More more more. I just can't get enough of this story.

Miasma

Here the power is ruthless and the truth is deaf. Here the air is filled with the miasma of sin
- Jean Racine

"Last night was a bust." The stand against the Tsuchigumo that we had spent all that time planning went terribly. We'd lost yet more men to the demon, who got away just as unscathed as he had every other time he had come for us. Worst of all, I hadn't even been there to play support because someone was too worried about his damned finaceé getting hurt.

Naraku had taken great pleasure in keeping me occupied last night and threatening to reveal his presence this morning when General Watanabe himself came in the small hours when the demon had finally bid its retreat with another handful of our men's deaths on its head.

Naraku, now lounging naked on my futon without risk of being caught, and toying with the pink sash that he still wouldn't return, looked up at the ceiling as I knelt in front of the small mirror I had propped up on a low table and wound my hair into a bun. "So it was."

I reached for my pen slash hair stick and frowned down at it. The plastic on biros was always flimsy. It was something I hated about the pens in general use. I broke more than I'd care to admit back home. This one had seen things no pen should see over the course of its short life. The cracks in it were something I had been ignoring up until this point, for lack of a better alternative without asking for more gifts that I frankly didn't want from my future husband. Sadly, the cracks I had ignored were now were starting to chip away. It was pretty much unusable as a hair stick now without risk of balding myself with snagged hair being yanked from my scalp.

"Shit," I sighed, tossing the pen towards my bag. Today I guess my hair would stay down until I found a new hair stick alternative. A chopstick perhaps? A little long for my taste in hair sticks, but beggars couldn't be choosers. "So what do we do now? Clearly Kagewaki's men aren't strong enough to take it. We need to find another option."

As I began to unwind the bun I had twisted my hair into, a hand covered my own, stopping my attempt. Naraku rewound the bun tightly and I felt the scrape of a hair stick against my scalp. Where did he get a hair stick?

He kissed the nape of my neck then retreated back to the futon. "Should this not be a discussion to have with our Lord?"

Probably. "His Hashimoto's is flaring up. He doesn't need the stress." None of us needed the stress, really, but we couldn't choose whether or not a Tsuchigumo was going to attack us. I could, however, choose to keep Kagewaki out of the decision-making. As his doctor, I had the power to decide what he was healthy enough to deal with. As his fianceé, I had the power to do work in his stead. Well, probably not so much in this era, but I was standing by that as a solid reasoning at any rate. "What's our job, if not to make his life easier? We can figure this out between us. We need to find another way around this. Brute strength obviously isn't working."

We couldn't afford to lose any more men like we have been doing. I wouldn't let us carry on at this rate of loss. It wasn't acceptable.

"So," I continued, shifting over to the futon and throwing a leg over Naraku so I was straddling him. I reached for the sash he'd begun playing with again, but he jerked it away from me before I could grab it. Damn. "We're obviously not getting anywhere throwing muscle at it. Is there someone that could? Someone better prepared to handle a demon like that? Exterminators? Demon killers? You should know about that sort of thing, right?"

Naraku was a smart man, and crafty with his smarts, too. There was no way he didn't know what could hunt him down. A smart person knew their enemies. A smart demon wanting to survive knew who was hunting them. The superstition of this time led me to believe that there would be hundreds of people making a living out of killing demons. Naraku must know of at least a few of them.

He may not be able to reach out to them himself, as a demon, and I may not be able to, stuck in this altogether far too complicated situation with the Hitomi men, but we had a lot at our disposal if we played our cards right. We could send someone in our stead requesting aid. One of us just needed to use the right words when making said request to Nagasaki. And by one of us, I meant Naraku. Nagasaki wasn't likely to hear a word I said. Any request coming from me would be denied. The same request uttered by literally anyone else was more likely to be heard out. Naraku was obviously the better choice when it came to making this request to Nagasaki.

"There are Demon Slayers. Some I've even had my eye on for some time." His eyes narrowed in thought, turning from the ceiling down to me. Something was going on in that head of his. What was he planning? "I shall speak to Nagasaki, convince him to contact the slayers."

Great minds think alike.

That's all that I needed to hear. I leaned down to press a kiss to his lips. "Thank you."

"The demon shall be slain and your Lord Husband will recover." His hands slid slowly over the backs of my thighs, fingers teasing the sensitive inked skin of the inside of my thighs.

"He's not my husband yet, and I really don't want to be talking about him right now." Not when I was in bed with his advisor.

I kissed him again, fingers sinking into his hair, so thick and long. I loved it and was envious of it in equal quantities. My hair was by no means short, reaching my ribcage in gentle waves, but his was luscious and easily reached his muscular thighs when he stood. It made a fantastic curtain when he was above me and a beautiful backdrop in moments like now, when he was laid back with me above him.

