Chapter Seventy

The Bride's Side of Things

 

 

"Sakami, sweetheart?"

Nothing Nekohiko wanted to do more than to get to know the nowadays-Sakami. The girl was bound to have changed since their days in Izumo School, yes? If Nekohiko's plans for Abihiko's disaster wedding were to commence as intended, first and foremost, he needed to update his knowledge of who Sakami was.

What she behaved like. What she sounded like. What and how she did... literally everything.

And he had so little time for that! In all senses of this word.

The wedding was only in a day and a half from now. So much to do and so many people to pull together.

Morokata ushered Nekohiko into the airy gazebo in which Sakami sat surrounded by her ladies. The tender dusk filled the gazebo with the sweetest breeze, bringing fallen red leaves inside and rustling the gauze ribbons that hung in the arches. Within such a melancholy image, Sakami looked especially innocent.

Nekohiko felt guilty about having scoffed at her earlier. The girl did not deserve that. As little as Nekohiko knew of her, he could tell that she had never meant harm.

It wasn't her fault she was a Hisome. Besides, she never acted like one.

Even her ladies-in-waiting, the ever-present Hisome girls, had more of that famous Hisome clout in their mean glowers toward Nekohiko than anything Sakami did. Out of all the pastel-colored-robed ladies who honestly looked like a selection of pastry cakes, Kiyoko was the only one Nekohiko recognized immediately. Partly because of the nasty quirk of her mouth she gifted Nekohiko the moment Morokata and he entered.

She was that classmate of his, the lanky girl with teeth that were too big for her mouth who had always followed after Sakami like a tame puppy hound. The always-ready-to-punch-anyone-who-looked-at-Sakami-wrong girl.

Somehow, with age, none of these qualities subsided, yet Nekohiko found her toothy mien even charming now. Why? Because Kiyoko had never bothered to make herself look more conventionally-pretty unlike the other Hisome girls. And Nekohiko had never met a Hisome girl who would, so that immediately made Kiyoko much more intriguing in his eyes.

"Dear Cousin." Sakami smiled, putting away her beautiful watersilk bridal veil she was embroidering with the aspects of pearls one of the Hisome girls held in a bowl on her lap. Nekohiko gave the veil a longer look, appreciating the Binding craft of Sakami's artistry.

This veil would look very nice on Sakami's face.

Or on Nekohiko's, hmmm.

"Is my Lord Abihiko well? He seemed so pale," Sakami asked Morokata timidly. Her eyes flickered to Nekohiko but quickly dropped. "Good evening again, Lord Itsuki."

"Your silly future husband is wonderful," Morokata promised her as he strolled into the gazebo and sat down in the most splendid lounging pose on the bench. Now the gathering inside the building looked even more perfect, and Nekohiko hated to walk into it and ruin the picture.

"He just needs to learn self-control, that's all. Which is exactly why my doll son Itsuki was there, don't you worry," Morokata ended.

"I was never worried," Sakami said even more whispery. Her eyelashes trembled as she beckoned Nekohiko to come and sit. "I am happy with whatever joys my future husband wants to experience." This time, she spoke directly to Nekohiko. "You won't ever have to feel threatened by me, my lord. If His Majesty Abihiko likes your company, I would never protest. I even hope we could be friends..."

Huh?

The Hisome girls around Sakami nodded on, pouting. "Another of those models, ah," one of the girls said under her breath, watching Nekohiko with distaste. "Does he have no variety in his preferences whatsoever?"

"Pfffff," Morokata snorted, cooling himself with his fan. "You are all so bitter, aren't you? And you, Sakami, darling -- are you intimidated by every doll and man with that face? Hah!"

He leaned over to Nekohiko who discreetly sat down beside Sakami. "As I told you, baby doll, your face isn't exactly a rare look in these parts. It is, in fact, a very popular model specifically for the Imperial Palace, so don't be surprised most people assume you're one of the Emperor's beloved toys, all righty?"

Eh. Nekohiko had known all that already. But not to such an extent people genuinely expected him to be Abihiko's private entertainment.

Plus, Sakami's pitch and all of her ladies' vast hatred of him...

"I am actually the doll of His Majesty's younger brother," he told Sakami. "And besides, His Majesty Morokata brought me here to teach your future husband some manners."

