Uh-oh, what's gonna happen with Kagewaki and Nori now? Better read on and find out!

I'm getting a good leg up on writing chapters of this story now, and that's come at a great time. I just got two new pets, and new pets take a lot of work, no matter what they are. They're beautiful little boys, and super sweet. I hope you can be patient with me while I get them integrated into my little family. I'll still try and get chapters written up and out as often as I can.

Miasma

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

"Demon Slayers?"

No. Dammit.

"Leave us," I ordered, eyes flickering open and turning up to the bamboo partition. I could see the servant through them, knelt facing us. He bowed lowly as I gave my order, surprised by me being awake clearly, but determined to give me respect, as well.

Kagewaki shifted under me. "Nori?"

I wasn't having this man give away any more for Kagewaki to fret about. Not until the battle was done and the issue taken care of. I pushed off my husband's chest, moving to kneel beside his hip, facing the servant that had blown the carefully placed like Naraku and I had created for Kagewaki - one that just a few careless words had broken. "Leave," I ordered again, sharper this time.

He didn't waste time scrambling to his feet and disappearing out into the hallway. Good.

"What has come over you?" A gentle hand touched my shoulder.

I waved him off with my hand and moved to take a seat rather than kneel. "Some honeymoon this is turning out to be."

I was more annoyed by Kagewaki finding out about the demon slayers than I was the interruption to our honeymoon. Did honeymoons even exist in this time? I didn't suppose people here could get on a plane and jet off to somewhere nice for a week when they got hitched. Still, a few days to get to know your spouse and start the process of trying to make heirs probably wouldn't go amiss, would it?

I guess there was no rest for warlords and their families, even if said family member was a sickly man that had so few family duties to begin with.

"You would rather be ignorant than learn what is happening to our men?"

No. That was absolutely not it. I wanted to know everything, so I could make informed decisions. I didn't want him to know and end up even worse than he already was, lying in bed constantly like he had been when I met him. I wanted to make my husband healthy, now not only for the threat of death his father had on me.

So, I acted. "I'm tired of hearing about death. Aren't you?" Okay, so that wasn't acting too hard. I was tired of it. I'd been tired of it from the first death I'd witnessed here - of that man being cut in half in front of me by the same Tsuchigumo that was here now. I could hear its faint screeches. But I knew, as Kagewaki's adviser, I wouldn't escape it here. Death was a part of life here in a way it just wasn't back home, even for me, a trauma surgeon that saw more death than one woman ought to.

I could handle that death, though. The fact that Kagewaki and I had spent our day in bed instead of out in the gardens proved that he couldn't handle it half as well as I. I didn't want him to get any worse than he already was.

Kagewaki pushed himself up to sit, twisting so he was facing me. His expression was the most distant look I'd seen on his face in a long time. He didn't buy the act of weary wife, then. Smart. "You've known for a while," he realised. My husband was a smart stupid man. "About the Demon Slayers."

Now that he realised I was involved in the situation, lying to him was just as stupid. I wanted to keep him in the dark and safe from the stress of these decisions and the possibilities they created, but I wasn't going to fight a losing battle like this. I had more sense than that. "I was the one that had them called."

Well, technically, I was sure there was a chain of people in the castle that were involved with the Demon Slayer's call, but I was the one that pitched the idea to Naraku, who had taken care of the rest.

"You didn't think I should know?" His eyes narrowed at me and his jaw clenched. This was the most angry I had seen him in all our time together. Kagewaki was generally such a mild man, and that gentle disposition suited him rather well. I liked how soft and quiet he generally was, and I wanted to keep him like that. I wanted him to enjoy his time and be as stress-free as he possibly could.

"I didn't think it was worth knowing until the threat was dealt with. You trust me as an adviser, don't you?"

Kagewaki drew up, his shoulders squaring. He really was mad. "I trusted you to enact plans we have agreed on, not strike out alone to use my power without granted permission."

"Granted permission?" I scoffed. Maybe I was starting to get mad, too. Didn't he see what I was trying to do? He didn't need to deal with all this stress, and I didn't want him to suffer any more than he was. He was already worried about the relapse he'd had. All the possibilities and stressors of outside people coming to destroy this demon might just make him keel over. I wasn't about to let that happen to him. "Is that really the route you want to take, Kagewaki? I need to ask your permission to help my men now?"

His mouth opened to argue.

"No. I'm not hearing it. We're married. They are my men as much as yours now, and I've fought with them in battle. You haven't. I know what they can handle way better than you could hope to. And that demon? Not it. Do not get mad at me for doing what I can to stop senseless death and suffering, without turning to you at every turn. I'm not a meek princess of a castle. I will not bow down to those expectations. If I can help these men, I will. You better stand and let me do what I can."

