A Scandal in Edo
folder
+. to F › Code Geass
Rating:
Adult +
Chapters:
16
Views:
5,351
Reviews:
8
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Category:
+. to F › Code Geass
Rating:
Adult +
Chapters:
16
Views:
5,351
Reviews:
8
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Disclaimer:
I do not own Code Geass, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.
A Scandal in Edo
When his uncle told him that the matchmaker had arranged for a meeting with his prospective bride during a cherry-blossom viewing session, Suzaku showed up at the appointed time in the small park near the foot of the hill. The matchmaker and his uncle’s assistant Hiroshi would be chaperoning them. With the crowd that usually turned up at the most anticipated event of the year, their presence would be mostly redundant.
A distinctive pair emerged from midst the hordes of people thronging under the trees--the tiny figure of the matchmaker in her veils and the girl in a fetching kimono that matched the colour of the cherry blossoms. She was tall for a woman--almost as tall as he was--
Suzaku had to look away so that he would not give himself away. He peered hard at the diminutive figure of the matchmaker and almost laughed in amazement. Only the presence of his uncle’s assistant prevented him from doing something uncharacteristic as the introductions were made.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
“I thought your aunt would have held out longer,” Oshiitsu said after a particularly grueling session with Aunt Kaede and Uncle Odou about certain minor details.
“We have my uncle to thank for that.”
“I didn’t think he had it in him to put his foot down like that.”
“Only my aunt would argue in that kind of situation,” Luluko said.
“Then again she is the type to shave change from a copper coin.”
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Later, Ogawa reported to his master that his nephew had made conversation in the approved fashion. It had been awkward but expected. Suzaku was not that socially inept and perhaps having a mistress had been good for him. The nakoudo had said that if all was well, the engagement could take place within ten days.
The yunio did occur five day later. The exchange of the symbolic gifts between the two families went by without a hitch and the wedding date was set.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
"Are you all right with this?"
"Why should I not be?"
"It's cheating, isn't it?"
"My cousin would say that we merely got started a little earlier."
"Your cousin says a lot of things."
"I'll agree with her this time."
* * * * * * * * * * * *
The wedding procession was a solemn affair. The bride left her guardians' house in a palaquin followed by her uncle, aunt and sister. There were no other guests from the bride's side as the event was held in the groom's house up on the Yamanote and the actual list of acceptable individuals had been rather short.
The bride and groom sat like elaborately dressed and painted dolls in the place of honour as the guests came to pay their respects. Omori had made a generous donation to the temple so that a priest would come to bless the gathering. All in all, it was a stiff-necked affair meant to show off Omori’s generosity.
But there were musicians and performers hired for the reception afterwards--screened by Lord Omori's assistant--and the wedding banquet promised to be fairly entertaining.
After the wedding, they would stay with the groom's uncle, in a set of rooms set aside for their own household.
“Ah, happy endings,” Naruse said melodramatically from behind his sleeve when the festivities wound down. He had not partaken of the wine yet as he had been performing.
“I’m going to write a song about this,” Kaguya declared after the musicians had packed up and collected their fee for the evening.
“Do what you like,” Oshiitsu said before going back to pack her things. She left a letter explaining that she was going to Osaka and thanked her kind hosts for their support in the past five years. She was gone by the morning.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
“Was that a messenger?” he asked when she returned to the room after a brief absence.
“Aah, a letter from someone I know. She’s leaving the city.”
“You look more troubled than sad.”
“That’s because I just got a piece of troubling news. How soon before we can leave?”
* * * * * * * * * * * *
“Shouldn’t you be getting home earlier, now that you’re married and have, you know, responsibilities,” Jino said as he clapped a hand on his shoulder with a wink.
“Not so much that I can’t still keep an eye on you,” Suzaku replied. “So I heard that your turn’s coming soon.”
“Eh, it’s a big fuss over nothing. I’ve been to two fittings and three gift exchanges. It’s apparently more complicated because she’s from that clan.”
