DISCLAIMER: Full credit goes to Nakamura Yoshiki, the creator of Skip Beat, Emily Bronte's Wuthering Height's, and Yoshishige Yoshida's Arashi ga Oka. A full bibliography of works cited will be included with Chapter 10. The only thing I own is the character O'Hara Cho (an OC).
My thanks to the wonderful OnePlotThickens for their help Beta-ing this story.
They've helped to give it a finesse I couldn't achieve by myself.
STORMY HILLS
8| Scandal
Kinu had been confined to her own private chambers for the latter part of her pregnancy. It was a similar style to the hut she had been shoved into by her maid as she experienced her first cycles. A thickly woven rope hung down from the ceiling, which she could tug and bite into as the contractions seized her body.
She had fallen pregnant shortly after her marriage to Mitsuhiko. Hidemaru had returned to their house on the eastern side of the mountain, with his wife, Shino, and their new born son, Yoshimaru.
Hidemaru had not been inside the house for five minutes before Onimaru stalked past him, tacked up his horse, and rode away. It was the last anyone saw of him.
Kyoko felt slightly nauseous. The prosthetic baby bump strapped to her stomach beneath a thin yukata, constructed from lightweight foam, elicited strange feelings from within her. Was this how her mother had felt when pregnant with her? Kyoko knew this wasn't a true scenario, but the added weight, the cumbersome swell of her stomach… it drove home a harsh reality that without the chains and padlocks defending the chest- in which no longer lay her fragile heart but a few grudges who had been sucked in during the exchange, this may well be her one day. With a real child of course, not the prop she was supposed to give birth to; panting and wan, while the actress playing Shino pet her skin with a damp cloth and preached to her Shino's lines of how this is a woman's- a mother's duty.
This was another thing the acting academy at LME hadn't prepared her for, and Kyoko had found herself awkwardly asking the Okami of Darumaya whether she had any knowledge of childbirth. The Taisho had nearly dropped his knife in horror from what he had overheard, eavesdropping from the kitchen as the two women served the restaurant goers. Kyoko, having explained red-faced for why she needed this knowledge, had come to learn that the couple could not have children of their own- despite lack of trying. The Okami had kept many pamphlets and books she had picked up to help her along with her pregnancy, and while she had never given birth to a child, she kept the books. They served as a hurtful reminder, but she could not bear to throw them away.
The actress playing the maid would occasionally flip open the yukata out of shot, take a good look at the skin tight, flesh-coloured shorts Kyoko was wearing underneath, nod sagely at the prop, scale replica baby Kyoko had squeezed between her legs (which would be exchanged for a real new-born in the following scenes), and then fold the yukata back. Every thirty seconds of screen time in that scene, before the birthing cue was given, this would repeat. It took nearly everything the three actresses had not to burst out laughing at the absurdity of the act.
Kinu flopped to the ground as the maid took her child away, smacking the babe sharply to stimulate its breathing.
Kyoko, and Kinu, had given birth to a scale-replica prop of a baby girl.
The scene ended there, with both Director's agreeing that motherhood suited Kyoko. Kijima Hidehito could never quite meet Kyoko's eyes these days, and any sight of the prosthetic baby bump coming on set had him clear of her presence.
They hadn't shared a scene for a while, and it was easy to avoid one another. It was like a well-choreographed and practiced dance. The two performed it well.
Shino extended her congratulations to Mitsuhiko on the birth of a baby girl. The child was presented to him by one maid, while another attended to Lady Kinu's health. Like her namesake, the child was an exact replica of her mother.
But Lady Kinu would weaken while her child thrived.
Shino bade them goodbye, ignoring the offers of her to stay for a while and to not traverse the treacherous route to her home. Her guide, an attendant of her husband, became overwhelmed as bandits swarmed around them. Shino was carried away by the group of feral, desperate men while the attendant fled to fetch help.
He would return too late to warm Lord Hidemaru of his wife's fate.
Hidemaru would ride out to find how they had smeared his wife into the mountainside. Her few belongings she had travelled with had been stolen, her clothing ripped to bare her broken, abused body with limbs that lay at unnatural angles from how they had rolled her carcass off a precipice. The part of Hidemaru that felt any compassion and restraint fell and died with Shino that day.
The actor and actress that respectively played Hidemaru and Shino had struck up quite the accord on set. The two harmonised both on screen and off; when the clapperboard sounded, they made a dignified Lord and Lady, though between said takes they were the best of friends and each enjoyed the other's company. The emotions flying on-set were real, the screams of his grief convincing to the camera lens.
Shino's last scene had them all in tears. This would be the last time that character would appear on set, unless for pick-ups and retakes. Hidemaru's actor would leave the following day.
But it was the actress of Tae who stole Kyoko's attention often. In character, she would prowl confidently around Onimaru, taunting him to the point of pushing her luck. She had no qualms of her sexuality, and here Kyoko felt envy bubble in her chest. If only she could do the same as Kinu.
They were so very close to wrapping the film, with only a few major scenes left to capture. Kyoko busied herself with reinventing her Kinu; younger, more stubborn this time, and blunter than her mother. The elder Kinu had been locked away by Kyoko's personas in the very box she had opened- the heart having been removed and placed under the nurturing care of Kyoko's grudges. The damage had still been done though.
