Disclaimer: I do not own Yami no Matsuei

Shout-outs:

CrazyYnMLoverxD: You're welcome!

Kiko812: Glad you liked the TsuSoka! I have to re-find the spread I used; I erased it. (Sweatdrop)

FaerieRikki: (Munches on cake) No, he's not making a comeback.

Kaouri18: Thank you!

Amethyst-eyed Koneko: Kasane/Byakko came out of two things: I wanted Kasane to be talking to somebody when I introduced her, and someone wanted Byakko in the story. And you know what else? They're really fun. I like them together.

I had a time of it trying to get Kasane into a form that fit her. A lion was my first idea, but then I thought maybe a water animal would be best, but the only thing I could think of is a crab (because it could stay on land), but that's not very impressive, and by that time I had the image of her as a lion was so ingrained in my mind (and written into the story) that I said "The hell with it" and kept her as a lion. (I've been trying to figure things out genetically, so I was using punitz squares to decide her biological make-up, but it got way too complicated and I threw that out the window, too.)

Actually, Hisoka's power came about because of his possession by Akuko. As for Yoshiro, though…read on.

I think that song is used in a MurTsu fic…I haven't read it.

Muraki is dead. I'm not bringing him back. It's like the dream said: he only exists in memories now. On the word "Poppet": it's the best word for him to use, aside from Bouya, especially considering that poppets were once thought to be used as a type of voodoo by those aligned with the devil.

(Rolls up sleeves) I didn't make up the idea of dying in the land of dead being a double negative; that was used in a very old fic and I thought it was a cool idea. About what TsuSoka will do when Yoshiro eventually dies, I was going to have them affirm this towards the end, but it's not a big deal so I'll tell you now: they're going to pass on when he does, as long as there's nothing keeping them there. As for what Yoshiro will do when he gets older, he'll do what Kazusa did—go to school in Meifu and eventually move there (and regarding his romantic prospects, I have a tiny fondness for Yoshiro/Ayame). And as for Enma, I don't know enough about him to attempt even incorporating him. Besides, I haven't written him thus far as a fickle, spiteful being (remember how last story he was up in Heaven fighting Metatron's forces), and in any case there's no real room for that in this story. So we'll just say he's not a problem (and my impression of him is he sure doesn't seem to give a damn what his employees get up to until they destroy a building).

laustic: Thank you.

AnimeAngelRin: I love flangst. And of course this story is weird; the one before it was, too.

Eternity's Heir: Thank you for complimenting my characterization. It's my favorite part of writing and it makes me immeasurably happy that someone likes it.

Side Note: "Sister, sister, shame of ladies, sister," comes from King Lear (though "sister" is plural in the play), where Cordelia bemoans her sisters' maltreatment of their father. Kasane uses it in its opposite context—a parent mistreating a child.

Off-Topic Rambling: My kitty died today (1/21/07). He was fifteen years old. Last month he ran away from home, and he just returned yesterday morning. He'd lost six pounds and had a neurological problem that prevented him from using his hind legs. He spent the night sleeping under my bed—his favorite place to be—and this morning we took him to the vet for emergency IV fluids. He went numb and became completely unaware of anything, including his pain, and he died in the afternoon. So I dedicate chapter 5 of Filial Piety in loving memory of Sebastian, my "Bashy", and pray that he's in Heaven getting brushed by angels (he loved being brushed).

I wonder if Shinigami pick up animals…?

Birthright

"Wakey-wakey, sleepyhead!" Kasane prodded her younger sister's face with her finger. "Up and at 'em! Jeez, you're lazy. Is that was being a spoiled rich wife does to you? Good thing I turned him down, then. Hey!" She gave Rui an especially sharp poke. "We gotta get to Meifu and tell them what happened! Don't you want your son…wait…well, I want my nephew to be forewarned!"

"Kasane?"

"Yeah?" She turned her head back.

"How's your wrist?" Byakko asked.

Kasane held up her arm and glanced at it. "It's fine. We got to the artery in time."

"Yay," Byakko said, clapping his hand together rapidly. "Are you ready to go?"

"We will be as soon as Miss Lazy Butt over here wakes up. She was always weak, but not this weak." She sighed in mock despair. "You're so spoiled, Rui!" she scolded her sister. "Get off your butt and let's go!"

"Kasane, she's unconscious."

"Shut up! She's playing dead and I know it! Sisters can tell these things!"

"Hey."

"Yeah?" Hisoka glanced up and backwards from his desk.

"We got visitors," Konoe said, stepping aside.

"Kira." Hisoka stood up. "And…Kushinada."

Kushinada gave a sheepish smile and wave. "Hi."

