Okazaki Castle
01-26-2007, 07:26 AM
There follows here a chapter from one of the books I've got lying around waiting to publish sometime when things are in place for it. this one covers the characters of two historical personages quite well I'd contend: Kain Doshi, who founded much of ninjutsu, and Sei Shōnagon, who though she did not historically (in terms of recorded, external history) connect to the Geisha arts, nevertheless achieved the pinnacles of mastership of them. Also, it's fun and fiction and is lighter reading. I think it's past magickal applications will be quite evident from even a brief perusal. More a lock in many senses than anything else though...
4
The Way of The Small Knife…
__________________________________________________ _________
Vengeance shall be Mine saith the Lord.
- YHWH, He Who is Three, The Almighty Trinity (featured in Ezekiel 25:13 and Hebrews 10 : 30)
Piss off and die.
- Khain, son of no-one.
__________________________________________________ __________
*
Scene I
The Planet Vrsa, in galaxy 127-41-330, 734 parsectual cycles prior to the arrival of Magellanic Cloud 67 (aka Galaxy M64)
*
The Lord God screamed loud, clear and strong, reaving agony breaking the ullalations of his scream down into racking sobs, as he gasped and choked for air… Khain watched him trying to strain against the ropes which bound him fast, knowing he was trying to scream some more, for the small relief that the vocal release brought to the extreme agony the Lord God was currently in. Khain stood up, walked over to the glade where the Lord God was stretched out, tied and pegged to the bare earth in spreadeagled, face-up form, and casually kicked the ugly fucker in the face. ‘Be silent you poorly-cultured peasant’ he said ‘Though you cannot see it I am trying to appreciate the delicate morning dew on stalks of wheat, whereupon a newly-awakened butterfly even now dries her wings. Your undisciplined screaming is disturbing the morning’s peace and my own wa. You are such a coward. At least your own death you should face with equanimity, as a man.’
‘So’ said Khain ‘Die now and I’ll resurrect you for more torturing later.’ So saying, Khain withdrew two hot irons from the fire burning on the Lord God’s chest, one sharp and one flat like a clothes’ iron with a long handle attached. The sharp one he plunged into YHWH’s third eye point on the forehead and the blunt one he thrust into the Lord God’s groinal region, melting the flesh, bones and sexual organs there clean through, leaving a gaping, dripping hole. ‘You were being irritating’ said Khain ‘So I’ve put your karma on debt, to allow it to gather more weight to itself for a while and then I’ll attend to your further torture later. I have a far more interesting matter to attend to now, one which is more important and pleasurable too.’ So saying, he discarded the now only white-hot irons (they had been glowing a pale blue beforehand…) and turned his attention back to the butterfly unfurling and drying her wings. ‘Arrogant, attention-seeking homosexual fucker’ he muttered under his breath, then took a deeper breath, relaxed, and turned his attention fully to the butterfly and the rising sun, a smile of gentle pleasure beginning to spread across his face, watching the simultaneity of development of the two events….
*
Scene II
The House of Sei Shōnagon, Kyoto, 1349
*
‘But Ka’in-sama, you must appreciate that these white foreigners will never understand our modes of life or our culture. They are rather undisciplined all the girls have found. And they never wash. In summer sometimes maybe, but in winter they consider washing unhealthy or so I have been reliably informed, by a man who was a doctor of some standing amongst them no less.’
Sei paused in her pouring of the Kombucha twig tea to readjust the sleeve of her kimono, just right, both so that it would not hinder her passing of the delicate porcelain T’ang dynasty cup to her honoured guest, yet also so that the action might allow the late afternoon light to delicately play upon the woven gold threading of the inner sleeve and hem lining.
Khain said nothing. He was like that.
Sei sighed gently. ‘What I mean Ka’in-sama, is that these barbarians from abroad are weak to the point of impotency. Barely a man amongst them can hold his seed with one of the better-trained girls for longer than a few seconds. It is considered a miracle amongst them if they manage to last for over three minutes. In fact Kaori-dono has for a while been running a book, taking bets to see which of them can last more than 2 minutes when even the basic milking techniques of only the third Shungya school are used. Hardly that is even normally necessary. The greater warmth of the Japanese pussy being all that most of them can stand.’
