A raindrop for bon_san! (3/4)

[stormies]

The clan members were excited about the upcoming ceremony. They gave Sho a helping hand in everything he needed to do, especially after he tried unsuccessfully to break into Jun’s room. He had sensed Jun’s sadness and couldn’t stay put until Jun let him know through their link that he was fine. Sho wasn’t convinced, though, but he’d have to wait until the ceremony to ask him directly.

Everyone teased him for being lovesick after such a short separation. He couldn’t help it, especially after what had happened.

“If it helps, Jun-sama misses you too,” Kamenashi told Sho. “He watches you from a window every time you’re outside.”

Unfortunately, blinds were covering the windows, which would give Jun a clear view but were too opaque from the outside for Sho to see him. The clan members had a good laugh when they found him cursing at the blinds after he discovered it.

The evening of the ceremony finally arrived. Sho wore a dark red kimono with a cherry blossom tree print and his black coat on top. The clan members attended in their formal wear as well. The spot chosen for the ceremony was on the beach near the castle. There was a rock formation on the shore, with a little cave in it. It was quite distinctive, so it’d be easy to locate for Sho and Jun when they had to renew their vows. They had extended a rug on the sand, where Sho was supposed to stand and wait for Jun.

Jun arrived escorted by Lord Masaki and Inohara. He was wearing a red kimono as well, with a golden pattern of dragons and flowers. Half of his hair was tied up, with the rest falling over his back, as was the fashion at the Elder of the East’s court. Sho couldn’t stop looking at him.

The vows required, aside from swearing complete loyalty and devotion until death did them part, for them to promise their love would last a hundred years. The phrase set the term at which they’d have to renew the vows, in that same place.

Sho slashed his wrist first, pouring his blood into the goblet. Jun licked his wound afterward to heal it, earning an approving smile from Inohara. Sho did the same after Jun poured his blood into the goblet as well. Lord Masaki took a silver ornament Jun was wearing in his hair and used its sharp point to puncture the fourth finger of his and Inohara’s left hands. They each let a drop of blood fall into the goblet.

The wine was poured, and Lord Masaki used the same silver ornament to stir the mix. He handed the goblet to Sho with a bow. Sho bowed at him as he grabbed it. He drank half of its contents and then cupped Jun’s cheek while he held the goblet up to his lips.

The moment the goblet was empty, Jun’s eyes flashed blue. From his surprised reaction, Sho guessed that his eyes looked the same. And for a moment, the entire world went black. Sho could only see Jun standing in front of him, with his bright eyes, looking a little panicked.

“W-What’s this!?” Jun asked, holding on to Sho’s arms with a fearful expression.

“I’m guessing it’s part of the process,” Sho replied. He circled Jun’s waist and pulled him close, kissing the top of his head. “Don’t be scared. You’re with me.”

Jun nodded and leaned his head over Sho’s shoulder. He was shaking a little.

“I missed you,” Sho said. “You have no idea how much.”

Jun beamed at him. “I missed you too. I couldn’t wait to see you today.”

Sho decided to go for a kiss, to distract Jun from the darkness. He didn’t know for how long they made out, but at some point, everything started fading and he felt like he was falling asleep. His eyes snapped open. He was lying on the rug, next to Jun. The goblet was right between them. Jun opened his eyes as well and smiled at him. Lord Masaki and Inohara helped them stand up.

“What you saw was the Soul Realm,” Inohara said. “You’ll visit it every time you renew your vows. If you ever separate, you can meet there, no matter how far you are.”

“Use this ability sparingly until your first vow renewal,” Masaki warned them. “Your bodies are left quite vulnerable when you go to the Soul Realm.”

For the last part of the ceremony, Sho placed a coat identical to his on Jun’s shoulders. This was meant to show their equal authority within the clan. The two of them were carried back to the castle by the clan members in two palanquins, as their bodies were left weakened by the blood pact. The servants and guests welcomed them with loud cheers.

Immediately, Sho felt an irresistible urge to shield Jun from everyone’s view. He growled when the guests looked at him, baring his fangs at them. He could only calm down when he felt Jun’s slender hand in his.

Jun pulled out a fan from his obi and used it to hide most of his face. “Is it better now?” he asked, looking amused. He laughed when Sho kissed his hand in response.

Sho and Jun sat on the dais by themselves. Normally, Lord Masaki and Inohara would sit next to them, but as it was their betrothal, tradition dictated that nobody should be around them. Blinds were placed to shield them from view, but still give them a good enough look at the dances performed to honor the occasion.

There was a large amount of food prepared for them. Everything was bite-sized and came in pairs. They would get no chopsticks, for they were supposed to hand-feed each other.

“Ugh, why are all vampire traditions so damn sappy?” Jun said, rolling his eyes.

“Can you imagine Lord Ikuta and Lord Oguri hand-feeding each other?”

Jun snorted. He, like Sho, had seen the two of them only once, clad in their warrior armors. The mental image of those two tall, muscular lords feeding each other dainty pieces of food shaped like flowers was hilarious. “Whatever. Let’s get this over with,” he said.

The first few times, they were mostly joking around. The food turned out to be exquisite, but they still couldn’t help thinking it was all a bit weird.

And then, Jun’s lips accidentally closed on the tip of Sho’s finger. They both blushed and laughed sheepishly. But the next time, Sho could tell that it was deliberate. Jun made eye contact right as he brushed his tongue against Sho’s skin. He gave a little peck to Sho’s fingertips after closing his mouth. He continued doing the same every time Sho fed him, and it was already affecting Sho. During the dessert course, Sho’s fingers got sticky with the remains of a sweet sauce. Jun took each finger into his mouth to lick them clean, maintaining eye contact all the while.

Sho pursed his lips, doing his best to keep quiet. “You think they can see what we’re doing?” he asked, swallowing hard as Jun took the last finger into his mouth. Jun shook his head in response. “Yeah? Okay…”

Jun yelped when Sho pulled him close and kissed him. He had a triumphant expression when Sho placed his hand on his bulge. He smirked when Sho’s breath hitched after he started palming Sho’s erection through his clothes.

“J-Jun…” Sho stuffed his mouth with the sleeve of his kimono as Jun continued stroking him hard and fast. His body shuddered when he came.

Jun kissed his temple, grinning. “Just on time,” he whispered. “They’ll come to get us soon.”

As Jun said, some minutes later the blinds were removed. Sho hoped that his kimono was dark enough to hide the wet spot on his crotch.

“It’s time for you to leave,” Lord Masaki said. He motioned for two young vampires to come over. They were part of Inohara’s entourage and were dressed in fashionable outfits. “They’ll lead you to the betrothal chamber.”

The room they had chosen was on the castle’s main building’s highest floor. The young vampires opened the door for them and closed it after they were inside. From what Sho heard, they’d keep guard by the stairs on the floor before that one, so that no one could go upstairs until the ritual mating was over, in three days.

This was the only part of the betrothal that wasn’t mandatory. Most vampires, even the ones who weren’t joining due to attraction or affection, still engaged in it, for it was said that the bond born between the couple would be much stronger if they didn’t skip it. The ones who opted not to go through it still needed to isolate themselves during the same period.

A small window was left open in the room, letting some moonlight filter through it. A lavish bed was prepared for them, with brocade curtains adorned with silver and gold thread. A small tray with two sweets shaped like cherry blossoms was placed right in the middle of it, along with two cups of sake.

“Those are laced with an aphrodisiac,” Jun told Sho. “His Grace said they’re prepared especially for the ritual mating. They give you enough energy to go on during the entire mating without eating, drinking, or sleeping.”

Sho hummed, picking one up. “You think it’s true?”

Jun shrugged. “We’d have to try them to find out.”

They fed the sweets to each other, and then the sake. Sho felt his body burning almost right away. His erection formed a tent, visible through his clothes. He looked up at Jun, who was in a similar state, and could only think of ripping his clothes and fuck his pretty ass.

Which was exactly what he did.



Three days later, Sho woke up. He was lying in a heap with Jun, their limbs tangled. His hips and back ached most deliciously. He had bite marks all over his chest and could feel the sting of scratches on his back.

Jun was still asleep. He whined when Sho got out of bed but didn’t wake. He was even more of a mess than Sho, with bruises all over his pale skin.

