. “That may eventually become an issue for Shiori. Her radical approach may put off Sayoko.”
Stretching his legs he finally leaned back. It was an unusually relaxed situation, rather untypical for people of their status. “You have seen her draft I take it?”
“What we could copy from the message to the Ministry, yes.”
“And?”
Her eyes opened again and she had a short look at him before turning her gaze back to the mountains. “Radical. There is no way she can push it through without Sayoko. Fujiwara will vote for it, of course. Possibly the old Tokugawa as well. And a few of the others too. But if Sayoko would vote against her...” Okiku let that hanging in the air. “And the irony is, we wouldn’t even have to lie about it. Just show her the draft.”
“And you think she would vote against her cousin based on that draft alone? For all we know she could be a radical as well.”
“Maybe, maybe not. There is only one way to find out.”
Nakamikado’s gaze lingered on Okiku. It was strange. From all the women she was exactly the one he had never desired. Despite her incredible looks and intelligence there was something about her that killed any desire he could have felt for her. Strange.
“Nikaidô again?” sounded another female voice. That one Nakamikado recognized at once. It was his own daughter Harue, who was, sadly, coming more after her mother than after him, which meant that she was hardly a beauty. But at least she had inherited his intelligence. Needless to say that his marriage with Harue’s mother had had only one reason: politics. He didn’t love her, she didn’t love him, but there was no room for petty romance.
“Indeed Haru,” Okiku said with a nod.
“If everything fails you can always kill her.”
“Drastic, but yes,” noted Lady Mori, who had followed Harue. “It’s always an option. But not always the best option.”
Harue nodded. It seemed that she was learning quickly from Lady Chiyo’s knowledge. It had been a good idea to bring her with him. Besides, Harue needed to know the leaders of the other clans, especially his allies.
“The floo network has been running wild. It seems that our dear bureaucrats have given our representative pretty much free hand.” Chiyo finally said.
“Who’s our man in London anyway?”
“Maeda Akahide.”
Lord Nakamikado’s brows furrowed. The name didn’t ring a bell. But given how common the family name Maeda was, it was as if Chiyo had just said Mister Smith.
“A strange man,” Okiku added suddenly and pursed her lips for a second or two.
“You know him?”
“If I must remind you, I have a good memory. I’ve met him once or twice when I was little. My parents had a few... encounters... with him.”
Ah yes, her parents. Okiku’s parents had been siblings and they had always made their decisions together. They had lived together and, apparently, had also died together, or so the official word went around. However, Nakamikado was certain that Okiku had given them a slight nudge towards death. It was very likely that she had killed them herself in order to take the power into her own hands. Inbreeding. It was based on the idea of pureblood family trees.
Lord Nakamikado didn’t care that much about this ideology. It played a certain part in his life, had led to his marriage -and eventually to Harue-, but from his own experience there were more important things to deal with. One of them was making sure that radicals like Lady Shiori of the Hojo wouldn’t mess everything up with their incredibly stupid ideas.
“What is he like?”
“He,” Okiku tilted her head to the side just a bit. “I remember him as a tall man, a good duelist at Shirasagi. He used to be a Hunter.” The British called them aurors. “And then, suddenly, went into diplomatic service.”
From Chiyo came a sound that seemed to express approval.
“Do you know anything, honorable Lady Chiyo?”
Their eyes met. “There are two rules in the art of espionage, honorable Lord Nakamikado. Number one is not to tell everything you know.”
He winced inwardly. She had been using this expression for decades. And even though he knew that she was absolutely right, it was a horribly clichéd way to put it. But that was Chiyo after all. It was essentially impossible to foresee what she would be up to next.
“What will we do now?” sounded Harue’s voice.
Chiyo and Okiku looked at each other for a second or two before Okiku spoke up. “We wait.”
“True,” Lord Nakamikado added. “It’s all we can do.”
“Boring,” mumbled Harue.
“Sometimes boredom is part of our way of life.”
And then, not even an hour ago, the news had struck. Sayoko had been arrested in London. For murder. For murdering that stupid... Shiori stopped. What was her name? Anna... something. It didn’t even matter. She was dead, or so Shiori had heard and Sayoko was locked up for it. That was ridiculous.
Yet she was still in Hokkaido. Not having bother to wait in Kamakura Shiori had simply apparated to the Nikaidô mansion. That had caused quite some issues with the guards, her own and Sayoko’s. Of course Shiori had certain access to the mansion, since she was essentially family, but such unannounced visits when the leader wasn’t there weren’t really helpful either.
Luckily Sayoko’s uncle was present and now Shiori was facing him in the reception hall.
“Arrested,” Shiori hissed. “Arrested. And this is all your fault.”
“Why is it my fault?” Takeshi said. It was clear that he hadn’t slept a lot in the past night.
“Why?” She spun around to face him, the expression on her face more than just angry. “You were the one who was ranting about letting her go. I’m pretty sure it was you who talked her into this ridiculous idea of moving up here, too! And going over to Europe! You could have stopped her. Tell me! Why are you doing this? Why are you so desperately trying to break our family in half?”
