Edited 6/25/2020
Beautiful Moon
Family
Kagome knowing who her dad was meant trouble.
"President of Tochuu's Nagoya branch," she clarified. "It wasn't worth mentioning."
It meant a lot of trouble.
Mizuki crossed her arms over herself, looking down at the turquoise stone hanging from her neck and contemplating the pile of mistakes it was leaving in its wake. The artifact didn't even have the decency to allow her to completely regret her choices, the unexplainable feeling of correctness that it was with her fighting against how badly she felt about the state of things at home, and she cursed it wordlessly for complicating her life even more.
"What is the significance of this?" Sesshomaru asked her.
She sighed, the weight of her poor decisions contained in a breath.
"I told you my dad works in shipping and trading," she reminded Sesshomaru. He didn't nod, but she continued as though he had, his attentive gaze answer enough. "He just happens to be the head of a branch of one of the largest shipping and trading companies in Japan. My extended family owns the business."
The demon hadn't seemed to care about the four-tiered caste system of human society in this era, given the way he'd reacted upon hearing her father's occupation before, but she wasn't as sure that Miroku and Sango would be so dismissive of it. The merchant class was once the lowest tier, parasites of society, and Mizuki herself wasn't particularly fond of the culture surrounding wealth. She wouldn't necessarily blame them if their opinion of her lessened, though she also hoped that they were understanding enough to the way Japan had evolved over time.
"Basically, her father is a very influential person with high public standing," Kagome tried to clarify, though they gave her somewhat bewildered looks in return
"The caste system has long since dissolved by our era," Mizuki added after a moment. "Merchants gained better public standing as they began to mingle with the samurai class, and became more influential as trade opened up with the rest of the world. For better or for worse, my family is considered important."
"Oh, I didn't think about that," Kagome replied with a hum. "I suppose we haven't dealt with too many merchants while I've been here."
"It's strange to think of merchants reaching such high standing," Miroku noted.
"Well, Kagome's era doesn't have samurai, apparently," Sango added. "I suppose anything can change over time."
The monk agreed with a nod, and Mizuki turned her attention back to Kagome.
"Since you know, I assume my disappearance made the news," she said.
She nodded solemnly. "People think you've been kidnapped. The police are apparently retracing your steps for any clues, though. They stopped by my house, but Grandpa only remembered you from your class trip and didn't know anything about the stone until now, and he knows they won't believe him if he says you're trapped in the past, so he won't try. He and my mom want to do whatever they can to help, though."
"Damn it," she swore, dragging a hand down her face. Riho was probably quick to say something about how strangely she had acted after the shrine visit, worried about horoscopes and what her intuition had been telling her. "I'm so sorry I've gotten your family dragged into this, Kagome. I really am."
"It's okay," she assured her quickly. "Trust me, my family is pretty used to this kind of stuff covering for my extended absences, and they're not under investigation or anything like that. If you're worried about your family and want to write them a letter, though, I could get it sent to your address," she offered.
Mizuki immediately shook her head. "No, I couldn't ask you to do that. If they try to figure out where it came from and traced it back to your family, you could have a whole lot more on your hands than some standard questions," she replied. Why couldn't her parents have just assumed she ran away? "I'm not even sure what I'd say to them, anyway. It's not like I can just tell them I'm stuck in the past. They wouldn't believe that any more than the officers would believe your grandfather."
"Well, if you change your mind, I'm sure we could figure something out," she said kindly, settling a reassuring hand on her shoulder.
"I appreciate it," Mizuki told her, and then thought of her friends, wondering whether she could have a message sent to them instead. After a moment, she shook the thought away. Best not to get them involved, either, no matter how awful she felt about leaving them to worry. She'd figure out what to tell them and her family once she found out if she really could get home. "Did the news mention anything about my class?"
A sympathetic look crossed the teenager's features. "Cancelled the rest of the trip, from the looks of it."
"I guess it was too much to hope for my school to be spared the consequences of my mistakes," she sighed. One more apology to add to the mix.
"It is one of the highest-ranking high schools around Kyoto. Between your family and your disappearance, it was bound to get some attention."
They fell to silence for a few moments, absorbing the new information. Mizuki pinched the bridge of her nose, frustrated with how far this had blown up and wishing she had some way to undo everything.
Across from her, Miroku caught her eye with a concerned expression.
"Considering your status in the future, would you prefer us to address you more formally?" he asked her, head tilting slightly in question.