Their mating had been intense. Sho could remember perfectly what had happened, but back in the moment, he’d felt no control over his own body. The urge to make Jun his, to lay claim to all of him, fueled his actions. He’d taken Jun in every possible position, using such force that made him feel a little bashful to recall it. Jun had fully surrendered to Sho’s will. Not even his wildest dreams could match what he’d done with Jun in that room.

Jun’s long eyelashes fluttered open. He blinked a few times before moving. He hissed when he sat up, pouting at Sho. He seemed to be in pain.

“Lie down again, baby,” Sho said, kissing Jun’s forehead. He grabbed a little box that was by the bed and took out a vial full of oil. He rubbed it all over Jun’s body. Jun sighed in relief with half-closed eyes.

“You’re so good at this,” Jun mumbled as Sho continued massaging him. He chuckled when Sho panicked because he didn’t know whether he had to apply it to the area around Jun’s hole or not. “The ointment is for that.”

“Ah… right…” Sho picked up the other vial inside the box. He blushed when he parted Jun’s buttocks and saw how raw the skin looked there. Jun’s hole was still stretched to its maximum width. It’d take another day for it to go back to normal. He applied the ointment with very light touches, something Jun found most amusing.

“Thank you, Sho-san,” Jun said when he was finished. He kissed Sho after he lay down again.

Sho’s stomach grumbled. “I’m starving,” he said, making Jun erupt in laughter.

“They should be coming upstairs anytime.”

The two guards came to bring their meal. They left right after depositing the trays next to the bed. Sho placed two cushions under Jun, to make him more comfortable when he sat up. It earned him another kiss. They took a nap afterward. They were exhausted.

It was late when Lord Masaki came into the room to pick them up. He cackled when he saw Sho walking up to him.

“I have to say, Sho-chan, it’s very satisfying to see you like this,” he commented, patting Sho’s cheek. “The number one rebellious boy settling down, accepting his duties, forming his clan, getting his betrothal ceremony to a vampire… The heads of the other clans said that they won’t believe it until they see you at the summit next spring!”

Sho grumbled, folding his arms across his chest. “I didn’t do it for you guys.”

“You’re right. It was all for Jun-pon!” Masaki said between giggles. “By the way, where is he?”

Sho growled when Masaki tried to walk towards the bed. “He needs more rest,” he said, taking a protective stance. “Let him be.”

“But—”

A stronger, more guttural sound came out of Sho’s lips when Masaki took another step. “Step back,” Sho warned, baring his fangs at him menacingly.

Suddenly, Sho felt a tug through his bond with Jun. He felt his hostility dissipating right away by the effect of Jun’s soothing touch through it. “Stop that, Sho-san,” Jun said from the bed. “Come here.”

Sho rushed to his side and helped him get on his feet, making sure to be as mindful as possible with Jun’s aching body. They stood in front of Masaki with linked hands. Masaki had a strange look on his face.

“Well, this I did expect to happen,” Masaki finally said. “How are you feeling, Jun-pon?”

“Sore,” Jun replied with a smirk.

Masaki burst out laughing. “Ah, I’m so proud of you!” he said. Then, he cupped Jun’s face and pecked his lips. Jun let out a little squeal of surprise.

“Get your hands off him!” Sho snapped, pulling Masaki away from Jun. He protested when Masaki pecked his lips too. “Pervy old geezer!”

“What! I just wanted to show him my gratitude!” Masaki complained. He smirked when he saw that Sho had stood up in front of Jun, shielding him from any possible move Masaki made. “Jun-pon here has single-handedly tamed our island’s wild child! It’s something to celebrate, no?”

“Touch him again, and I’ll make you regret it, my lord!” Sho growled, baring his fangs at Masaki once more. Masaki gave him an amused look, which only made Sho get madder. He only calmed down when Jun wrapped his arms around him from behind and sent him some of his soothing energy through their bond.

Masaki handed Sho two bundles of clothes. “Put these on and go take a bath. You smell like sex,” he said, giggling. He bent to pick up the kimonos Sho and Jun were wearing during the ceremony. “I’ll take these to get mended. Although I think Jun-pon’s is a lost cause. You tore it to shreds!”

After they were dressed, Masaki told them to go downstairs. He asked Sho to stay behind for a moment, though.

“I have to say, this is the first time I see a couple like you guys,” he started. “Normally, one of the partners is the more dominant one in all aspects. But while Jun-pon allowed you to dominate him physically, your soul submitted to his.”

Sho’s eyes went wide. “How do you know that?”

“He used telepathy on you,” Masaki said. “Your eyes were yellow for a second, but then they flashed blue.”

“W-What!?”

“You’re letting his feelings affect your actions,” Masaki continued. “He isn’t forcing it, you’re the one giving him that power. That’s very interesting.”

Sho blushed to the tip of his ears. “I see…”

Masaki gave him a pat on the back. “Go on now. And don’t overthink it.”

The bath helped their sore bodies recover. The next day, they felt quite well already. It was one of the advantages of being vampires, how fast they healed. They resumed their normal routines, attending to their duties as they had always done. They had moved together into one room. The bed they used for the ceremony was placed there after a meticulous wash.

Sho acquired a large chest for his treasures, as the box where he used to keep them was already full. Aside from the box’s contents, he put in there Jun’s torn kimono—it couldn’t be mended after all, he had to ask the tailor to make another one for Jun to wear on their nuptial ceremony—along with the ornament he’d been wearing on his hair the night of the ceremony.

And so started their life as a betrothed couple.

It would not go as he planned, though.



“Sho-san, I think we should see other people for now.”

He wasn’t expecting Jun to say that, much less just a week after their betrothal. It took him by surprise.

“The Elders are right,” Jun continued. “It’s better for us to give each other freedom at this point of our relationship. We’re still inexperienced, and two thousand years is a long time. Besides… you’d get tired of me if we stayed together all the time.”

Sho frowned. “What are you talking about? I would never get tired of you, Jun-san!”

“You might,” Jun replied, giving him a sad look. “Or maybe you wouldn’t, but what if you come across someone you’re really into, say, I don’t know, one hundred years from now? I’d hate it if you came to see me as an obstacle someday.”

“Stop,” Sho said, pulling Jun against his body. “Why are you saying all this?”

Jun shrugged. “It’s just… you know… things could change, Sho-san. I’m your consort, not your chain. And I know you’ll still be loyal to me even if you have someone else as your lover.”

“What if I want to be with you?”

“Then be with me,” Jun replied with a grin. “But know that you can go whenever you want, and I won’t hold it against you. We’re friends first and foremost.”

Sho wanted to protest, but a look into Jun’s eyes told him that this was Jun’s way to protect himself. He had reservations about their relationship, which explained why he’d been upset on the days before the ceremony. It was probable that his soul hadn’t submitted to Sho’s for the same reason. Rather than arguing with Jun, the best way for Sho to prove himself was through action.

He took a deep breath. “Alright. I accept,” he said. “Although… you must know that even if I’m with another man someday, you’ll always come first.”

Jun gave him an approving nod, his lips curved into a smile. “It’s what I expect.”

They sealed the promise with a kiss. The next two thousand years would put it to test several times.

*

The leaders of the other clans were shocked to find out it was true that not only Sho had formed his own clan, but he also had chosen a consort. It was all everyone talked about at the first summit Sho and Jun attended together.

Every two years, Lord Masaki held a week-long summit at his castle for all the leaders of the vampire clans in Sunrise Land. Serious topics were discussed every afternoon, after which the guests were regaled with all sorts of entertainment in parties that lasted until the morning.

Poor Sho was quite flustered during the first meeting, subjected to much teasing from everyone once Jun was introduced officially as his consort. In the evening, he almost went feral after the leader of another clan carelessly touched Jun’s arm during a conversation. His growls alerted the other guests, who interrupted what they were doing to watch.

“Keep your hands to yourself,” Sho said. His fangs were drawn and his eyes bloodshot.

The other vampire didn’t take heed of Sho’s warning and continued as if nothing happened. He touched Jun’s arm again at some point, which made Sho grab him by the neck and pin him to the floor. He sat on the vampire’s chest as he strangled him.

