Back again!
I really do love this story and it was a very strange thing not writing any chapters for it for the past week as I tried to catch up with ITJOTW. Now I'm finally back up to speed with ITJOTW, I can take the time to start writing on Miasma again. And what a great feeling that is. I've thoroughly missed this trio and all their drama.
There's some lewd content in this chapter. It's not overly explicit, but I thought I'd mention it here in case slightly more explicit reference to sexual acts than have already been mentioned in this fic isn't your bag.
Miasma
Here the power is ruthless and the truth is deaf. Here the air is filled with the miasma of sin
- Jean Racine
I had come to tolerate the inconveniences of living in the past. I'd accepted that I had to squat over a hole in the ground to shit. I'd accepted that shampoo and conditioner were things my poor hair would likely never see again. I'd even come to terms with not having the internet at my disposal to entertain myself with late in the evenings.
One thing that I couldn't abide by, especially on mornings when I was forced to enduring breakfast with someone I'd honestly rather see dead, was the lack of coffee. Still almost four hundred years off mass availability, I wasn't going to see the drink that had become my lifeblood back in my university days ever again.
I thought I had accepted that fact with an admirable sort of grace, but as it stood, I just hadn't been in a situation that needed coffee yet.
Right now, coffee was necessary for my continued survival and sanity.
I'd always been grateful that my breakfasts here had been spent in Kagewaki's company, enjoying light-hearted chatter and joking for the most part. I didn't feel the stress or desperate need of a pick-me-up in the young Lord's company. Coffee was a luxury I was okay dealing without.
Having to take breakfast with his father, however, was proving far too stressful for my liking, and I know in my tired state, a steaming cup of the brew would make the situation feel a little less dire.
What was worse than having to deal with my future father-in-law, was the fact that it was the silence was getting to me. I thought of myself as someone who could handle silence pretty well. I spent a lot of my time in it, after all. Even when I had company, namely Naraku, we spent a lot of time in silence. We both enjoyed laying together and being encompassed by our own thoughts.
So what shocked me now was the fact that I hated the silence. It felt awkward and cloying in a way that set me on edge.
"How are the plans for the wedding progressing?" I offered, for lack of better conversation. The Tsuchigumo was the only real conversation I could suggest otherwise, and that was a whole can of worms that I wanted to avoid, as well. I got too frustrated by that conversation. More than once Naraku had to distract me from my ranting on the subject while we lay together. The last thing I needed was to start ranting and raving at Nagasaki about his total lack of command of the situation that desperately needed fixing.
Far too long had passed with the Tsuchigumo causing the castle problems. We'd lost too many men. We'd yet to hear back from the Demon Slayer village, either, which worried me. We needed their help, quite clearly.
Look, I was getting worked up even when I was trying to go out of my way not to.
"It's advancing quickly. The final details will be finished tomorrow. Your wedding is fit to commence in four days, should we all still feel agreeable."
Four days.
The thought was terrifying.
"Excellent," was the contradictory sentiment that left my mouth.
Four days would come by far too soon. Far, far too soon.
I felt sick again.
Still my smile was steadfast and our conversation fell quiet.
Naraku strode in soon after, saving me from the awkward silence that was all but suffocating me. I watched him as he approached Nagasaki and crouched down to a kneel. "I have received word from the Slayer village, my Lord." His deep voice, though spoken lowly to the Lord, was enough to carry.
I straightened up, leaning forwards in anticipation.
We'd finally gotten a reply. Good. That was excellent. I'd been waiting for far too long for news on the village's response to our request.
Naraku removed a scroll from his pelt and held it out to Nagasaki, who looked down at it with the look one might give a wild animal ready at a moments notice to bite him.
That... No. No. He could read, couldn't he? Surely, he could. He was a Lord. Didn't he get an education as a noble child?
Yet, that look was unmistakable.
I knew his son could read. I kept that letter he had sent along with the many beautiful kimonos I wore. The writing was beautiful but shaky and riddled with mistakes. But Kagewaki could at least read and write decently. So how could his father not?
"Read it, Naraku," the Lord commanded.
And that command was answered with silence.
Not Naraku too. I'd always taken him as a very educated man.
"Pass it to me." I held out my hand, but the Lord held up his in refusal. "Look, neither you or Naraku can read. We need to know what's happening with the Tsuchigumo. Do you want the scroll read or not?"
Lord Nagasaki squinted at me in anger, but eventually gestured for Naraku to hand the scroll over to me.
Every damned thing had to be a confrontation with him. It was exhausting.
I unravelled it and squinted at the terrible script written within. It was almost shocking the level of education in this time. How did people get away with not knowing their own language?
