Chapter 246: Chapter 34
"Both Yuko and Haruka belong to . They are mine to protect, and mine to cherish. I have no intention of hiding that from you or anyone else."
At that mont, hearing those words, Ryusui slamd his fist on the low wooden table, the impact rattling the fine ceramic tea set and sending a sharp crack echoing through the vaulted ceiling of the traditional room.
"Do you have any idea what you’re saying!? How absurd! How depraved! To sit in this house, under the eyes of the Midorima ancestors, and speak of such a scandalous arrangent? Have you no sha, Kageyama heir?"
"I do," Seijirou replied, his voice a calm, steady contrast to the old man’s thunderous rage as he nodded slowly, his eyes never wavering from Ryusui’s. "But I don’t want to lie. Especially not to you. If you want to separate us, if you want to take them away from the life we’ve built, then I’m sorry to say, it will never happen. Yuko and Haruka have beco one of the most important people in my life. Just the thought of them leaving , of them being with so other guys in the future, gives
the actual chills. I can feel my blood turn cold just imagining it and I might go crazy and actually kill the guy who tries to take them. So, for the sake of those hypothetical guys’ lives, and for the peace of this family, please give us your blessings."
At that, Seijirou did sothing that neither of the won expected.
He shifted his weight, placed his hands firmly on the tatami mats, and lowered his head until it touched the floor in a perfect, sincere dogeza.
Haruka and Yuko both gasped, their eyes widening in shock.
For a Kageyama, a mber of one of the most powerful family in the country, to perform such a humble act of submission was unheard of.
It was a physical manifestation of his sincerity, like that of a King bowing to a father for the sake of love!
"You—!" Ryusui pointed a trembling finger at the back of Seijirou’s head, his face a mixture of purple rage and absolute bewildernt.
He opened his mouth to shout, but no words ca out.
The sheer audacity of the gesture had short-circuited his anger.
At that mont, the room fell into a heavy silence, broken only by the rhythmic dripping of the water fountain in the garden.
Miyako, who had remained as still as a statue, took a long, slow sip of her tea. She set the cup down and looked at the back of Seijirou’s head.
"What makes you think that we will agree to this?" she asked, her voice level and sharp. "By the standards of our society, what you are proposing is a stain on our lineage."
Seijirou sat up straight, his gaze eting hers with a piercing clarity. "Because even though you didn’t approve of Yuko’s forr husband all those years ago, you didn’t do anything truly out of line. You didn’t lock her away, you didn’t use your family’s influence to ruin the man or force a divorce. You scolded her, yes, and you made your displeasure known, but in the end, you respected her choice. You allowed her to live the life she chose, even though you hated the man she chose it with."
Yuko stared at her parents, her breath catching in her throat.
She looked startled, the mories of her youth suddenly shifting into a new perspective.
They respected my choice?
Co to think of it, while her parents had been vocal about their hatred towards her forr husband, they had never actually moved to sabotage the relationship.
They had even provided for her, and their extre anger had only truly manifested when the consequences of that choice, her pregnancy, had threatened her future.
Even then, her leaving the family had been a result of her own sha as much as their disappointnt.
"Indeed," Ryusei said, his voice lowering but remaining stern. "We respected her choice, and look what happened. She got pregnant in high school, had to drop out, lost her future in this town, and worse, that coward of a husband eventually left her to rot in the city. And now? Now she returns with a scumbag who is dating not just her, but her own daughter. It seems our respect was misplaced."
"Hm. Seijirou nodded, acknowledging the logic. "But grandfather, she is now an adult. Back then, when she was just a high schooler who didn’t know any better, you were able to respect her choices despite her youth. Why can’t you do it now? She is a woman who has seen the world, who has survived the worst life could throw at her. She knows exactly what the consequences of her choices might lead to this ti."
The two elders remained silent, the weight of the argunt hanging in the air.
Ryusui looked at the rock garden, his jaw working as he chewed on the truth of Seijirou’s words.
And at that mont, Yuko also shifted as she knelt beside Seijirou and lowered her head, getting into a dogeza of her own.
Seijirou followed suit, performing another dogeza.
"That is right, mother, father," Yuko said, her voice muffled by the floor but ringing with a new strength. "Back then, I was blinded by a youthful idea of love and I wasn’t thinking of the consequences of my own actions. I made mistakes that brought sha to this house. But even so, I was able to live with it and endure. I worked, I struggled, and I raised my daughter to be the fine young woman she is today. I have paid my debts to life. Now, I am an adult. If I make the sa mistakes, I will be the one to handle it. However, I believe with all my heart that this ti, the man I have chosen, will definitely not make
regret my choice. So please... give us your blessings."