I'd thought that hair back in this time would be greasy and limp without the shampoos and conditioners from my time, but that just wasn't the case. Oils and regular cleaning were enough to keep hair here clean, strong and glossy. Honestly, if I ever had the chance to return to my own time, doubtful now, then I'd keep the oil regime, just for how nice hair looked for it.

"What is it you'd rather talk about?" His lips curled upwards and his eyes hooded, all welcoming seduction and sin.

"Nothing."

He chuckled, and then he granted my wish.

We didn't speak again for a long while.

Once again I had been denied a walk with Kagewaki when asked. I'd sat with him for some time, chatting and trying to gain a reaction out of him.

He was quiet, though. Reserved. He hadn't been this quiet with me since my first week in the castle. Nothing to worry about my ass. He was slipping hard in the face of his pain. He'd come so far, become so bright, but now he was suffering again, and had regressed into that quiet, sad little man he'd once been, hiding away from the world in his room.

I didn't know whether I was more worried or angry.

I tried to tamp down the anger. He couldn't help the depression. I knew he couldn't. It wasn't him that was deciding this, and the more I thought on it, the more I came to realise that it was the situation I was frustrated with, not him.

So despite the lack of answers, and the lack of our usual calming walks, I spoke and I sat at his side, and by God, I didn't show how frustrated I was.

And then I got a breakthrough. Nothing, really, but so much at the same time.

He offered conversation himself. "How many siblings do you have? You have mentioned your brother, your twin, before, but have alluded to others."

My smile was bright as I answered. "Three. My twin, Tomo, he has a wife and a daughter. They live up in the Ishikari Plain. Hana and Yua are both so beautiful." I missed them, truly. Not for the first time, I promised myself that if I ever got back to them, I would go and spend as much time with my brother as I could. We spent so much time together when we could that going this long without seeing him was one of the hardest things about everything that had happened. I would fight a thousand Tsuchigumo without complaint if I had the chance to see Tomo again.

"Then there's Botan. He's nine years younger than Tomo and I. He lives down in Edo with my mother and our youngest sister, Ayumi. She's... fifteen now." She had been fourteen the last time I had seen her; her birthday just around the corner. I already had her present picked out and wrapped back in my apartment. I wondered if they found it and gave it to her when my apartment was inevitably searched after my disappearance. I hoped so.

"You miss them."

More than I could ever express in words. "So much."

His eyes turned from the gardens to me. "Will they come, if invited to our wedding?"

My mother wouldn't be at my wedding. My twin wouldn't be at my wedding. It was something that I'd talked about all my life. Right from when I was a child I'd primped and planned and talked about my wedding like it would be the defining day of my entire life. My mother and I had spent hours talking and pseudo-planning and scrapbooking it.

And now she wouldn't even be there for it. I'd have no one there to celebrate the biggest day of my life with. None of my family or friends.

"It's far too dangerous for them to travel here, and I haven't seen them in so long. They would scarcely believe that I was to marry the son of a Warlord." Isn't that the truth? "Especially one as handsome as you, Kagewaki."

I got a weak laugh for my teasing.

It made my heart flutter.

You wouldn't be able to pay me all the riches in Japan to get me to admit that to anyone.

"It seems I am finding you here often after days spent with Kagewaki. Is it, perhaps, you are moved by his fragility?" Naraku queried as I picked away at Koto strings, aimless and lifeless as I did so. I was not making music tonight. Just sound.

As he closed the door behind him, he pulled off his baboon mask and dropped it to the floor.

I heaved a sigh. "Don't be coy, Naraku. I'm not in love with him, but I still care." I'd made no secret of that and Naraku picking at that was not something I had the patience to deal with in my current bad mood.

The man hummed as he slid the music room door closed and settled in what had become his usual seat on the other side of the instrument.

I plucked at a string again. "Are you here to talk, torment or fuck?" I was ready for any eventuality. Any one of them would make a good distraction right now, and I desperately needed a distraction.

"Talk, for the moment." Well, that was a change. As of late we tended to both jumped to option three before anything else. "I have spoken to Nagasaki."

Now that perked me up. "Yeah? What did he say? Is he giving you a hard time?"

"He doesn't dislike me as he does you, Masanori." I chucked a fingerpick at him, which he evaded fluidly, though it was lost in the depths of his curly hair, flowing down around the pelt he wore. "He has sent request to the Demon Slayer village-"

"There's a village?" Cool. A whole community of demon slayers. That village must be a font of knowledge on different types of demons. It'd be fantastic to sit and talk with any of them for an afternoon. I'd love to get to know anything I could about demons. Who better to ask than someone that studied demons intently enough to know of their weaknesses?