I read the letter to myself silently, then paraphrased. "They'll be here the day after the wedding. They will exterminate the Tsuchigumo and collect payment once it's dead, to be discussed upon their arrival." That seemed a fairly straight-forward deal, at least. I was a little disheartened that they were going to appear after the wedding. I'd hoped they'd come beforehand, or on the day. Any time that would postpone the wedding would be great with me.
Naturally, I wasn't so lucky.
"Then we shall await their arrival and continue with our current plans," the Lord decided.
Fantastic.
I toyed with the glowing hair stick in my grip.
"I'm too selfish to give this up." I spoke the conclusion I had come to out loud.
My audience of one, Naraku, laid beside my sat up frame and was once again toying with the sash I'd decided I had no hope in getting back. He gave a low hum in response to the statement that must have come out of the blue for him.
It had come to almost as much of a surprise for me. I'd always thought I would marry for love. It'd been something that had been put into my head as a child. One day I would meet a man, fall in love, and eventually marry. That's always how I thought it would go down. This... this wasn't in my plans. An arranged marriage with a man that I liked but didn't know half as well as I felt I needed to to be marrying him. All the while fucking around with his advisor.
Now, my feelings for Naraku were next to nil. I had some affection for him, but love, or even the sweet affection I had for Kagewaki, didn't factor into my messy relationship with Naraku. It wasn't emotion that dictated that I wanted to stay with Naraku over Kagewaki. I enjoyed his company, but I enjoyed the sex far more so.
Enough so, that despite knowing that I should be cutting Naraku off now and never speaking to him again, I flirted with the idea of keeping him in my bed as, to be crude, a piece of ass; something familiar enough that I could enjoy in the fucked up situation of my marriage. It was a crude idea, and it was wrong on so many levels, but feeling his heat against my side now, recalling the way he knew my body, and trying to picture not having his almost nightly visits, I just wasn't sure that I could go without it.
And some dark side of me loved the idea of something so illicit. An affair behind my husbands back, with a man that looked like his twin but was superior in almost every way...
I was going to Hell.
"I should be loyal to him, shouldn't I? He's going to be my husband in four days." They were all arguments I had made and subsequently abandoned, not feeling any different about the situation even after I'd posed the arguments to myself.
Naraku sat up beside me and leaned over. His warm hands slid over my hips to my stomach, his lips caressed my shoulder. "Kagewaki is weak, naive. He's not a man that can satisfy a woman. Particularly not one as demanding as you."
That... that had yet to be seen. He'd surprised me with his kissing ability. There was a chance that he could surprise me further with sexual prowess. Though, I had a feeling that he probably wouldn't. That just made the idea of keeping Naraku around even more enticing. He was a man that could satisfy me. He had proved as such many times over.
His teeth scraped against my earlobe, nipping and teasing. "Could you live with a boy playing at being a man? Truly?"
"No," I answered truthfully, the words just a whisper, but deafeningly loud with their weight. "So this is going to be my life? Marry a boy, fuck a man in secret, until I'm found out or you get bored?"
His chuckle was amused, washing over the sensitive skin of my shoulder. "You sound so disapproving, but your excitement is palpable. You want this more than you dare admit. Give in."
"You keep saying that. Telling me to give in." I shifted around and settled in his lap, looking down at him. I'd given in every step of the way. I'd encouraged him every step of the way, sought Naraku out almost as much as he had sought me out. He wasn't seducing me or steering me wrong. We were dancing this corrupt dance together, equally guilty with each step we made together.
"Will you?"
I couldn't give into something that I was wholeheartedly performing voluntarily, could I?
I bowed my head, lips meeting his.
His hand found my hair, dragged me down by it.
In return, I yanked his hair. The growl I received was beyond satisfying.
The terrible thing about time is that it passes.
Four days seemed like far too long a time to pass by as quickly as it did.
The days between my morning with Kagewaki and Nagasaki passed by in a blur of caring for my fiancé, playing with Naraku, and occupying the rest of my time between the Koto and visiting Naoko's shrine, keeping her spirit up to date with the goings on of the castle. It felt strange, at first, talking to the empty air about all that was happening, but soon I found myself looking forward to speaking to the image. It helped me process the day, even if I was admitting things to the woman that I never would should she actually be alive.
The days passed.
Four days.
Three days.
Two days.
One day.
Naraku woke me early that morning, with a hand between my thighs and lips on my neck.
I tried to muffle my waking moan, but was reprimanded with a sharp nip to my shoulder. "Nay, girl. This is the last I'll have you as a free woman. Don't deny me your pleasure," he purred into my ear.
