For Fleeing Arrow and Tsubasa344's contest, No 1. Something Different. Any pairing but KazunexKarin, AKA, my specialty.
Whew! I just made the deadline.
the Dollmaker.
Kirio was a maker of dolls. He had long, elegant, precise fingers and sharp eyes to catch every detail and imprint them on beautiful dresses and pale faces. His perfect creations racked up great sums of money on the market, and all the rich folk wanted them, making him rich in the process, how ironic. He had once been fairly content living a normal life with his twin sister, taking care of their younger sibling, Himeka, but a taste of the riches left a craving for more. Because of his unique talent, though, he soon became very, very wealthy. Kirio was a maker of dolls, of the wooden girls who sat in display as well as the people he manipulated into display.
As it was, the Kujyou fortune was the only one that was not subtly under his grasp, and he wanted it; needed it. So he would have to make another doll, one that would help him with his task. That was just how it always was.
Dolls, he knew, looked and worked the best when they were delicately placed and made. They had to escape notice but do to their means. It was out of the question to pick a Kujyou, and if he made the girl the head of the family was courting, it would be too obvious… simply too obvious.
He began tracing a line. First was Kujyou Kazune, the head of the family, joining it to his sister, Kazusa, a recluse, and matching it with another line to his cousin, Himeka. Then he drew a double-line to a Hanazono Karin, Kazune's lover. From Himeka's name, he linked it up to two names, her dear friends: Yi Miyon and Sakurai Yuuki, then adding a line from the names to Karin as well.
It became clear who he would puppet for this task. Girls, after all, had lovely ivory ways and were even elegant during acts of deception. Boys, like him, had minds of ebony and were dreadfully ungraceful. He almost felt presumptious at times, enough to think that perhaps he transcended his self-labeled description, but maybe his vision was clearer than that. Is this the life you want me to live, Kirihiko…? It's fine by me.
The first thing Kirio had to say about Yi Miyon was that she looked like the forgiving type, or perhaps an embodiment thereof. This was neither a good or bad thing, it was just a fact. Kirio didn't think in terms of black or white, he thought in a blindly logical way that seemed to get things done regardless of the morally gray zones he tended to enter. She had teal curls of hair that were girlishly styled, and wide yellow eyes that were just a little too trusting.
…The Kujyous were having a party, apparently, because she was adorned in a detailed, lacy white underdress and vaguely silky-looking blue-green overdress with a matching headband and what appeared to be golden yellow tassels in her hair. She delicately held a glass and stood by an equally-dressy girl with sleepy black eyes. They were surrounded by a small entourage of followers, a good deal of which were male. Courting her, Kirio knew, not Miyon but Himeka, because she was the second in line to be the leader of this powerful family. Court her, and then arrange a little accident for Kazune. Such were court politics, all to gain power… all to gain money. He knew them well. He used them with eloquence.
Miyon knew this, and hardly looked offended at the obvious preference. She wore the careful, neutral look of a girl who'd grown up in the courts, one that wouldn't betray what she really felt. Behind her, a young man, around the years Kirio had, offered to refill her drink for her. As he left, Kirio might casually remark, be careful, I think he might be trying something.
You think?
You're more important to this Kujyou family then people let on, I think.
She'd smile. My name's Yi Miyon.
I know. I'm in the court. It's Karasuma Kirio.
Her eyes would grow wide. You're the doll maker, then? It's very nice to meet you! I love your dolls… my papa, he buys them for me every year or so, for my birthday. Although, he says now I'm too old for them. But that's not true.
No, nobody's too old to be playing with dolls, especially pretty human ones.
Kirika can play dolls almost as well as Kirio can. She could puppet with absolute grace, so much so that she'd convinced everybody she was really a boy. Ever since she learned that boys like Kirio could urinate standing up, she'd just always wanted to be a boy. When she got older, she realized just how right she was: masculinity was power. Femininity was beauty. She hadn't want to gain one just to lose her grasp on the other.
Is that you over there, Kirio-nii? She gave a faint smile. Care to introduce me to your new friend?
Miyon would have given a smile in return. I'm Miyon, and you must be Kirika, then?
She's cute, Kirio-nii, Kirika said, can I steal her away?
Do you really expect me to answer a question like that, Kirika…, Kirio would say.
Both of them laughed in a faintly-there fake way.
As they both knew, it wouldn't be until after the party when Kirika said, but really, Kirio-nii, she's pretty… are you interested at more than a business level? She'd be good for you.
I'm not interested in anybody at more than a business level. Nobody, nobody but Himeka, Kirio might tell her, in his cold, emotionless voice. Rika, she likes to go by these days.
Kirio wouldn't know for a long time how much it hurt Kirika when he said things like that. But Kirika understood, because she had been raised the same way he was.
He found himself talking into hypothetical situations involving Miss Yi Miyon. This was, to say the least, discontenting. Puppets were not for these hypothetical situations. They were for playing with, and Miss Yi Miyon was not bending the way he wanted. No, he realized, he couldn't… bring himself to bring her down so quickly. Beauty was not a thing to be squandered, after all. He could wait, for a bit longer.