"What's happened?" Hisoka asked.

"Nothing on our end," Kira said. "I just figured you could use our help."

"How's that?"

"Hisoka, who are you…oh." Tsuzuki had popped over the cubicle wall out of curiosity and stopped short at the sight of his ancestor.

"Hi," Kushinada said, in much the same manner as she had addressed Hisoka.

"Well, you're forgetting that I'm still Amaterasu's personal servant," Kira said, gesturing to her belt. "Plus, Kushinada shares some useful things with her evil genius. Like powers."

"I need you to go get…hell, everyone, and bring them to the conference room," Konoe said. "We've got a lot of explaining to do."

"Wakaba, what are you doing?"

"I'm feeling a weird twinge," Wakaba said. She, on her way to the conference room with Terazuma, had stopped suddenly, staring behind her with a slightly confused look on her face.

"What's that mean?"

"It feels like…when Kotaro and Kojiro rip open a portal to Meifu, I can feel it."

"You think they're…?"

"Tell them I'll be a few minutes, okay?" she said, walking off without another word.

"That wife of mine…"

Yoshiro clung to Tsubaki's neck, switching back and forth from hiding his face in her collarbone to looking back at his father sitting across the room, arms and legs crossed, glaring in his general vicinity. With each movement Tsubaki hoped that Konoe had something worth this to tell her. Whatever is was, she was to be his conduit to Maria and Eileen for it. Each turn of Yoshiro's head was only adding to her anxiety.

"Is there something on my face?" Nagare finally asked, calling across the room to Yoshiro.

Yoshiro mumbled something and hid his face in his hands.

"What? What did you say?"

"Don't scold him," Tsubaki said, strengthening her grip on her charge.

"I'm not. I'm simply curious as to what he said was on my face."

Yoshiro peeked out from between his hands. "Your nose," he said, and then covered his face again.

Had she been in the right frame of mind, Tsubaki would have laughed at the interesting expression that graced Nagare's countenance.

"Hey, um, Papa-san?" Yoshiro said, working up enough nerve to address his father directly.

"Yes?"

"Why're you such a bad man?"

"Yoshiro, shh," Tsubaki ordered gently.

"No, don't silence him," Nagare said, straightening up. "What do you mean, boy?"

"I mean, I mean, Hisoka-niisan tol' me you called him a monster and lockeded him in a room and letted awful things happen to him," Yoshiro said in a rush, apparently having memorized every inch of the answer Hisoka had given him a year ago to his question of why Ayame, Daichi, Kyoko, and Hiko all had parents and he didn't.

Nagare leaned back in his seat. "I suppose your brother didn't tell you that he was dangerous for the well-being of the entire village at the time?"

"'Niisan isn't dangerous!" Yoshiro announced, his little face set hard in indignation. "He's only scary when he's mad, like when I colored on the walls or Tsuzu-nii gived me ice cream for lunch or..."

"Tsubaki, what's going on here?"

"Konoe-kachou called and said he had something to tell us that he wants me to relay to Maria and Eileen," Tsubaki replied, turning her gaze away from Nagare to his eldest son. "Here." She transferred Yoshiro into Hisoka's arms. "Your brother's been attempting to tell off your father."

"Really. How so?"

"I just askeded why he's a bad man," Yoshiro explained.

"Believe me, Yoshiro, that's something I'd like to know, too," Hisoka muttered.

"W-what?"

"Hi, Wakaba!" Byakko said brightly, waving at the Gatekeeper.

"Byakko, what on earth…"

"I'd like to introduce you to Kasane, my lady love, and her sister, Rui," Byakko said proudly, gesturing towards the two women.

"Hi," Kasane said, extending her hand. "I'm Hisoka's aunt."

"You're…you're what?"

"Hisoka's mother's sister," Kasane elaborated. "And this is Rui, his mother."

A low growling sound emitted from Rui's throat.

"Shut up, you're his mom and you know it!" Kasane snapped at Rui, before turning a benign smile on Wakaba. "Could you please do us a big, big favor and bring us to him, Wakaba-san?"

"You-you're Hisoka's aunt?"

"Yep."

"And…you're a Shiki?"

"The boy has one messed up family tree," Kasane conceded. "And because of that I have some really important things to tell him. Help us, please?"

"Um…okay," Wakaba said, for once in her life unsure of what else to say. Without looking, her hand traveled across the desk until it reached an intercom button. Almost unable to tear her eyes away from the two women and Byakko, she finally managed to look away to put her face near the microphone.

"Hey, Hisoka? Could you come to the Suzaku Gate room? Bring Tsuzuki and your fa—…and Nagare, too."

