Chapter Sixty-Two

Pure Luck

Nekohiko only needed to brush his hair to look presentable and not overdressed for a store visit, but Kataji had to change out of his fancy robes and back into one of his day gowns Mikawa had packed. After a short feast in the eatery across the street -- consisting of yesternight's tea cakes and honeyed-milk drinks that Nekohiko forced on the two youths, Mikawa was sent back to their room in the Petals in Amber while Nekohiko and Kataji made their bleary way down the street that slowly awoke to more and more people scudding outside.

Nekohiko checked that Kataji's dress looked proper and that the young man's face didn't show too much exhaustion after the night's turmoils. He felt bad for pushing Kataji to go with him when they both needed sleep, but really -- he had no choice.

Making a doll or fixing one required the doll's master to be present and to sign actual documents for the deal to go through. Even the shady Binder who'd Bound Nekohiko's current body had absolutely made sure to take down all of Kataji's personal information before Binding the doll for him. The legal issues were never to be dismissed in the doll-making business, and Nekohiko knew just how much more frustrating the bureaucracy would be at high-end establishments like the Doll Palace.

But Kataji didn't mind. He perked up every time Nekohiko turned his attention to him, and when Nekohiko preened Kataji's collars, Kataji reciprocated by straightening Nekohiko's sash and sleeves.

"Enough, enough," Nekohiko grumbled. "We both look good."

"Yes, we do." Kataji smirked, and the two finally turned to face the intimidating front gates of Hibiki's store.

The dawn had tinted all the buildings in the street into rosy color, with the morning dew glittering over the eaves and tree leaves on the branches peeking from between the houses. The unsure, shy sounds of the waking-up city added to the crisp feel of the starting day, and Nekohiko hoped it was because of the early chill that a shiver passed up his spine. And not because soon he was going to come face to face with a person as scary as Hibiki.

"Ready?" Kataji took the two Hisome pendants out of his sleeve.

"Mn." Though it still took Nekohiko a moment to temper his quickened breath. He stepped toward one of the mean-looking guards at the gates. "Let's go."

At first, Kataji had balked at Nekohiko's suggestion to re-Bind his body anew, especially in the most famously-expensive and demanding doll store in the Empire. But when Nekohiko had told him how tired he was of constant creaking, or how imperfect some other tiny details in his body were, he trusted Nekohiko's judgment completely. After all, Nekohiko was a Binder and he could lie very compellingly about how "badly" this body had been Bound together. Plus, it was his body. If it didn't work well in Nekohiko's opinion, then Kataji had to believe him on this. No other way.

And in regards to the sky-high prices Hibiki's services demanded... Nekohiko had taught Kataji quite a few ways to deal with those, as well.

"If you have an appointment, then it's this line," the guard began droning nasally. "If you are a first time customer, then it's this line, and this line is for a waiting list only."

Kataji whipped out both pendants under the guard's nose. The pink dapples of sunlight shimmered over Morokata's gentle, foggy crystal insignia on the lilac pendant.

"Not an appointment," Kataji said, lips smirking with disdain. "But rather a favor I'd be doing your master by my mere considering of his services."

The guard wasn't the only one to blink at Kataji in a daze. A few people who'd been first in both lines to the entrance, craned their necks to get a closer look at the audacious young man who talked so arrogantly about Master Hibiki. 

"Ah..." the guard dawdled, already scared. "But who--?"

"His Supreme Divine Majesty's little brother," Kataji sniffed, going past the man as though the gates were already open before him.

And actually, that worked. The dummies and the other guards by the gates hurried to pull open the doors for Kataji to enter, even without asking who was the mysterious man who walked beside him.

Just the combination of Morokata's pendants and the Emperor's name was enough to let Nekohiko in, no questions.

The front yard was a beautiful serene pond, a small path tiled across it with undrying dewdrops upon Bound lily-pads. Kataji followed the path, not giving it a single shred of his attention even though, on his first day in the capital, he had been so starry-eyed and charmed by everything he saw.