A thin brow arched. "He has sent request to the Demon Slayer village," he repeated pointedly, in reprimand for me interrupting him. "And they will certainly respond promptly. I expect we will hear from them in a matter of days. They will have the skill to dispatch our spider friend."

"Friend," I repeated with dry amusement. "You know, I've always found Tsuchigumo interesting. In fact, I've loved all spiders for my entire life. Before the koi, I had this done." I stuck out my foot under the Koto so he could see the tiny spider silhouette tattooed just above my big toe. "After all the trouble it's caused, though, I think I'm losing taste for spiders. At least the demonic kind."

His fingers stroked over my bare foot, tracing the tiny spider design then sliding up my shin. "That is not so apparent when you give in to me."

"What do you mean? I thought you were a conglomerate?" The implication had been quite clear. He was a spider? How?

He hummed again, a quiet noise. "While it's true, I'm made up of many demons, it was a spider that first made the deal with the human who's soul I was created from, so it is a spider who has the strongest hold on my being."

"Cool." It was cool. To think that a human could make a deal with demons and become one himself. I think the idea was as incredible as it was scary. That was a lot of power, and humans were historically not awesome with so much power in their hands. To have the power of a demon... well. Though I supposed the human didn't have that power, did he? He was different. The human had given up his being and created someone entirely new.

Who was I kidding? That was cooler.

"Sorry, when?"

The date that I had just heard couldn't be right.

Right?

Nagasaki Hitomi's lips curled into a knowing little smile, just a hair off cruel. Enough so, though, that his son, who was knelt at my side, likely wouldn't be able to see the nuance.

That rat bastard. He was enjoying my horror at the situation. A horror that I was trying to hide from the man sat beside me, and had so far succeeded with. If Kagewaki realised how scared I was of this marriage, he certainly hadn't shown that he knew. He'dha some minor doubts, but they'd been easy enough to stamp out with a few words.

"Ten days from now," he repeated, sipping from the saké dish in his hand.

Yeah, that's what I thought I'd heard. Ten days. Fuck.

I was going to get married in ten days.

"And that's enough time? It hadn't been long since our marriage was announced." How could he have put together a full wedding in a matter of weeks? I'd understand it if it was a simple common affair, but the Hitomi men were Lords, noble enough that a big, flashy wedding was expected. Was a few weeks really long enough to plan something of such opulence? I thought not. I thought I would be safe. I thought I wouldn't have to worry for a while.

Kagewaki set down the sake dish he had been holding. "I did not wish for a wedding so unbridled in it's showboating. I requested a simple affair. It made the organisation of the event far easier."

Damn you, Kagewaki.

I liked him, I really did, but his pushiness on the subject was truly starting to worry me. I was to be married in ten days. I'd only met him a few weeks ago. In just a few weeks my life had been turned upside down so thoroughly I really didn't know which way was which.

What was happening to my life?

Forcing a smile to my face, I bowed my head to Nagasaki. "Thank you, my Lord, for blessing me with this opportunity so soon." My saccharine thanks was rotting me from the inside. I was certain that Nagasaki was positively gleeful with the knowledge that I was so uncomfortable.

Fuck.

Fuck.

What a long fucking day.

It seemed, after almost an hour after retiring for the evening, it would be a rare night that Naraku didn't visit me.

Closing the notebook that I'd taken to using as a diary, I decided that I'd just change into my nightwear and settle in for the evening. If Naraku did decide to join me much later than he usually did, then he could have the added task of waking me up.

Changing out of my kimono and into Kagewaki's thin silk yukata was a familiar task by now. It was funny. In the beginning, I had struggled with getting in and out of a kimono by myself. Now I was becoming something of an expert of the matter. Daily wear over the very rare times I had worn a kimono in the past (future?) had demanded that I improve my skill in the art of donning a kimono and I'd certainly lived up to that demand.

I enjoyed festivals back home and had occasionally found the time to participate. Often in a kimono my mother had some hand in embroidering, personalising it for me. Almost always she would find a hidden spot to embroider with a little hosomaki roll. Half the fun of receiving new kimonos from my mother was trying to find the roll in the beautiful stitching. She'd promised that she would do the same on my wedding kimono when the time came.

Tying the sash on Kagewaki's yukata, I took a seat on my futon, looking down to my lap.

I sniffled, then swallowed back my tears.

No. No, I couldn't cry over this dammit.

It was going to be a happy day. I was going to marry a man that I enjoyed being with, a rich and kind man, and I was going to live a happy life. It may not be a perfect situation, but dammit, it wasn't a terrible thing.