"Nagare?" Wakaba nearly jumped as the sullen Rui suddenly animated. "Nagare is here?"

"Oh sure, that got your attention," Kasane grumbled teasingly.

"Wakaba, what's going on?" Konoe replied from the conference room.

"Just send them down," Wakaba said. "It's important. Extremely important."

Rui sincerely felt like her heart was about to escape from her chest and make a mad dash across the room when the doorknob turned and someone stepped in.

Much to her disappointment, it was Hisoka who darkened the doorstep first.

"Mother," Hisoka half-gasped, flabbergasted.

"Boy," she replied darkly.

"Oh, that's a fine way to talk to your child," Kasane muttered.

"You…" Hisoka's almost destroyed focus turned on Kasane. Some little laborer in his mind worked double-time to dredge up the image of a woman who had died almost before he had memories. "'Baasan."

"You remember!" Kasane said gleefully, clasping her hands together.

"Byakko, what…?" Tsuzuki had entered, bearing Yoshiro.

"Who's that?" Rui suddenly asked, pointing towards Yoshiro. The boy's fingers frightfully sunk further into his brother-in-law's shirt. "Who?"

"Rui?"

"Nagare!" Rui gasped. The last memory she had of him was off him crumpled in a heap on the floor, bleeding from his intestines. She almost chided her mind for playing hallucinations on her before she realized that she had crossed to her husband and her fingers could touch the illusion.

"Rui…"

Strength failed her and she collapsed against him, almost pulling him down to the ground as her knees buckled.

"Oh, stop being such a wilting flower," Rui muttered.

"What's going on here?" Hisoka demanded.

"I have no idea," Wakaba said, throwing up her hands. "Kotaro and Kojiro left before I got here. It was just Byakko with these two."

"I'll take it over from here," Kasane said, slightly raising her hand. "Okay. I'm Kasane. I'm Rui's twin sister, which makes me Hisoka's aunt. We are also Shikigami."

"I am not a Shikigami, Kasane!" Rui snarled, still leaning on Nagare for support.

"Shut up!" Kasane snapped. "You are and you know it, the same way you're his mother!" She pointed at Hisoka. "Jeez, you're so spoiled, Rui!"

"Kasane-san?" Tsuzuki offered, befuddled personified. "What?"

Kasane turned her face away from her sister in disgust. "Ignore that one. She's been a brat since birth."

"'Baasan, tell me what's going on here!" Hisoka yelled.

"You're supposed to be dead," Nagare added.

"Wrong-o," Kasane said. "I'm very much alive."

"But you drowned," Hisoka insisted.

"No," Kasane said simply. "I escaped."

"What?"

"That lake on the Kurosaki property is actually a portal," Kasane said. "A portal to Gensoukai. Kind of a steady wormhole. That's where our—mine and Rui's—parents came to Chijou from, to escape the wars. Rui and I were born and raised in Chijou, supposedly as human beings. I got tired of that right quick, but that one there never got over the fact that she wasn't "normal"."

"I am perfectly normal, Kasane," Rui hissed, finding strength in her contempt.

"Yes, a perfectly normal Shiki," Kasane shot back, and then returned to her nephew. "I stuck around long enough to spend some time with you, but I had to leave before you got old enough to mourn my passing. So I faked my drowning when you were almost three years old, and straight back to Gensoukai I went."

Hisoka stared mutely at his aunt, and then pulled out the desk chair and sat down, hard, on it.

"When I got to Kansei, Seiryuu, that fart, told me I couldn't return to Meifu. Said the portal made Gensoukai "unstable". I made a deal—a magical pact—that I could enter the portal and watch what was going on, but I couldn't go back into Meifu unless Rui was in direct danger—as in, being personally targeted. If I'd known what was going to happen to you, Hisoka, I would've made the deal differently."

"What of that spell you put around her?" Nagare demanded.

"Spell?" Kasane repeated, confused. "What spell? Oh, you mean like when she fell out of the window? That was all her, Nagare, acting on her Shiki instincts. We're both Water Shiki."

"Is there a reason why I haven't seen you in the past ten years?" Hisoka asked suddenly.

"Well, first off, I didn't know you were in Meifu for several years; I thought you'd pass on," Kasane said. "I might've recognized you when you came to Kansei during the last war, but at that time I was lying in the hospital with a hairline fracture on my skull."

"Yes, I remember," Tsuzuki spoke up suddenly. "When I…when I visited Byakko and Kijin there were a lot of other injured and…I remember seeing you, but I didn't know who you were."

