"Ugh, that party was terrible!" Fuyu Joo complained, making Meioshi chuckle as they walked back to Old Heiwa.
The people were very well-dressed this year. Meioshi hadn't seen so many beautiful kimono in one place in a while. While the village played songs and danced in the night, the people of Old Heiwa walked about to visit friends or see the emperor walking by. He and the First General were bowing and greeting the people as tradition would have it. Meioshi didn't have to worry about any of that. Her family was outcasted from the kingdom for a reason and for many years. The villagers seemed to still be clinging to their prejudiced ways, so she left them behind and went home. The afterparty at home was much more civilized and Homugi seemed to be gaining popularity. She was speaking to a lot of the women while standing by Yuko's side. The doctor was happy that sweet Homugi was able to make friends in Heiwa, and little Hasumi was running around with the village children playing nighttime games. Such a precious girl!
"Are you sure you want to leave the swordsman there, though? He looked angry," the gentle beauty remarked, opening a small parasol with a lantern hanging from the center. She carried it by a beautifully ornate handle so as not to burn her hand.
"Tch, Lord Sesshomaru looks angry practically all the time! I highly doubt he knows any other emotion. He's rather closed off," Meioshi said, holding her friend's hand the way they did as children and swinging it playfully. "I suppose it's the nature of the beast when you've such a high profile among demons."
"Well, he doesn't seem to mind you," Fuyu Joo suggested, quirking her lips. "I'm beginning to think you don't mind him either."
"Ha! He'd likely put my head on a spit than actually speak to me with any niceties," Meioshi said. "He's been nicer to me lately, though. Probably because I've been grieving so much. I thought I was going to die soon after Lord Jaken gave me a compliment."
"Then the swordsman and his imp are fools," Fuyu Joo said, leaning on Meioshi's shoulder. "You weren't called the hunting crane for nothing, party girl. And you're still pretty inside and out. It's been my greatest joy to be your friend. You've given me a place to belong and a place to stay. I'll be at your side throughout all of time should life allow me that small mercy. You are my sister regardless of our days at school."
Meioshi smiled softly at her childhood friend and hugged her gently. They were approached by one of the Kairyu men and handed much nicer drinks that smelled heavenly. Neither girl could stomach anything in Miki's okiya, but they practically inhaled the sweet smell of persimmon. A perfect scent and wine for the fall and heritage fest!
Meioshi lifted her cup and said, "To fonder memories then, my friend?"
Fuyu Joo nodded, lifted her cup, and said, "To life's fondest adventures that have passed and have yet to come." They clacked their cups together and drank the wine. Both girls hummed from the delectable taste and threw their heads back with pure glee. "Ugh! This is so much better!"
"Only the best for my parties," Meioshi commented, kneeling down to catch Hasumi in her arms as the little one ran up to her.
"Doctor! You're back! Where'd you go?" Hasumi questioned, looking so cute in her new festival outfit. "Mister Liuxian said you went to say goodbye to someone important to you. Was it your grandpa? The one you said you had to see those ogres about?"
"Yes, my little miko," Meioshi admitted. "I miss him very much. Just as you said you missed yours. But don't you worry about me, Lady Fukuyama. I'm a tough girl! I'll bounce back!"
"I know you will," Hasumi said, blushing and looking down at her feet with a small smile on her face. "That's what makes you a weirdo... but you're my weirdo. Oh! Your sheep must like parties. It won't go back in the barn. It ate the susuki grasses!"
Meioshi let out a sigh and said, "Meh, she's just a curious little lamb. She thinks it's playtime because everyone's awake and moving around like it's noontime. Did she go in the kitchen?"
"Shotaro said it went through your snacks. I ate some of your cookies. I'm sad now," Hasumi informed, smile dropping at the tragedy of no cookies in the jar.
Meioshi laughed at this and reassured the little miko by saying, "We'll make some breakfast cookies for the morning. We have a contest to judge tomorrow! All of the youkai are having a huge baking competition for their march. You might be able to see the fabled Weevil's Raindrop Cake."
"What's that?" Hasumi asked curiously.
"The weevil is an extremely rare demon who loves sugarcane and sweet pastries. The youkai here are able to cultivate a very particular type of sugar that they use in their sweets. Legend has it that the best treats draw a fire rat to the village," Meioshi explained, watching Hasumi's eyes grow wide and sparkly. "That particular rat chews on the baker's sugarcane. If the youkai can successfully chase the fire rat away, the weevil demon will come out to fix the damaged cane. It leaves behind this huge crystal ball that's entirely made out of sugar and water that gets mixed with its saliva. The crystal ball is said to be so sweet and melts on your tongue so perfectly that it achieves the ultimate sweet flavor for any recipe you can think of. Only the baker that drew the fire rat and weevil to the village can bake cakes with that sugar crystal ball. If the baker makes the right number of cakes using all of the sugar, the weevil will go out and pick different plants to give the cakes a special color. Pinks, blues, greens, yellows, a rainbow of confectionary treats! When it's done coloring the cakes, it leaves for good to hunt for other pastries or sugarcane. The baker then takes the leftover coloring to make glass plates that you can eat! And he or she decorates the plates with raindrops."