"That, we did," Morokata cooed, hugging Nekohiko from the back. Then turned to Kiyoko with a sly grin. "Now stop glaring at my doll son, please. You might traumatize him. We only came here to give respects to the future Empress, after all."

Kiyoko pouted even harder, but Sakami's face blossomed with sudden shy mirth.

"To... pay respects to me?" Her cheeks rosied up and she shook her head at Nekohiko. "You didn't have to. I am a nobody. It's only my dear Cousin and my future husband that are such important people. Compared to them, I am nothing worthy of knowing, my lord."

Erm... Yep. Exactly as Sakami had always been.

"You are not," Kiyoko growled low in her throat, eyes burning as she stared at Sakami most passionately. "Never say that."

And another "yep". Exactly as Kiyoko had always been.

Nekohiko's thoughts flashed back to his childhood -- to sharing the dorm with all these overly-dramatic girls and their issues. Out of all of them, Kiyoko bothered him most. Back in his past, and now, in the present. If his wedding scheme went as planned, Kiyoko would have to be one of the major obstacles in his way... Look how carefully she monitored each Sakami's movement. How hatefully she glared at everyone who came within an elbow-length vicinity of Sakami!

Truly, a hound, and no longer a puppy.

Nekohiko decided to check, just in case. "Your bodyguard is right, Lady Sakami. Please do not let the people around you overshadow you. You are worth more than that."

But, if anything, Sakami only grew more bashful. "I did not mean to sound like that. Please, do not mind me! And Lady Kiyoko is my best friend. She is not my bodyguard."

Nekohiko fluttered his eyelashes in a stupor. "The future Empress is not protected? Even His Majesty has guarding dummies following him around. Plus, he is the most powerful Binder in the world, so that's a different issue..."

"Hm?" Morokata asked, giving Nekohiko a sidelong glance. "Abihiko's guards are not so much about defending him from others -- as they are to keep him in the Palace. He has a tendency to run away like he did last week. We can't let that happen before the wedding, can we?"

Nekohiko listened, attentive. So this was how it was. Abihiko was actually trapped in the Palace?

A pity, that.

"And what made you think dear Sakami is not a powerful Binder herself?" Morokata's lips quirked up as though savoring his smile. "Plus, while her ladies-in-waiting aren't officially bodyguards, they are all --" and he lowered his voice into a velvety murmur "-- trained Spirit Wayfarers. Just, because."

...

Nekohiko maintained an impressed mien, but his stomach lurched.

All of these?

All... eight... no, nine of these women were trained Wayfarers?

Well, shit.

Getting his access to "little Sakami" right before the wedding might prove to be a bit more difficult than he had previously thought.

More than that -- Morokata reclined away from Nekohiko, a cute little smirk curving his lips as though he was very pleased with himself. And Nekohiko thought -- that had to mean there was some other catch.

Some other trick he wasn't seeing. Just these nine Binders surrounding Sakami couldn't be enough.

But oh well. Not like Nekohiko wouldn't be prepared, himself. He might not bring nine Binder allies to aid in his scheme, but he could maybe scavenge for... three?

Innerly, he winced as he listened to Sakami make polite conversation with her cousin about the oncoming ceremony and her role in it. But mostly about the sights outside the Palace and how beautiful the capital looked during the festive preparations. Though, naturally, all that made Sakami feel inadequate and afraid to disappoint everyone when the time for the actual ceremony came, and bla-bla-bla.

Poor Sakami. Being the cousin of Morokata, the future sister-in-law of the goddess-like Iokirihime, and the bride of Abihiko might destroy even the strongest people's self-confidence. But to a person with a soul as gentle and fragile as Sakami's... her self-deprecating tendencies truly knew no bounds.

Thus, she ended up wiping the floor with herself most of the time spent with Nekohiko and Morokata.

Which was both painful to listen to and very educational about what a person needed to do and say to make a believable performance of Sakami to an outsider.

Nekohiko nodded along and even became acquainted with some of Sakami's "non-bodyguards". His skills in identifying fellow Wayfarers' talents had become somewhat rusty, but just from observing the ladies' temperaments in the conversation, their gestures, and their resting body positions, he still gained enough understanding of who of the Hisome girls was the likely attacker, who was on the defensive, and who the supports and the escape-specialists.

All in all, a productive evening.

He felt very fulfilled when he and Morokata finally left the Palace and went to their floating carriage. But before Nekohiko could ascend inside, Morokata held the carriage door closed and pinned Nekohiko against it.