His tense shoulders relaxed some after my tirade. Kagewaki leaned back, a low hum in his throat as he processed my words. "That you used your position to deceive and lie to me upsets me, but you are right. They are your men, also."

His tone had lost the argumentative bite. Was that... it? I wasn't used to arguments ending that quickly.

I was revved up for an argument but I was glad that it was over this quickly, even if I was surprised. I wasn't really an overly argumentative person. When I could avoid a conflict, I tried to. It didn't always work with my occasional bouts of a sharp tongue, but I gave it a good try, at least.

"I wish to be informed of decisions you make in the future. You are part of a council, not a figurehead working alone."

Well, that was true enough. It still wasn't likely to happen if he relapsed so much from this sort of stress. I didn't relent to placate him.

I think he expected that, though, because he didn't urge to make that promise. He just sighed and pushed himself to his feet. "Come," he bid, stepping towards the slatted partition.

"Where are you going?" I hopped to my feet and followed behind him as he stepped out into the hallway. "Kagewaki?"

He turned his gaze down to me. "We are going to witness these Demon Slayers of yours at work. It only seems right, with your efforts to procure them, that we see them tackle the beast we could not."

I wanted to argue, but I wasn't sure it would do much good. Maybe even seeing the Tsuchigumo be killed would help him improve - give him physical proof that the threat had passed. I still wasn't sure I was too happy with it, but I followed him through the halls of the castle at any rate. "Don't push yourself too much, or I'll keep you bedbound until you're totally recovered," I threatened.

A little smile curled his lips as he looked down at me. "And how do you propose to keep me bedbound should I wish to move?"

"I could just tie your obstinant ass down." The mental image that followed that suggestion came totally unbidden to my mind, and I coughed as I looked away, cheeks rosy. "Just don't push yourself, or I'll never stop nagging you."

"I'll endeavor not to upset my wife."

"Yeah, better not."

By the time we got to the courtyard, Kagewaki was clearly fighting showing his discomfort.

I was a few seconds away from telling him to give up the ghost and get back into bed before I went in search of some nice sturdy rope. Maybe silk scarves would be nicer to his skin, and probably easier to find in a place like this. Luxuries were abundant in this place, in a way simple things like rope weren't.

"Is that...?" I was starting to hear a faint sound as we approached the exit to the courtyard. It sounded like... screaming. I'd certainly heard enough of that in my lifetime, working in hospitals, and more recently fighting that bastard of a spider demon, to be able to identify the sound well enough. "Kagewaki, wait. If things aren't going well..."

I didn't want him to run the risk of getting hurt.

But now was apparently the time he wanted to go against his doctor's advice though.

Of course it was. Why did I expect anything less from him?

With the patience of a goddamn saint, I followed him out into the courtyard, ready to send him back to bed at any given moment, but knowing that sending him off now when he still had some energy was only going to met with defiance. What had he said all that time ago, about picking battles?

Damn do I wish I had a sword at hand, though. I wasn't too sure I could do too much to help with the professionals at hand, but I'd feel safer with one in my hands at the very least. I could at least do some damage with a sword, even if it wasn't enough to drive off the Tsuchigumo alone. If it dared come at me or my husband, I could at least try to defend us.

My eyes turned over the large room we were walking through to get to the courtyard. The day room.

Swords lined one wall - swords I had eyed up many a time before. I had no doubt that most of them were decorative. My guess was that it had been a long time since Nagasaki had wielded a weapon himself, but he was clearly quite a collector. Any weapon in his personal possession, like these that decorated the day room, were likely not cared for enough to be of actual use without some heavy TLC beforehand, but a dull sword was better than nothing, right?

"...your arrows at the crazy siblings."

Could I still do some damage with dulled blades?

Absolutely.

But, as I turned my attention from my husband and towards picking the weapon I thought would be the best choice for defense, Kagewaki beat me to weapon selection. He lifted a katana from its mount next to the wicked-looking kodachi I had intended to pick up.

"Kage-"

He ignored my cut-off whisper of his name and turned his back on me, stepping out into the courtyard, up behind his seated father.

"A deathbed truce between siblings," the Warlord mocked.

My breath hitched when Kagewaki raised his beweaponed arm, hand flying up to my mouth to silence myself when he brought that sword down.

A silence fell after Nagasaki's body hit the veranda.

One of the guards stationed in the lower level of the courtyard was the first to speak, as I took slow steps towards my husband, hand still pressed over my mouth. "My Lord..."

Another guard looked up to Kagewaki, stood with his swords still poised. "My Lord, you have slain your father."

No... No fucking shit he had just killed his father. The man was laid at my feet bleeding out.