"No, please, don't trouble yourself," she quickly replied with a shake of her head, wanting to squash that idea immediately. "I want absolutely nothing to do with my family's status or business, anyway. I get enough special treatment when I'm forced to attend company functions. There's no reason for that to extend here where neither Tochuu nor my family even exist."
"You dislike your standing?" Sango inquired. Her tone wasn't incredulous, but Mizuki could tell she was confused about her lack of appreciation for her family's status, especially given how merchants used to be viewed.
"With every fiber of my being," she sighed in honesty. "Everything is stiff and formal and forced. It seems like most of the time, people are either nice to me because they think it will earn them a better deal with my dad or a future relationship that will bring them into the family, or people avoid me because they're afraid to overstep some boundary they think exists. I get treated differently when they know about my family. It's frustrating."
There was a long stretch of silence that made Mizuki feel uncomfortable, until Sango broke it with a hum.
"I think I understand what you mean," she said with a nod, looking over to Kirara who sat loyally on her shoulder. "The village I came from was a large clan of demon slayers, and my father was the head of it. We were all like a big family, but looking back, I was given special favors others were not, and no one questioned my decision to be an active slayer rather than making armor or honing weapons like most of the women in the village."
"Priesthood certainly makes others view one differently, though I suppose if my father had not been one, I might have chosen a different occupation," Miroku added.
"You're the least holy monk I've ever met, though," Shippo quipped, which earned him a stern look.
"It always seems like everyone at home knows me because of my family's shrine," Kagome chimed in. "I've had my share of being handled carefully because of that."
Mizuki found herself smiling, somewhat surprised by the response. Her friends were one thing – Riho had known her longer than she'd known about her family, and Kimura just didn't care – but the typical response to her dislike of her family wasn't usually so understanding. It was nice to be around people who tried to understand her perspective instead of just telling her to be grateful.
"…Parents determine how anyone is treated, huh?"
Inuyasha's addition to the conversation was unexpectedly full of weight, despite simply restating the subject of their discussion.
"Carrying just half of Father's blood has granted even you a higher regard than you deserve among those who followed him."
Sesshomaru adding input was simply unexpected.
The comment resulted in a glare from the half-demon, taking issue with the implied insult. The demon didn't react to it, though; his remark had been delivered off-handedly, and it lacked his typically superior tone. Mizuki felt he meant it as a mere statement rather than a slight, but Inuyasha didn't seem to agree.
"Your mother was a noblewoman, right, Inuyasha?" Kagome asked, redirecting his attention, and nothing came of the perceived dig. Mizuki found that an interesting thought, Inuyasha being raised among the noble class. She had wondered about the brothers' respective upbringings before, and given the way they each carried themselves, she couldn't say she expected the blunt half-demon to have come from a prestigious upbringing.
"Yeah," he responded a moment later. "Not that I got treated any better because of that, but I suppose I was tolerated while she was alive. The rest of them chased me off the estate after she was gone. Can't say the old man's status helped me much, really. I've only met some of his supporters recently."
"Your guy's dad is pretty influential?" Mizuki asked.
"Was, apparently," Inuyasha corrected with a dismissive shrug. "Mother told me stories about him, and I hear other humans have their own tales, but I never met him. Died the day I was born. Sesshomaru's the one to ask."
"Influential is an understatement," Sesshomaru noted with a slight edge to his tone. "Demons and humans alike feared and stood in awe of his power. Many still remain loyal to him even after his death, despite the cause of it."
The half-brothers exchanged glares, this time with Sesshomaru's being the one more intense. Mizuki wondered if Inuyasha's statement about his father dying when he was born meant that he had died protecting him. Sesshomaru didn't seem to find that so heroic.
That thought abruptly shifted the angle from which she had been reading the brothers' relationship, and she realized that the reason Sesshomaru greatly disliked his younger brother wasn't solely because of his human blood. If it was true that their father had lost his life saving Inuyasha, and saving his mother, too, perhaps, then maybe the demon simply couldn't understand why they had been so important. His demon's pride made that difficult to comprehend.
She didn't know how long ago his death had been, but it appeared that it still weighed heavily on his mind.
"Look, it's not like I asked him to. The old man made the choice on his own."
"Watch your tongue, Inuyasha. You should be grateful your lives had such value to our father."
"I never said I wasn't grateful, asshole," he spat, hand going to the hilt of his sword. For a moment, Mizuki thought he was going to draw it, but then he continued, "If it weren't for him, I wouldn't have Tessaiga."