Why was I getting so fucking upset?

Sniffling again, I reached up to pull the hair stick out of my hair, loosening the bun so my hair would drop around my shoulders in their usual light waves.

I paused halfway through setting the hair stick down beside my futon.

What?

My eyes flickered to my bag to confirm, then back to the hair stick in my hand.

It was glowing. The decorative wooden top of the hair stick was glowing a deep, dark purply colour. The glow was similar enough to the bright pink of the shard currently still glowing away in my bag that I'd been confused. I'd not taken the shard out of the bag in a long time now. How could it have gotten into the hair stick?

But it hadn't. It was a new shard entirely, and it glowed a much prettier colour. That dark purple captivated me.

But why would it be in the stick? Why would Naraku give me one, hidden away? I assumed not everyone could see them like I could. If they did, I'd likely have had comments on the glow I had been toting around all day, from my morning with Kagewaki to my afternoon with Naraku, to the late evening with both Hitomi Lords.

If it was something that only some people could see, then it was likely to be something rare or valuable.

Naraku had many of the shards. I'd never tried to count how many, but he had many more than my singular one. So did he collect them? To what end? Were they something of use? Something precious? Or just a quirk he enjoyed, in the same way some people enjoyed collecting things like bottlecaps?

My thumb ran over the pretty knot design slowly, still admiring the deep purple glow.

Why had he given one to me, in such an underhanded way, without even telling me?

What did it mean?

Pub Quiz Time

Ishikari Plain - Okay, so Sapporo, the city I've mentioned that Tomo lives in before, was developed in the 1800's. Before that, it was an area known as the Ishikari Plain, and was populated by the Ainu, a race spread throughout Russia and Northern Japan. Nowadays the Ainu are so thoroughly integrated in Japan that many Japanese people have Ainu ancestry without even realising it, despite the discrimination that the Ainu people have faced from Japan.

Hosomaki - for those familiar with sushi, it's the very thin, small rolls that often have salmon, cucumber or avocado inside. Simple and tasty. Its an inside joke in the family that Nori is connected with hosomaki is because the seaweed sheets used to make hosomaki is called nori. Of course, the two are written differently, but they sound the same.

Reviewssss

darkvibeslover - Sin is always fun to read and write. I'm glad you're enjoying it too! I totally agree. Villains just don't get the attention they deserve in fanfics, and when they do, they tend to go through a whole redemption thing thats just not my bag. I like villains as they are. Their motivations and actions are always super interesting, and they can love without being good, right? Love isnt exclusive to the heroes. I don't want to redeem my villains, I want to understand them and continue to love them in all their dark twisted glory. And boy does Naraku have some dark, twisted glory. It's going to be so good having this develop. So so good.

Guest - I'm glad you loved it! I loved writing it. The last chapter has so far probably been my favourite chapter to write. There was just so much in it that I loved. He is getting worse, bless him. Hashimotos is aggravated by stress, and the boy is going through a lot of it right now. Nori's trying to reduce it, but it's not working too well. Nori's ability to see the jewels isn't actually all that uncommon. It seems like any human with the ability to read spiritual pressure is able to see them, not just Kikyo and Kagome. Both Sango and Miroku have mentioned quite a few times that they can see the jewel shards in the anime. It just seems that people with a strong spiritual sense has the ability, and the stronger that ability the more they can see them, and Nori would make a fantastically strong priestess if she did train. As for Nori's looks, they're based very heavily on Ayumi's looks. She has the same very large dark eyes, and long, wavy dark hair, though her hair is much longer than her sisters. Just imagine an older Ayumi with her hair almost constantly tied up.

Does anyone else have that hair stick issue? I can't use traditional hairbands anymore because of some nasty issues with my brain that the hairbands aggravate, so I exclusively use hair sticks right now. Or rather, literally anything that I can get my hands on that'll work as a hair stick. I use chopsticks sometimes, but being an artist, I have hundreds of pencils, pens and paintbrushes around that do the job even better. Like Nori, I find most chopsticks are too long to use as hair sticks personally. For the past week straight I've been using a green coloured pencil. The worst thing about using stationery as a hair stick, though, is the breakage. Biros are terrible and snag on hair so much its ridiculous when they start to go. Dont do what Nori and I do, folks. Your hair will thank you.

I'm not even sorry for writing an entire section about Naraku's gorgeous hair. Once upon a time, my hair used to practically mirror Naraku's. It was curly, thick and used to reach my mid-thigh. Boy do I miss those times. After many a course of intense medication, it's now on its last legs, thin and falling out, so I'm letting everyone know of my hair envy by writing an ode to Naraku's gorgeous locks. Bite me.