"Yep," Kasane said, nodding. "That's actually where I met Byakko. And it took him forever to mention that you were in Meifu, Hisoka. Forgetful little bugger, he is."

"Hey!" Byakko pouted.

"I'm sorry, darling, but you are," Kasane said flatly. "And after that, well, how would that reunion go? "Hi, I'm your aunt. I'm supposed to be dead. I watched everything you went through in your life and couldn't do anything about it"."

"Why are you here now, then?" Tsuzuki asked, having traversed to Hisoka to put a steadying hand on him.

"I've been watching the house for the past couple days," Kasane said. "I saw how Nagare was murdered."

"You were murdered?" Wakaba directed towards Nagare.

"You missed the meeting," Hisoka said. "The other day, a demon who survived the war found Kushinada and split her soul into a demon queen and a normal person. He took Kushinada-youkai to Kamakura and killed my father."

"I thought it was Iwao who killed Nagare," Kasane said.

"Iwao was possessed."

"Oh…then last night the two of them attacked Kamakura, again I guess, this time for Rui," Kasane continued. "Since this was a direct attack, the portal opened, and me and Byakko crossed into Meifu. We rescued her and brought her back to Gensoukai, and now we're here to tell you what happened."

"Kushinada-ningen and Kira are both here," Hisoka said to Wakaba. "They were at the meeting you missed. Konoe was telling everyone that those demons and Kushinada-youkai are most likely going to attack here next."

Wakaba covered her mouth with both hands in shock, and then without another word sprinted out of the room, to Terazuma and then to her children, leaving a silent group behind her.

"Hisoka-niisan?" Yoshiro said, finally breaking the stillness.

"What was that?" Rui piped up, eyeing Yoshiro suspiciously. "Who is that?"

"That is our second son," Nagare informed his wife.

"Dead? No…the dead don't grow." Rui started forward, her hand reaching out for her lost baby.

"Stay away from him!"

Hisoka shot up from his chair and Tsuzuki took a hasty step back.

"You stole him from us!" Rui hissed accusingly.

"I rescued him!" Hisoka retorted. "You abused me. Did you think I had any reason to believe you wouldn't do the same to him? He's a "freak", too. He has parapsychological abilities, just like me. Did you seriously expect me to just sit back and let you lock another kid in a basement?"

"He is most likely no threat to the safety of an entire village," Nagare said calmly.

"You purposely gave me this name," Hisoka spat, remembering the story Satsuki had told him six years ago on her deathbed. "You knew it would draw Akuko to me. I was your sacrificial lamb, so don't you dare talk to me about being a danger to anybody!"

"Akuko?" Kasane piped up. "That half-Shiki our parents told us about?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Rui said icily to her sister.

"Oh, would you come off it already?" Kasane snapped. "Rui, get it through your head. You are a Shikigami. Your children are half-Shiki."

There was a moment of silence. The full weight of that statement seemed to finally hit Hisoka. He turned to his aunt.

"I have no Shiki power," he said, slowly, controlling his voice. "Why is that?"

"You were possessed by Akuko, right?" Hisoka nodded. "My guess is the possession overwhelmed your abilities and killed them off."

"What about Yoshiro…him?" He pointed towards his brother.

"You said he has abilities? Well, given what Kamakura is like, he might also be possessed, or they might be his Shiki powers." Kasane walked past Hisoka and towards Yoshiro, whom Tsuzuki instinctively held tighter.

"Hi, you're Yoshiro-kun, right?" she asked, leaning over to be face-to-face with her younger nephew. Yoshiro nodded mutely. "I'm your auntie, Kasane, sweetie."

"Kasane-baachan," Yoshiro affirmed.

"Hey, could you do me a favor, Yoshiro-kun? Could you think of water? Really, really concentrate on it? You might want to be careful," she said to Tsuzuki. "I don't know what he's going to turn into."

Yoshiro sucked his lips into his mouth and squinted his eyes shut, thinking of a glittering ocean, the Sea of Japan, waves chasing after his feet as he ran, giggling, from them. Almost instantly his body morphed, and Tsuzuki fumbled about to catch what was now a small, transparent blue, bird sitting in the palms of his hands.

"He's so cute!" Byakko and Kasane exclaimed in one voice, the only jubilant ones among several shocked.

"I'm a birdling!" Yoshiro crowed happily, flapping his wings excitedly. "'Niisan, look, I'm a birdling!"

"That's "hatchling", Yoshiro," Hisoka finally said, almost stammering.

"He's a bird, just like you, Rui!" Kasane said, momentarily forgetting that her sister had renounced her Shikigami heritage. She was immediately reminded by the poisonous look on Rui's face. She turned away abruptly.

