Act I


lessons and decisions and blood's fire


"When are you going to name me Third, Dad?"

"Don't know yet."

"You know you could do it soon. I'm definitely ready."

"Oh? Do you want to push me into early retirement?"

"What do you mean early? You're an old man."

"Oi."

"Reap what you sow, Rihan. See how I suffered when you were a tiny little brat."

"Oi!"

"Besides," continued Rikuo as though his grandfather hadn't spoken. "Just think about it. When you retire you can spend more time with Mom and take her to all those place she always wanted to go."

"Are you trying to get rid of me - Wait. What places?"

"I don't know. But there are some, probably. Like Paris. Or the Caribbean. Like abroad. Wait. Are there yokai abroad? I've never heard anything from either of you."

"That's cause there isn't much to tell," said Rihan.

"During my time the world was still a lot smaller," added the oldest man of the three. "Didn't have any particular interest in it either."

"Same here. I poked a bit around, but mostly there just wasn't anything worth the hassle staying away from Edo."

"So" - and here Rikuo's brown eyes started to shine - "outside of Japan is like a new frontier?"

Both grown men paused, tilted their heads and got identical thoughtful expressions.

"Huh," said Rihan eventually, a look of enlightenment on his face as the first Nurarihyon shrugged with the distance of old age. "That's not exactly wrong."

"Then-"

"No." Said the grandfather.

"But-"

"No." Said the father.

"Before you start thinking about the world, conquer Japan first." Instructed the first Nurarihyon.

Rikuo puffed his cheeks out. "Well, I would. If someone would step down and let me be Third." A pointed look at his father followed.

Rihan muttered something under his breath.

"What was that?"

"I said I'll think about it."

"Really? Yes! All right! The era of the Third Nurarihyon is coming!"

"Hold your horses, brat," said Rihan wryly. "You've got to beat either of us first. Then we'll see about promotion." Or stages thereof.

"If you didn't cheat all the time I would have! At Shogi or at Go! No! At both!" Pouted Rikuo who was protected by no less than an army seventy percent of the day and whose school had been turned into a fortress for his sake alone for the other thirty, both so much without him knowing. Rikuo who was maybe a tiny winy bit spoiled.

Rihan smirked. "That is kind of the point, Rikuo. Checkmate."

Nurarihyon laughed.


"You are restless, Dear. Are you uneasy?"

Rihan grumbled something unintelligible, grumpy even under his wife's loving ministrations.

"Don't worry, he is your son. He will definitely be alright."

"I'm sure he will." Rihan sighed. "It just – did you see his face? He was glaring at me so hard I felt the need to check for an anvil." Wakana's fingers combed through his hair as Rihan lazed on the veranda, his head in her lap. "… I don't want to think it was too early to send him to Toono."

Wakana hummed. "Then why did you send him?"

Rihan turned his head, looking at the garden, the yokai in the pond, in the grass, in the flowers. "I've been pulling the breaks on him since he first awakened. But since the mess with Gogaze..."

A knot was unmade by careful, delicate hands. "Rikuo did well with him, no? I have only heard good things about it from your Commanders."

Lightly chuckling, Rihan grasped her hand and intertwined his fingers with hers. "If they only knew what a devil I married," he admired. "Walls have ears in this house and you know still more."

Wakana giggled lightly. "A beautiful devil, I hope."

"The most beautiful."

Her cheeks turned a light rose color and the smile she bestowed on him was from the angels.

"Do you want to go anywhere?"

"Huh?"

"Ah, it's something Rikuo suggested. And maybe if training in Toono goes well - and he doesn't resent me forever - maybe in a few years, when I'm less busy with the Clan, do you want to travel with me somewhere? Anywhere? Just the two of us?"

Wakana smiled slowly, somehow her smile even more divine than before. "Just the two of us?"

"Don't want to?" Rihan teased.

She lowered her gaze demurely, beaming. "Anywhere with you."

Rihan took a strand of her hair between his fingers and played with it. "Good."


"Here, this is today's work."

Wakana-san took the notes Kana had taken for Rikuo-kun and laid them to the side. "Thank you, Kana-chan. I'm sure Rikuo will appreciate it."

Tsurara coughed, "I doubt it", from the side but when Kana glanced at her, she sat as formal and perfect as always at the edge of the room, frozen tea in front of her.

"It was no trouble, Wakana-san," Kana said. "I'm glad I can help. I understand that Rikuo has a lot of responsibilities." She shifted awkwardly on her knees. "But, ah, do you know yet when he will be back?"

Wakana-san shook her head. "My husband says how long Rikuo will take depends entirely on how much he wants to learn and how fast and if he wants to come back home then."

"Ah." Kana's shoulders dropped.

"Is something on your mind, Kana-chan? You know you can always come here if you have trouble." Wakana-san said, smiling gently, and Kana tried her best not be creeped out by the many eyes she felt on her. She knew they were all harmless and mostly curious and Kana had spent many hours playing hide and seek with them in this house, but when they were watching from the shadows there was something unnaturally eerie about them…more so, without Rikuo around. If Kana was honest with herself, that was only part of the reason she missed him so much though.

"Ah, you see, the truth is, Kiyotsugu-kun – he's in our class – has started a, er, yokai search club, and, er, we are going to search the abandoned school building on our campus. I, I wanted to know if perhaps, if its not too much trouble, we could maybe not run into too many yokai tonight?"

Wakana-san blinked. "Oh my." She put a hand to her cheek and not for the first time Kana was awed by how pretty she was. "The old school building you say. I didn't know there was such a thing."

"I didn't either," Kana admitted.

"Nothing comes to mind, Wakana-sama," the yukionna said when the lady of the house asked for her opinion. "I will ask around. I don't think it will be a problem though, Ienaga-san. Rikuo-sama's school is secure even in his absence." She looked at Kana, not exactly friendly but also not unfriendly. "Isn't Kiyostugu the boy who tormented the Young Master?"

Kana's stomach dropped. "He used to," she said hesitantly, and promptly the walls started to make angry noise. "But he's changed! In fact he started this club because he wants to see that Rikuo-kun again. He admires him."

The walls quieted. Tsurara's yellow ringed eyes searched her, before she gave a decisive nod. "But of course. The Young Master is someone who everyone admires. Humans aren't any different."

Kana allowed herself to breath out. Kiyotsugu-kun, safe.

"Oh, I know." Wakana-san clapped her hands together in delight. "Why don't you accompany her, Tsurara-chan. That way we can be doubly sure."

Kana's head snapped around to stare at the mother of her best friend. From the corner of her eyes she saw Tsurara's eyes widen in equal dislike.

"Wakana-sama!"

"Why I think it is a wonderful idea. Didn't you say you considered enrolling in school to protect Rikuo better when he comes back? This is a great chance to get used to your future classmates."

Tsurara stared, mouth agape.

Kana looked very hard at the tatami mat belwo her knees. Awkward.


TBC