‘Hnnm’ said Khain. Turning to the younger Geisha recently completed in her training seated to Sei’s left he asked: ‘And what does that tell you Kitsune-san?’ Looking back at Sei he stated ‘Piss of with this tea shit. Bring me saké, hot. You know my tastes and that I mislike tea from your hand once you’ve stopped lying for the sake of the initial formalities.’
Kitsune giggled slightly behind her hand, Khain turned his eyes briefly to her, and Sei poured the already-hot sake into the second cup she already had prepared, hot, for Khain’s saké. ‘Hrmmmm’ said Khain ‘Excellent. Find some Buddhist priest to give the tea to, they always like that sort of thing, makes them feel righteous and profound.’
Kitsune made bold: ‘If I might suggest it Khain-sama, the emissary from the Chinese Emperor is visiting our humble abode, in the humble but resplendent rooms that those greedy, showy Chinese always favour. Would he not be an ideal candidate for your discarded tea?’ She lifted her eyes from the traditionally expected posture of demureness to an honoured guest of Khain’s status, looking him full in the eyes as she spoke.
‘Ha! said Khain ‘Very good Kitsune. I see you hold great promise for one so young. Indeed, the Chinese emissary would make an excellent choice for that particular gift. Sei, send one of the boneless men to give it to him as a gift of the house.’
‘Would it not be funnier and more insulting Ka’in-sama if we made the tea cold first and told the arrogant Chinese fucker that it was a special Japanese delicacy?’
‘Excellent’ said Khain ‘You do always come up with some of the best ideas Sei. See why she is mistress of this Ryokan Kitsune? Always one can learn from her, even I. I suppose it would be remiss if we poisoned him on the premises tonight. Make sure that the boneless man takes his soul using the hidden ninth form. I felt his soul when he entered our house, they sent one of their more advanced masters for a change.’ Khain said the term ‘master’ with a sneer, accompanied by a curl of his lip, which made his opinion abundantly clear on what he thought of the visiting Chinese emissary’s supposedly high level of esoteric development. After all, no true martial arts - or other - master had ever consented to work for the corrupt imperial dynasties of China for many centuries now.
‘It will be as you say Ka’in-sama’ replied Sei with a warm, slightly pleased, amused and sultry smile, parting her lips just enough to reveal her teeth a little. ‘Perhaps now Kitsune-dono would like to enlighten us as to how the wide-eyes’ utter lack of ability to control their bestial ejaculatory urges any longer than a rabid dog could connects to their distaste for washing in the winter?’
‘Well, it means that their chi is weak does it not Mistress Sei?’ said Kitsune with an innocent-looking simper containing only slight sarcasm in the tonal level at which it was pitched ‘And so’, she continued ‘They do not have the power in their haras for their systems to survive the regular ‘shock’ of baths in the winter months. We, the girls, notice the same thing in the way that the gai-jin are unable to take hot baths: the water must always be somewhat tepid for all of them… What is pleasant and undemanding for us, stresses and overstrains the bodies and nervous systems of even the strongest amongst them… With one or two exceptions’, she added with a smile.
‘And where does strength lie and originate from Kitsune-chan?’ asked Khain.
‘Whatever could you mean Khain-sama?’ Asked Kitsune, all wide-eyed innocence.
‘Hrmm’ Said Khain ‘Ha ha ha! Excellent! You have taught her well Sei-san.’
Sei inclined her head in acknowledgment, smiling gently and allowing her arm to brush just a little across Khain’s shoulder as she moved to stand and walk over to the far side of the room, opening the screens to allow the moon’s first rays of light to filter in past the gentle candlelight of the red lanterns positioned on the porch outside the door.
Sei returned, sat next to Khain, and said ‘So you see Ka’in-sama, these Westerners are weak and only able to handle weak approaches. Anything of strength and vitality they cannot handle, it overloads their meridians and they have neither the ki in their haras nor the strength in their meridian structures to cope with it. But, because they are men, they like to view themselves as men, as brave and strong. So they invent something they call ‘morality’ to restrain each other. It is action according to this code of ‘morality’ that they term virtuous and claim that all men should live.’