Nekohiko doubted Kataji had gotten used to the Binding opulence of Nara so fast. No, he rather believed Kataji was pissed at all the Binders for a very understandable reason:

He wasn't one.

And now, everything he saw that was crafted by Binders made him even sourer and his motions -- even more dismissive. Which helped, of course. Most servants and other early customers ambling in the front yard and on the steps before the entrance were so threatened by Kataji's condescending aura and his imperious swagger, they didn't dare to come over and introduce themselves.

"Good acting skills," Nekohiko told him after they entered the echo-hungry main hall of the store. "But knowing Aomi, I would be surprised if you didn't share at least some of her talents."

"What acting skills?" Kataji asked him, somber. Then, before Nekohiko could react, Kataji smiled. Just a quick-slice grin -- that vanished after a heartbeat.

And for some reason, Nekohiko hated that grin.

It didn't look natural on Kataji. In fact, it reminded him of all those times Kataji was incredibly angry at someone but could only show it by refusing to engage with them. Not so now. Nekohiko could feel just how tense Kataji was after the reception at the Palace, yet Kataji had made cutesy comments and grinned and even waved all the night's worries off through the entire morning.

It wasn't right. It wasn't Kataji's way of dealing with anger or misery.

It was... someone else's. Someone who Nekohiko tried very hard not to think about too often.

But at least Kataji was talking to Nekohiko, right? Last times Kataji had been upset with him, he would ignore him for days, so this was definitely a much more efficient way to cope. But was it better?

"I sometimes feel grateful for your brother's name that can get us to such places as this one," Nekohiko tried to dispel Kataji's suspicions a bit. "But your brother himself -- let me be honest with you, Kataji, even though you and he are related." He leaned over to whisper secretively, "I cannot stand him."

"Oh. Is that so?" Kataji asked disinterestedly.

"Yes! How can such an aggressive, domineering, garish, loud, rude, and creepy person even be related to you? You are kind and thoughtful, the qualities I have always appreciated most in people because--"

"Uh-hm. I think we're where the chief assistant told us to go," Kataji raised his voice over Nekohiko's. He cast an unimpressed gaze around the room, then crinkled up his nose. "This person's taste is... something."

The Doll Palace both from the outside and the inside was an eclectic mixture of light woven through darkness. The deep forest and swamp motifs ran through the choice of wood paneling, wrought metals, and decorations. Everything was filigree, twisted, tinted with elegant decadence. Yet within this moody darkness, always loomed the diffuse glow like sunlight filtering through the thick canopies, making all rooms feel both sinister yet achingly beautiful.

Which quite fit with Hibiki's talents, Nekohiko guessed.

"I won't be able to talk to you after this," Nekohiko reminded Kataji once he was sure nobody was around to hear. "Are you sure you remember everything we settled on?"

The plan.

The precise list of things Nekohiko wanted Hibiki to fulfill.

And how Kataji had to push it all no matter how Hibiki would try to convince him otherwise.

After all, Hibiki would be able to see the insides of Nekohiko's doll form. He would see that there were no aspects of voice, or cognition, or even will in Nekohiko's wooden parts. Nekohiko preferred not to call anyone's unwanted attention to the doll that talked, thought, and could make decisions yet showed no reasons for how it was able to...

So he'd just decided not to do any of those things while in Hibiki's presence.

See? Easy.

"You can count on me," Kataji said, cold. "Have I ever mistreated you or betrayed your trust, Itsuki?"

No. But--

"Then relax. I'll take care of everything."

The circular room filled with exquisite tree columns rustled and chimed with its leaves when the great double doors of the inner chambers swung open. Inside came a small group of people.

One youth -- by the looks of him -- just as old as Kataji. And flanking him, his bodyguards -- two half-naked men of extraordinary beauty.

At first, Nekohiko hardly even noticed Hibiki between those two, so difficult it was to take his eyes off the state-of-the-art bodyguards that came in beside Hibiki. But then the youth between them broke out staring at Nekohiko in the most intense manner.

