Who Cares What My Name Is Anyway?

極楽蜻蛉 - Gokurakutonbo

"... Sode no namida no, aki no shiratsuyu."

Shoyō counted himself lucky for being able to recite a complete poem this time before his master did something weird again. The mood could not be more perfect – just the two of them by a crystal-clear stream, with nothing surrounding them but the symphony of flowing water and singing birds accompanying the elegant dance of red leaves in the air – until it was ruined by a flash of energy as Kanemasa performed a spell on a sparrow perching on his shoulder while he was busy writing his poem. "What have you done to that bird?" asked Shoyō as the sparrow toppled from his master's shoulder onto the leaf-covered forest floor.

"I don't want any creature to see my poem before it's finished." Kanemasa answered casually, not even looking up from his paper at his shikigami or the poor bird.

"But it's not like that bird can understand the words or speak human tongue to other people about your handiwork. Is it really needed to take the life of a harmless creature?"

"Relax, Shoyō-kun, I didn't take its life. All I did was a slight alter in its memory, so it will remember nothing of what it saw written on the paper." Kanemasa carried on, pointing at the sparrow that had fully regained its consciousness and was singing... if one could call it singing: the noise that left it throat sounded less like singing and more like clucking, as though it was imitating a chicken, "See? It's alive!"

"But it's not acting normally! Kanemasa-sama, would you please look at it for a moment?" Shoyō said, only managing a tiny pinch of pride to keep himself from losing his perpetual composure and panicking, "You haven't exactly mastered onmyōdō and mind alteration is a difficult technique, do you think it advisable to cast it so recklessly? Kanemasa-sama, are you listening to..."

"Oh come on, it'll be fine." Kanemasa dismisses while the sparrow-chicken ran off, still letting out a trail of the ear-piercing, dreadful mixture of singing and clucking, "Besides, what did I tell you about addressing me?"

"K... Kane-san." Shoyō uttered, eyes still not leaving the poor bird.

oOo

If only the soul inhabiting Higekiri's body right then was in the body of someone else instead, his cries would have been heard. Mikazuki's, and others would notice the sudden lack of hearty laughter. Midare's, and the sudden switch to masculine speech patterns and absence of immature innuendos would not go unnoticed. Yagen's, and others would question where his medical knowledge went. Kashū's, and at least one person would ask why he was paying less attention to his appearance than usual. It couldn't have been just the spell, it must have involved a particularly cruel maneuver from the Powers that Be above that it ended up being Higekiri, oh so forgetful and goofy and ten-thousand-times damned Higekiri, that Onigiri's soul had the misfortune of being housed in. Every time he didn't know someone's name, it was attributed to Higekiri's usual allergy to remembering any names longer than two morae, and sometimes not even then. Every time he asked where he was, it was attributed to Higekiri's acting "airheaded" as normal. Everything he said and did, instead of garnering any modicum of concern for how utterly clueless he clearly was, all looked normal, leaving him with no way out.

To add insult to injury, latest in the chain of disaster he was caught in, he was dragged into the fields to work as though he was a farmer, his hands more suited to the sword than the spade and hoe flinging dirt all over his body, staining the blond mop over his head and the white jacket over his shoulder into complete unrecognizability. The disgusting filth was bad enough without the laughter of someone, namely Tsurumaru, at the sight of his misery right within his earshot. That was the last straw for him, pushing him to shout at the top of his lungs at Hizamaru nearby, "I am the treasure of the Genji!"

A second of silence followed the echoing scream.

"Of course you are! Why are you saying it as if I, your brother, don't know it?" Hizamaru said, which only added fuel to the fire.

"And you are not going to do anything about it? You are still going to have a treasure sword perform all this filthy labor as though he's no more than a mere farmer?" Onigiri continued to shriek, "I don't know who you all are or what you're planning to do to me, but I demand more respect than this. This is unaccept..."

He didn't get to finish before the filth covering him was quickly topped with an accidental lump of horse excrement flying his way from a clueless Namazuo, and soon the entire Citadel was shaken by a scream so loud that nearly reached the sky.