His words, a deep and frankly incredibly sexy rumble, did not fill me with want. In fact, I felt a pit form in my stomach. Right. Today was my wedding. I was going to marry Kagewaki today. Like ice water had been doused on me, I was suddenly not feeling so up to sexy morning fun. "Naraku." I grabbed at his hand, trying to pull it from between my thighs.
He held steadfast and the pleasure soon began to mount, building up above the unease I felt.
I didn't muffle the moan that came next.
"Good," he crooned. He watched me as I writhed under his ministrations, a smirk on his face. "To court the Lord, yet lay his own advisor on your wedding day. You are a brave one, Masanori."
I huffed an amused noise, languishing in the feel of his fingers, and the warm lips that brushed at my neck as he spoke. "Brave..." I sighed, fingers weaving through his long hair, pulling his head up. "Stupid," I corrected. It was certainly more stupid than brave. It would take one wrong move to send the world crashing down around me. Naraku and I were getting bolder. More than once we had spent time together outside of my room. It'd take just one servant passing by the music room or my chambers in the night to find us out.
"But so are you, aren't you?" I accused in a moan. "Tonight, I'll be in his bed, and tomorrow we'll hold council, the same as any other day. His advisor is just as treacherous as his wife."
He laughed against my heated skin, deep and slow and malicious. The sound sent shivers down my spine, had me quivering. "Should I out you? Mark you as a whore. Something for him to find tonight when he peels away your wedding kimono." He nipped my lip, hard enough to sting the delicate flesh. "A whore and a criminal. Our frail young Lord shall be in for a shock."
A criminal. Right, the tattoos...
Naraku was the only one so far to see any of my tattoos. I wondered what Kagewaki would have to say about them.
"I'm sure I can distract him well enough." My hand slid over his thigh, trailing upwards.
Our dangerous game was promptly ended by him when I was pushed over onto my stomach and my hips dragged upwards. "You are a curse to your lord husband."
"No more than you, Naraku."
Any further conversation was lost to the dance.
Info time
Coffee - Coffee was introduced to Japan by the Dutch in the 1600's, just a touch past poor Nori's time, poor chick. But even then, it was a bit of a commodity until the 1800's, when trading restrictions were lifted, but then it died right back down again until the 1960's. Now the coffee culture in Japan is big. Japan has so many cute coffee shops. So many.
Reading - Okay, so, the Warring States are well known to be one of the least educated timeframes in Japanese history. Most commoners didn't know how to read or write, didn't even know basic maths in most cases. I think Jakotsu shows the average level of education back then quite well in the series, actually. People like Miroku, who has been shown to write during the show, would have had training and lessons as a monk. Lords would definitely have been able to read and write, though I've always had the idea that Nagasaki came up from nothing and wasn't actually born into nobility. I just see him as the type that grabbed the title and made it his own. So his son got the education of the title, but he never really did. Naraku, we know, was once a bandit from earlier in the Warring States era, so the idea that he could read and write proficiently is a slim chance, honestly. I highly doubted the many low-level demons that made up Naraku from Onigumo's soul had the ability to read or write human scripts. So I'm sticking with the idea that Naraku doesn't have the ability.
Reviews!
darkvibeslover - The Sango bit will be a lot of fun. I already have plenty of plans for that and they're gonna be good. Pretty emotional, too, is my bet. Sango will be the first child that Nori reacts with. She acts so mature but Sango is still only sixteen. Shes a baby. Not that much older than Ayumi, who Nori very deeply loves and at times basically raised the way she would her own child. That happens with sibling age gaps that big. There's gonna be a lot of emotion there. Now, how do you know Naraku will tell her lies? He's all about corruption and devastation. Sometimes deception is needed for that, but sometimes it isn't. I'll leave you to ponder that one. How will it pan out? You'll have to wait and see.
Guest - The wedding is interesting. I'm not too far ahead with writing at the moment, so I've just finished the wedding and I'm currently writing Nori and Kagewaki alone together for the first time as husband and wife. I wouldn't call what's going to happen her handling the situation at all! It's a big mess. Big big mess.
Okay, I had to mention coffee because I'm hankering for coffee so bad. I found out recently that I have a malformed brain (not a fun time, I can assure you) and because of it, I now can't have caffeine of any kind unless I want crippling head pain. Being Italian, you can see why that upsets me so much. So, naturally, my other characters have to suffer while I do. It's a good thing I'm not quite so vindictive enough that I'll put them through what I've just gone through. Nori gets to suffer no coffee, though. She deserves some suffering, at least.