And Nekohiko's insides clenched in fear, sending cold sweat shivers across his back.

Oh. The classic "Hibiki stare". 

Yep, Nekohiko was definitely familiar with that one.

Hibiki was younger than Nekohiko by about three years, which would make him eighteen at this point. Yet perhaps due to Hibiki's lifestyle that never saw him outside, or perhaps from the way he hunched his back over his projects every day, or kept his long hair unbrushed so that it covered most of his face -- he had an appearance of someone older than his true age. He wasn't ugly by any means. In fact, had he been healthy and well-groomed, he would have quite an appealing face. But he chose not to. Making all these gorgeous, beautiful dolls he was so famous for, himself, Hibiki had never bothered to enhance or even give a damn about his own looks.

And his enormous dark eyes shadowed with bruise-like traces of insufficient sleep didn't help.

He always stared from a below-facing angle, making his black pupils pop against the whites of his eyes. His hollow, hungry gaze had a hypnotic quality, too, because he rarely blinked. And when, after staring a while, his lips would suddenly crack up in a slow, toothy smile -- that would finish off everything one should know about Hibiki in a nutshell.

He did so now as he gaped at Nekohiko.

Nekohiko's scalp crawled with trepidation and he recalled how Abihiko had once compared Hibiki's unsettling gaze to Nekohiko's.

If you take Hibiki's intensity and mix it with Suminoe's iciness -- you would get exactly the expression you wear every single day of your life! Abihiko had mused one day.

To which, of course, Nekohiko could only blink in horror.

Gods, no. Hibiki looked as though he would either stab you with a chopstick in the eyeball or would pat you on the head like he would a friendly dog the very next moment. And it was always impossible to tell which one it would be.

"Master Hibiki, I presume?" Kataji began by clearing his throat. "I requested a private audience with you to discuss the--"

"What a nice doll," Hibiki said, still not having blinked a single time. With abrupt steps, he darted forward, hands lifted as though to grab Nekohiko.

It took all of Nekohiko's will to not flinch from Hibiki's proximity.

But Kataji jumped between the two of them. His suave facade peeled off him faster than Hibiki's bodyguards snapped after their master.

"NO touching my doll!" Kataji cried.

Only when the bodyguards made sure Kataji wouldn't attack Hibiki, did they withdraw.

"Why would you bring a doll into my Palace and not let me touch it?"

Hibiki's voice still had the undertones of disinterested pouting he'd had when he was a child. For the first time since he'd come here, he gave Kataji a single glance.

"I meant not like this," Kataji replied, pushing his palm into Hibiki's chest to make him back away a step. "My doll is very fragile and special to me. Only with the utmost care you may touch it. And not right now," he added quickly when Hibiki raised his fingers to Nekohiko. "But after we discuss the doll-Binding process for it. All right?"

"But the discussions and agreements can take days if not weeks to finalize. I have a serious establishment here. We do not rush things when the legality of doll-making is so intricate as my products require." A shadow of disappointment crossed Hibiki's face as he gazed at Nekohiko longingly. His nose twitched like a rabbit's. "Is that an Emerald Fir I'm smelling?" he asked, distraught.

"Yes," Kataji said. "And in regards to the legality issues..."

Nekohiko waited, numbly feinting the lack of cognition in his expression or gaze. He had taught Kataji what he needed to say. Exactly what Hibiki would love to hear, too.

"...my doll has a Bound human Resign in its wood grain," Kataji said, lower. "The question about the legality of its creation is a bit too late to worry about, wouldn't you say?"

As though a spark of life bloomed deep within Hibiki's dull eyes. His lips dragged wider in a smile and he inclined his head to Kataji. "I see. I see." Still maddened, his pupils flicked back to Nekohiko and he reached his hand to put it around Nekohiko's wrist like a shackle.

Kataji's desire to stop him didn't impress Hibiki. After Kataji had told him about the illegal Binding inside Nekohiko, Hibiki didn't need to care about Kataji's opinion anymore. For all intents and purposes, Kataji was now a criminal.