At that he simply rolled his eyes. So that was it. Of course he had heard the news too, but there was a particular difference. In these past few months Takeshi had gotten to know his niece quite well. He had seen her strength and determination when dealing with the whole issue and he was now convinced that Sayoko was a lot stronger than Shiori. He also know that, right now, there was nothing he could do. It was in the hands of the Ministry now. They had specialists for such incidents. They could handle it.
And not to forget that Shiori had been brought up for this. She had been groomed for this position from a very early age. She was well educated and intelligent, but she was also somewhat naïve. Sayoko, while being well educated and intelligent herself, had never been prepared for this. Yet Shiori’s reaction showed clearly that the past events had put a certain strain on her. She was behaving somewhat irrational. Takeshi knew that worrying too much over loved ones was not really a good thing. Worry was fine, but overdoing it was bad.
“Sayoko is a smart girl,” he said finally.
Shiori snorted.
“There are specialists working on this and there is nothing you can do.”
“I can go to England.”
“And do what?”
“Get her out.”
“And get in the way of the people trained for this? Really? Is that your idea? Is that the best the mighty Hojo can come up with? Running in like a-“
“Shut up!” Shiori was fuming now.
“Running in like a moron?”
“Shut up!” she ordered again. “How dare you?!” And with that she started towards him.
Takeshi, however, got quickly on his feet. “How dare I? How dare you, Lady Hojo? This is the Nikaidô mansion. You are a guest here. You don’t call the shots here, Lady Hojo. Until my niece returns, and I’m sure she will return, I’m in charge. And you will either behave properly or leave.”
For a second Takeshi wondered if, with the right spell, it would have been possible for steam to come out of Shiori’s ears.
“You... You are just... I won’t forget this!” She spat at him and stormed off.
“She is worried, and I can understand her. If that was my cousin...”
Takeshi turned to see Minami standing in the smaller door on the side. “I am worried, Mina-chan. I am. But I know there’s nothing I can do right now. We have to wait, no matter how annoying it may be.”
She nodded. The things she had learned in the past few months had finally settled in and she had accepted them as facts. “It’s just...”
“I know. I would never forgive myself is something would happen to her. But...” he trailed off. It was pointless to discuss this any further. They had to wait. Though, it felt good to see that Minami was just as worried as he was. Apparently the two had, more or less, bonded.
“What about Shiori?”
“She won’t do anything. At least not without the approval of the Ministry and the clans. And she’ll never get the approval of the clans. There is no way. She could get one, maybe two votes, but the rest would be more than happy for Sayoko to stay in Britain forever.”
“What will you do?” Minami asked while approaching him.
“Wait. What else is there to do?”
But of course, such news weren’t bad news for everyone. Lord Nakamikado had been at the Uesugi mansion, doing his usual... evil stuff. Though, evil, what was that? Didn’t it solely depend on the point of view? People were so picky. And now that thorn in his side was in trouble, a quite entertaining fact.
Though, it left a certain bitter aftertaste and a strange nagging sensation in the back of his head. Nakamikado was no fool. He hadn’t survived that long with being an idiot. Nikaidô Sayoko was a problem, no doubt, and, apart from her being part of their illustrious society, the whole country would probably better off without her. Yet, whenever he came to exactly that conclusion, that feeling somewhere, deep down in his mind was popping up.
At one point he had truly believed that Sayoko would be following her cousin Shiori all the time. He had expected her to be a good minion, who Shiori would be using to tip the favor of the clans into her direction.
And then Sayoko had moved the entire Nikaidô clan to Hokkaido. If the rumors were true, and they often were, then Shiori had been quite angry about this. Though, that hadn’t been all. Sayoko had then left for Europe, where she had now been arrested for murder. Oh those foreigners and their strange definition of morals. Killing one was murder. Killing ten million was a statistic. Strange people. Nevertheless, it seemed that Sayoko was not just a fool who followed. She was not a minion. She was really the rogue card in this game, just how rogue Nakamikado and his allies had not even dared to imagine.
Allies.
Allies like the young woman behind him, inside the pavilion. He turned to watch her. She had been sitting like this for roughly two hours. Her movements had been slow, but to the point. Even from behind she looked perfect. Almost as if she had stepped right out of an ancient print. Lord Nakamikado had been sitting on the steps to the pavilion not even remotely as long. He watched her right hand rise and move a pair of silver scissors forward. A short metallic sound indicated that she had cut something off.
“You were right,” he finally said into the silence, but of course she didn’t reply. Uesugi Okiku was not only gifted with extreme beauty, intelligence, cunningness and the utter insanity of inbreeding, but also with an almost inhuman ability to focus on things. Though, given the fact that she wasn’t human, was it really surprising?
“I really thought that she would be doing Shiori’s bidding without question.” Another metallic clack was the only reply he received. “I wonder...”
“She’s moving against Shiori out of duty to her own clan.” Okiku finally said.
“Against is a pretty harsh term, don’t you think?”
She turned to face him and Nakamikado caught a glimpse of perfect beauty. “Maybe so, but she is putting the Nikaidô above the Hojo and the people she used to call family.”