Suzaku shook his head sympathetically. “It’s harder when clan politics comes into it.”
“I don’t know how you managed it, but I envy you,” Jino said.
“Maybe you won’t after I tell you this.”
* * * * * * * * * * * *
The house in Shitamachi seemed a lot smaller when she returned.
“Oh you shouldn’t have brought all this,” her sister said, her hands roaming over the gifts she had been presented with.
“Nee-san is a lady now. I wish I could see you,” Nanari said wistfully, her hands reaching out to pat the good silk of her somber and matronly black kimono. “You must be very beautiful . . .”
“I’m still the same,” she said, allowing her sister to examine her with her hands.
“But different, in a way,” Nanari said. “You’re a married woman--should you come back and visit like this?”
“I don’t care about those conventions,” she said. Which was true because if she had cared, she would not have chosen to marry as she had.
“Don’t you have a husband to take care of?”
“He can take care of himself,” she told her sister. “But he needs some reminding sometimes.”
“He seemed nice, you know, when he came over to visit.” It had been a little strange, but at least he knew that he had to win over her sister as well.
“Yes . . . Nanari, do you want to go on a trip? Back home?”
* * * * * * * * * * * *
It was a month after the wedding when Kururugi Suzaku asked his uncle for leave to bring his wife to her ancestral home in Kanazawa. She would like to visit her parents’ tomb to make offerings and to assure their spirits that she had secured a good marriage. They would also like to take the girl’s sister along as there was a convent nearby and she would no doubt do very well there after a suitable donation was given to the sisters. Suzaku had also been released from his obligations to the clan of the Yamashiro-no-kami as the young nobleman he was guarding might be leaving Edo after his marriage to a lady of the Matsudaira clan.
Omori Masahiro had been pleased that his nephew appeared to be settling down. He had granted their request and applied for a travelling permit on their behalf. He had even supplied them with money to buy a new grave marker for the girl’s parents.
Of course, the girl had been a lot prettier than Omori had anticipated and she was no doubt doing a very good job of keeping her nephew’s attention. He seemed much more inclined to come home early these days. There had been, among the wedding gifts, a rather elaborate and thick tome of shunga. The boy was already the envy of his peers and some of the older generation--his uncle included.
Almost a month later, the news that the newlyweds had reached Kanazawa arrived in Edo. Then there was no further communication. Omori sent his men to investigate, but they turned up nothing but a month-old trail that was already cold. His nephew and his wife had apparently vanished without a trace from Kanazawa. Faced with the prospect of being known as the hatamoto who could not keep his own family in line, Omori Masahiro reported that there had been an accident involving a ferry-crossing and bought funeral tablets for the deceased.
But in the tea houses and banquet halls that month, there was a popular song about a pair of lovers who had escaped from their restrictive circumstances and ran away to Nagasaki to seek out a different future. That song was banned fairly quickly. The magistrate had other things to worry about by then. Such as the special auditors that arrived out of the blue and were suddenly extremely interested in a matter that occurred eight years ago.
And so it was in the late spring of the year Houreki 10 (1761), that a small scandal occurred in Edo.
However, it was overshadowed by a scandal of epic proportions when a young nobleman of the illustrious family of the Yamashiro-no-kami ran away with an apprentice dancer on the eve of his betrothal.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
To anyone who stayed around this long, why are you still here? I have no “I survived this fic” t-shirts to give out, just kudos for putting up with this insanely long fic with all its typos, misspellings, overly convoluted plots, rampant italics and occasionally OOC characters.
Because I am a ho, have crappy fanart:
http://www.theparapet.net/cache/edo01.jpg
http://www.theparapet.net/cache/edo02.jpg
Self-Indulgent-End-Notes
- My relationship with this fic is kind of like “Gah! Argh--I don’t believe I used the word maidenhead in a fic! But that bit with Toudou was kind of funny . . .”
- I don’t normally do fics like this . . . (But it’s Luluko! And an apprentice geisha in Edo would be a han’gyoku . . . I restrained myself from making bad puns.)