Not unlike Hibiki, according to what Nekohiko had always suspected about the Doll Palace business practices. But to Hibiki, a fellow doll-making criminal was nothing more than a younger brother. Welcome and accepted in his house, yet utterly dismissable.

"It's all right, dolly," Hibiki told Nekohiko as he tugged him after himself, fingers fondling Nekohiko's wooden phalanges. "Nobody will hurt you here. Aren't you pretty, aren't you lovely? Why would we ever hurt such a gentle thing as you?"

"Yes, but what if you harass him or do something he doesn't like?" Kataji huffed, following close behind. "I am his Master, after all! You touching him in this manner feels like harassment to me!"

Hibiki stopped, genuinely confused. Then he brightened up, almost like an adorably-innocent child. "Well, sharing is good, fellow doll-fucker."

"I am not a--" Kataji ground out chillingly.

But Hibiki already clicked his fingers, and both his bodyguards leaned to Kataji with tender smiles on their flawless faces.

Too flawless, perhaps. And moving in such perfect accord... With growing anxiety, Nekohiko realized just how superior Hibiki's doll-making had become in these past five years.

The reason these two bodyguards were half-naked wasn't to show off their musculature or their blemishless skin. It was to show off Hibiki's mastery of creating humans from scratch. Most doll-makers would hide their dummies' bodies because of all the seams and all the subtle hints a doll's mechanisms, however outstanding, would show.

But Hibiki deliberately exposed all the usually-difficult markings of his doll-making. The dolls' breaths expanding and contracting the ribs, the dolls' goosefleshed skin from the draft. The subtlest of lifelike motions all human bodies exhibited, but most dolls lacked.

Hibiki's dolls were no different from humans. Nobody would be able to tell at a glance.

"See? We can share dolls just fine, can't we? Don't be a grouch, fellow doll-fucker," Hibiki told Kataji and twined his fingers with Nekohiko's wooden ones as he marched on down his twisty corridors, not even checking if Kataji chose to follow or stay back.

"I have a name, actually!" Kataji said closely behind. "If you bothered to ask it, you wouldn't have to call me a 'doll-fucker' now."

Hibiki only winced, baffled. "Why would I not call you a--"

"It's Abi Kataji, thank you very much," Kataji cut, and the conversation was seemingly over.

But not because Hibiki accepted Kataji's introduction. There were few things Hibiki gave a damn about in this life. And anything related to actual people around him -- was not one of these things.

***

Even though he was very young, Hibiki was what most people would call a 'prodigy'. That unparalleled control of his Binding powers to extract First-rate aspects from living beings and to Bind them to objects had earned him the respect of Morokata, and of Morokata's mother -- Great Lady Takarashi, or later -- of all the other Lords and countless nobles in the Empire.

While Hibiki's trade was unpleasant in general, his skills and inventions he'd made were so useful to society that nobody questioned it. Why would they? Hibiki had been only a little child prodigy abused by the Dark Sisterhood and the other bastards in Binding contrabands. He hadn't wanted to use his magic for evil. Why would anyone punish him for being good at something, even if it had been abused by others to do bad deeds once?

He wasn't doing all those bad things anymore, right?

Instead, Hibiki had been accepted into the Hisome family and educated to live a better, more fulfilling, and much more lawful life. And at only thirteen years of age, he had also been given to Nekohiko as his Imperial bodyguard from House Hisome.

Back then, Nekohiko hadn't cared who was his bodyguard from each Great House. As long as they did their job, he would never complain.

And Hibiki's job of fixing everyone's dummy steeds and other mechanisms had been so nice and convenient, that, to be honest, Nekohiko hadn't minded the boy's presence at all during his grand campaign against the Usurper.

Hibiki was essentially harmless and largely disinterested in the world outside of his head as long as you weren't a dummy.

But if you were one, then... alas.

He was much taller now, of course. But his gestures and quirks were still awfully childish which contrasted wildly with his slouchy frame.