"Did you enjoy yourself tonight?" Morokata asked sensuously.

Errrr...

"Yes," Nekohiko said, trying to look anywhere except Morokata as casually as he could. "Of course."

"You sure looked like you enjoyed yourself. Good. I had a lot of fun, myself," Morokata breathed in Nekohiko's face, smiling wider. "I think I still might, depending on what your next plans would be?"

...

Nekohiko met his eyes, forcing himself to not look too spooked by this last statement. "Excuse me? My... plans?"

Don't tell me Morokata knows about my plans in regards to the wedding?!

How???

Or was Abihiko right and Nekohiko had missed something very important in that moment when Morokata and others had Bound his new body together?! Could have Morokata done something to him?

"Yes!" Morokata's eyes arched in cute little crescents as he finally pushed the carriage door open and flourished Nekohiko to get in. "Should we go to a restaurant or to the opera house now, baby doll? Or maybe you want to go back to your master, my future Cousin-in-law, ha-ha-ha? I bet Kataji would not like it if he found out where you've been tonight!"

Damn it.

Don't freak me out like that!

Nekohiko exhaled in relief, his palm pressed to his chest. He sank on the carriage bench, feeling every bit like a puddle of clay slowly melting down.

Morokata also got in and flicked his fingers to initiate the floating sequence of his Bound carriage. The lucid, sheer wings resembling those of flies and beetles rose to the sides of the carriage and hummed fluttering to drag the carriage up. The rainbow-like outer surface grew filled with air to allow the carriage to fly up and out of the Palace's front square.

The misty veil that hid Nekohiko and Morokata inside the carriage from an onlooker's eye let them see outside freely. Nekohiko watched the Palace and the rising peak of the Emerald Tree at its center sail away gradually, but his mind was far off wondering if he could see a hint of Abihiko down below.

But of course he couldn't no matter how much he tried. He stopped looking once the Palace vanished out of sight because however pretty the glittering lights of the festive city were, he had no patience for them.

Morokata was, oddly, silent as well as he sat on the other side of the carriage, looking down into the city below with a grim expression. Only when the carriage descended in the front yard of Morokata's estate in Nara, did he finally perk up and give Nekohiko his usual suave look.

"Since I'm already paying for your, Kataji's, and Nagare Mikawa's stay in that inn, why don't you three come in and stay in my own house instead? Anything I can help you little ones with -- ask!" His eyes narrowed, coy. "I promise my home is a delightful stay. We have many servants and many dummies, and, after all, aren't we already like a family?"

Nekohiko gave him a shaken little smile and reached for the door. "Ah, alas. Kataji had promised Her Majesty Kasuga to keep an eye on Mikawa all the time while we're here, and to not let him talk or stay with anyone other than myself and Kataji. Sorry!"

Once outside, all Nekohiko wanted was to run away as fast as possible and check on Mikawa and on... whatever Kataji looked like now. But the rules of courtesy required him to remain for as long as it took Morokata to say his goodbyes.

Luckily, Morokata didn't seem in the mood for prolonged conversations. He mostly kept his laid-back attitude, only his eyes burning deeply and darkly as he observed Nekohiko askance.

"Ah well. Poor girl, Kasuga." Morokata sighed after he walked Nekohiko to the entrance gate of his estate. "Give her my condolences for that whole tragic misunderstanding in the Fuji region. Oh don't! I can give her my condolences myself the day after tomorrow. She has to attend the wedding as well, doesn't she? All the Kings and Queens of the Empire have to sign their consent for the marriage, after all."

Yes. Precisely, Nekohiko thought as he made his hastened way out of Morokata's mansion and down the street to the Petals in Amber inn.

What Morokata had referred to so obliviously was one of the many, many small loopholes in the Spiritway Laws of the Land that Nekohiko knew were on his side in his scheme. The only thing he had to do was to prepare everything exactly before that moment. Before all the Lords signed the marriage agreement and allowed Sakami the title of the Empress.

Ah, he longed for that moment!

That said, it wasn't too far away and -- GODS -- just how many things Nekohiko had to do before! He wondered if he wouldn't be able to sleep at all in the remaining day before the wedding.

But no self-pity. Not yet.

Time to get to work.

 

 

---

***

 

 

He slid through the door of their room and leaned his back against it.