‘This… ‘mo-ra-li-tee’…’ said Khain, pausing as he tried to pronounce this foreign word ‘How is this connected to de, the virtue of which the Lao Tzu speaks?’
‘Why, it is not at all connected to it Ka’in-sama. It is a uniquely barbarian concept with, thankfully, no corresponding oriental concept even in Chinese thought.’ Sei replied.
Khain raised an eyebrow, expecting Sei to continue, understanding what he sought, anticipating it and providing it for him. He was like that too.
‘Well Ka’in-sama’ continued Sei ‘Imagine that you had no strength and yet wanted to view yourself as strong without developing any strength yourself.’
‘Then I would become a merchant and hire mercenary Ronin. Or join with many other men like me, weak but of large bodies perhaps, and form a bandit clan, bullying peasants for bushels of rice, buttons and cheap millet wine. There are many such in Japan. Is that what this mo-ra-lee-ti is?’
‘Not quite, but close Ka’in-sama. In short they understand that the most necessary part of virtue is strength but they do not understand that true strength proceeds from harmony with the order of heaven, they think that strength is something which they must enforce with their own aggressive behaviour.’
‘Indeed, that is why they have no understanding of honour, most of these barbarians’ interjected Kitsune with a slight pout.
‘You must excuse Kitsune-chan Ka’in-dono. She is a little, ah… infatuated with a rather… ah… presentable young man from the Western nation known as Al-geria’ smiled Sei, with a look of some pleased indulgence towards Kitsune. For truly Sei not only didn’t mind Kitsune’s interjection, she was rather pleased by it. Sei was never fond of sharing Khain’s attentions in the bedroom – whilst Khain himself was quite known for his fondness of several bed partners of a night. Hopefully he would leave the young girl out of his nighttime plans if he thought her mind and heart’s attentions were focused elsewhere…
‘Essentially it is that they confuse self-discipline with self-restriction, master’, said Kosantera, speaking for the first time since he had entered the room silently and to no comment to deliver the now-empty teapot that he had taken equally silently to the Chinese emissary beforehand. ‘Consequently, they continually seek to restrict the self rather than to develop the self. The key step which they miss out in the self-developmental process is the stage of seeking to know their own natures and studying the nature of the harmony of heaven.’
‘Rather like our peasants then’ said Khain ‘ They believe that power comes from assertion rather than from a stable hara and connection to the harmony and power inherent in the scheme of things and one’s own nature. Could it be that gai-jin are just Japanese peasants with different coloured skins?’
‘Ah, no Ka’in-sama, that is what I was trying to tell you at the beginning. The big difference between the gai-jin and our peasants is that, whilst our peasants are aggressive because they know no better, lacking education but never presuming to raise their eyes to claim an equal status with their Samurai lords, these gai-jin claim that they are actually superior to all other persons. So does their God and religion teach them.’
‘How can they claim this when they have no strength of their own but only that of the mob united? Are there no Samurai in gai-jin land to discipline their lower classes?’ asked Khain.
‘Unfortunately Sir, their ‘upper classes’ as you term them are amongst the worst offenders we have found: half of them are drunkards and the other half clergy. No true warrior class exists there, they all rove around in packs as well and none of them would even consider attacking so much as a large group of peasants alone, let alone a state or nation as is expected by you of your kunoichi. Strength means numbers of troops for them, it would seem.’ Kosantera replied.
‘Hmmm, fascinating as a psychology.’ said Khain ‘Tell me, if they are so undeveloped how did they manage to come to our shores with their ships and disturb our wa with their stinking behaviours?’
Sei Shōnagon, mistress of the leading Ryokan in Kyoto and indeed all of Japan and Kitsune, her First Student, though still young, looked at each other and paused, not sure what to say at that. Sei broke the silence first. ‘We have discussed this matter amongst ourselves for some time whilst your Lordship was away attending to the mountain-kami… and we have been unable to come to any conclusion other than that it must be the work of your… ah… guest from afar. We believe he brought them here to trap their souls for some dark purposes of his own.’