“Sho-san, stop it!” Jun yelled. He used telepathy, hoping to soothe Sho’s anger.

Sho let out another growl and let go of the vampire, who was looking quite frightened. He grabbed the vampire by the front of his kimono and pulled him up. “If you lay a finger on him again…”

The other vampire let out a whimper and ran back to his table, muttering apologies.

The party continued afterward, but nobody let Sho forget what he did for the remainder of the summit. He didn’t seem to mind it, though. “I’ll do more than that to the next idiot who dares to touch my consort,” he said.

The ‘next idiot’ was Lord Masaki on the last night of the summit. He hugged Jun as they were saying their goodbyes. Everyone burst into peals of laughter when Sho offered to snap his head off if he didn’t unhand Jun immediately.

“I’m sorry, I don’t know why he’s so violent!” Jun said. “He never acts like that!”

“It’s not uncommon for at least one of the partners to become possessive around other vampires after the betrothal,” Masaki said. “The dummy should know I am no threat, though!”

By the next summit, the clan leaders had had enough time to get used to them being together. Besides, the Hanazakari clan, created after Lord Ikuta and Lord Oguri’s nuptials, had four betrothals in between the two summits, thus allying themselves with half of the remaining independent clans on their island. All eyes were on them due to it.

Jun had taken a liking to both lords. He had the chance to hang out with them while Sho was busy in a few overseers-only meetings. After hearing his age, they both took to calling him a baby too, like Sho did, just to piss him off.

They explained to Jun why they had decided to form alliances with so many clans. “The humans are preparing for war on our island,” Ikuta said. “Our sources suggest that they aren’t very content with the Emperor’s ruling. They don’t have the manpower or the funds for a revolt yet. We estimate that in one or two generations that could change.”

“If we join all vampire clans under the same banner, it’ll be easier for us when war comes,” Oguri said. “We must prepare to defend our territories and the humans who have sworn their lives to us. It’s easier to do so if we unite around a sole leader. Or, well, two.”

They had already convinced the remaining four lords to join their cause. “We’re throwing a banquet for them so that they can meet our younglings and choose their consorts,” Ikuta said. “It’s a relief they’re into men. We have no female younglings up there.”

In general, Jun had noticed that female vampires were a rarity. Other than the one who turned him, Jun had yet to come across another one. He was informed that it was due to women having less blood than men in their bodies. They lost consciousness much faster than men did, typically before their blood levels were depleted enough to be turned. And since the human needed to be conscious when they drank vampire blood, they succeeded in turning women very few times. The same could be said about children who hadn’t gone through puberty.

Oguri sighed. “It’s a real shame. Being a vampire would be much better if we had more pretty ladies among us!”

“I take it that you aren’t into men?”

They exchanged a look and shrugged. “I mean, it depends on the man,” Ikuta said. “Beautiful men like you, for example, could tempt me at times.”

“Careful there. You might anger Lord Sakurai,” Oguri tutted at him. “Didn’t you hear that he threatened to fuck up Lord Masaki in the last summit?”

“He’s always been quite the hothead, hasn’t he?” Ikuta laughed, shaking his head. “The first time I saw him, he was this feisty, baby-faced youngling, glaring at everyone in the room, remember?”

“He hit Lord Takizawa’s head with an umbrella, left him bleeding through a cut on his cranium, and broke the umbrella in two pieces!” Oguri added with a grin. “Lord Masaki had to drag him out of the room after he knocked out three lords who tried to stop him. It was a disaster!”

They talked about past summits—episodes like those, where vampires lost their tempers, weren’t uncommon, it seemed. Sharing those stories, they eventually reached the one about a summit one thousand years earlier, where Oguri formally asked Ikuta to ally with him. He had been motivated to propose after a small rebellion that devastated two villages, each under the domain of one of their clans. It had died out soon, thankfully, but they decided not to break their blood pact, in case something similar occurred in the future. They were quite eager to tell Jun about their betrothal and nuptial ceremonies.

“The hand-feeding was the worst part!” Ikuta grumbled. “This asshole kept drooling all over my hand just to spite me!”

“And it worked!” Oguri smirked. “He had his revenge at the ritual mating, though. I went in expecting it to devolve into a fight for dominance, feeling confident that I’d win. But this fucker turned out to be stronger than I expected.”

“I won again on the rematch, at our nuptial’s ritual mating,” Ikuta bragged. “Which clearly establishes my superiority over him.”

“It doesn’t count if you can only beat me when I’m drugged!” Oguri protested.

They told Jun that the spot where they renewed their vows always glowed blue on the day the renewal was meant to happen. They advised him to bring a blanket or a rug, for they’d always pass out for a while afterward. Also, they mentioned something about sharing their thoughts for an entire year after the nuptials took place.

They promised to keep in touch as much as they could. “If you’re ever relocated north, you should come to visit us,” Ikuta said. “The travel time by ship isn’t that long from the northern shore of this island.”

The two of them sent Jun letters and gifts quite frequently. Jun was always excited to get news from them. Sho was a little jealous about Jun keeping correspondence with other vampires until Ikuta and Oguri assured him they had no hidden intentions towards Jun. For a few decades, Jun only met them in person during the summits, given that he and Sho weren’t relocated for almost half a century.



It was nice to have a calm life, but Jun was getting quite bored. The most excitement he had was during his training with Sho. He learned how to ride horses, as well as several fighting styles that didn’t require the use of weapons.

“You’ll get weapons when you can defeat me in a fight with your bare hands without using your vampiric powers,” Sho told him. “So, no seduction or mind control or telepathy here, Jun-san.”

Jun got to that level around two years before their relocation when, at last, he could match Sho’s speed. He was allowed to start using staffs, knives, and bows. He’d earn the right to wield a sword once he could defeat Sho with those.

His vampiric powers had progressed much faster thanks to the betrothal ceremony. He became capable of using illusions at a decent enough level. Sho finally taught him how to expand his field of perception, but his skill wasn’t yet on par with the other clan members, so he couldn’t join them and Sho on the bi-monthly inspections around the island. He did his first memory unlocking on a baby vampire that they found at the beach. It was a foreigner, from the continent. He was also the sole survivor from a shipwreck, and his sire, a member of the Elder of the East’s court, had sacrificed his life to save him. He was the last guest that Sho and Jun had.

“I’m sending you guys back to civilization,” Lord Masaki said when he arrived at the castle to inform them of their next destination. “How do ten years at the Imperial City sound?”

To Jun? It sounded marvelous. He’d have to pretend to be Sho’s wife again, and his outdoor activities would be restricted, but he’d have a wider variety of entertainment and there would be more people!

Their new residence wasn’t far from the Imperial Palace. They were introduced to acquaintances as members of a powerful family—their human hosts, who were involved directly in political matters. Sho was received with much admiration in the court due to his good looks, something that was much prized among nobles. And Jun, despite having social conventions limiting him, started getting messages from various admirers. Fidelity was, after all, not something very common in the Imperial City.

Sho gave him teasing looks when he saw the letters he received. “You have princes and sons of ministers interested in meeting you. That’s a big deal!”

Jun snorted. “You’re one to talk,” he said, nudging Sho’s arm. “I heard that the Crown Prince has grown very attached to you.”

“We’re vampires, it’s inevitable,” Sho said with a smug grin. “So? Which one of these lucky men will you grant the honor of a reply?”

Jun hummed. He put the letters in front of him, to compare them side by side. “I can’t decide. They all put a lot of effort into their messages,” he said. “You’ve met them in person. Who would you choose?”

Sho pursed his lips and was deep in thought for a moment. At last, he picked up a letter from the Emperor’s nephew and another one from the young minister of the left. “These two could be worth your time,” he said as he picked up a letter from a lower-ranked nobleman, who was a prince’s illegitimate son. “This is the most good-looking one out of the whole bunch, though.”

Jun replied to all three and maintained correspondence with them for months. He did it for fun, thinking that they probably would lose interest if they ever found out he wasn’t a woman. But then, one of them came to visit one night that Sho was out at a banquet. The man cornered Jun in an empty room, with the complicity of Jun’s ladies-in-waiting. And while he was surprised that Jun turned out to be a man, it only seemed to arouse him more.