She watched Sesshomaru stare at that sword for a long moment before he turned his gaze away, though his expression still looked angry and she could feel a mild prick in the air that concerned her. She remembered being told that they had fought over ownership of the sword, and now that she knew it was a gift from their father, she thought she could understand his desire for it. How they each felt about the man seemed to be a point of contention. Sesshomaru certainly appeared to hold him in a much higher regard than Inuyasha, but that made sense given that Inuyasha hadn't ever gotten the chance to know him. That was likely part of why Sesshomaru resented Inuyasha's blasé attitude.
Mizuki didn't have siblings, and wouldn't, short of adoption, but she had often wondered how her family would be different if she did, or if a brother or sister would have lived up to her parents' expectations better and embraced the family dynamic instead of rejecting it. She was never sure if they would have ever gotten along, and was conflicted over being grateful that she didn't and wishing that she had someone else to leave the burden of running the branch to.
"Lord Sesshomaru, your sword is from your father as well, yes?"
Rin's sudden inquiry managed to break the tension that had developed in the air as all eyes turned to her. Sesshomaru's glare diminished as she looked up at him. Mizuki imagined that it was difficult to remain angry while such an innocent face stared back at him.
"Of course, it is, Rin!" Jaken answered in his place. "But it's usefulness in comparison to Tessaiga is-"
This time, it was the imp's own staff that cut him off, as Sesshomaru had taken it and forced him down by pressing it onto his head in one swift motion. Rin didn't seem surprised by the action, merely looking perplexedly at the space where Jaken's face met the ground.
"But Tenseiga is very important, Master Jaken!" she insisted. "Without it, Lord Sesshomaru couldn't have saved me, so I am very grateful to his father as well!"
Mizuki watched Sesshomaru's eyes widen a fraction, but his apparent surprise was shown more in the way that Jaken was able to raise his head again, the force keeping him down suddenly absent. The imp's eyes turned teary and he quickly added that he was grateful to his father for his life as well, as if he couldn't let Rin outdo him in praise. She figured it had something to do with the present company that Sesshomaru's expression remained schooled.
"Wait, you actually used Tenseiga to…?"
Inuyasha trailed off in disbelief as he looked between the demon and the child beside him. In fact, everyone shared the same expression, as though something significant had just been revealed.
"…We have strayed from the purpose of gathering here," he redirected, turning to Kagome as he returned the staff to Jaken's grasp. "What information have you brought back with you?"
Whatever understanding everyone else seemed to have just come to sailed right over Mizuki's head, and she knew it was because she didn't know Tenseiga's importance. Given the way Sesshomaru had dodged his brother's question, she figured asking for any clarification was out of bounds for now, and decided to broach the topic at another time.
"Right," Kagome nodded quickly, apparently reading into Sesshomaru's request for a change in topic. She set her yellow backpack down and pulled two scrolls from it, one wrapped in paper, the other merely tied closed. She set the former aside and undid the tie around the latter. "This is our shrine record of the stone and what we know about it. It was written by my grandfather after he found it in the well."
"Wait, let me get a notebook," Mizuki requested, returning to her own backpack and pulling out the one she had packed before heading into town, along with a pencil. "I want to take notes so I don't forget anything. That way these can be returned."
"Good idea," Kagome agreed, giving her a moment to collect the items and settle into a comfortable position before she began. "This one starts off with when Grandpa found the pendent in the well in November of 1980 – he doesn't mention the day – and then goes on to detail how-"
"November of 1980… you said?"
Kagome looked up at her as she interrupted. Mizuki stared at the scroll, her pencil frozen against her paper before she could even begin.
"Yeah. What's wrong?"
"That's when I was born," she revealed. "November 21st, 54th year of Showa."
There was a breadth of silence as Mizuki contemplated the implications of that. Just how connected to the artifact was she that it would appear in their time period in the same month she was born? Was it drawn to her, or was she somehow drawn to it? Was it simply coincidence that it ended up in the well at just the right time to make the five-hundred-year trip to her birthday, or was something more at work here?
"This is… gods, this is so beyond me," she realized, a wave of panic washing over her.
"So, the stone appeared in your era at roughly the time when you were born," Miroku concluded, interrupting her thoughts. She cast him a wide look before noticing Sesshomaru had come up beside them and turned to catch his gaze. The mildly curious expression he returned suddenly reminded her of the conversation they had started to have about why she was freaking out about the uncertainty of everything, and it made her take a breath.