Khain’s eyes widened not at all at that statement, though they did flicker a little. He paused a moment, thinking. ‘Why would he who we no longer name invite such inferior persons to the Land of the Gods and Flowing Waters? Surely they can be of no significance in his schemes of things, and we hardly need more slave classes here, we are full enough as it is, with all our labour and material needs amply provided for…’
None had any answer they could offer, though Sei did sit patiently, as if thoughtfully considering a topic she had oft pondered before in contemplations that were not entirely fruitless. ‘Perhaps, Lord Khain’ she said, using his War title herself for the first time ‘Perhaps he who we no longer name wishes to use these barbarians as targeting devices?’
‘The same thought did occur to me Lady Sei’ replied the Lord Khain. And he continued: ‘That would make it a case of the principle command. The rest of you leave us. We have matters of import to discuss.’
When the rest had left, Khain stretched our languorously, pulled Sei close and said ‘Next time, have a woman of developed skill waiting as well, you know my tastes. Meanwhile though, it has been 89 years this time. Those mountains and meditating under waterfalls… tend to lose a man when he’s a-wanderin’ the paths between the worlds….So, let’s fuck!’ And they did. Lots. And never did bother to discuss the barbarians’ incursion. If they’d made it to the Land of the Gods they could wait whatever pleasure the Nameless One had brought them there for. They were hardly of consequence in anything anyway, though maybe they would prove useful in some way later. The Nameless One never did put a foot wrong, all knew that, even Khain who was rarely one to yield strength or competence greater to another. But the Nameless One was the Nameless One after all… And no, the Nameless One wasn’t Pei Chu’an. That was Kosanteru, Khain had picked up that occupation of the boneless man’s form as soon as he returned from the Chinese emissary… and received the message intended for him from Pei Chu’an through those means also. Not that he said a word about that to the women. They had more important things to concern their pretty little heads and tight, firm legs with in his esteemed consideration… And it was to such matters of greater comparable consequence that Khain, Lord of War, now turned his attention to in the House of Sei Shōnagon, Supreme Mistress of the Pleasure Arts of the Night…
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Regards all,
Okazaki Kyoshiru.
4
The Way of The Small Knife…
__________________________________________________ _________
Vengeance shall be Mine saith the Lord.
- YHWH, He Who is Three, The Almighty Trinity (featured in Ezekiel 25:13 and Hebrews 10 : 30)
Piss off and die.
- Khain, son of no-one.
__________________________________________________ __________
*
Scene I
The Planet Vrsa, in galaxy 127-41-330, 734 parsectual cycles prior to the arrival of Magellanic Cloud 67 (aka Galaxy M64)
*
The Lord God screamed loud, clear and strong, reaving agony breaking the ullalations of his scream down into racking sobs, as he gasped and choked for air… Khain watched him trying to strain against the ropes which bound him fast, knowing he was trying to scream some more, for the small relief that the vocal release brought to the extreme agony the Lord God was currently in. Khain stood up, walked over to the glade where the Lord God was stretched out, tied and pegged to the bare earth in spreadeagled, face-up form, and casually kicked the ugly fucker in the face. ‘Be silent you poorly-cultured peasant’ he said ‘Though you cannot see it I am trying to appreciate the delicate morning dew on stalks of wheat, whereupon a newly-awakened butterfly even now dries her wings. Your undisciplined screaming is disturbing the morning’s peace and my own wa. You are such a coward. At least your own death you should face with equanimity, as a man.’
