Shuuei waited in wordless patience while the courtesan stripped off his ceremonial court robes, letting it fall to the floor without reverence or respect. The white, silk sash that bound his under robe whipped past his waist with the girls's playful tug, and the silky fabric parted like curtains to reveal his tanned, muscular torso. Shuuei glanced down at the girl's upturned face, which looked upon him with an expression of lust and whorish docility, at the pale, supple breasts, which lay ready and exposed in the tight bind of the jade green saffron. He let slip a decorative, mirthless smile.

"Looks like we are going to be dorm mates. Nice to meet you, my name is Ran Shuuei."

"…Li Kouyuu."

"Li? Are you from the house of the Assistant Secretary of Justice and Prosecution?"

"…No."

"Hmm…I don't seem to recall another official with the Li surname…Hey! Where are you going?"

Shuuei held the courtesan's slender body in his chest, feeling her youthful breasts squeezing against the hard muscle of his torso as her arms closed the distance between them.

Kouyuu had felt different in his arms; Kouyuu didn't just melt into his embrace, he was harder, more resilient.

He brought them both gently onto the satin-lined bed, watching the whore mounted on his stomach with languid eyes as she erotically enclosed his nipple in her mouth. He leaned back and let his eyes rest on the ceiling, his thoughts drifting away from the slut's soft, naked flesh.

"Where are you going, Kouyuu-kun?"

"…the toilet."

"But the toilet is on the other side of the building."

"…I…I was taking detour."

"In the opposite direction?"

"I like the scenery! Does that impede you in any way?"

A soft laugh escaped through Shuuei's parted lips; the sound rather surprising to him. The courtesan looked up from her kisses, mistaking that laugh as the product of her sexual prowess. Shuuei did not look at her, but instead closed his eyes. He had learned that moments like these, when the memories were vivid enough to seem real, were best kept free from the tainted claws of reality, lest the memories became soiled by a whore.

"What's wrong with your leg, Kouyuu?"

"Nothing."

"Do you derive some sort of twisted pleasure from limping, then?"

"Of course I don't derive…why don't you stop asking questions, Ran Shuuei!"

"…"

"So what's wrong with your leg?"

"I said—"

"I tripped and hit the side of a rock in the garden. My shin is a little sore, that's all."

"Who?"

"Me, you fool!"

"I meant, who tripped you."

"…"

"I fell, that's all."

"…Who. Tripped. You?"

"…Ren Koujin."

"So what were you doing in the garden?"

"…observing the cherry blossoms."

"Ahaha, I told you not to wander off on your own. You always get lost."

"I WAS OBSERVING CHERRY BLOSSOMS! BECAUSE UNLIKE YOU, I ACTUALLY HAVE AESTHETIC TASTE!"

"I would think my aesthetic taste in women is quite passable."

"…PERVERT!"

Shuuei suddenly rose and flipped the courtesan onto her back. She let out a cry of surprise, the fear in her eyes half concealed by ostensible lust.

"Ran Shogun?" She called out softly, her voice saturated by that coaxing docility specific to the pleasuring profession.

Shuuei did not reply, but resolutely drove his tongue roughly into her parted, inviting lips. She moaned under him, and tried to slither her tongue into the chamber of his mouth. He blocked her, whipping her tongue back with his own. There was something disgusting, something utterly disillusioning about being kissed by anyone other than him.

He ignored her whimpers, and cupped her breasts in his hands and kissed them with enough ferocity to leave berry-like bruises on her porcelain flesh. She moaned and twisted in his hand, almost suffocating under his weight and the intensity of the trail of heat left behind by his lips.

"Hello, Ren Koujin-kun."

"Ran Shuuei-dono, you just missed it. We pushed Li Kouyuu into the pond. You should've seen him, thrashing and all in the water. Too bad he wouldn't beg though, would've been a lot more entertaining."

"Wouldn't it…?"

"It's alright though, we are planning on doing something tonight. You could come and watch…Ran Shuuei-dono?"

"I think, Koujin-kun, that dunking you in the garden pond might provide me with far greater entertainment."

"Ran Shuuei-dono? This surely breaches all forms of mannerisms. Even if you are from the Ran clan, I must demand that you release me at once!"

"If you, or any of your little friends, do anything else to Li Kouyuu, I will make sure that all of you end up at the bottom of the pond with the koi."

The courtesan thrashed beneath him, her moans tinged with layers of pleasure as though dripping silk under Shuuei's slow, erotic caresses. Almost without knowing, he bit down on the tender flesh of her neck, clenching his teeth with enough strength to almost draw blood. The courtesan hissed and suppressed a cry of pain. He sat up, straddling her, and felt a pang of remorse as he gazed upon her strained, begging smile. He stroked the girl's cheeks with his thumb, his eyes falling inadvertently on the bruising mark on her neck.

"Who did it?"

"What?"

"Who punched you?"

"Nobody. I accidentally ran into a beam."

"With your cheek?"

"Yes! Do you have a problem with that?"

"No. Who punched you?"

"I said I bumped a beam, by myself, of my own volition, so drop it!"

"We both know your aptitude at lying is on par with your sense of direction, and we both also know that you telling me who it was is only a matter of time. So, the sooner you tell me, the sooner I can leave you alone and let you study. You are wasting valuable study time."

"My sense of directions…Sa something, I don't know his given name."

"Freckles or no freckles?"

"No freckles."

"I heard the dining hall is serving string bean dumplings for dinner, do you want to go later?"

"…Fine."

"Ran Shogun?" The courtesan called out softly.

Shuuei looked up, his eyes uncomprehending as though lost, and then he placed a finger gently on the girl's lips as his other hand parted her thigh.

"Are you cold, Kouyuu?"

"No."

"You are shivering."

"No, I'm not."

"Come here."

"What are you doing?"

"Nothing."

"Let go!"

"I'm cold."

"Are all your muscles just for decoration?"

"Pretty much."

"Useless."

"Hmm."

He drove deep into the girl, intoxicated on the memory of the feeling of Kouyuu's body in his arms.

"Ran Shuuei…"

The sensual moans, perfected to just the right degree of tenderness and sexuality, fell on deaf ears as Shuuei thrust again and again into her. His eyes were closed, and he kept his free hand on her neck, where the suppleness of the flesh was almost like that of Kouyuu's.

"Shuuei!"

The sound of his name from Kouyuu's lips, its memory, maddened him as he buried his face in the prostitute's hair, the scent of which he ignored, because its richness was so unlike Kouyuu.

In the aroused, heated darkness, images of Kouyuu—Kouyuu laughing, yelling, brooding, Kouyuu leaning gently into him in the cold—whirled rapidly, driven by the furious beating of his heart pulsing and vibrating inside of him, and then it was as if Kouyuu was a blooming flower, unfolding until he saturated every corner of Shuuei's senses. It was all Kouyuu, Kouyuu's breath puffing warmly against his neck, tickling him, Kouyuu's arms gently on his back, tentative and unsure of the close contact, Kouyuu's chest pressed tightly against him, Kouyuu's scent, Kouyuu's—

"Oh God! Kouyuu!" He growled huskily as he came, the pulsing pressure of his masculinity suddenly relieved inside the whore.

In the long, whining moan of the prostitute's climax his momentary slip was lost. As he lied panting slightly on the bed, he regretted, just like he always did after a night in the pleasure quarters, with a touch of self-mockery that the person lying next to him was not Kouyuu.