One step at a time.
Turning back to find Kagome frowning sent that thought packing right back up.
"That's not the only weird correlation I've got for you, then," she said, picking up the second scroll and holding it out to her. "The only reason my grandpa knew anything about that stone is because of what's in here."
Mizuki carefully took the paper-bound scroll from her and gently unwrapped it, finding something much older inside.
"That scroll was donated to us before Grandpa was born."
Oh yeah. This was way beyond her.
"…You're telling me that a scroll about the pendant was donated to your shrine before your family came into possession of it through the well? How does that happen?"
"It doesn't like this," Kagome replied, shaking her head. "We have scrolls donated to us periodically for preservation purposes, but we don't normally get an artifact mentioned in a scroll after the fact, unless someone who knows the scroll is with us brings that artifact in. That's where this whole thing gets weird."
"No chance it's just coincidence?" Shippo wondered aloud apprehensively.
"Not likely," Sesshomaru replied, surprising the young demon. He spoke no more, though, which prompted Kagome to continue.
"Sesshomaru is probably right. If Grandpa hadn't found it in the well himself, I might have written it off as coincidence, but receiving the scroll before the stone even appeared in our own time? I'm starting to think this was planned. Time travel does lend to setting up for the future."
Mizuki shook her head. She couldn't think about this being an orchestrated event. If it was, she didn't know why. She still had too little information.
Not that she wasn't freaking out internally about it. She was just going to try to pretend that she wasn't.
"Let's just focus on what this says," she concluded forcibly, gently unrolling the fragile scroll.
"About that..."
As Kagome spoke, Mizuki could see exactly what the problem was, and her heart sank.
The scroll appeared to have come in contact with water at some point in its lifetime. Ink pooled together in several areas, characters faded in and out of existence, and several holes in the paper allowed her to see the grass below. Beyond that, time had done a number on it as well, and the writing was a messy scrawl made by a quick hand.
"Damaged and in sousho," Mizuki noted in exasperation. "It's like the universe is against me or something."
Not only was the writing difficult to make out, what was legible was in cursive, which was going to make this even more difficult. Attempting to read Japanese in sousho was a trying task for even the most experienced calligraphers, and that wasn't even going into the age of the scroll. Had the characters changed? Was the reading different when it was written? Did it use outdated phrasing?
Mizuki groaned.
"The shrine record has some of the information Grandpa could make out from that, but it's not a lot to go on," Kagome explained, handing the scroll she was holding over to Sango and pulling a blanket from her bag to lay out on the ground. "I figured we could try to see if there was something he missed, at least."
Mizuki nodded, laying the ancient paper out on the blanket and carefully rolling it further open. The damage to the scroll was worse at the beginning of it and became slightly more legible toward the center, though it was still rough.
"Any idea how old this is?" she asked Kagome as she opened the newer scroll above it. It was much shorter and easier to read.
"Grandpa figures just over five hundred," she said, her tone indicating that she was well aware of the irony. Everything was from this time period. "There are dates in it. See there; the last recorded date is 7th year of Bunmei."
"That's…" she started, trailing off and closing her eyes as she tried to remember when that particular nengo had been used. "…1460s?"
"1476," she corrected. Mizuki looked at her to find that she was pointing to the corresponding date on the shrine record and frowned. Duh. It would help to look at the legible scroll first.
Below that date was a name.
"Yanagawa Masahiro," she read aloud. "Then these are birthdates?"
"Specifically, birthdates of people with blue eyes."
She pointed out the note that her grandfather had made earlier in the scroll reading granted blue eyes. Something struck her as unusual about that.
"…Granted is kind of an odd word choice, isn't it?" she asked the younger teen who pursed her lips in thought at the question. "Wouldn't saying born with make more sense?"
"What would that matter?" Inuyasha questioned with a cross look that told her he didn't see the significance.
"Well, it seems like it implies that they weren't born with blue eyes," Mizuki explained, looking over the older scroll, attempting to find the corresponding section in all of the murky brush strokes. "Saying granted makes it seem like they were given them instead."
"So what?"
"I was born with blue eyes. If I'm supposed to be related to the Yanagawa, then shouldn't they have also been born with them?"
"It might simply be that they thought of them as a gift," Miroku noted.