‘So’ said Khain ‘Die now and I’ll resurrect you for more torturing later.’ So saying, Khain withdrew two hot irons from the fire burning on the Lord God’s chest, one sharp and one flat like a clothes’ iron with a long handle attached. The sharp one he plunged into YHWH’s third eye point on the forehead and the blunt one he thrust into the Lord God’s groinal region, melting the flesh, bones and sexual organs there clean through, leaving a gaping, dripping hole. ‘You were being irritating’ said Khain ‘So I’ve put your karma on debt, to allow it to gather more weight to itself for a while and then I’ll attend to your further torture later. I have a far more interesting matter to attend to now, one which is more important and pleasurable too.’ So saying, he discarded the now only white-hot irons (they had been glowing a pale blue beforehand…) and turned his attention back to the butterfly unfurling and drying her wings. ‘Arrogant, attention-seeking homosexual fucker’ he muttered under his breath, then took a deeper breath, relaxed, and turned his attention fully to the butterfly and the rising sun, a smile of gentle pleasure beginning to spread across his face, watching the simultaneity of development of the two events….
*
Scene II
The House of Sei Shōnagon, Kyoto, 1349
*
‘But Ka’in-sama, you must appreciate that these white foreigners will never understand our modes of life or our culture. They are rather undisciplined all the girls have found. And they never wash. In summer sometimes maybe, but in winter they consider washing unhealthy or so I have been reliably informed, by a man who was a doctor of some standing amongst them no less.’
Sei paused in her pouring of the Kombucha twig tea to readjust the sleeve of her kimono, just right, both so that it would not hinder her passing of the delicate porcelain T’ang dynasty cup to her honoured guest, yet also so that the action might allow the late afternoon light to delicately play upon the woven gold threading of the inner sleeve and hem lining.
Khain said nothing. He was like that.
Sei sighed gently. ‘What I mean Ka’in-sama, is that these barbarians from abroad are weak to the point of impotency. Barely a man amongst them can hold his seed with one of the better-trained girls for longer than a few seconds. It is considered a miracle amongst them if they manage to last for over three minutes. In fact Kaori-dono has for a while been running a book, taking bets to see which of them can last more than 2 minutes when even the basic milking techniques of only the third Shungya school are used. Hardly that is even normally necessary. The greater warmth of the Japanese pussy being all that most of them can stand.’
‘Hnnm’ said Khain. Turning to the younger Geisha recently completed in her training seated to Sei’s left he asked: ‘And what does that tell you Kitsune-san?’ Looking back at Sei he stated ‘Piss of with this tea shit. Bring me saké, hot. You know my tastes and that I mislike tea from your hand once you’ve stopped lying for the sake of the initial formalities.’
Kitsune giggled slightly behind her hand, Khain turned his eyes briefly to her, and Sei poured the already-hot sake into the second cup she already had prepared, hot, for Khain’s saké. ‘Hrmmmm’ said Khain ‘Excellent. Find some Buddhist priest to give the tea to, they always like that sort of thing, makes them feel righteous and profound.’
Kitsune made bold: ‘If I might suggest it Khain-sama, the emissary from the Chinese Emperor is visiting our humble abode, in the humble but resplendent rooms that those greedy, showy Chinese always favour. Would he not be an ideal candidate for your discarded tea?’ She lifted her eyes from the traditionally expected posture of demureness to an honoured guest of Khain’s status, looking him full in the eyes as she spoke.
‘Ha! said Khain ‘Very good Kitsune. I see you hold great promise for one so young. Indeed, the Chinese emissary would make an excellent choice for that particular gift. Sei, send one of the boneless men to give it to him as a gift of the house.’
‘Would it not be funnier and more insulting Ka’in-sama if we made the tea cold first and told the arrogant Chinese fucker that it was a special Japanese delicacy?’
‘Excellent’ said Khain ‘You do always come up with some of the best ideas Sei. See why she is mistress of this Ryokan Kitsune? Always one can learn from her, even I. I suppose it would be remiss if we poisoned him on the premises tonight. Make sure that the boneless man takes his soul using the hidden ninth form. I felt his soul when he entered our house, they sent one of their more advanced masters for a change.’ Khain said the term ‘master’ with a sneer, accompanied by a curl of his lip, which made his opinion abundantly clear on what he thought of the visiting Chinese emissary’s supposedly high level of esoteric development. After all, no true martial arts - or other - master had ever consented to work for the corrupt imperial dynasties of China for many centuries now.