Mikawa gave him a cursory glance from behind the book he was reading, yet didn't bother to stand up from the bed. With fatherly pride, Nekohiko realized Mikawa was adjusting to the life outside of Nagare so well. Soon he would feel completely at home among Nekohiko and Kataji and would stop holding back his desire to snap at them and tell them to tone down their drama, please.

Nekohiko quite honestly wanted to see that happen, if only to lurch himself out of his issues with Kataji whenever he drowned too deeply in them.

"How did it go?" Mikawa asked, still curled with his book on the bed.

"Very, very good, thank you." Nekohiko unglued himself from the door and looked out the window. "It's pretty late. Shouldn't you be sleeping?"

Sweetly, Mikawa blushed. "I thought you and I are flying out tonight for something?"

Yes, they were. But it wasn't as though Nekohiko would actually keep a child awake the entire night! Nekohiko had planned their flight out closer to the dawn so that Mikawa still had enough time to get his sleep first.

He shook his finger at Mikawa in an attempt to sound strict. "Go to sleep. But before you do, where's Kataji?"

Not a sign of his presence. The young man hadn't even returned to this room to change, judging by how all his things were strewn around exactly as Nekohiko remembered them from when they had woken up.

Mikawa changed his position to a scared crouch, hugging his knees and looking up at Nekohiko in anguish. "He went... drinking. And gambling, I think."

...

"He had come back from one of the matched houses with two young women chatting and laughing as they stumbled in. And then... they started drinking in the inn dining room and some other patrons joined in and started filling Kataji's cup with more wine and..."

Mikawa looked miserable as he nodded on to the street and the blur of the glowing lights in the distance. "Now he's doing the gambling parlor-crawl, I guess? I tried to stop him, I did! But... you know how he became... Plus, I am not allowed to enter the establishments he went into, so I could only wait for you to come back."

Nekohiko's hands went for his head, clasping it from the sides. He slowly slid to the floor against the wall, then thudded the back of his head into it in a gesture of futility. The resulting wooden thump only added to his frustration.

...what?

Kataji was now even trying to copy some of Abihiko's habits?

No, Kataji! Whyyyyyy...

"I don't have time for this," Nekohiko said in his palms as he rubbed his face with them. "Spirits, I have so much to do, and he has to pull stuff like this at the exact same time?"

He stood up with a groan, already tying back the ends of his outer robe cords that he had undone the moment he had entered. Despite being tired, he scurried down the corridor, ushering Mikawa to follow him and show him the exact parlor he'd last seen Kataji in. 

Just the idea of running around the street and checking each and every gambling parlor to Kataji was already overwhelming. But to imagine he would have to tackle the unruly young man as well, and drag him back here while Kataji would, no doubt, make a scene?

"Where is he?" Nekohiko asked once he and Mikawa were back on the street. Readying, he rucked up his sleeves and took a decisive pace down the narrow lane between the gambling shops that framed the seedier alleys with their brimming, garish, noisy doorways.

"That one." Mikawa tilted his chin at the most flamboyant establishment of all.

"Now go home," he ordered Mikawa and headed straight for the abominable place.

A rowdy group of drunkards and easy women and men already crowded the entrance to it, forcing Nekohiko to clench down to avoid their touches. He weaved through, recoiling from the alcohol-tainted exhales and blaring bouts of laughter -- and much worse -- from the grabby hands of the passersby men.

"The Slutty Rooster" the name of the establishment read in giant glowing Bound script over the gate entrance.

Nekohiko shuddered just from taking a glimpse into its hellish insides behind the bright-red curtains.

With his jaws set hard, he stepped up to the entrance.

But he was cut off short by a menacing brute who manned the gates. "Sorry, sweetheart. Only the patrons may enter," the man said in a fakely-polite voice. "Membership pendant?"

Nekohiko glared. "I don't have any, but surely I can pay you enough to let me in." It pained him to do, but he winked at the brute suggestively. "Please, oh please?"

The teasing left the man unimpressed. If anything, it freaked him out instead.

Probably because Nekohiko had messed the "playful" expression once again? As he usually did. Oh well.

"Only for the members!" the brute repeated.

"Hey, but you let a person in without any memberships!" Nekohiko exploded. "I know for sure! Fine, you can't let me in -- just call him to come out instead! I'll pay you to deliver him a message for me so that he can come out--"

"Do I look like a messenger boy to you?" The brute's tone had drastically stopped being suave. "And nobody calls patrons out of The Slutty Rooster. This is a respectable establishment and we do not allow street ruffians to disturb our customers. We have a reputation to uphold."