Slightly disappointed with herself for not having thought of that being a possibility, Mizuki frowned and replied, "Yeah, I guess that's possible." It didn't keep her from looking, though, hung up on the difference. Maybe it was nothing, but she was used to looking for hidden meanings and had always been taught to be precise in contractual language to avoid them, and the wordage here bothered her. "I just want to be sure. Cover my bases and all that. Does it mention a god they associated with it or something other than the stone that would give them powers as a gift?"
Kagome took a moment to glance through the shrine record
"Aside from the stone itself, no," she informed her. "Grampa doesn't have anything like that recorded. From the looks of things, this scroll mostly lists the names of people who were able to use the stone."
That did seem to be the case. The beginning of the scroll appeared to have once had a short description of something that would take more than a passing glance to decipher, but after that there were simply short columns of varying legibility, each visible one starting with the same two characters – willow and river, which together read Yanagawa – and ending in other combinations of kanji.
There was one more set of characters below each name, though, with the exception of the final entry.
"What are these for?" she asked, looking back at the shrine record to see them more legibly. Most of them seemed to have been transferred to the newer scroll, but they were an odd combination of words. "Of firmness, of warmth, observation, quietness…It's like a list of what they were like, except it's written possessively."
Looking back to the right side of the scroll led her to a note.
"Manifestation?" both she and Kagome read aloud.
Mizuki looked back at the older scroll to find that the corresponding phrasing had something else written beside it. Most of it had been lost in smudges and water stains, but if she looked closely, she could make out some brushstrokes. She started to copy the ones she could see in her notebook, making up a puzzle of incomplete characters between the lines of her paper. When that didn't help her, she tried again, simplifying the lines to compensate for the difference between print and cursive, and then looked for indications of stroke order, trying to fill in the missing pieces. Eventually, something resembling proper characters started to form.
"There's more to it," she announced, turning her paper to show everyone. "I can complete the bottom part of this one, and it looks like the kanji next to it might be power, so… Ah!" She scribbled in a few more lines. "Spirit! Iki and chikara."
"Kiryoku," Sesshomaru read from beside her, bringing the two characters together in their compound reading.
"Manifestation of willpower, then?" Miroku concluded.
"Maybe this is what your grandfather was referring to when he mentioned that each person who used the stone could wield strange powers," Mizuki wondered, turning once again to Kagome. "Though it really isn't clear that they're actually powers. I mean, what kind of power is quietness?"
"Maybe there's more about it in the section before the list of names," Sango suggested.
Mizuki looked at the scroll and frowned.
"…We can give it a go, but this part is really damaged. Doesn't look like your grandfather got anything out of it himself, Kagome."
"Worth a shot."
Fifteen minutes and four sets of eyes later, and they had mentions of China, stone, power, blue, and Yanagawa.
"Alright, I give," Mizuki said with a groan, pinching the bridge of her nose once more in frustration before looking at the notes she had made. "If we got any new information out of that, I'm pretty sure it's not helpful. The continent probably refers to where the stone itself came from since turquoise is an import, power is probably part of willpower again, we couldn't figure out what came before stone except that part of it kind of looked like spirit maybe, and Yanagawa and blue are a given."
Kagome shared her frustration, peering at the section again with one last effort, but eventually sat back on her heels.
"Grampa made it seem like there was a trove of information in here…" she muttered. "The only other bit of information I've got is that apparently the people that donated the scroll had mentioned a battle that ended with the stone being lost, but it wasn't written about in the scroll and my great grandfather only made a small note about it."
"And I have the stone…" Mizuki said. "That battle could have been almost 17 years ago, since that would have been when the stone entered the well, which means I'm screwed."
"Or it hasn't happened yet," Sango suggested.
"Perhaps that's why you are here," Miroku hypothesized, hand coming to his chin in thought.
"Please don't make me think about ending up in the middle of a battle," she said quickly, not wanting to dwell on that thought. "I'm entirely useless as it is. If my name was on that scroll, it'd read Kurahashi Mizuki of Anxiousness."
"I wonder what your manifestation is, actually," Kagome said thoughtfully.
"No clue," Mizuki shrugged in return. "I don't know anything about the way this thing operates at this point, and I haven't noticed much aside from the weird emotions I get from the noise it makes. Sesshomaru told me he can sense a will within it, so I figure that's what I'm hearing, but otherwise, I haven't noticed anything. It's been pretty quiet lately."