Ryusui stared at his daughter’s bowed head as he took a deep, shuddering breath, and for the first ti, the rigidity in his shoulders seed to crack.
He raised his head to the ceiling and let out a long, weary sigh that sounded like the wind through the pines.
Once he had composed himself, he stared at Seijirou, then at Haruka, who was watching him with a silent, expectant intensity, and then back to his daughter.
"Get up," he said, his voice losing its edge. "Both of you. Get up off the floor."
Yuko and Seijirou sat up, returning to a formal sitting position.
"You are right," Ryusui muttered, looking at Yuko with eyes that were suddenly older. "You are not a kid anymore. You have lived a life I cannot understand. Whatever choices you make now, be they good or bad, will be left for you to decide. I am too old to play the jailer and stop you."
Yuko smiled, her face lighting up with a brilliance that made her look years younger as tears pricked at the corners of her eyes. "Thank you so much, father. Thank you."
Ryusui sighed once more, waving a dismissive hand. "Alright, alright, enough of this. It’s my birthday, and this conversation really feels like it’s aged
by a century. I don’t want to see any more crying today. Anyway, go and prepare yourselves, the party will begin later tonight, and the local dignitaries will be here. I expect you to look the part of the Midorima family."
Miyako turned towards Seijirou and Haruka, her expression returning to its mask of polite hospitality. "In the anti, you both should try the hot springs we have at the back of the estate. The water is drawn directly from the mountain source. This must be the first ti for you both to visit our village, yes?"
"Yes, thank you for the hospitality," Seijirou said, bowing slightly. "We will go check it out. I’ve heard the springs here are legendary."
"Hm. Thank you, grandmother," Haruka added, her voice soft but respectful.
With that, the three of them stood up, bowed in unison, and left the room, the sliding doors hissing shut behind them.
Watching them leave, Ryusui let out one last, massive sigh, his head drooping.
Miyako reached over and began rubbing his back with a gentle, rhythmic motion, her eyes staring at the closed door with a thoughtful, undecipherable look.
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At this mont, high up on the mountain ridge, within the shadowed halls of the Great Temple.
The fat, ugly monk sat perched on a pile of silken cushions.
He was completely naked, his pale, oily skin glistening in the candlelight as he drank expensive wine straight from the bottle.
Around him, several hazy-eyed won lay in various states of undress, their movents sluggish as they fanned him.
In front of his, a naked woman lay on her back, her legs spread.
His eyes glinted with sadistic light as he drank one last sip of wine from the bottle before he shoved it up her vagina, laughing in glee.
The woman didn’t even react, her eyes simply staring at the ceiling in a daze, and if her body wasn’t twitching, one would think she was already dead.
Just then, the heavy wooden door to his chambers creaked open as a temple servant hurried inside and knelt on the floor, his face pressed to the wood. "High Priest, we have news! Urgent news from the village!"
"Hm?" The High Priest stared at the servant, his small, piggy eyes narrowing. "What is it? Has the ritual preparation t a delay?"
"Midorima Yuko has returned!" the servant shouted, his voice trembling with excitent. "No... she should be Hijima Yuko now! She has just entered the Midorima estate! She probably returned to celebrate her father’s birthday!"
The High Priest stood up in a sudden, violent shock, his massive folds of fat jiggling with every movent as the won around him simply stared at him in a daze while he let out a guttural roar of laughter.
"She has!? After almost twenty years? Great! That’s better than great! It is a sign!" He began to pace the room, his heavy footsteps thumping on the floor. "Call the other monks! Call everyone! Tonight, under the cover of the birthday party, we will make sure she becos our Great Miko! The bloodline we lost has returned to the source, and we will not let her escape to the city once again! The Great God demands the purity of the Midorima line for the final awakening!"
"Yes, High Priest!" the servant cried, scrambling to his feet to carry out the order.
The High Priest grinned as he sat back down, his breathing ragged with anticipation.
Back then, almost two decades ago, they had already been planning on taking Yuko as the primary vessel for the ritual because she had the strongest spiritual resonance in the valley.
But because of the "incident" involving her pregnancy and her sudden flight to the city, those plans had been scrapped, and they had been forced to use lesser vessels.
But now, she had returned of her own free will.
The High Priest chuckled, the sound like gravel in a blender. "This is truly fate, isn’t it? After all that wandering, it seems Yuko is truly fated to be consud by us. The harvest will be plentiful indeed."
He reached for his sake, his eyes fixed on the dark silhouette of the temple’s peak through the window, where the faceless mask waited in the dark.
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