...

Street ruffians?

"Take your damn reputation and stuff it up yours!" Nekohiko spat, enraged.

Which, really, was not the way to deal with the personnel of the esteemed Slutty Rooster parlor. Nekohiko should have known better.

Kicked further down the street, Nekohiko went back to their inn, beyond himself with fury. It didn't matter, he told himself. He probably would have failed to drag Kataji out of there anyway. In the last few days, Kataji did not respect Nekohiko's opinion at all. Most of Nekohiko's words were no more than air to him...

Morokata! came a sudden thought.

Nekohiko broke into the Petals in Amber inn, staring around menacingly in search of any inn servant nearby. Of course, Morokata would be the perfect play against Kataji's recent crankiness! Kataji respected Morokata, in fact, probably admired him.

And besides, hadn't Morokata offered his help to Nekohiko? Why not use the offer since Nekohiko was already tumbling down this slope of owing so many debts to the Hisome family already? One more, one less -- who cared by now?

He notified the serving girl he met on the stairs that he needed to send a message to the Hisome mansion without delay, then quickly scribbled a few words on the piece of paper the girl passed him. Deep inside, he felt a bit guilty for pushing his responsibility for Kataji's well-being onto Morokata's back, but he knew no better way to deal with the situation. Not like Kataji would listen to him now, of all times, and not like Nekohiko was oh-so-eager to get acquainted with the previously unseen version of drunk Kataji.

Even the idea made him cringe. The Abi family's relationship with ingesting alcohol and how they reacted to it was... pretty scary.

Once that was dealt with, he returned to the room in a much better mood and sagged onto his own bed with a sense of fulfillment for the human side of his plans for today. In regards to other sides of his plans, there was still much to do.

He turned to the forlorn Mikawa, testy. "Seriously, go to sleep! I am not leaving here until I see you snuff out the lights and get under your blanket, you hear me? I swore to your sister I'll keep an eye on you, so please oblige!" Since Mikawa wanted to argue something back, Nekohiko could only snap, "I already have my hands full of one youth running around and misbehaving and dishonoring his family and his elder sibling. Do you want to become the second one?"

That did it.

A cheap trick, but as long as it worked...

And thus, in the darkness of their cozy little room, with Mikawa snuggling nearby in his blankets, Nekohiko closed his eyes in his human body --

-- and opened them inside the cat.

The cat that was, by now, also in Nara. Just as promised.

 

 

---

***

 

 

He could tell just by the taste and smells in the air, and by the familiar, albeit distant background noise that wafted over to his cat ears from beyond the walls of the enormous wooden building he was in.

So yes, Nara. As Kasuga had told him it would be. Because, invited to attend and to help prepare the wedding ceremony for the Emperor, Kotone had traveled with Kasuga here earlier today and had been given Nekohiko's cat body as a small souvenir to take with her.

Nekohiko had no idea what Kasuga must've told Kotone to make her accept the kitty, but it was no longer important. While Kotone had taken him with her, she didn't care to carry him around once she had found a place to stash him in safely.

Where, though?

Nekohiko slowly unballed himself from within a small basket filled with fluffy straw. His basket stood on a small table in the center of a wooden room -- part of what looked like a very ancient, grand place. Everything so dark here, everything so refined and minimalistic and... dare he say, "holy"?

What was this place?

Ah, the smell of incense, he mused as he sprang off the table and made his way to the doors. Little wonder. Kotone was the Izumo Shrine official, so no doubt that whenever she stayed in places so far away from Izumo -- she was always welcome to claim a bed in any Shrine in the Empire.

So this must be the Spring Sunshine Shrine¹春日大社 -- is actually called in Japanese "Kasuga-taisha", but since it so obviously uses the same-sounding word as Kasuga-the-character, I cannot use it like that and have to resort to the literal translation again ^^. Sorry. It has no real relationship to Kasuga despite being called similarly, lol. , the most revered Shrine in Nara -- yet one that was removed from the city's bustle in the middle of a secluded deer park. If this had been the main, city Shrine that stood near Okinaga's mansion, the urban noises and lights would be so much more prominent here. But instead, Nekohiko reveled in the tranquility of the place. Now, this was something he enjoyed. Not Nara's sinful goods, neither its overwhelming garishness.