Okiku had a point with that and he knew it. “Still, it is a surprise.”
“It is. In the beginning I thought the same way. Especially after the Harrowing I was convinced that she would be Shiori’s lapdog. But after a few days of looking through the reports of our spies, it became obvious to me that something wasn’t as it seemed.”
“And what are you spies telling you about me?”
“That, honorably lord Nakamikado, is for a different time.” She rose and walked the few steps towards the pavilion’s veranda. Though walking didn’t really fit. Floating was more appropriate. There she sat down in proper distance from him.
“What do you think will happen?”
The gaze from Okiku’s intelligent eyes focused on the mountains in the distance. “Sayoko has survived everything. Every attempt on her life. She survived them all. Every single one. In most cases she killed the attackers. Personally I don’t think she went there to murder this foreign whore. She has the resources for a more appropriate approach.” Assassins, of course. Okiku folded her hands in her lap. “I’m convinced that she will come back. And she will be the rogue card. But I doubt many will realize this until it is too late. Even Shiori seems to have troubles accepting this.”
“Family ties.”
“Indeed.” She closed her eyes. “That may eventually become an issue for Shiori. Her radical approach may put off Sayoko.”
Stretching his legs he finally leaned back. It was an unusually relaxed situation, rather untypical for people of their status. “You have seen her draft I take it?”
“What we could copy from the message to the Ministry, yes.”
“And?”
Her eyes opened again and she had a short look at him before turning her gaze back to the mountains. “Radical. There is no way she can push it through without Sayoko. Fujiwara will vote for it, of course. Possibly the old Tokugawa as well. And a few of the others too. But if Sayoko would vote against her...” Okiku let that hanging in the air. “And the irony is, we wouldn’t even have to lie about it. Just show her the draft.”
“And you think she would vote against her cousin based on that draft alone? For all we know she could be a radical as well.”
“Maybe, maybe not. There is only one way to find out.”
Nakamikado’s gaze lingered on Okiku. It was strange. From all the women she was exactly the one he had never desired. Despite her incredible looks and intelligence there was something about her that killed any desire he could have felt for her. Strange.
“Nikaidô again?” sounded another female voice. That one Nakamikado recognized at once. It was his own daughter Harue, who was, sadly, coming more after her mother than after him, which meant that she was hardly a beauty. But at least she had inherited his intelligence. Needless to say that his marriage with Harue’s mother had had only one reason: politics. He didn’t love her, she didn’t love him, but there was no room for petty romance.
“Indeed Haru,” Okiku said with a nod.
“If everything fails you can always kill her.”
“Drastic, but yes,” noted Lady Mori, who had followed Harue. “It’s always an option. But not always the best option.”
Harue nodded. It seemed that she was learning quickly from Lady Chiyo’s knowledge. It had been a good idea to bring her with him. Besides, Harue needed to know the leaders of the other clans, especially his allies.
“The floo network has been running wild. It seems that our dear bureaucrats have given our representative pretty much free hand.” Chiyo finally said.
“Who’s our man in London anyway?”
“Maeda Akahide.”
Lord Nakamikado’s brows furrowed. The name didn’t ring a bell. But given how common the family name Maeda was, it was as if Chiyo had just said Mister Smith.
“A strange man,” Okiku added suddenly and pursed her lips for a second or two.
“You know him?”
“If I must remind you, I have a good memory. I’ve met him once or twice when I was little. My parents had a few... encounters... with him.”
Ah yes, her parents. Okiku’s parents had been siblings and they had always made their decisions together. They had lived together and, apparently, had also died together, or so the official word went around. However, Nakamikado was certain that Okiku had given them a slight nudge towards death. It was very likely that she had killed them herself in order to take the power into her own hands. Inbreeding. It was based on the idea of pureblood family trees.
Lord Nakamikado didn’t care that much about this ideology. It played a certain part in his life, had led to his marriage -and eventually to Harue-, but from his own experience there were more important things to deal with. One of them was making sure that radicals like Lady Shiori of the Hojo wouldn’t mess everything up with their incredibly stupid ideas.
“What is he like?”
“He,” Okiku tilted her head to the side just a bit. “I remember him as a tall man, a good duelist at Shirasagi. He used to be a Hunter.” The British called them aurors. “And then, suddenly, went into diplomatic service.”
From Chiyo came a sound that seemed to express approval.
“Do you know anything, honorable Lady Chiyo?”
Their eyes met. “There are two rules in the art of espionage, honorable Lord Nakamikado. Number one is not to tell everything you know.”
He winced inwardly. She had been using this expression for decades. And even though he knew that she was absolutely right, it was a horribly clichéd way to put it. But that was Chiyo after all. It was essentially impossible to foresee what she would be up to next.
“What will we do now?” sounded Harue’s voice.
Chiyo and Okiku looked at each other for a second or two before Okiku spoke up. “We wait.”
“True,” Lord Nakamikado added. “It’s all we can do.”
“Boring,” mumbled Harue.
“Sometimes boredom is part of our way of life.”