“Fuck me,” the man begged, lying at Jun’s feet. “Do whatever you want with me.”

Jun arched an eyebrow. “Undress,” he said. He smirked when he saw how the man hastily struggled to shed his clothes. “Now get on your fours.”

The man obeyed, throwing expectant looks at Jun over his shoulder. He started getting hard when he saw that Jun was taking off his clothes as well. And while he admitted to Jun later that their encounter hadn’t gone at all how he had pictured it would, he was quite eager to have a repeat of it another night.

It was the first time Jun saw how much a vampire’s natural allure could affect a human. In the following decades, he had several similar affairs with men and women. He never fell for the humans that pursued him, and he kept a habit of wiping his admirers’ memories once their infatuation became inconvenient or when he got bored of them.

“I’m only in it for the sex,” Jun told Sho. “Humans can offer me a good time, but that’s pretty much about it. And even then, there are things that their bodies won’t allow. Human women tend to be better at keeping up with me, but human men run out of stamina too fast!”

Sho laughed at the comment, conceding that Jun was right about human men’s limited capacity for prolonged sex encounters. “But wait, you’re saying that haven’t fallen for anyone these years?”

Jun shook his head. “It seems I don’t fall in love easily, Sho-san. Unlike you,” he smirked.

Sho nudged him on the side with a reproving look. “Be serious, now,” he said. “There hasn’t been anyone for real?”

Jun stared at him, feeling a little disappointed that Sho had to even ask. He couldn’t believe that Sho was so slow that he didn’t know Jun was crazy about him. There couldn’t be room for anyone else in his heart while Sho existed.

“My standards are too high. No human could ever satisfy me,” Jun said. “I don’t know how you manage to get emotionally invested in them so often.”

Sho hadn’t had any long-lasting romantic relationships since their betrothal. Jun knew that it wasn’t for a lack of interested admirers. They were open about their respective affairs, so Jun knew all about Sho’s love life. Jun could always tell when a man had managed to catch Sho’s interest before Sho himself was conscious of it. Leaving other personality traits aside, Sho seemed to be drawn to confident men, especially those who were direct about their intentions from the start. And they needed to have some persistence and patience, otherwise, they would give in before Sho could finally notice that not only he was into them, but that the attraction was mutual.

A curious thing Jun found out was that Sho preferred to bottom for his human partners. It was entirely by accident. He had just returned to his room after taking a bath and heard strange noises coming from the veranda. He peeked through a blind and saw Sho, stark naked, lying on his stomach while getting fucked from behind by the Crown Prince. He left immediately, keeping his steps light, but he admitted that he had seen it the next time he and Sho talked.

“I guess you didn’t know, but I never top when I have sex with humans,” Sho said with a sheepish smile. “I know myself, I tend to bite when I top. I could end up killing them in the heat of the moment.”

That much Jun knew was true from firsthand experience. “So that’s the only reason?”

“Yeah! I don’t care whether I top or bottom, it’s the same to me.”

He said so, but the facts showed he had a marked preference towards being the bottom during sex. After all, if he only topped when he was with a vampire, that made Jun the only man Sho had ever topped.

As for the short-lived nature of Sho’s relationships, Jun concluded that after getting his heart broken by leaving Take Seiji, Sho didn’t want to repeat the experience, so he didn’t fight to keep a relationship alive once difficulties appeared. He was always in low spirits for a while after a breakup—Jun suspected his heart had the consistency of mochi—and sought comfort in Jun’s arms. He bounced back faster, though.

“Quit trying to analyze me,” Sho told him half-serious one time they discussed it. “I feel like you study my love life the way scholars do with animals or other civilizations.”

“Maybe I am a scholar and you’re my subject. And my research won’t stop until I know everything about you.”

Sho seemed pleased with the answer. “Well, I wish you good luck,” he said. “That research could take you thousands of years.”

Jun smirked. “Guess you’ll have to put up with me for a long time, then.”



Their following relocations took them to the eastern coast of the island. The first was to Lord Masaki’s hidden retreat.

“I built a mansion on the exact location of the house where I was born,” he said with a grin. “The original building is still standing, I think. They use it as a storage room now.”

During their short stay there, they first heard the rumors about warlords forming alliances to increase their influence. Sho managed to seduce one of them and obtain valuable information regarding their plans, which he immediately made known to Lord Masaki. As Ikuta said, many military clans weren’t satisfied with the emperor and the families that supported him. They were nowhere near the level to be a threat, but it’d be wise to monitor the situation.

They had another two relocations along the same coast. The last one took them close enough to finally visit the northern island possible. Sho couldn’t join Jun on the trip, unfortunately, and a change in weather made it impossible for Jun to return within the timeframe they initially agreed on. They made use of the Soul Realm for the first time on that occasion.

“Telepathy isn’t enough. I needed more,” Sho told Jun when they met there. He held Jun between his arms for what felt like hours. They both slept for two days after it, but Jun considered it was worth it.

Just a couple of years before their first vow renewal, Lord Masaki told Sho he should return to his palace. An urgent summit would take place at King Miyake’s residence in the continent. Lord Masaki would be away for over a year, and he needed Sho to assist Kazama in his absence.

Jun had just had his two hundredth anniversary. He could be outside for as much as he wanted to, provided he didn’t forget to wear a hat. And even when he did, he only got sunburned, without any other side effects. Sho panicked whenever it happened, which was kind of endearing.

The Nakamaru clan was still in charge of the palace’s upkeep. They welcomed Sho and Jun with much reverence. They knew that it had been Jun who turned Yuichi, the one member of the family who had been blessed with becoming a vampire. Yuichi had been living there until the relocation, along with Ueda and Kamenashi. The three of them had become very close and liked to be relocated together. It had been a couple of years since Sho and Jun saw them for the last time.

The whole clan would reunite after their vows were renewed. They had been scattered all over the island, helping Sho in his functions as overseer, which lessened Sho’s workload considerably. Sho told Jun that given his progress, he was ready to join the inspections. The truth was that he’d been delaying the moment because that episode from a hundred years earlier was still on his mind. Jun knew it well, but he didn’t comment on it.

“You are almost fully grown-up now,” Sho said as he observed Jun. “We won’t be able to keep passing you off as a woman.”

While Jun’s face had been quite small and delicate when he was turned, in the last couple of decades his facial features had taken a more decidedly masculine look. And due to his constant training, his frame had changed. His upper body was a lot more muscular. It even seemed that he had grown slightly taller.

Sho decided to cut Jun’s hair off for good that summer. He asked Jun to let him brush it one last time before he did so. Jun’s head felt much lighter after Sho was done. His hair barely reached below his shoulders. Then, Sho made him put on a dark purple kimono with a light purple coat over it, bearing their clan’s crest. He combed Jun’s hair back and tied it into a knot atop his head. He nodded approvingly at the sight.

“From now on, I shall introduce you to humans as my brother,” Sho said.

Jun felt a lot freer presenting himself as a man again. Men wore fewer layers of clothing, and their hair needed relatively less maintenance. He continued using most of the same kimonos he owned, except that the sleeves were slightly modified to be narrower and shorter.

Sho seemed to find Jun more attractive in men’s clothing. He wouldn’t stop stealing glances at him every time Jun walked by. And when Jun was working in the fields or doing physical training, he’d catch Sho looking at him. Whenever he bared his torso to wipe his sweat and get some fresh air, Sho would have his eyes trained on Jun’s arms and pectorals.

One time he was like that, Sho had come up to give him some water. Jun poured some over his head, letting it run down his naked chest while he drank the rest of it. Sho was quite engrossed following the droplets, licking his lips unconsciously. Then, he frowned and placed the tip of his forefinger on Jun’s chest.

“I hadn’t seen this,” he said, coming closer. “You have a beauty mark next to your nipple.”

“That? It’s always been there, Sho-san,” Jun said. “It used to be a lighter, though. I can see why you hadn’t noticed it.”

Sho hummed, running his thumb over the little dot. He blushed when Jun grabbed his finger, moving it to a spot lower in his torso.

“That one got darker too. Had you seen it?”

Sho’s eyes went wide. “Are all of your moles getting darker?”

“I don’t know. I can’t check them all, there are too many,” Jun replied with a shrug. “But it’s normal, right? With me getting more sunlight and stuff. I do remember they were this dark back when I was human. They had gotten lighter these years.”