He rushed down the inner halls of the Doll Palace, his overexcited pace spooking beautiful maidens and youths who worked in the store as his assistants. At first, Nekohiko decided -- humans. Why would they flinch and gasp when Hibiki ran into them by accident?

But when his gaze lingered on all these people, it hit him.

Yes, they talked to each other even when away from Hibiki. And yes, they sighed and went around their chores in the shop and even looked bored when they weren't busy with anything -- but their faces.

Their bodies.

Too perfect to be humans.

These were all dolls, weren't they? Not only made to move and react with authentic human behaviors, but to do so when their maker wasn't even focused on them. Dolls, yet completely self-sufficient! Completely self... aware?

"Master Hibiki," one of the beautiful young women dared to come close to Hibiki while he ran down the corridor. A few scrolls in her arms, one of which she opened a crack to read. "The Nagare and Towa nobles threw a fight in the waiting room. Should we--"

What a familiar voice, Nekohiko thought numbly.

Where have I heard it?

"Not now, Yae!" Hibiki whined, flapping his hand at her. He kicked open the door of a very tall, very narrow tunnel that gradually sloped down as though leading into a dungeon. Only after Kataji also squeezed in after him and Nekohiko, Hibiki swung around and slammed the door shut before the Yae girl's face. "Nobody disturbs me!"

"But, Master--"

"Kick all the nobles out for all I care."

Nekohiko gave Kataji a reassuring nod when Kataji swallowed with clear worry in his eyes. The two of them followed Hibiki down the tunnel, and the deeper they went, the more Nekohiko felt this whole doll-reBinding idea might not have been the soundest he'd ever had.

Right before they finally reached their destination at the tunnel's end, a troubling image popped into his head.

That voice of the girl he had just heard. Yae -- was that the name Hibiki had used?

Yae had been one of the many older girls in Izumo School. Nekohiko usually remembered only a few people who weren't in his class. Mainly, if these people were famous for something.

And Yae had been famous for being perceived as ugly by the majority of people. She'd had a discoloration on her face as though from a massive burn or a birth defect. She'd always had to hide it with Hisome glamor tricks, but everybody knew nonetheless.

Most people had bullied her because of her meager attempts to hide her defects. Out of all the people who had ever been nice to her, Morokata was one of the very few. Why? Who knew. The last time Nekohiko had seen Yae was right before he and Abihiko had dueled Morokata for Kotone's honor, years ago.

That Yae girl had sat on Morokata's lap in his dorm room. Smiling, giggling, utterly unashamed of her hideous face because Morokata didn't seem repulsed by it whatsoever.

Nekohiko had never wondered what happened to that girl later. Had she left Izumo? Had she graduated, only he hadn't noticed? She'd simply dropped out of his attention. He wouldn't even remember her if he hadn't heard the voice that reminded him of her just now. Yae's voice had always been somewhat recognizable -- high-pitched and slightly harsh.

Exactly like the assistant-girl of Hibiki's right behind this tunnel's door.

Yet the face he had seen on that girl -- it couldn't be the same person's. This face was so lovely, it could belong to a Spirit of seduction. It was a perfect, beautiful face of a doll.

Utterly impossible to find in a real human.

So... could it be?

Nooooo...

Too weird. Too random. Nekohiko's memory must be faulty. After all, had he ever paid much attention to girls in Izumo School?

"It only gets creepier with him, doesn't it?" Kataji breathed once they stopped in the center of the great room tiled with slick white stone plates that enhanced the light inside it.

Maps and schemas and blueprints of human anatomy brightened on the walls and hung off the ceiling in long, silk scrolls. Underneath, desks upon desks, tables, workbenches, and myriads of shelves upon which wooden, metallic, porcelain, ceramic, glass, earthen, sand, and any possible materials on Earth lay, Bound into the shapes of human limbs. And beside them -- jars as tall as half a human, filled to the rim with fatty, gelatinous live tissue of... animals, hopefully. Some of the tissue pulsed with motion, not only alive -- but fresh. Taken right from its source and kept for Hibiki's convenience.