‘It will be as you say Ka’in-sama’ replied Sei with a warm, slightly pleased, amused and sultry smile, parting her lips just enough to reveal her teeth a little. ‘Perhaps now Kitsune-dono would like to enlighten us as to how the wide-eyes’ utter lack of ability to control their bestial ejaculatory urges any longer than a rabid dog could connects to their distaste for washing in the winter?’
‘Well, it means that their chi is weak does it not Mistress Sei?’ said Kitsune with an innocent-looking simper containing only slight sarcasm in the tonal level at which it was pitched ‘And so’, she continued ‘They do not have the power in their haras for their systems to survive the regular ‘shock’ of baths in the winter months. We, the girls, notice the same thing in the way that the gai-jin are unable to take hot baths: the water must always be somewhat tepid for all of them… What is pleasant and undemanding for us, stresses and overstrains the bodies and nervous systems of even the strongest amongst them… With one or two exceptions’, she added with a smile.
‘And where does strength lie and originate from Kitsune-chan?’ asked Khain.
‘Whatever could you mean Khain-sama?’ Asked Kitsune, all wide-eyed innocence.
‘Hrmm’ Said Khain ‘Ha ha ha! Excellent! You have taught her well Sei-san.’
Sei inclined her head in acknowledgment, smiling gently and allowing her arm to brush just a little across Khain’s shoulder as she moved to stand and walk over to the far side of the room, opening the screens to allow the moon’s first rays of light to filter in past the gentle candlelight of the red lanterns positioned on the porch outside the door.
Sei returned, sat next to Khain, and said ‘So you see Ka’in-sama, these Westerners are weak and only able to handle weak approaches. Anything of strength and vitality they cannot handle, it overloads their meridians and they have neither the ki in their haras nor the strength in their meridian structures to cope with it. But, because they are men, they like to view themselves as men, as brave and strong. So they invent something they call ‘morality’ to restrain each other. It is action according to this code of ‘morality’ that they term virtuous and claim that all men should live.’
‘This… ‘mo-ra-li-tee’…’ said Khain, pausing as he tried to pronounce this foreign word ‘How is this connected to de, the virtue of which the Lao Tzu speaks?’
‘Why, it is not at all connected to it Ka’in-sama. It is a uniquely barbarian concept with, thankfully, no corresponding oriental concept even in Chinese thought.’ Sei replied.
Khain raised an eyebrow, expecting Sei to continue, understanding what he sought, anticipating it and providing it for him. He was like that too.
‘Well Ka’in-sama’ continued Sei ‘Imagine that you had no strength and yet wanted to view yourself as strong without developing any strength yourself.’
‘Then I would become a merchant and hire mercenary Ronin. Or join with many other men like me, weak but of large bodies perhaps, and form a bandit clan, bullying peasants for bushels of rice, buttons and cheap millet wine. There are many such in Japan. Is that what this mo-ra-lee-ti is?’
‘Not quite, but close Ka’in-sama. In short they understand that the most necessary part of virtue is strength but they do not understand that true strength proceeds from harmony with the order of heaven, they think that strength is something which they must enforce with their own aggressive behaviour.’
‘Indeed, that is why they have no understanding of honour, most of these barbarians’ interjected Kitsune with a slight pout.
‘You must excuse Kitsune-chan Ka’in-dono. She is a little, ah… infatuated with a rather… ah… presentable young man from the Western nation known as Al-geria’ smiled Sei, with a look of some pleased indulgence towards Kitsune. For truly Sei not only didn’t mind Kitsune’s interjection, she was rather pleased by it. Sei was never fond of sharing Khain’s attentions in the bedroom – whilst Khain himself was quite known for his fondness of several bed partners of a night. Hopefully he would leave the young girl out of his nighttime plans if he thought her mind and heart’s attentions were focused elsewhere…
‘Essentially it is that they confuse self-discipline with self-restriction, master’, said Kosantera, speaking for the first time since he had entered the room silently and to no comment to deliver the now-empty teapot that he had taken equally silently to the Chinese emissary beforehand. ‘Consequently, they continually seek to restrict the self rather than to develop the self. The key step which they miss out in the self-developmental process is the stage of seeking to know their own natures and studying the nature of the harmony of heaven.’