Sho had stopped paying attention to his words and was looking for more moles. “You’re right! There are so many I hadn’t seen before! Even on your neck and… wait, those two where your eyebrow ends…”

Jun smirked. “Shall we go inside so that you can do a full-body inspection?”

Sho gulped, averting his eyes. “Aren’t you busy?”

“When have I ever been busy for you?”

Sho bit his lip. He grabbed Jun’s hand and led the way to the master bedroom.

Contrary to Jun’s expectation, Sho did want to know how many new moles he could find in Jun’s body. He made Jun undress and stand in the middle of the room. It was quite entertaining, how seriously he took something like that.

“I need to memorize them all!” Sho said. “That way I’ll know if new ones are appearing!”

Jun laughed. “I had no idea you paid so much attention to them!”

“Of course I do!” Sho replied with a pout. “They’re quite high on my list of things I like about your body.”

“Yeah? And what would take the first place?”

“Your eyebrows,” Sho replied. “Then it’d have to be your eyes, the three moles around your lips…”

Jun shivered as Sho ran a thumb over them. Sho’s hand continued descending.

“Your strong shoulders,” Sho continued. “The shape that your tiny waist gives to your upper body and how your hips are a bit wider than it… then your thighs…”

Sho knelt in front of Jun, his hands holding on to the sides of his legs. He looked up, smirking when he found Jun staring back. “And right after that, it’d be the rest of your moles.”

Jun grunted when Sho stood up. Tease! He pulled Sho back against him forcefully, making Sho yelp. “You sure nothing is missing from that list?”

Sho flashed him an innocent smile. “Maybe,” he said. “Who knows.”

Jun didn’t know what came over him. He shoved Sho against a wall to kiss him. Sho looked surprised yet quite excited by it. He let Jun push him back to his kneeling position and proceeded to wrap his lips around Jun’s cock without being prompted to do so.

It wasn’t the first time Sho sucked Jun off, but Jun thought it felt different. For once, it was Jun taking control, fucking Sho’s mouth instead of just letting him go at the pace he desired. He kept thrusting until he reached the back of Sho’s throat, causing Sho to moan. He tugged on Sho’s hair as he felt his orgasm building up. Sho looked up at him all the while, visibly turned on.

Jun came inside Sho’s mouth, jerking his hips and almost making Sho gag. When he pulled out, he took a moment to look at Sho’s state. There was drool and come dripping down his chin, his lips were red and bruised. He smiled as Jun ruffled his hair.

“Well, that was new,” Sho commented with a little laugh.

Jun blushed. “Did you like it?”

Sho used a finger to wipe the come off his face, then licked it, staring into Jun’s eyes. “Take a guess,” he said, smirking.

After having a taste of exerting dominance over Sho, Jun couldn’t help but want more. Sho wouldn’t make it easy, though. Whenever Jun tried it again, Sho ended up regaining control of the situation—which wasn’t an outcome Jun disliked, but he hoped that someday he’d be able to have Sho looking at him that way again.



The renewal of their vows arrived. Jun thought that it’d feel like an eternity back when Sho proposed to him, but a century had passed before he realized it.

They traveled by foot in the snow. Vampires weren’t as susceptible to cold as humans, so it wasn’t a problem. Plus, since that Jun could keep up with Sho’s speed, the entire journey took only a few hours.

Like Lords Ikuta and Oguri had told Jun, the spot where they made their vows glowed blue. It got brighter as the exact hour approached. They waited for it, sitting on a thick rug they had brought for the occasion. They prepared the mixture of blood and wine in the goblet, then repeated their vows while staring into each other’s eyes. Sho drank first. He brought the goblet to Jun’s lips like that night a hundred years earlier. And when Jun emptied the contents of it, he only had enough time to pull Sho into a tight hug before they went to the Soul Realm.

“This won’t ever stop feeling strange to me,” Jun said, shutting his eyes.

“I don’t know. I kind of like it!” Sho laughed.

Jun opened his eyes to give him a questioning look. “For real?”

“It’s just you and me here, without anyone to bother us,” Sho replied. “What’s there not to like?”

Jun rolled his eyes at him, feeling a bit exasperated. “You don’t mind the whole dark void thing?”

“Nah, it’s cool.” Sho shrugged. Then, he gave Jun a mischievous look. “Hey, you think we can fool around while we’re here?”

“Seriously? You’re horny now?”

“What? Aren’t you curious!?”

Jun shook his head. “Well, you won’t get to find out because there’s no fucking way I’m letting you do me in an endless black void.”

“Oh, come on! Why not!?”

Thankfully, their time was over, and they returned to their bodies before Sho could attempt anything lewd. They were in the same position, kneeling in the middle of the rug and hugging. Unlike the time of their betrothal, they didn’t feel weakened.

“You’re a pervert,” Jun said, giving Sho the most condemning look he could muster. “You wanted to fuck my soul.”

“It’s nothing our bodies haven’t done before,” Sho replied with a smirk. It earned him a punch on his arm.

They returned to the palace in the middle of the banquet. It was almost dawn, but the party was as lively as if it had just started. They were welcomed among cheers by the members of their clan. They were wearing proudly their crimson surcoats and stood in two lines, bowing, as Sho and Jun made their way to the place of honor reserved for them.

With that party concluded the first century of their betrothal.

The next hundred years wouldn’t be as peaceful.

*

Four years had passed since Sho and Jun renewed their vows for the first time. It had been one of the best centuries of Sho’s life. Day by day, Jun showed him why choosing him as his consort had been the right decision.

They were told to come urgently to Lord Masaki’s castle. Contrary to his usual cheerful mood, Masaki seemed pensive and nervous. He even looked a little pale as he led them to a room where tea was served for them. Sho started worrying when he sent all his servants away.

“Anything happened, my lord?” Sho asked.

Masaki gnawed on his lower lip. “The families that serve us on this island have decided to ally themselves with a warlord,” he said. “It has nothing to do with vampires, it’s a human affair. However, they have requested for me to grant this warlord an audience.”

Sho’s eyes went wide. “For real?”

Masaki nodded. “It’s not just here. Up north, Lord Ikuta told me the same: the humans have joined a warlord’s cause, and they want said warlord to be introduced to vampire overlords.”

“Shit…” Sho made a little grimace. “What will you do?”

“Do you remember my trip to his Majesty’s residence some years ago? It was to discuss a similar situation that happened in several domains within the East Realm,” Masaki said. “He instructed us to meet the new leaders that humans are following and, if possible, make them take vows of secrecy and peace with our kind.”

“Sounds reasonable enough,” Jun commented. “But why do you look so worried then?”

“Well… when I told the humans to bring the warlord to me, they arranged an audience. The warlord should be coming in a few days,” Masaki said. “There’s only one issue: he’s bringing a rather large number of men with him. I cannot allow them into my castle, of course. Not until I’ve met him and made him take a vow of secrecy.”

I see where this is going. Sho let out a deep sigh. “Tell me you’re not sending a group of samurai to our place.”

Masaki made an apologetic face. “Sorry, guys. I had no choice!”

Thus, they became hosts to a group of over a hundred warriors. It was obvious that the warlord intended to intimidate Lord Masaki. He had no idea that it was him who happened to be in the most dangerous position, as no less than fifty vampires awaited his arrival at the castle. Sho and Jun’s clan members would stay at the palace, just in case things went south and they needed to contain the warriors. The Nakamaru family and their human servants would welcome them, to lessen the chances of them coming across the vampires.

For a couple of days, everyone was on edge. They were secluded in the palace’s western building, spying the humans from behind blinds. The warriors had chosen the garden next to it to conduct their daily training. They seemed to be impatient, especially after two days had passed without them hearing from their leader.

“They’re not stupid. They know we’re here,” Sho told Jun. “I’m afraid we’ll have to reveal ourselves sooner or later.”

Two messengers arrived at the palace on the third day, accompanying the warlord. Sho was summoned to a room, along with the Nakamaru family’s current head. “Ah, you must be Lord Sakurai,” the warlord greeted Sho with a smile. “Lord Aiba told me a lot about you.”