Young Kinu was a breath of fresh air; she was playful, like Kuon had been when she acted as Hizuri Kuu's son. She could be just as sharp as her mother, but lacked the elder woman's sly mind. Kyoko had been asked to take on the role of Kinu's only child, as the budget simply wouldn't stretch to recruit a younger actor. As she had played Lady Kinu in her youth, Kyoko believed that her demeaner, posture, movements and costume would convey that she was a completely different character altogether. She'd even tweaked the tone of her voice. Young Kinu was assertive; freedom had been a given with Mitsuhiko as her father. He would not restrain her as her mother had been in her youth.
Kyoko had been getting to know who she would act alongside as Young Kinu. The teen who would be playing Yoshimaru, the son of Hidermaru and Shino- who had been cast out and forced to work as a servant by Onimaru after the pathetic death of Hidemaru. Onimaru had brought Hidemaru home in a drunken and beaten stupor, after villagers settled in Edo had turned upon the 'Lord of the Mountain'. Hidemaru had succumbed to his injuries, and his son found himself in a very lonely and dangerous situation. Onimaru, having found favour with the Shogun, took the mantle of Lord of the Mountain.
The actor was a little like Hikaru-san, from Bridge Rock, Kyoko realised with a smile. While a little more reserved than the co-host of the chat show, Yoshimaru's actor was friendly enough, and Kyoko found a little solace in that. Her time acting with him was scant, and mainly with Kijima-san on the set too. Yoshimaru and Onimaru's confrontation was a gruelling sword sequence, and Kyoko marvelled at how both actors could swing a katana at one another thanks to some preparatory training.
The time had come, however, for Kyoko to confront the scene she had been having such trouble with a few weeks prior. Feeling as though she needed more guidance, she sought out her acting coach at LME. She daren't ask for Moko-san's help, let along Tsuruga-san's! Asking the acting coach would be difficult enough. Before she could embark on finding her coach though, an angry pink overall-wearing person near flattened her to the ground. Falling backwards, Kyoko landed with a thump on her rear with Moko-san threateningly towering over her. Whispers filled LME's lobby as bystanders watched the pair intently.
Kyoko grimaced, feeling tears starting to form. Kotonami Kanae wasn't happy with her at all, she'd become a spectacle again, and Kyoko had a feeling she knew why. Taking the role without talking to her self-proclaimed best friend first-
Moko-san growled and thrust a magazine article in Kyoko's face, the jagged edges indicating that she had ripped it hastily from what she had been reading.
"Explain," She snapped, flapping the article about commandingly. Kyoko studied the torn piece of magazine carefully with a curious tilt of her head. The image domineering the majority of the page was dark and grainy, but one lone light source illuminated her brilliant orange hair and clothes, seated on the passenger side of a car. A shadowed figure of a man leant over her, maddeningly close to her lips.
Kyoko snatched the glossy paper from Kanae's fist with enough force to rip it. The top of the photo remained clutched in the second LoveMe member's fingertips as Kyoko hurriedly read the headline and speculative story below. It was pure fiction, with the writer not being able to dig up the owner of the car's name by tracing the registration, as this could not be disclosed as public information by the prefectural government. The article went on to imply that Kyoko's illicit man in this scandal could be none other than Tsuruga Ren, her mentor and fellow LME actor, as she was not as familiar with anyone else and the outline vaguely matched his.
Kyoko's vision swam, and Kanae blanched. She swept her friend up from the floor and whisked her away to the LoveMe staffroom. Sat quietly on one of the plush sofas was Director Lory's assistant. He rose silently, bowing to the two LoveMe members.
"Mogami-san, Director Takarada wishes to speak with you immediately."
For the second time in a fortnight, Mogami Kyoko blacked out in pure horror.
Hidehito had discovered that Kyoko had a good arm on her, and that he had an even greater stinging red handprint directly over his left cheekbone.
He drove her home in silence, and intermittently, she would almost silently lisp out a direction for him to take. Eventually, he pulled to a stop outside of a small restaurant, his headlights beaming into the distance. An older man in chef's clothing and an apron wrapped firmly around his waist stood on the doorstep expectantly, toying with a wickedly sharp kitchen knife as he peered inside the car.
Kyoko timidly thanked him for the lift, not daring to meet Hidehito's eyes.
She bowed after closing the car door and scurried past the man waiting by the doorway; the latter narrowed his eyes suspiciously at Kijima, whirling the knife expertly between his fingers, before turning on his heel to follow Kyoko inside. Hidehito sat behind the wheel of his rumbling car, amused at the man's protectivity of Kyoko and with a healthy fear for his life.
Tae, sister of Mistuhiko, regretted ever setting foot in the eastern house. She had journeyed to wed Onimaru and to end the discord betweent he eastern and west houses. She had remained a simple slave to the new Lord, whose eyes and heart only sought the long dead Lady Kinu.
Tae had been shunned, mocked, and pushed aside for the excavated coffin and corpse of her brother's wife. Onimaru was obsessed with her sister in law, who's weak constitution after childbirth had never improved. She had died, asking of her beastly step brother- deluded that said man waited on the strong winds thrashing against the window, and beckoned her with converging storm clouds.
So Tae had lashed out, and paid the price for chastising him for his mania.
Beaten and defiled, she vowed to never Onimaru exploit her body ever again to fulfil his desire for another.
The same plain yukata she had worn before he had forcefully unwrapped from her frame, served to cover her while she wandered to the eastern house's front gates. Once removed, she looped the obi sash once keeping the yukata fastened over the tori-style arch and knotted the ends together. Then, she climbed the latticework of the giant gates.
They would find her swinging gently in the morning mists, serene after knowing she had finally escaped the stormy hills.
Onimaru would not grieve. His sights were firmly set on Kinu, and Kinu alone. He would seek her until the end of his time, and perhaps beyond.