She tapped the stone laying against her chest, listening for a reaction, and the white noise buzzed in the background of her thoughts as though in acknowledgement.
"I'm not confident in anything right now aside from the fact that I know this belongs with me," she concluded. "I don't know how to explain it. If I have a willpower, who knows. I'll find out eventually, I guess."
Out of the corner of her eye, she caught Sesshomaru's expression turning noticeably contemplative, though if he had any thoughts, he kept them to himself for the time being. She resolved to ask him once they were on their way.
He really was a very different man around others. More reserved and less inclined to voice his thoughts or go on longer than a short comment. He was far less guarded when it was just the two of them, though she didn't know if that had anything to do with her or if he was simply less relaxed around Inuyasha and his friends, and she didn't think she would get a straight answer out of him if she asked.
Speaking of questions, she realized suddenly that she had never asked him what questions he had about the stone, and why he seemed to think she couldn't answer a single one of them.
She frowned, thinking the answer to that one was simply because it was obvious that she didn't know anything about the stone herself, so he likely surmised that she couldn't tell him much. The scrolls were much the same in that regard. She was a little disappointed that the information Kagome had brought back was lacking in anything she could use immediately, because a list of names and supposed powers was not going to tell her where the clan was now or what the stone was all about. There wasn't much to go on here.
She shook her head and flipped to a clean page, looking back at the scrolls.
"What's up?" Kagome asked her.
"Just summarizing," she replied, already scratching the information into something slightly more organized.
As far as what she knew about the stone and its powers, it boiled down to the guess at manifestation referring to willpower, and those manifestations being the seemingly random traits of the people listed in the scroll. She wrote down a list of what those supposed powers were.
Most of the names probably weren't relevant to her at this point – the dates were too old – but the last two names on the list were the most likely to be those of people living during this time period, so she wrote down Seiji and Masahiro. The latter would be twenty or twenty-one years old at this point, and the former in his forties. Masahiro's registration lacked whatever his manifestation was while Seiji's was firmness, but there wasn't anything she could do about that. Even the original scroll lacked a note of it.
Additionally, she wrote down the fact that the scroll was donated several generations ago, and that the stone had to have traveled through the well about seventeen years prior to the current date. There was also an unknown battle in which the stone was apparently lost, either before the stone ended up in the well, or sometime in the future.
And finally, the born with versus granted thing was still bothering her, so she made a note of it.
"…There really isn't much of anything to go on," she muttered dejectedly, propping her chin up on her hand and leaning on her knee. "I was hoping for something more…I don't know, tangible, I guess. Instead it's incomplete information or lacks context. I have no idea where to go from here."
"I'm sorry I don't have more," Kagome said apologetically.
"No, no, it's alright," she quickly amended, not wanting her to feel guilty for something Mizuki had brought on herself. "It's more than I had yesterday. At least I have a couple of names and something to think about."
"But that doesn't get you home," Sango pointed out with a sympathetic tone. "Tracking down the Yanagawa clan sounds like our next option."
"I told you guys, we shouldn't take her," Inuyasha interrupted, arms crossing over his chest. He cast her a considerate look for a moment that informed her he wasn't saying so out of spite. "Naraku is too dangerous."
"I don't see why you're being so stubborn about this, Inuyasha."
"I get that you want to keep her from getting involved, but what option does she have right now?" Miroku added.
Mizuki and Kagome both turned to look up at the option standing next to her. The look Sesshomaru returned was somewhat exasperated, judging by the way his eyes narrowed slightly. Apparently, he wasn't keen on allowing the arguing to continue.
"She will be coming with me," he said flatly, and effectively silenced them all.
A special thanks goes out to the person who sent me a message to let me know that I needed to research the caste system of feudal Japan. In the original iteration of this chapter, Miroku proposing to refer to her more formally was handled differently because of the assumptions I had made, and someone was kind enough to tip me off about the merchant class being the lowest tier of society. I'm woefully unfamiliar with Japanese history, and I try to research what I think is important, but I do inevitably miss things. Reviews and criticism are so important for this.
I've never written a character with a background like Mizuki's, and I'm always concerned I'm going to mess things up regarding a family business and conflicts about taking over and what being rich can entail. I live on a teacher's salary. I am nowhere near having all the confidence in the world that I'm handling Mizuki's background well enough, so if you have any suggestions or insights at all, I would greatly appreciate them. A private message is perfectly fine if you'd rather not leave it in a review.
You all are the reason I improve. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!