- Or happy endings. But I rationalised it to the inner angst-whore because lovers’ suicide was clichéd and really depressing, not to mention so 1720s and passé.
- I think I will go and shoot my inner cheesy historical romance writer. Then bury it in a deep dark hole before it can come up with something along the lines of “Suzaku as a samurai and Lelouch as an onnagata in a kabuki troupe”.
A distinctive pair emerged from midst the hordes of people thronging under the trees--the tiny figure of the matchmaker in her veils and the girl in a fetching kimono that matched the colour of the cherry blossoms. She was tall for a woman--almost as tall as he was--
Suzaku had to look away so that he would not give himself away. He peered hard at the diminutive figure of the matchmaker and almost laughed in amazement. Only the presence of his uncle’s assistant prevented him from doing something uncharacteristic as the introductions were made.
“I thought your aunt would have held out longer,” Oshiitsu said after a particularly grueling session with Aunt Kaede and Uncle Odou about certain minor details.
“We have my uncle to thank for that.”
“I didn’t think he had it in him to put his foot down like that.”
“Only my aunt would argue in that kind of situation,” Luluko said.
“Then again she is the type to shave change from a copper coin.”
Later, Ogawa reported to his master that his nephew had made conversation in the approved fashion. It had been awkward but expected. Suzaku was not that socially inept and perhaps having a mistress had been good for him. The nakoudo had said that if all was well, the engagement could take place within ten days.
The yunio did occur five day later. The exchange of the symbolic gifts between the two families went by without a hitch and the wedding date was set.
"Are you all right with this?"
"Why should I not be?"
"It's cheating, isn't it?"
"My cousin would say that we merely got started a little earlier."
"Your cousin says a lot of things."
"I'll agree with her this time."
The wedding procession was a solemn affair. The bride left her guardians' house in a palaquin followed by her uncle, aunt and sister. There were no other guests from the bride's side as the event was held in the groom's house up on the Yamanote and the actual list of acceptable individuals had been rather short.
The bride and groom sat like elaborately dressed and painted dolls in the place of honour as the guests came to pay their respects. Omori had made a generous donation to the temple so that a priest would come to bless the gathering. All in all, it was a stiff-necked affair meant to show off Omori’s generosity.
But there were musicians and performers hired for the reception afterwards--screened by Lord Omori's assistant--and the wedding banquet promised to be fairly entertaining.
After the wedding, they would stay with the groom's uncle, in a set of rooms set aside for their own household.
“Ah, happy endings,” Naruse said melodramatically from behind his sleeve when the festivities wound down. He had not partaken of the wine yet as he had been performing.
“I’m going to write a song about this,” Kaguya declared after the musicians had packed up and collected their fee for the evening.
“Do what you like,” Oshiitsu said before going back to pack her things. She left a letter explaining that she was going to Osaka and thanked her kind hosts for their support in the past five years. She was gone by the morning.
“Was that a messenger?” he asked when she returned to the room after a brief absence.
“Aah, a letter from someone I know. She’s leaving the city.”
“You look more troubled than sad.”
“That’s because I just got a piece of troubling news. How soon before we can leave?”
“Shouldn’t you be getting home earlier, now that you’re married and have, you know, responsibilities,” Jino said as he clapped a hand on his shoulder with a wink.
“Not so much that I can’t still keep an eye on you,” Suzaku replied. “So I heard that your turn’s coming soon.”
“Eh, it’s a big fuss over nothing. I’ve been to two fittings and three gift exchanges. It’s apparently more complicated because she’s from that clan.”
Suzaku shook his head sympathetically. “It’s harder when clan politics comes into it.”
“I don’t know how you managed it, but I envy you,” Jino said.
“Maybe you won’t after I tell you this.”
The house in Shitamachi seemed a lot smaller when she returned.
“Oh you shouldn’t have brought all this,” her sister said, her hands roaming over the gifts she had been presented with.
