Chapter 2: The Protective Uncle
"I swear, I'll kill that sniveling brat, and that meddlesome advisor while I'm at it. No one messes with my precious niece!"
Kijin stared blankly at his best friend, who seemed to be ranting to no one in particular. Reishin ignored the lack of response from the sole other occupant of the room, and continued pacing, muttering murderously under his breath.
"…kill…idiot…lousy Emperor… pitiful excuse for a ruler…die…kill"
Kijin sighed, stunning features momentarily twisting into a scowl, as his time was steadily wasted away by the niece-obsessed Chamberlain.
"Why," his voice, deadpan and monotonous as it was, somehow managed to be laced with irritation, "don't you just bring it up with the Emperor? Or sniveling brat, as you prefer to call him."
He should be terrified enough of you to cease all pursuit of your "precious niece".
A beatific smile spread itself across Reishin's face, and the ever-present fan was whipped out. "Houju, your rare moments of intellect never fail to amaze me."
Reishin smirked as Kijin's hand trembled violently with barely-suppressed annoyance.
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Kouyuu panted heavily, mouth hanging open, resisting the temptation to let his tongue roll out like a dog's. He mopped his brow, glaring accusingly at the walls all around. This is the work of an evil spirit! He hissed angrily; stupid poltergeists seemed to think it was funny, constantly shifting the location of various departments and wasting his time.
He could have sworn that the Emperor's office was in this very corridor. Hell and damnation, whose bright idea was it to have all the corridors look the same?! He glanced around, checking carefully to make sure no one was in the vicinity, before shaking an outraged fist in the air. "Go away and bother someone else!"
It was a good thirty minutes later when Kouyuu finally collapsed through the doorway of the Emperor's office. He heaved a sigh of relief, which almost instantaneously transformed into hysterical panic-induced breaths, as the situation at hand re-registered in the forefront of his mind.
"Your… your Maj- Majesty!" Kouyuu gasped, and proceeded to incoherently warble to the confused Emperor, narration replete with vicious gesticulations and crazed expressions.
Before Ryuuki could ask Kouyuu to calm down, though, the aquamarine-haired scholar slumped down on the Emperor's imperial table in a dead faint.
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Ryuuki and Shuuei stared at Kouyuu's prostrate form, one amused and the other somewhat frightened by Kouyuu's condition. Ryuuki was convinced that Kouyuu had had a fit, before collapsing to imminent death. Shuuei was convinced that Kouyuu was just exhausted from getting lost, again.
Therefore, Ryuuki paced up and down the room frantically, working himself into a royal panic, while Shuuei contemplated giving Kouyuu a blueprint of the palace as an early birthday present. Kouyuu would probably act insulted and snap at him, but privately weep with joy.
Kouyuu's head groggily rose from its uncomfortable position on His Majesty's desk (in their amusement/panic, Shuuei and Ryuuki hadn't thought to move him to a less compromising location), only to see said Emperor furiously contemplating aloud to call for the imperial physicians, and a dark-haired shogun smirking to himself and emitting low chuckles. Reacquainting his cheek with the table suddenly seemed like a very scintillating option, so highly disturbing was the sight before him. More so when one knew that a country lay on such shoulders.
Kouyuu gingerly rubbed his cheek, which was red from sustained contact with the desk surface, as he stood up. He stared at his still-pacing sovereign, and his self-amused friend, about to heave an I-am-contemplating-suicide-because-of-my-hopeless-situation sigh, when he recalled the actual "hopeless situation".
"Your Majesty!" he yelped, "Reishin-dono is coming!"
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Finally, chapter 2! :D How soon I update and how the plot goes depends on what you people say, so keep the reviews coming and motivate me. Much love 3