Sho arched an eyebrow at him. The negotiations must have gone well if he knows who I am.

“There is a lot to discuss still,” the warlord continued. “Lord Aiba said he will be holding a banquet for us in a couple of weeks. My men shall remain here until then.”

Sho nodded. “I see.”

“However, I have been asked to bring the Nakamaru family with me,” the warlord said. “They’ve been ordered to come to the castle immediately.”

That said, he produced a letter that Masaki had addressed to Sho. Within its contents, he reiterated the order to have the entire family move to the castle, along with their personal belongings. What is he up to?

“Alright,” Sho replied. “It shall be done as Lord Aiba says.”

The news took the humans by surprise, but they proceeded to do as they were told. Meanwhile, the warlord was welcomed by his warriors among cheers. Sho couldn’t hear much of their talk, but they seemed to be celebrating.

The warlord came up to the western building afterward, as his men observed from afar. “Open the blinds,” he said. “I have informed them of your presence.”

Sho cursed between his teeth. He motioned for the clan members to roll up the blinds. All of them came out to the veranda to meet the warlord.

“Do not worry, they shall not disturb you,” the warlord said with a grin. “But it’s only fair that they get to see their true hosts, isn’t it?”

The warlord left the next day, accompanied by the entire Nakamaru family. Three carts transported their possessions. Some of the servants left with them, meaning that aside from a few humans, the vampires were now left alone with the warriors.

“What should we do?” Jun asked. “Should one of us go to the castle to ask?”

“It’d be a good plan,” Sho mumbled. “Tell Fujigaya-kun to go.”

Fujigaya returned just a couple of hours later. “They told me that Lord Masaki can’t see me now,” he said. “But I thought I’d let you know that the Nakamaru family isn’t the only one at the castle. There are at least three other human families there. I heard the Sakurai family will be arriving in a couple of days. Even our Imperial City allies have been summoned.”

Sho’s eyebrows shot up. “Something big must have happened.”

To distract themselves from thinking too much about the situation at the castle, the clan members decided to watch the warriors train. They had started a fighting tournament, with two types of competitions: hand-to-hand combat and wooden sword fights. In the former category, the warrior who managed to subdue the other would be declared the winner. As for the latter, it’d be the one who reached a position to deal a fatal blow. The prizes were two vaults brought from the continent, filled with various luxurious items.

They sat on the veranda to observe, for it looked quite entertaining. The warriors didn’t notice that they had an audience during the first and second days. It was only when the vampires got more comfortable and started cheering on warriors and exchanging comments among them that the warriors realized that their hosts had taken an interest in their activities.

One of the warriors, a short man who had quite an impressive winning streak in the tournament, came up to them, grinning. As he got closer and Sho took a better look at his face, he recognized the man. Seiji-san’s reincarnation? How can it be possible!?

Jun stiffened next to him. “It’s him, isn’t it, Sho-san?”

“You think so too?” Sho felt his cheeks getting warm when the man’s gaze lingered on him. He averted his eyes right away.

“Looks like you’ve caught his attention,” Jun put his hand over his mouth to hide a grin.

“You must be the other clan Yamada-sama told us about,” the man said with a grin. “I had never seen that family crest before. What’s the name of your clan?”

“Ah, I’m afraid we can’t satisfy your curiosity at the moment. You’ll learn it when the proper time for it comes,” Jun replied with a smirk. “You may call me Jun.”

“Fair enough, Jun-dono,” the man chuckled. “My name is Kurono Kei.”

Sho ventured a look at Kurono, who immediately stared back at him. He felt a shiver going down his spine at the intensity of that look. Kurono’s eyes twinkled. He kept stealing glances at Sho even after he continued his conversation with Jun.

“So… I see you’ve been enjoying the show,” he said. “Would you like to join us? I assure you it’s a lot more exciting up close.”

“What do you say, Sho-san?” Jun asked. “Shall we?”

Kurono’s gaze was so insistent on Sho that he had to look away. “Let’s do it. I’m sure everyone was itching to go over there anyway.”

They followed Kurono to the tournament area. Sho felt like his heart was going to explode. He couldn’t help being anxious every time Kurono looked at him. Jun walked by Sho’s side behind everyone else, sending calming touches through their bond.

“Does it disturb you that he’s into you again?”

Sho looked down. “Anyone would be spooked if the same guy was into them in three different lifetimes. It’s not normal!”

“Ah…” Jun grinned. “Maybe he’s your soulmate!”

The furious blush that spread on Sho’s cheeks seemed to amuse Jun even more. Sho could hear his laughter ringing in the back of his mind.

The warriors made some room for them to sit. They eyed the vampires curiously, but they said nothing. The tournament resumed when Kurono returned to the middle of the ring they had formed. Only the final four rounds remained.

Kurono was the winner in both categories. Sho was impressed by his impeccable techniques. He had never seen a human with such a high level of mastery of the martial arts. He was shorter than most of his opponents, but he compensated with his quick wit and flexible movements.

The other warriors complained that it wasn’t fair. “You knew that you’re much better than all of us from the start, Kurono-dono!”

Kurono flashed a smirk at him. “It’s not my fault that none of you slowpokes have managed to get to my level!”

After much jesting, Kurono agreed to share his prize with the warriors who had ended up in second place.

The young man who had been the second place for the hand-to-hand fights thought it’d be fun to challenge one of their hosts. “You,” he said, pointing at Ueda. “You seem the toughest of the group.”

Ueda jumped to his feet, grinning. He’d been hoping for a chance to join the fights from the start. The other vampires cheered him on.

To the warrior’s surprise, the combat was over in a couple of minutes. His companions were silent in shock at first, but then joined the vampires and cheered too. Ueda walked around with a fist raised in a victorious pose.

All the other vampires were challenged to fights too. Only two of them lost their respective fights, and by very little. Jun managed to defeat the largest warrior of the group, which earned him much praise from the other warriors.

For the final duel, Kurono challenged Sho to fight him. Given his skills, the fight lasted a lot longer than the previous ones. The onlookers were quite fired up, humans and vampires alike. But in the end, it was Sho who managed to trap the man under his body and make him surrender.

Kurono looked up at Sho with wide eyes, panting. His face was flushed, and his lips curved into a smile. “You’re the first one to defeat me in a while,” he said. “I didn’t see that coming.”

Kurono let Sho help him stand up. If he was looking at Sho with interest earlier, now his gaze was one of desire. And Sho had to admit he was getting worked up too.

“Pass me two swords,” Kurono said. He handed Sho one of them, staring into his eyes again. His pupils were two dark pools of pure lust. “Let’s see if you can beat me again.”

The second fight was just as intense. Everyone watched their every move closely, cheering on their favorite warrior—some humans were cheering for Sho. In a swift move, Sho managed to disarm Kurono, throw him on the ground, and press the wooden sword to his neck. The men erupted in loud cheers.

Kurono was breathing heavily, looking up at Sho both in awe and like he wanted to jump him right there, a sentiment that Sho wasn’t completely indifferent to. He once again let Sho help him up.

“We have to do that again,” Kurono said. The tone of his voice confirmed Sho’s previous observations of him. He kept Sho’s hand in his for longer than was necessary.

Sho looked down to avert his eyes, but instead, he saw the bulge in Kurono’s crotch, only half-dissimulated by his hakama. And it aroused him to know he had such an effect on the man. Fuck.

That was the moment he knew that he wouldn’t avoid getting involved with that man in that lifetime either.



When Sho came into the room—he had to go to his chambers to cool off first—the warriors were already drinking. Jun gave him a questioning look but seemed to understand what had happened after a second. He didn’t say anything and just made room for Sho to sit next to him.

“Kurono-san hasn’t shown up yet,” he said. “You wouldn’t happen to know where he is, do you?”

“I think I saw him heading to the southern building.”

“You didn’t go with him?” Jun arched an eyebrow at him as he poured some sake. “Then what took you so long?”

Sho blushed. “N-Nothing…”

Jun’s eyes flashed a brighter shade of yellow. He smirked after checking Sho’s memories. “Ah, I understand now. It isn’t just him that wants it, then.”

“I’m not—”

“Don’t lie to me.” Jun kept a neutral expression, but Sho could tell he was irritated. “I’m your consort, Sho-san. The least you owe me is some honesty.”