I had thought about this sight more than once in my time here. Not... quite like this, admittedly, but I had certainly pictured the man at my feet, bleeding out from being run through. The sight was... satisfying, even if the shock of how it had come to be soured the experience somewhat. This bastard of a man had put me through so much in the short time I had been living in his home, and now he could do no more.

Did he deserve death? He was a cruel and insensitive man, but did anyone deserve death? It was an extreme, cruel and very permanent punishment for what he had done. Did anyone deserve that kind of end? To be cut down by someone else with no way of ever making amends? Would he even try to if he was saved?

I could... I could save him. The wound was deep enough to bleed like a bitch, but if I stepped in, acted quick, I could probably keep him alive. The sight of bone through his torn clothing wasn't a good sign, but alive and paralysed was better than dead. I had saved people from worse injuries. It would be more difficult here than in my theatre back home, but not impossible.

I could save him. I just needed to step forward and start.

I didn't.

"This man is not my father. See for yourselves."

My eyes turned up to the man beside me, then down again to the dying man on the ground.

What was it that we were supposed to- His shadow. Nagasaki was laid out on the floor in his heap. His shadow still looked like he was sitting. His shadow was different. What was... Was it a demon? Was Nagasaki a demon? Or possessed?

Others around us were making similar suggestions to each other.

I inhaled a sharp breath when the shadow shifted, long spindly legs emerging from it in a sharp movement that made me jump, reaching to grasp at the sleeve of Kagewaki's yukata. It was like a scene from a horror movie. My fingers slipped from his sleeve when his hand found my lower back, a comforting move amongst the confusion as he drove the sword in his grasp into the shadow with his other.

"I have thought for some time that father was acting strangely." The hand on my back pressed against it, drawing me a little closer as he spoke. To comfort me, or to seek his own comfort? I wasn't sure. "Clearly he was possessed by the demon."

I let out a breath and turned my attention away from the sight of the body and mangled shadow, settling instead on the battlefield. That was no better of a sight. While the corpse of the Tsuchigumo was a welcome sight, the corpses surrounding it wasn't. Did the demon kill them all? No... two were killed by our men, their bodies curled together and filled with arrows, sticking up at odd angles.

My lips pressed together.

What had happened, that we had killed the people here to help us?

"It's a shame that the slayers were sacrificed," Kagewaki continued, his fingers stroking slow circles on my lower back through the thin kimono I still wore after my bath this morning. "Bury them in a corner of the garden."

The men around us replied with swift, harrowed intonations of 'yes, my Lord.'

"Mark their graves." My eyes turned over the men as their gazes turned to me. "Each one their own grave. They deserve the most we can give them after their sacrifice for our safety."

I had caused their deaths, calling them in. It was only right that I made sure these people got the burials they deserved. Returning so many corpses to their home was too much to arrange, especially now that the duties of the castle fell to Kagewaki and I. There was too much to arrange with Nagasaki's funeral and to start learning his duties to occupy myself with arranging a funeral procession for a dozen people, as well.

"My Lord?" one man dared to ask, looking to Kagewaki for permission.

"Do as your Lady bids." His answer was short and firm.

"Yes, my Lord."

My husband's hand slid away from my back. "Let us return to my quarters," he murmured lowly, brown eyes meeting my own. "I am weary."

"Yes," I agreed, my hand finding his back now as I led him back inside, reaching out to take the sword from his loose grip. It felt heavier than it should, knowing that it was the weapon used to kill Nagasaki. "We need our rest after... that."

I needed more than a rest. The thought of all the work I now had on my shoulders was enough to give me a headache. I didn't know the first thing about running the land of a warlord. How the Hell was I supposed to take all this on? I wasn't raised for this, and neither was my husband. In his poor health, his learnings had slipped. He'd admitted that to me within days of meeting. He wasn't ready to take his father's position.

I wasn't ready to take his father's position.

But that was something to fret about after I had at least tried to sleep tonight off.

This was really turning into quite the honeymoon.

Returning to his chambers found us in what was quickly becoming a familiar position. Kagewaki had slumped into his futon, exhausted, while I took up leaning against the wall by his head, watching over him as he rested, and trying to process the evening.

It certainly hadn't gone the way I had expected it to, but what I had wanted was accomplished and then some. Not only had the Tsuchigumo been exterminated, I now had nothing to fear from the elder Hitomi. For the first time since I had arrived at this castle, I had no death threat looming over my head. I was free from the threat of Nagasaki Hitomi.

It was a shame it came at the expense of so many lives. Those men hadn't needed to die for this. But if they hadn't, more of my men would have.

I didn't want to value one life over another - I'd sworn to an oath to heal anyone I could, and that was an important part of my life - but these men had the Hitomi name, my name, protecting them. I had to do what I could for my people. Even if it meant the death of others. The thought had a scowl coming to my face. I didn't want any deaths on my hands.