This. A sacred, quiet space far from mortal concerns.

He slunk out of Kotone's room and darted down the shadowy corridors lit with myriads of stone lanterns. The occasional priests he met didn't mind his presence and some even tried to pet him, but he was not a petting cat, thank you very much -- so he ran away from them shortly.

He stopped only when he heard a familiar voice echo ghostly from one of the courtyard gardens he passed. But it was not Kotone's voice.

It was Suminoe's.

"...since you're both managing the bride's side of things, albeit in different measures, I think only one schedule table will suffice," the Head Priest said, rustling something papery in his hands.

"Ah, the bride's side, so official," said a voice Nekohiko had trouble recognizing, so long ago he had heard it last. A young woman's -- sounding breathy, even ethereal as if the person mused to themselves most of the time, not bothering to check if others could even understand them. "I wonder if two women were marrying, which side would I have to take care of? Who would be the Bride? And would it mean my services would not even be needed if two men marry instead?"

Suminoe took a very labored breath. "Not now, please. We have a lot to do and such irrelevant questions can wait for later--"

"Awwwww, but how can I think of my duties if I don't even understand them well enough?" The young woman's tone rose higher in deep contemplation. "What is a 'bride'? What does this word mean? Look, look -- that bush looks so much like a deer. Oh wait, it is a deer."

Ah.

Nekohiko knew who this voice belonged to. He might not be very well acquainted with Haehime, the Izumo Shrine Maiden, but her manner of speaking was hard to mistake for anyone else's. Like the Head Priest, the Shrine Maiden position existed in every Spiritway Shrine, taking care of the more ritualistic and festival aspects of Spiritway yearly schedule. Plus, she was an authority figure for the young girls to come to and confide in if they weren't comfortable talking to the Head Priest.

Thus, the Shrine Maidens were usually the persons responsible for preparing and guiding the brides who were to be wed in the Shrines. And the Shrine Maiden of the most important Shrine of all, Izumo, was bound to be the guide for the most important bride in the Empire.

The Imperial Bride.

Nekohiko had already thought of the role the Izumo Shrine Maiden would have to play in his scheme, but never could he have expected he'd find her so soon!

And sitting alongside Kotone, as well!

Suminoe, Haehime, and Kotone all sat in the garden around a stone lantern that Haehime paid a distracting amount of attention to. As usual with Haehime, she was too fixated on pretty, shiny, or simply curious things, and this lantern was all three of those. Suminoe checked some scrolls and tablets in his hands, passing them down to Kotone and Haehime by turns along with some very strict-sounding instructions.

But he wasn't very successful.

"That deer is indeed so cute," Kotone crooned. "It's so chubby, it kind of appears like a shrub, true!"

"Ah, and I was afraid I'm seeing things because of the veil," Haehime drawled, relieved. Standing several steps away, Nekohiko had a hard time seeing her face because Haehime wore a full-length bridal veil on her head. For whatever reason. "I was trying to get into the mindset of such an important bride to understand my responsibilities better, but to be honest, so far, all I'm getting is that the world is so fuzzy and mysterious all around me. Which, I guess, is the point," she added dreamily. "Being a bride must be so thought-provoking..."

"Tsk, I bet it is," Kotone said. "Plus, you look so adorable in it!"

"I do, don't I?"

"Kotone will spend tomorrow and the day of the wedding with Sakami, managing all the ladies of the attending party," Suminoe spoke, trying to overpower both young women's chatter with his steadfastness. "While Haehime will monitor the Spiritway Laws in the ritual itself, is that clear to either of you?"

"Isn't the sun pretty when it's night?" Haehime said absently as she directed her gaze to the horizon.

"Mn," Kotone said. "I always thought so, too."

Even from afar, Nekohiko could see the twitch of Suminoe's cheek muscle from the endless irritation he felt.

Frankly, Nekohiko could relate to that. But at the same time, hadn't Suminoe been one of the people who would talk about random celestial stuff like that, years ago?

Nekohiko distinctly remembered that Suminoe had told him how contemplative and rejuvenating he found conversations with Haehime and other Spirit-attuned people.

So why not now?

It wasn't as though the Imperial wedding was something Suminoe would find interesting either way, yet now his aggravation at the two distracted women who were more interested in Spirituality than in mortal things seemed so palpable...

So... un-Suminoe-like.