Sho sighed. “I have no intention to pursue him this time. It wouldn’t be wise.”

Jun hummed. He seemed amused by Sho’s words. “Let’s see for how long your willpower lasts.”

Kurono arrived a few minutes later. He walked straight to Sho’s side and sat with him. He gave Sho his undivided attention for the entire night, seemingly not interested in conversing with anyone else. He gave Sho light touches way too often for them to be accidental and seemed intent on getting him drunk despite not having much sake himself.

“Oh, it’s just that I’m a lightweight!” Kurono said between laughs. “It’s embarrassing to admit it out loud, but I pass out after having just a few cups.”

“That’s better than me,” Sho said with a snort.

“Really? What do you do when you’re drunk?”

Sho bit his lip. He couldn’t tell Kurono that he had a habit of getting half-nude when he drank too much. “I’m afraid you won’t find out tonight,” he said instead, chuckling when Kurono protested.

He told Sho a lot about his life. He’d been trained to become a warrior since he was a child; that accounted for his fighting skills. He was Lord Yamada’s right-hand man and had been married to one of his cousins. Unfortunately, the young lady passed away after giving birth to their daughter merely a year after they got together.

“Sorry for your loss,” Sho commented.

“Ah, it’s fine,” Kurono replied. “I didn’t know her too much anyway. We never lived under the same roof; our union was an arrangement between our families. She wasn’t exactly what I prefer in a partner.”

Sho gulped at the suggestive look Kurono gave him. “I see,” he said, feigning to ignore it. “And the girl? How is she?”

“She’s living with her maternal grandfather. A man in my line of work doesn’t have much time to look after a child,” Kurono said. “She’ll be ten years old this winter.”

The men asked Kurono to play some music. His preferred instrument, like in other lifetimes, was the biwa, and he happened to be as good as his past counterparts. That was probably the one thing that prevented Sho from succumbing to his charms that night, as his thoughts got plagued with questions.

Human souls were supposed to become blank slates after passing away. Then how come that Sho had met not one but two men whose traits didn’t alter that much after being reborn? Was it just a strange coincidence, or was there something more at play there?

“It’s clear our knowledge of the human soul is still limited,” Sho told Jun. “We know the duration of life cycles and that past lives’ memories are wiped. Ancient vampires figured it out after realizing that humans retain the same physical appearance, that it is linked to their soul. But what if the personality is also intertwined with it? Nobody has ever tried to study that!”

“You know it’s almost impossible to come across the same human more than once,” Jun replied. “What I would like to know, however, is why are you here in my room now. I thought for sure that if you’d go with someone tonight, it’d be Kurono-san.”

“It’s not time for that!” Sho grumbled. “Don’t you understand how big this discovery could be if it happens to be true!?”

“I don’t see why it would change anything,” Jun replied. “It doesn’t alter our relationship to humankind.”

Sho pouted at him. “Can’t you humor me for a second and listen to my theory without dismissing it so soon? As my consort, you could be more supportive, Jun-san!”

Jun laughed and kissed Sho’s cheek. “Fine. I’ll hear you out.”

They stayed up discussing the topic. Despite having teased Sho at first, Jun was very much on board with Sho’s ideas. They agreed that it could be useful to write down Sho’s observations on the two subjects from their past lifetimes and take note of everything they discovered about Kurono to compare. And should Sho come across him or the other man in the future, he’d make sure to do the same.

“We should give them code names,” Sho suggested. “It’d be helpful to avoid getting confused by all the times they change names.”

Jun hummed. “How about we call them by the names they had when you met them?”

“Taka and Yuuji?”

“Yeah. And let’s refer to them collectively as just Ohmiya.”

It was easy to remember, so they went with it. They kept the notes on Taka in a blue lacquered box, tied with a red and gold ribbon. The ones on Yuuji were in a yellow lacquered box, tied with a blue and silver ribbon.

“But wait… this means I’ll have to get acquainted with them every time?”

“Oh, don’t say it like you don’t like the prospect!”

“It’s just… I don’t know if that’s a good thing for me,” Sho mumbled, gnawing on his lower lip. “It could be too much.”

“Hey…” Jun pulled him into a hug. “You don’t have to go all the way if you don’t want to. Only you and I know about it, and I’d never force you to do something that could hurt you.”

“Thank you, Jun-san.”

“That said, I have a feeling you won’t stop this time,” Jun added.

Sho couldn’t contradict him there, so he said nothing.



The next day, Kurono was looking for Sho the entire morning.

Sho and Jun stayed in Jun’s room until noon, so they only heard of it when they came to the garden. Kurono’s face lit up when he saw Sho approaching.

“Where have you been, Sho-sama!? I was hoping you’d spar with me,” he said.

“Sorry, I was tired,” Sho replied. He laughed when Kurono handed him a wooden sword.

From that day on, they sparred for hours every afternoon. Sho continued to dominate the fight every time, which rather than making Kurono quit only seemed to spur him on. He seemed to enjoy when Sho overpowered him, always instigating him to use more force when he noted that Sho wasn’t fighting with his full strength. By the end of each session, both were tired, drenched in sweat, and couldn’t stop ogling each other.

Kurono always disappeared for a while afterward. Sho followed him after the third time and found him masturbating. He muttered Sho’s name between moans when he came. Instead of looking sated, however, he seemed even more frustrated. Still, Sho didn’t make a move on him. He couldn’t help being a bit wary after what happened with Kurono’s past incarnations. He didn’t want to get his heart broken again. But Kurono’s patience had run out by the end of the first week.

It happened a few minutes after their sparring session. Sho had gone to his room to get changed, as he had worked up a sweat. He was fully nude, using a cloth to wipe off his body. He turned around to pick up some clean undergarments and almost jumped when he saw Kurono standing there. “Hey, what—”

Kurono slammed Sho against the wall, making him moan. He gave Sho an open-mouthed kiss and sucked on Sho’s tongue. “You’re driving me crazy, you know,” he said against Sho’s lips.

Sho was breathless, his entire face and chest flushed. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Don’t play dumb,” Kurono groaned, running his hands down Sho’s sides. “You know what I mean.”

Sho bit his lip as Kurono pressed their bodies closer. He gasped when he felt Kurono’s erection pressing against his half-hard cock. Kurono rolled his hips, smirking when Sho let out a whimper and gripped his shoulders. He leaned in for another kiss. This time, he found no resistance.

Sho wrapped his arms around Kurono’s neck as they made out. He gasped when Kurono picked him up and carried him to bed. He waited for Kurono to undress, licking his lips at the sight of Kurono’s impressive cock. He pulled his legs against his chest, giving Kurono easy access to his hole.

Kurono wrung high-pitched moans from Sho’s throat when he entered him. He wrapped a hand around Sho’s cock, preventing him from coming, while he thrust fast and deep into him. When he finally let Sho come, Sho was outright sobbing. He fucked Sho through his orgasm and continued pumping his dick, bringing him to full hardness before he had even recovered from his high. And he made Sho come a second time before he reached his climax. They shared a look of pure bliss as they lay side by side afterward.

“Shit, is there anything you’re not good at?” Kurono laughed. “How can you be both the best fight and the best fuck of my life? Men who fight the way I like never let me fuck them the way I want.”

Sho propped himself up on his elbows, giving him a smug look. “Well, you hadn’t met me.”

They made out for another while. Sho started pumping Kurono’s dick again until he was hard. Then, he sat on Kurono’s chest and bent to start sucking him off. Kurono parted Sho’s buttocks to start eating him out and fingering him. He made Sho stop at some point, and told him to stay like that, with his butt in the air. He knelt behind Sho and entered him in one thrust, making Sho scream when he hit his spot. Sho arched his back to take him deeper inside him. When Kurono saw that Sho was getting close, he sat on his heels and pulled Sho up. He continued thrusting as Sho ground on his dick and told Sho to touch himself. They came almost at the same time, grunting each other’s names.

“You’re perfect,” Kurono said. He still had Sho sitting on his lap, his dick buried in Sho’s hole. He kissed Sho’s neck and beamed when Sho turned his head to look at him. “Where the hell had you been my whole life?”