"Now, can you think of what you look like as a boy and not a bird?" she asked Yoshiro.

Almost instantaneously Tsuzuki's arms were full of a young boy again.

"I can be a bird!" Yoshiro exclaimed. "'Niisan, a bird!"

"I know," Hisoka said, trying to swallow his jumbled-up emotions. "I saw."

"Papa-san, Mama-san, I—" He turned his excited face on his long-lost parents.

"You are not my son," Rui said through clenched teeth.

"And that is exactly why I took him from you," Hisoka said. Seeing the shocked, troubled look on Yoshiro's face felt as if someone was ripping his heart out with a knife. "I didn't want him to hear those words from you, either."

Kasane took two decisive steps forward and slapped Rui, hard, unhesitant, across the face. Without wavering Nagare did likewise to his sister-in-law.

"You don't hit my wife," he said simply.

"You don't hit my girlfriend," Byakko snarled, suddenly emulating the tiger he transformed into.

"Tsuzu-nii," Yoshiro whimpered, tugging at Tsuzuki's shirt.

"Byakko, stand down," Tsuzuki ordered, and Byakko backed off, taking Kasane's hand as he did, glare still fixed on Nagare.

Rui held her cheek, simultaneously sullen and surprised that Kasane had actually struck her.

""Sister, sister, shame of ladies, sister"," Kasane paraphrased, turning away in disgust.

"Are we intruding on something?"

The entire congregation turned towards the door. Kira stood at the door, her hand poised to rap upon it. Kushinada flanked her, looking for all the world as if she were being led away to be punished for some grave offense.

"An instance with a high likelihood of domestic violence," Kasane grumbled. "Who are you?"

"Tsukiori Kira, exorcist of demons," Kira introduced herself proudly.

"I'm…Kushinada," the former demon queen said, less self-assuredly.

"I'm sorry, you're who?" Nagare said disbelievingly.

"You're the scary laughing lady from my dream!" Yoshiro yelped, pointing a shaking finger at her. Tears started in his large green eyes as he remembered her giggling madly as entrails and blood poured out of Nagare's body.

"I…" Kushinada began, stepping forward.

"No!" Yoshiro shrieked, now crying freely. "'Niisan, she hurted my papa!" he wailed, turning his face toward Hisoka.

There was a long pause as everyone in the room stared at the sobbing little boy. Kushinada looked away, squinting her eyes shut against hot tears of shame. Slowly, Hisoka went forward and took his brother from Tsuzuki.

"This is getting to be too much for him to handle," Hisoka said clearly enough for the entire room to hear, though he kept his eyes steadily on Tsuzuki. "And frankly, I really can't deal with this right now. I'm outta here."

"Okay," Tsuzuki said quietly, gently squeezing the tip of Yoshiro's ear affectionately and quickly kissing his husband. Taking a quick glance across the room, Hisoka exited, shielding Yoshiro's eyes as much as possible from Kushinada and their parents.

"So you're the queen of Hell? I don't believe it." Byakko asserted.

"Tact, sweetie, tact," Kasane said, patting Byakko's hand.

"What the hell's going on here?" Rui demanded.

"I can explain," Kushinada offered. "Six years ago Meifu went to war with Hell. Out of the monarchy, all except I died, and only a handful of demons escaped the slaughter. My memories were erased and I was allowed to live as normal woman in Chijou. Two days ago, I was approached by a survivor and regained my memories. When I…refused to join him, he split my soul and put my demon queen persona into a new body. Luckily, I retain the power given to me by my…late husband, though she has them, as well."

Throughout the speech she doggedly avoided meeting Tsuzuki's gaze, as perfectly as if she had rehearsed it multiple times beforehand.

"Why are we involved in this?"

"My…evil half is unaware that you and your sons are not on speaking terms. She wants revenge for her family, and she thinks the best way to go about it is…to kill off the family of those responsible." The irony that one of "those responsible" was related to Kushinada herself was not lost on her.

"We screwed up, Nagare," Rui said to her husband bitterly. "Even after we pulled the plug the boy's still a danger to us."

"Oh, I swear to God if you weren't my sister I would shove your head so far up your ass!" Kasane yelled, starting forward as if to make good on her threat.

"You weren't kidding about the domestic violence," Kira said, seeing several livid people in the room. "Might I suggest we all get the hell away from each other for right now?"

"I think that's an excellent idea," Kasane said in a low voice.

The chapter has been split into two parts. Sorry, but seven web pages is long enough and I wanna get this up before I run out of steam.

Oh, and before I forget…please go to my profile page and look me up on my LJ. The first installment of the Yami no Matsuei Jukebox has been uploaded!