‘Rather like our peasants then’ said Khain ‘ They believe that power comes from assertion rather than from a stable hara and connection to the harmony and power inherent in the scheme of things and one’s own nature. Could it be that gai-jin are just Japanese peasants with different coloured skins?’
‘Ah, no Ka’in-sama, that is what I was trying to tell you at the beginning. The big difference between the gai-jin and our peasants is that, whilst our peasants are aggressive because they know no better, lacking education but never presuming to raise their eyes to claim an equal status with their Samurai lords, these gai-jin claim that they are actually superior to all other persons. So does their God and religion teach them.’
‘How can they claim this when they have no strength of their own but only that of the mob united? Are there no Samurai in gai-jin land to discipline their lower classes?’ asked Khain.
‘Unfortunately Sir, their ‘upper classes’ as you term them are amongst the worst offenders we have found: half of them are drunkards and the other half clergy. No true warrior class exists there, they all rove around in packs as well and none of them would even consider attacking so much as a large group of peasants alone, let alone a state or nation as is expected by you of your kunoichi. Strength means numbers of troops for them, it would seem.’ Kosantera replied.
‘Hmmm, fascinating as a psychology.’ said Khain ‘Tell me, if they are so undeveloped how did they manage to come to our shores with their ships and disturb our wa with their stinking behaviours?’
Sei Shōnagon, mistress of the leading Ryokan in Kyoto and indeed all of Japan and Kitsune, her First Student, though still young, looked at each other and paused, not sure what to say at that. Sei broke the silence first. ‘We have discussed this matter amongst ourselves for some time whilst your Lordship was away attending to the mountain-kami… and we have been unable to come to any conclusion other than that it must be the work of your… ah… guest from afar. We believe he brought them here to trap their souls for some dark purposes of his own.’
Khain’s eyes widened not at all at that statement, though they did flicker a little. He paused a moment, thinking. ‘Why would he who we no longer name invite such inferior persons to the Land of the Gods and Flowing Waters? Surely they can be of no significance in his schemes of things, and we hardly need more slave classes here, we are full enough as it is, with all our labour and material needs amply provided for…’
None had any answer they could offer, though Sei did sit patiently, as if thoughtfully considering a topic she had oft pondered before in contemplations that were not entirely fruitless. ‘Perhaps, Lord Khain’ she said, using his War title herself for the first time ‘Perhaps he who we no longer name wishes to use these barbarians as targeting devices?’
‘The same thought did occur to me Lady Sei’ replied the Lord Khain. And he continued: ‘That would make it a case of the principle command. The rest of you leave us. We have matters of import to discuss.’
When the rest had left, Khain stretched our languorously, pulled Sei close and said ‘Next time, have a woman of developed skill waiting as well, you know my tastes. Meanwhile though, it has been 89 years this time. Those mountains and meditating under waterfalls… tend to lose a man when he’s a-wanderin’ the paths between the worlds….So, let’s fuck!’ And they did. Lots. And never did bother to discuss the barbarians’ incursion. If they’d made it to the Land of the Gods they could wait whatever pleasure the Nameless One had brought them there for. They were hardly of consequence in anything anyway, though maybe they would prove useful in some way later. The Nameless One never did put a foot wrong, all knew that, even Khain who was rarely one to yield strength or competence greater to another. But the Nameless One was the Nameless One after all… And no, the Nameless One wasn’t Pei Chu’an. That was Kosanteru, Khain had picked up that occupation of the boneless man’s form as soon as he returned from the Chinese emissary… and received the message intended for him from Pei Chu’an through those means also. Not that he said a word about that to the women. They had more important things to concern their pretty little heads and tight, firm legs with in his esteemed consideration… And it was to such matters of greater comparable consequence that Khain, Lord of War, now turned his attention to in the House of Sei Shōnagon, Supreme Mistress of the Pleasure Arts of the Night…
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Regards all,
Okazaki Kyoshiru.