“Nee-san is a lady now. I wish I could see you,” Nanari said wistfully, her hands reaching out to pat the good silk of her somber and matronly black kimono. “You must be very beautiful . . .”
“I’m still the same,” she said, allowing her sister to examine her with her hands.
“But different, in a way,” Nanari said. “You’re a married woman--should you come back and visit like this?”
“I don’t care about those conventions,” she said. Which was true because if she had cared, she would not have chosen to marry as she had.
“Don’t you have a husband to take care of?”
“He can take care of himself,” she told her sister. “But he needs some reminding sometimes.”
“He seemed nice, you know, when he came over to visit.” It had been a little strange, but at least he knew that he had to win over her sister as well.
“Yes . . . Nanari, do you want to go on a trip? Back home?”
It was a month after the wedding when Kururugi Suzaku asked his uncle for leave to bring his wife to her ancestral home in Kanazawa. She would like to visit her parents’ tomb to make offerings and to assure their spirits that she had secured a good marriage. They would also like to take the girl’s sister along as there was a convent nearby and she would no doubt do very well there after a suitable donation was given to the sisters. Suzaku had also been released from his obligations to the clan of the Yamashiro-no-kami as the young nobleman he was guarding might be leaving Edo after his marriage to a lady of the Matsudaira clan.
Omori Masahiro had been pleased that his nephew appeared to be settling down. He had granted their request and applied for a travelling permit on their behalf. He had even supplied them with money to buy a new grave marker for the girl’s parents.
Of course, the girl had been a lot prettier than Omori had anticipated and she was no doubt doing a very good job of keeping her nephew’s attention. He seemed much more inclined to come home early these days. There had been, among the wedding gifts, a rather elaborate and thick tome of shunga. The boy was already the envy of his peers and some of the older generation--his uncle included.
Almost a month later, the news that the newlyweds had reached Kanazawa arrived in Edo. Then there was no further communication. Omori sent his men to investigate, but they turned up nothing but a month-old trail that was already cold. His nephew and his wife had apparently vanished without a trace from Kanazawa. Faced with the prospect of being known as the hatamoto who could not keep his own family in line, Omori Masahiro reported that there had been an accident involving a ferry-crossing and bought funeral tablets for the deceased.
But in the tea houses and banquet halls that month, there was a popular song about a pair of lovers who had escaped from their restrictive circumstances and ran away to Nagasaki to seek out a different future. That song was banned fairly quickly. The magistrate had other things to worry about by then. Such as the special auditors that arrived out of the blue and were suddenly extremely interested in a matter that occurred eight years ago.
And so it was in the late spring of the year Houreki 10 (1761), that a small scandal occurred in Edo.
However, it was overshadowed by a scandal of epic proportions when a young nobleman of the illustrious family of the Yamashiro-no-kami ran away with an apprentice dancer on the eve of his betrothal.
To anyone who stayed around this long, why are you still here? I have no “I survived this fic” t-shirts to give out, just kudos for putting up with this insanely long fic with all its typos, misspellings, overly convoluted plots, rampant italics and occasionally OOC characters.
Because I am a ho, have crappy fanart:
http://www.theparapet.net/cache/edo01.jpg
http://www.theparapet.net/cache/edo02.jpg
Self-Indulgent-End-Notes
- My relationship with this fic is kind of like “Gah! Argh--I don’t believe I used the word maidenhead in a fic! But that bit with Toudou was kind of funny . . .”
- I don’t normally do fics like this . . . (But it’s Luluko! And an apprentice geisha in Edo would be a han’gyoku . . . I restrained myself from making bad puns.)
- Or happy endings. But I rationalised it to the inner angst-whore because lovers’ suicide was clichéd and really depressing, not to mention so 1720s and passé.
- I think I will go and shoot my inner cheesy historical romance writer. Then bury it in a deep dark hole before it can come up with something along the lines of “Suzaku as a samurai and Lelouch as an onnagata in a kabuki troupe”.