But... Demon hunting had to be a dangerous profession. Those men had to have known that if they stepped up to it. There could be no guarantee of a fighter's survival, especially fighting a demon. They died in this fight, but those men had done their job exceptionally well. The demon was dead and gone, as we had all wanted.

It wasn't just one demon that died tonight, though, was it?

My eyes focused again on my husband.

"Kagewaki?" I asked, not sure if the man was awake, or had succumbed to his exhaustion.

"Hm?"

Awake, then. "Earlier. You said you had suspected he was possessed for a while. How long?"

Kagewaki had killed his father tonight, just suspecting that he was possessed. That was a big leap to make. A huge one. What had made Kagewaki so sure that he was possessed?

"I noticed odd behaviour before you arrived at the castle." Before? "My father is a man of many flaws, but he wasn't inherently a cruel man. The games he has been playing with you were cruel and very much out of his usual character."

The games... Kagewaki knew about those, did he? I thought they had been between Nagasaki, myself and Naraku, as my confidant. I was surprised Kagewaki had picked up on them. I certainly hadn't said anything to him. Kagewaki was a sharper man that I had given him credit for, though I wasn't so sure that was a good thing.

If he'd noticed that, then what else had he picked up on while I had been here?

"The demon has been using my father to toy with others." Kagewaki stayed still, staring up at the high wooden ceiling of his room. "Tonight, that tormenting has ended."

It had. But at what price? Didn't most demons need a living body to possess? Had Nagasaki still been alive in that demon's hold? Could he have been saved? I'd seen enough horror movies to know what an exorcism was. Was an exorcism even possible for Nagasaki's possession? Would that have really saved his life?

All these questions in my mind swirled, though they dampened when a knock came on the sliding doors out to the veranda.

"My Lord?" a familiar voice called through the thin wood.

"Come in, Naraku," I bid, eyes turning to him as I straightened up. Kagewaki and I could discuss this later, when we'd both had a little more time to process what had happened. We needed to keep Naraku in the loop now more than ever. Naraku was in for as many changes as Kagewaki and I were, and he needed to be warned about them.

The door slid open and the pelted Naraku stepped in and knelt before us, while Kagewaki shifted to sit in his futon.

"Lady Masanori," he greeted with a nod of the dead head masking his own. "Lord Kagewaki. I have heard the demon was slain."

"Demons," I corrected, leaning forwards to rest my elbows on my knees. "You might want to get comfortable. We've got quite a tale to spin for you, don't we Kagewaki?"

For such a short amount of time to recount, it took a long time to explain to Naraku just what had happened, and what was likely to change from now on. The full severity of the situation wasn't an easy one to convey, but I think between Kagewaki and I, we managed.

By the time we were done, Naraku had a hand to his chin under his mask, processing the information we had given him.

"I see," he mused. "What is the next course of action, then, my Lord?"

"The Demon Slayers," I answered before Kagewaki could, drawing the attention of both men. "With all Kagewaki and I have ahead of us, we just can't arrange the return of their dead, but their village still needs to know. You know where their village is, don't you, Naraku?"

"Aye, my Lady."

"Then get word to them quickly. As quick as you can, Naraku." I held his shadowy red eyes hard, trying to convey that I wanted him to get news to the village as quick as inhumanly possible. If the village decided they could spare men to return for their dead, then they wanted to do that quick, before the rotting began to set in. "Send the word and our condolences. Those men should have been protected in our home, but we failed them."

Naraku bowed to me, and then to Kagewaki. "I will make haste, and return tonight when the message has been delivered."

Pub Quiz Answers

Kodachi - a kodachi is a beautiful sword. They're built similarly to the wakizashi, though the main difference is that the Kodachi is a set length, while the wakizashi usually reflects the height of the wielder or the length of the accompanying katana. The kodachi was made before the setting of this story, though. They were made mostly between the 12th and 14th century, while this story is set in the 16th century, so by the time Nori is reaching for it, this sword is most likely at least two hundred years old. But a well-cared-for blade is something that can last for hundreds of years.

Review Corner

I haven't had any reviews on this story since I started posting again. It's a little disheartening, since I put so much effort into trying to write these fics; this one in particular as its my favourite. I'm not the sort of person that demands reviews, but I really would enjoy hearing from you guys if you do like what you read

I rarely plan too far ahead with these stories. I tend to have major points I have to get to planned, and just let the story write itself as I head towards those big points. I tend to have some form of a loose idea of what's going to happen. In that first scene, I was fairly sure that there was going to be the very first big lover's fight. But it just... didn't happen. These two are pretty damn mature and get on well with each other. It makes what's going to happen soon all the more difficult to write. I feel so sorry for Kagewaki.