"We will do everything that needs to be done, Your Holiness," Kotone said once she noticed his displeasure. "Please do not worry. It's just that we haven't seen each other for so long that Haehime and I can't help to try and catch up, ha-ha!"

"You have seen each other last week," Suminoe ground out, then rose to his feet, looking exhausted beyond measure. "Just do what I say. Your reports on my desk this time tomorrow."

What had Suminoe been doing this whole day he seemed so worn out now? Nekohiko wondered. The Head Priest snapped his sleeves and walked away every bit as elegant as always, but not as imposing as Nekohiko had once perceived him to be.

So odd, but he had never noticed how easy and effortless most of Suminoe's work-related troubles had appeared before. Suminoe of the past had never allowed anyone to see how he was doing his job or what a toll it took on him. Actually, it most often looked as though he had not done anything at all! But when one's work is just that smooth and just that good, it can look nearly invisible to the outsiders.

Clearly, not so now.

Nekohiko followed his departing figure with his eyes, almost missing the moment when both Haehime and Kotone got to their feet as well and skittered out of the courtyard garden and back into the Shrine's corridors. Their giggling whispers and gushings about this flower vine or that hanging bronze lantern sounded so irrelevant, Nekohiko didn't bother to listen to them. But he sprang up and chased after them all the same.

"The floor plan is just so... he-he-he," Haehime breathed as she pored over one of the scrolls Suminoe had given her. "Can you imagine that Queen Kasuga, Queen Iokirihime, King Morokata, King Okinaga, and King Sakai will have to sit in one section? Right next to each other? Ah, I almost regret I'll be too far away from them to witness what kinds of conversations they will have!"

"Let me see, where?" Kotone chortled.

Nekohiko stopped right in the way of both women and sat down majestically. He took care to be in the glow-light of the nearest lanterns so that he, or at least his enormous shadow thrown on the wall looked most impressive.

Then he cleared his throat discreetly.

"Kotone, may I talk to you about something important?" he began ceremoniously. "It will not take you away from the Imperial issues because my proposal will benefit the Empire and will concern--"

Both Haehime and Kotone gave him curious looks from behind their scrolls. Puzzled, Haehime inclined her head to the side.

Nekohiko did not let that dissuade him. "It will concern the future of the Empire and thus is of utmost importance," he ended.

Kotone blinked in delight. "Aw, the Cat Prince! I wondered when you will stop being so dead-asleep after Kasuga gave you to me. I even thought I did something wrong and killed her cat by accident, ha-ha!"

"I'm fine, thanks. Just need to talk with you. Privately, if possible," Nekohiko said.

"Oooh, it does seem like a serious matter," Haehime told Kotone earnestly. "I'll leave you two, then."

And she went away, without any indication if she thought it weird for a random cat to talk to Kotone or not. Perhaps, it was not weird at all. After all, Kotone was a high-ranking Spiritway expert, and how these people's minds worked was truly a mystery for the rest of the boring mortals.

Which only encouraged Nekohiko further.

"Kotone, I..."

Kotone squatted before him, her expression as supportive as he'd been used to seeing since forever. "Yes, Cat Prince?"

"I want to reclaim my throne and my Empire," Nekohiko said at last. "I came back here solely to do that, and I have the most perfect plan on how to do it without bloodshed and aggression. Peacefully. As any true Emperor would want his conquest to be."

"Mn." Kotone nodded in deep appreciation, but still seemed mostly perplexed. "The... Cat Empire? The Cat Throne? Well, whatever it is, I'm all for it, Cat Prince. Or should I maybe call you Cat Emperor instead? Ha-ha! What do you need me to do to help you?"

...

Oh yes. He still hadn't told her who he was. Not that it would help since he also hadn't ever told her that he was and had always been a boy. Or the true Emperor of this land.

Yeeeeah. This might take a bit longer to explain than he would have liked.

"I'll tell you everything in a moment," he sighed, acknowledging his defeat. "But first -- I want to know how much can you help me in my plan? Because you are the one responsible for the Emperor's bride, aren't you?"

"Um. Yes? But what does it have to do with--"

"I want to take that bride's place," Nekohiko said. All his worries and his previous doubts dissipated once the words were out. Only courage and the brimming excitement remained.

So much of it, Nekohiko very nearly felt like laughing maniacally about it.

"I am the only one who is allowed to marry this Emperor and take his throne from him," he promised her grimly. "And nobody else in the world."