"S~ah! Rare demons and sweets?" Hasumi questioned, putting her hands on her cheeks with anticipation. "Why can't we bake now? I wanna catch the rare demons!"
"All of this year's bakers are finalizing their recipes for tomorrow. They have to race to get the best sugars for the job!" Meioshi said, rising to stand as Hasumi spun around on her foot.
"Oh, look, the swordsman is here," Fuyu Joo said, pointing to Sesshomaru.
Meioshi turned to see his lordship trailing behind them and waved to him with a smile on her face. She then said, "I can't believe Miki let him leave."
A man had approached Sesshomaru, breaking his eye contact with the doctor, and merely stood before him in silence. He looked awfully familiar to the western lord, but he wasn't sure where he had seen this man before. He did, however, smell like metal oil and oranges like Kirameku Ha. Analyzing the man, Sesshomaru took notice to the strong eyes and angular jawline that resembled the old man. Even the hair and skin looked the doctor's sensei.
"You are Sesshomaru, yes?" the man asked in a soft tone as though he didn't want to wake a sleeping child.
"What of it?" Sesshomaru asked quite clearly.
"My father mentioned you in a letter that was sent to me," the man said, smirking a bit. "I am Kirameku Ha's firstborn, Eikichi. He mentioned you being my bratty cousin's rival of some sort."
"You are the doctor's cousin?" Jaken asked, mouth slowly dropping. Eikichi really did look like Kirameku Ha! A younger version but a version nonetheless.
"In a way," Eikichi replied, raising his head with pride at this. "I came to thank you for watching over my father and cousin and to meet you personally. You're skinnier than I thought."
"Do all of you Heiwans just fatten yourselves up?" Sesshomaru questioned, sounding more insulting than humorous.
This made Eikichi laugh, however, and Sesshomaru's ears twitched at the sound. His eyes softened at this reaction, though. This man did favor Kirameku Ha quite a bit. His clothes were even similar to the old man's casual attire. Eikichi then said, "We're a humble folk, young Lord Sesshomaru. We eat what is necessary and save what is left for the morrow's luncheon. A wasteful existence matches no implication of yours."
"Since meeting your father and cousin, I've come to realize problematic issues with decency existing from your people," Sesshomaru said, narrowing his eyes.
"Elaborate," Eikichi replied with interest.
"For one, your father has a tendency to walk around camp completely nude to relieve himself."
"Ah!" Eikichi said, laughing richly. "Father did that much in my youth. My cousin discovered that he suffers from an odd case of what she calls heat flashes. It's related to another condition that only seamen get when they have to readjust to the conditions of life on land after prolonged periods of time out at sea. His body's temperature didn't properly regulate itself when he was in combat. Once he retired from the wars, his body kept sending off waves of unbearable heat or bone-chilling cold when the seasons change in the spring and fall. He must've had an episode under your watch."
Remembering Kirameku Ha being tended to by the doctor made him feel a little guilty for accusing her of spoiling the old man. He didn't realize he was actually sick.
"Don't worry yourself about it," Eikichi said, raising a hand nonchalantly. "He has medicine to keep himself normalized now. Meioshi's been tending to his care when needed. A lot of the men in his troop suffer from the same thing, so cousin's been monitoring the symptoms and their severity. She said it doesn't look like the condition contributes to anything serious. It just makes certain seasons uncomfortable."
"Do you not inherit his titles and weapons? You are the firstborn. The sons of his army would've fallen to you, yes?" Sesshomaru questioned.
"The Kairyu retired here. Father hasn't been in active duty since he married my mother. There's nothing for me to claim other than him as my father," Eikichi said. "If you wish to learn about father and his life after the wars, you are more than welcome to join me and my little brother at dinner. Father will be late. He's speaking with uncle about a few things."
__________________________________________________
"Why am I being dragged!?"
Meioshi wasn't at all happy with being strapped to Ah-Un's back and carted away to... was that her funeral home? On the deck, no less? Sesshomaru released the doctor from his Moko Moko and dumped her onto the deck's floor. He huffed with displeasure and sat quietly across from her. Ignoring her protests, he opened the map of the Yama Oroshi's territory and simply said, "We're leaving after this march, witch."
"Like hell I will!"
"Did you forget that we had an agreement?" Sesshomaru reminded her, silencing her protests. "You've been avoiding your duties to find the Meido Stone in favor of all this charity work. Your service to the House of Inu is sub-par at best regarding the punishment that you agreed to. Unless you've found information about the Meido Stone, this will compensate for your obvious incompetencies."
