Beautiful Women Have Unfortunate Fates

Yoshitsune The Fool

Warning: I'm back two months later from working on a DnD game with this chapter.... I rearranged Jun's younger sister's name as Ryūtsuna later in the chapter. I'm also editing former chapters and story line before this chapter.

Eight Months later in mid september Lady Junko Arashi had a son. His parents named him Kohaku Kuchiki. The infant took after his father in his features however his eyes were pools of amethyst like his mother's. Both parents loved him very much. Like all young children he represented the future.

Unfortunately, Dark days were ahead of them. During this time due to worrying about his wife's impending due date Sōjun's health descended down a precarious downward spiral. It was around this time the current head of the Arashi clan. Takibana Arashi decreed, a year later, that Junko's son must be raised within the Arashi clan and not within the confounds of the Kuchiki family.

"You can't be serious about this! Mother! It would break my heart to separate Kohaku from the house of his father and brother!" Junko begged to her mother with a bow.

Takibana sat comfortably on her mat in the Arashi's meeting hall. "As you know the values, responsibilities and politics of the Arashi are very different from the Kuchiki clan. You were brought up in these walls and know what we are all about, I would not want your heir to be brought in here as an oblivious outsider that would only lead us to ruin."

Junko understood well the politics and the wealth of the Arashi compared to the Kuchiki clan. The Arashi possessed the wealth of four upstanding noble clans combined displaying a palace of ostentatious splendor. Jun herself always admired the traditional and modest persona the Kuchiki family has always kept even in face to their own vast wealth. In the historical Arashi family records of the past 700 years held stories of the sad ends of the Arashi family members due to excessive hedonism, tragic accidents and venereal disease. Junko herself did not want to become like her ancestors and invested in becoming something more than the history of her blood. She knew boasting about family roots was a shallow and meaningless benefit to herself. Being a direct descendant of Arashi no Kikunojō (parent of Benkeimon) who had formed the first noble house in the soul world did not make Junko an important person, celebrity or entitled to social veneration. Kikunojō's fame and great acts were her's alone. Much like her beloved childhood friend Yoruichi, Junko herself wanted nothing more to set herself apart from the high falutin ways of nobility. Becoming a clan head who actually makes a difference around her was the path she chose.

"If you choose to raise your son in his father's house... You must bear another child who will be raised and birthed here." Takibana demanded of her daughter.

Junko admitted solemnly, "I cannot put my husband through anymore mental or physical stress in his current state."

"In that case another man will take up the responsibilities within your bedchamber here within the Arashi manor." The older woman's words ran deep inside Junko's mind. The young woman never thought she'd have to commit to something like this. Alas, Nothing mattered more to Jun than her beloved son having a comfortable place to grow up with a family who loves him instead of the frigid, and distant Arashi clan. Jun was willing to sacrifice everything for her family and now she would for the little boy she gave birth to.

Jun remarked, "This means I must return to live here? And this man?"

"Yes and I will find you an appropriate companion."

This befitting companion happened to be Yoshitsune of the Hanabusa household. A lower house of the Arashi clan. The Hanabusa were a family of writers and play writes who wrote tragic and heroic tales of legendary shinigami, nobility and common people. Their bardic success lead them into prosperity and renown. When he had first received the letter from clan head Arashi Takibana; Yoshitsune thought it was a rouse to get him into trouble that could end him. He had heard that lady/shinigami Junko Arashi was married in the law to another noble Kuchiki shinigami and had a child by him. When Takibana arrived at his family manor to speak with him the truth came out about this offer. The details of this agreement felt enticing to the handsome Yoshitsune. Fathering the Arashi clan heir would give him greater security and better life with a child of his own. He thought of Junko Arashi and remembered her from the seasonal festivals and district one market place. She striked the soft and attractive woman type with Yoshitsune. By first interaction with her he could feel her kindness and the loneliness the Arashi woman always felt. A mellow longing and sorrowful detachment. When gossip had said she was named next head of the Arashi clan he began to worry about if she was capable. However, This occured many years ago.