A/N: I should have thought of a title. Anyway, in BBH there was a request about Heian-period P4, and I thought maybe I should take a shot at writing. Unfortunately, things kind of grew (and I dunno whre the original request went). Please keep in mind that I made up a lot of stuff.

I rarely write, but if I do, I'll add them as later chapters.

edit: I keep finding errors... my apologies...

Sandbox 1: the Shigeisha's Onmyouji

o

One day, before her Majesty came under service of the Emperor, the women were gossiping about lovers and who would be the best to fall in love with.

"What about Hanamura?" the Lady Rise asked Chie. Chie and Yukiko looked at each other and laughed. "He's got the looks, the position, the sensibilities, but he's still..." I hid my frown by pretending to examine the brazier next to me. He didn't lack for sensitivity (although comparing him to Tatsumi was a lost cause), but somehow he always seemed to make a fool of himself in front of the ladies.

"Besides, recently, we think he and the Shining one would... right?" Rise had smiled at that, finally. Which was surprising, given that the lady herself was interested in his attentions. Perhaps love between a woman and man was so different between a man and a man that they need not conflict? Perhaps I would ask about that privately.

"It's too bad Tatsumi is only interested in men.. or you, Naoto," they said to me, surprising me out of my thoughts. "He has such an artist's hand in everything he does and everyone's seen his poems in the last contest..." they sighed, while I shook my head. "I'm just a lowly person that the Lady took in. I have no rights to his attentions, for all that you say." And it was true, although not only by birth - I lacked the sophistication that was a requirement to be here in the Lady's circle. It was only at her whim that I was here, which a few had used as criticism of her Majesty before.

"Maybe if I practiced archery and wrote in Chinese as well as you, Naoto, he would look my way..?" For some reason, all the women burst out laughing at this. A few made comments as to how it would make her makeup run or it wouldn't hide her hair or perfume.

I touched my short hair. Everyone said it was a waste that my hair was so short, and it was one topic of many that I had argued extensively with my grandfather over, with I ultimately winning. He said I would never marry like that, but I had argued that it was unlikely that I would marry at all for my sins. Still, the Lady in all her generosity and determination had said she would turn me into a woman yet, although through no fault of hers, but rather my own ineptitude, I have yet to learn how to move in the full twelve layers.

o

It is known that there are a few stories about a female onmyouji in the Court in Konjaku, although there are no records to confirm or deny this. However, I propose that there was indeed a female onmyouji and that her name was Naoto. Very few writings by Naoto, who served under the tragic Rise, remain for us to examine, but the few that remain make us wonder greatly as to what sort of person this Naoto was.

She affects the same self-depreciating attitude as a certain other Lady, but clearly not liked much outside of Rise's inner circle. Apparently it is rumored that she alone held the famous Tatsumi's attentions, even though it was well-known that he had never taken a wife.

It is never clearly stated what sort of "sins" she committed to capture such disdain by her peers, but I suggest that it was that she had posed as a man for much of her life, commiting a sin of nature. Furthermore, I propose that she was the granddaughter of the famous Shirogane, who it had been said had a brilliant grandson for a while until mention of him vanishes.

In quite a few stories, a certain onmyouji is mentioned as being near, but as we all know, no onmyouji could have been so quickly or easily reached by the ladies without generating more fuss... especially a Lady like Rise, who lived as the Kiritsubo.

o

A certain man had the misfortune of inherting a mansion that a spirit that hated all manner of men for her misfortunes resided in. Thinking himself a very clever man, he enlisted the help of a certain onmyouji, who came dressed in the usual kariginu. The man was very angry at seeing the onmyouji, saying that the ghost wouldn't be fooled unless he wore a lady's clothing.

The onmyouji's reply was thus: "If clothing would make me a man, then you wearing a woman's clothes would make you a woman. Why call me?"

o

Although the point of humor is usually about the wisdom provided by the onmyouji, if this onmyouji is Naoto as I think it is, then the point may not be that at all. Perhaps it was merely meant to invite criticism of both parties - the man for hiring of an onmyouji that never did fully integrate into the world of women and the onmyouji for saying the kind of thing that would try their patience...