A doll-maker's paradise.

Hibiki patted two chairs beside one of the desks with a stretched-out skin of a human being sewed together by a self-moving Bound needle. He sat down in one chair and waited for Kataji to take the other one.

But for Nekohiko, he'd prepared a different seat.

"Come here, Emerald Fir pretty," he purred, offering his lap. Much to Kataji's irritated sigh.

"The doll has a name, too, just so you know. It's Itsuki and please--"

"Itsuki, awww! What a cute name. Come Itsuki, sit on my lap!"

Nekohiko didn't move, blank-faced and silent. Pretending to be a log was the best tactic against someone as overly-excited about dolls as Hibiki.

Kataji shook his head, leaning over the gap between their chairs. "He stays where he is. First, we discuss the contract. One of the biggest points in it would be that I want this doll reBound today."

Even for a seasoned doll-maker, such demands had to be staggering.

Hibiki's eyebrows shot up, his eyes now almost bulging out of their orbits. "...huh."

"And finally, the issue of the price."

"The price?" With his lap unused, Hibiki slowly drew his knees up to his chest and hugged them. Absentmindedly, he kept watching Nekohiko even as he spoke to Kataji. "You can't meet my price, doll-fucker Abi Kataji. Very few people can because the money will just be enough to pay for a Kingdom of its own, you see."

Ah, as Nekohiko had predicted. However...

"...unless you can pay with something else, of course," Hibiki cast a glance at Kataji -- an uncanny, appraising look that searched Kataji's face a few moments then settled in on his lips. "That lip color is very unique, isn't it?"

Kataji's fingers lifted to brush against his recognizably-red mouth, doubtful. "You... like it?"

Hibiki turned away, instantly bored. "What does liking have to do with anything? It's unique and it's authentic. I bet it would look nice on one of my dolls."

"You can just replicate it with dyes and make-up," Kataji laughed. Yet his laughter stopped shortly when Hibiki gave him a grim look.

"Oh. Did I suddenly speak in a foreign language when I said 'authentic', doll-fucker? My bad."

Spirits...

"You're not seriously suggesting that you're making dolls out of authentic ingredients only, are you?" Kataji said, sounding only slightly unsettled. Good control of his voice. Nekohiko was proud of him for not showing outright fear in front of Hibiki.

"Your voice is also nice. And your hands," Hibiki went on, inspired. "After all, you're not even a Binder. Why would you need hands if you can have dummies to do everything for you? Not like non-Binders can compare in any handcraft or skill with a Binder anyway..."

Nekohiko gritted his teeth not to snap at Hibiki for doing this. Of course Hibiki wasn't saying such nonsense out of ill intent. As most powerful Binders and as a prodigy who had never known life outside of Binding -- Hibiki probably didn't even view non-Binders as beings worth respect. Nekohiko had witnessed several episodes when Hibiki said or did something against common folk, but the Hisome etiquette and education had smoothed out these rough edges most of the time.

Yet, it seemed, Hibiki was inside his own domain here. And Hisome House etiquette did not keep him in check much.

Kataji's patience and self-restraint were admirable. Especially now that the far entrance door of the tunnel up the slope swung open and closed as someone entered. Their footsteps echoed down the tunnel, closer and closer.

Intrigued, Hibiki perked up, but Kataji showed no hint of surprise.

He smiled at Hibiki and inclined his head politely. "Thank you for the compliment, Master Hibiki. But alas, I have different means of paying you for your services in re-Binding my doll." With a flourish of his hand, he waved to the tunnel from which emerged a person.

Because, right before coming into Hibiki's Doll Palace, Nekohiko had asked Kataji to sent a message to a neighboring mansion. With a request for a meeting very, very soon.

"I assume I can discuss the cost of the procedure with him instead, right?" Kataji asked Hibiki, then turned to regard the person who stopped right beside Nekohiko, clearly unsure as to why he'd been invited here in the first place.

"Your Majesty Morokata," Kataji said, bowing. "We weren't introduced to each other yesternight, but we are soon to be related. Allow me to introduce myself now."