"If you knew anything else about the damn stone, finding clues would be easier to do! The only thing I managed to learn was that it was capable of resurrection. Lord Aka said it was possible to find its opposite if I located the sunstone since your Meido Stone might have been created using moonstone. While I did find the opposite, it didn't send off a beacon like I thought," Meioshi argued. "It just helped reunite Sozosora's fallen holy warriors and recreate the Taiyoko-sen Coin. Acting as one of the missing pieces sapped me dry if you hadn't noticed. The Himawari Jewel that Hasumi is wearing now is the sunstone that Lord Aka told me about."
"Sanraku said you opened a portal to an in-between world. Why?" Sesshomaru questioned.
"Lord Jaken's Nintojo sent us to this wasteland you were looking for after we separated," Meioshi explained. "Sensei said the Nintojo kept leading you to different spots because of some pygmy curse. The curse was actually part of a puzzle you had to solve in order to open the gates to the wasteland. You should be able to access it at will now."
"You were in this wasteland then?" Sesshomaru asked, opening his eyes to lock them with the doctor's.
"No, I missed you so much that I wanted to impress you with a gift," Meioshi replied. "The wasteland was an excellent choice of market for doggie toys."
Click, click! POUND! Ah-Un slammed their claw onto Meioshi's body to pin her down onto the deck while Sesshomaru glared at her menacingly. He narrowed his eyes at her before saying in an almost seductive tone, "Your lord is very impressed with your findings, servant. A fine gift indeed. So fine, in fact, that he has decided to treat you with something quite worth your while."
"I'm so not feeding your... horse!" Meioshi said through gritted teeth as she struggled to move from under Ah-Un's claw. They were hurt that she would stop feeding them, shedding tears at the notion. "Arrogant dick!"
Sesshomaru crept over Meioshi's face until he was close enough to stop her from struggling to watch him and said with a more obvious salacious purr in his voice, "Such a vulgar mouth. I think it needs to be put to better use..."
"Ah, we also taught Kirameku Ha about rule number thirty-four. All talents are good talents unless they displease Lord Sesshomaru!"
Meioshi was fuming at her predicament. Furrowing her brow at Jaken's incessant talking, she tried everything in her power to think happy thoughts. Surely, this new mission wouldn't take but a few hours. She at least wanted to back in time for the youkai march. The big bake-off started at around lunchtime! Maybe those samurai were onto something. Everyone seemed to like kidnapping her in the middle of breakfast while reading her morning news. Nothing exciting occurred other than portraits of the big parade this year. The turnout was definitely beautiful this time, even the after parties were lovely. Though she did very little for the after party, she was surprised to see the emperor and the First General visit her home for a little while. She even sat with Lord Aka for some hours until it was time to sleep. Once she woke, she was pleasantly surprised by Yatsumi and Yamashi coming to retrieve Homugi for the baking competition. Homugi was surprised herself! Escorting her to the youkai district, Meioshi and Liuxian's family all went to see the decorations being put for this year's march. It was gorgeous and kind of resembled Meioshi's decorum! Homugi received many compliments on her dance and blushed from them. She agreed to return after breakfast to learn more about the march since she was a new rogue.
Walking back home, Meioshi prepared breakfast cookies and fruit salads for whoever was visiting and dining with her. The village usually stopped working for this week-long festival. It was a holiday that celebrated everyone in all walks of life. A labor-free week that gave everyone a chance to simply take a break and view everyone's work or blessings. The news would be all highlights about the year's festivities, so she didn't expect much other than portraits and local awards for best dressed or best culinary dishes. Even chefs only worked half the week to spend time with family. Enjoying the peace as she drank her breakfast tea, Meioshi was simply lounging as everyone played or engaged in conversation. She was still in her pajamas for heaven's sake! The next thing she knew she was in the air with a gag in her mouth. She looked up to see Sesshomaru carrying her away!
That's how she wound up in this mess. Strapped to the dragon's back with the Moko Moko around her person, hair in a messy braid, and her pajamas a bit messy. At least her slippers were still intact... for now. She didn't bother looking at her captors or the dragon. Ah-Un tried to nuzzle her for comfort, but she would have none of it. She simply fumed in silence as they passed by trees and other foliage or natural landscape. She definitely wasn't happy or in the mood for giving away snacks. Darn...
"Are you even listening, witch?" Jaken questioned.
"I heard you," Meioshi replied blankly.
"Good. Now, as I was saying," Jaken started, continuing his lecture about the rules.
Meioshi tried everything in her power not to scream, but it was getting harder and harder to do so.
"Witch," Sesshomaru called, stopping his walk for now.
"What?" Meioshi replied with a snippy tone.
"Interesting..." a familiar voice said. It was Tadamasa, pallbearer of the arctic.