Spin-off: Four Demonly Kings
Solo Kaguya backstory. Includes the short fill for Novastorme's March prompt collection.
It was an amusing, but not unusual sight: Takeo and Mitsuki came across their young son asleep in the living room amidst a mess he'd made. Poetry slips written and blank were strewn across the tea table before him and over the floor like autumn leaves, while next to his hand sat an inkstone, inkstick, and a brush still yet soaked.
Mitsuki held back a chuckle – even when toying around with calligraphy ink, little Kaguya made sure not to stain his skin or his kimono. Instantly three housekeepers arrived; two busied themselves cleaning up the mess, one carried their young master back to his room.
Mitsuki said to her husband jokingly, "Both you and I grew up in the West, and yet our son is a dyed-in-the-wool yamato nadeshiko. I wonder where we've gone wrong."
Present-day Kaguya as an Empress doll
Hazama Takeo and Mitsuki had no daughter, but they celebrated Doll Festival all the same. It would be a waste not to display the hina doll set they had, a treasured Hazama family heirloom. Crafted by the famed Andō clan, it was an outstanding work of Kyoto craftsmanship: a full seven-tier set, every doll from the Emperor and Empress down to the three officials minutely carved and painted and clad in fine textiles, accompanied by furniture lacquered and gilded. Though passed down many generations, the doll set remained as new.
However, there was yet a more important reason for the celebration: the couple's son was fascinated by the elegance of hina dolls and blooming peach blossoms, the colours of chirashizushi and puffed rice. It was what truly mattered.