Morokata smiled most charmingly, then cocked his head to regard Nekohiko's profile next to him. If Morokata recognized Nekohiko's features, he showed no reaction. Only vast amusement and tact.

"Master Abi Kataji -- I know you already," he gushed, strolling over to Kataji to bow to him as well, to Kataji's timid protests. "How could I not recognize you when your dearest brother is such a needle in my heart. The way he tortures himself with the governmental chores, ah..."

"My apologies. I hope Eldest Brother is not too big a bother," Kataji gushed back. Both of them were so slick and smooth in their courtly back-and-forth, the far less sophisticated Hibiki was instantly forgotten by either.

Which gave Hibiki a chance to sneak around the two and tip-toe to Nekohiko, eyes crinkling with delight. "Pretty Emerald Fir, what a marvel you are..."

"Khem-khem!" Kataji blared as loudly as he could. "We were just discussing the doll-Binding contract with Master Hibiki and the question of price has arisen. Your Majesty, if I may be so bold... but, I would like to offer you my services. In any way you may need, now or in the future." Lowly, he bowed again. "Please accept."

Nekohiko had taught him to say this. The specifics of the services offered did not matter as much as the suggestion itself.

Morokata would know better than anyone which services he would want to extort from Kataji later. And for such a prominent societal figure as the Hisome King, having the Emperor's own brother as one of his debtors... might just be a desirable price for any of his favors.

Nekohiko didn't see Morokata's face, but he heard his amazed chuckle as he hurried to help Kataji rise from his deep bow. "No need for these formalities, future cousin-in-law! Ha-ha-ha, and no real need for owing me for a teeny tiny favor such as this one! It's only one doll, isn't it? It's not a big trouble. Hibiki and I can Bind it simply because we're family, can we not? Why make it so much more formal than that?"

"But I insist, Your Majesty," Kataji said.

...erm.

This, Nekohiko hadn't told him to say.

If Morokata was offering to let it slide -- accept it, stupid! he wanted to yell at Kataji. Why do you keep wanting to be so indebted to Morokata of all people?

"I want to be useful to you. My brother is giving you trouble," Kataji went on, grave. "That embarrasses me and my family if so. Eldest Brother can be... a bit rash sometimes and a bit unruly. I thoroughly believe that you will be a great positive influence on him as time goes by and the Hisome-Abi union is consummated with the wedding. So... I am at your services, My Lord, if it will help to bring my brother to a better future together with his bride. And if it will make him a better leader and a much better... brother, too. I will help you. Whatever it will cost me. For our common family's happiness."

Nekohiko was too distracted with Kataji's impromptu speech that he missed the moment Hibiki started pulling his collars down. Not to grope him yet -- thank Heavens. But to sniff his neck and collarbones in the deepest, loudest inhale in the world.

"Ahhh!" Hibiki moaned, ecstatic. "True, authentic Emerald Fir! What a rare find! A full human-size dummy out of Emerald Fir! What magic is this???"

Morokata turned to throw an askance look at Nekohiko. The smile that loomed on his lips was that of a satisfied cat after a great bowl of cream.

"Not magic, Hibiki. Just our luck," Morokata told him. Only now Nekohiko could see the handshake Morokata's and Kataji's hands eased out of as though at the end of a deal.

Moving fluidly, majestically, Morokata swished his sleeves as he stepped around Nekohiko, eyes never lifting of Nekohiko's numb face. Together, from both sides, Morokata and Hibiki leaned to him. Hibiki took another needy sniff while Morokata only focused on Nekohiko's eyes.

His own were crinkling up in crescents. "To make a doll such as this one -- what else is it but not pure luck?"

Queenfisher

Hm, I don't know when I'll do another Picture Dump with all the villains inside it (but I guess when the last of the villains appears in person and not just in name?) -- but I decided to share with you my b/w fanart of Hibiki early ^^. (Maybe I'll do Morokata with next chapter, too, mmm?)

Just because, lol.

Spoiler

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