They spent hours exploring each other’s bodies. Kurono turned out to be as fiery in the bed as he was in combat. And as much as he tried, Sho couldn’t stop thinking that he’d been like that the other times too.

*

The thing Jun had been dreading for so long happened. He had prepared himself mentally for that moment, and yet it still hurt like hell when he saw Sho and Kurono’s eyes meet.

They were instantly drawn to each other, neither could hide their interest. Jun knew that he wasn’t the only one who noticed at the banquet, the evening after the tournament ended. A young warrior who was sitting next to him snorted when he looked at Kurono and Sho.

“Typical Kurono,” he said. He smirked when Jun turned to ask him what he meant. “He’s got a thing for men who can hand his ass to him.”

From that young man, who introduced himself as Yamada Ryosuke, the warlord’s nephew, Jun learned a bit about Kurono Kei. He was one of the fiercest warriors among their lines, having been trained for the military life practically since he could walk. He was known for both his fighting and musical skills. And, among his private circle, it was no secret that he only felt sexual attraction for men who proved to be stronger fighters than him.

“Bet you that he’ll try to seduce your brother tonight.”

“Won’t work,” Jun shook his head. “You see, my brother is slow at things like this, even if the man pursuing him isn’t subtle at all.”

Yamada narrowed his eyes at him. “Yeah, well…” he put a silk coat on the table, smirking. “If Kurono-kun can’t bed him tonight, I’ll give you this coat. And if I win, you’ll have to give me the one you’re wearing right now.”

“You’re so going to lose!” Jun laughed. “But I accept!”

They shook hands and watched how things progressed. Yamada was shocked when, by the end of the party, Sho left the room without Kurono. He gave Jun the coat with a pout but found the situation quite entertaining.

Jun took a liking to Yamada. They hung out and sparred a lot those days. They watched from afar as Kurono continued trying to woo Sho, using sparring as his strategy to get closer to Sho. They laughed when every time without fail, Kurono would leave the garden frustrated and horny.

“Man, this has to be killing him!” Yamada said. “To find a man so strong and attractive who doesn’t yield to his advances right away? I think it’s a first.”

“Oh, he won’t have to wait long. I’m pretty sure Sho-san is at his limit too,” Jun commented. He had seen Sho follow Kurono that day. Nothing happened between them, but he was certain it wouldn’t take much to make Sho give in.

At the end of the week, it finally happened.

Jun had received a message from Lord Masaki, informing him that there would be an emergency summit at the castle in a week, one day after the banquet with Lord Yamada. He was a few steps away from Sho’s room when he heard loud moans and grunts coming from inside. One of the voices was Kurono’s.

“Guess Sho-san is done pretending,” Jun mumbled to himself. He turned on his heel and returned to his room. He meditated over the situation while he waited for an appropriate moment to tell Sho about the message.

How could it be that in three different lifetimes that particular man was Sho’s perfect match? They were always mutually attracted, they shared interests and a sense of humor, and they happened to be exactly what the other wanted in a sexual partner. Jun did not doubt that if they met in more lifetimes, things would be the same. If there’s anything like a soulmate, this man would be it for Sho-san.

Did he feel threatened? Honestly, a little bit. Much like he couldn’t fall in love with anyone due to his feelings for Sho, he was starting to suspect that Sho might have reservations about getting too involved with other partners because he was hung up on that man.

They weren’t discreet at all with their affair. The first night they spent together, everyone could hear them fuck. The following morning, Kurono was holding Sho’s hand when they walked into the room where everyone was having their meal. They continued sparring in the afternoons, which Jun was pretty sure doubled as foreplay for them. The night of the banquet at the castle, they sneaked out and only came back in the morning, when Kurono had to depart with his lord.

“I’ll come back for you,” Kurono told Sho as they said their goodbyes. Jun wasn’t near them, but they were within his perception range. They shared a long, passionate kiss. “I’ll do anything it takes, Sho-chan, I swear it.”

Sho nodded. “I’ll be waiting for you, Kei-kun.”

When Sho joined everyone else, he was a little quiet. He remained that way for the next few days. Nobody but Jun seemed to notice the change in his attitude.

This isn’t just a fling for him anymore. He’s falling in love.



The emergency summit was to communicate to the clan leaders the result of Lord Masaki’s negotiations with Lord Yamada. They posed a huge shift in their community’s relationship with humans.

“The families that used to serve us have been released from their vows and their memories wiped,” he said. “They serve Lord Yamada now and have been integrated into his clan. They’ll live within his territory, not ours.”

The news caused quite a commotion. The alliance with those families had lasted for centuries. Most of the vampire lords descended from those families. Why would Lord Masaki do something like that?

“We have now entered into a pact with the Yamada clan directly,” Masaki continued. “They’ve taken vows of loyalty to us. Only the highest-ranked members of the clan and their generals have done so.”

Lord Yamada had offered Masaki a pretty good deal: his clan, which had absorbed all the families that used to serve the vampires, would continue providing administration for the vampire-owned lands, with the condition that the vampires didn’t join into an alliance with any of their enemy warrior clans. Given that the territory under vampire control was quite vast, this would give the impression that the warrior clan had a larger influence. It gave them leverage to gain important positions in the government.

While that didn’t matter to the vampires, they did benefit from having only one clan to deal with. Managing relationships with too many different families had become troublesome. Lord Masaki’s mind control powers were at their limit as it was. If they only had one group of secret-keepers, it’d put less strain on his faculties.

“These aren’t just noblemen. They’ve been fierce warriors from their early years,” Masaki continued. “We have more in common with them than with the aristocrats who merely use their swords as decoration.”

Of course, Masaki had made it clear that the vampires would not get involved in their plans. Lord Yamada requested that they stayed out of the Imperial City, smiling mysteriously when Masaki asked for further details and saying it was human business.

There was one place where the warlord could not send his men: the castle at the western coast where Sho and Jun had their betrothal. It was within the territory of a rival warrior clan. It was no problem, though, for vampires preferred to have very few humans there.

“Lord Yamada and his inner circle will return to pay us a visit in three months,” Masaki said. “The leaders of all clans in Sunrise Land shall be here, with three or four of their clan members. He may have sworn loyalty to us, but he’s still a warlord. He’ll bring his troops, who are not bound to us by any vows. We must be prepared to defend ourselves if we need to.”

At that moment, there were four clans on the main island, three of which were commanded by betrothed couples. The clans from the other islands brought the total count to sixteen.

The following three months were quite tense for everyone at the castle. The clan leaders chose to remain there and start discussing plans of action in case a war erupted. Lord Masaki authorized them to increase their members, but he advised them to do it prudently. He vehemently forbade them to turn any of Lord Yamada’s men, though. Some alliances between clans in the southern islands were formalized through betrothals, as they were currently dealing with the Yamato Empire’s invasion of the Ryukyu Kingdom.

“Why does it feel like war is imminent and we can’t do anything to stop it?” Sho sighed. He smiled when Jun started massaging his shoulders. “Baby, have I ever told you that your hands are magical? Also, how did you know I needed a massage?”

“You were sitting in meetings all day. It’d be strange if you did not need one,” Jun reasoned. “So… about war…”

“Are you concerned?”

“Not at all,” Jun replied. “We can hold our own in battle, that’s for sure, but there’s one thing that could make things hard for us.”

“Go on.”

“Vampire properties are scattered all over the island,” Jun started. “If there’s ever a situation where we need to defend ourselves, we’d have to split our forces among too many places. No matter how strong we are, the humans outnumber us by a huge difference.”

Sho turned to look at him with wide eyes. “That’s a scenario we hadn’t considered.”

The issue was brought up by the two of them at the next day’s meeting. After much debating, it was decided that all clans would start acquiring the lands surrounding the Aiba clan’s territory.

“We have to do it little by little so that our new allies don’t suspect it,” Kazama pointed out. “At least until this generation passes away.”

“The Sakurai clan won’t have much trouble, given they already own lands in the area,” Yokoyama, who had decided to join the Aiba clan permanently, said. “The others could do it through their mediation.”

The clans in the other islands would have it much easier following the strategy. They agreed to start planning their financial moves as soon as they returned to their respective posts. Lord Masaki announced that relocations would be suspended until further notice.

Jun wasn’t surprised to see Kurono among the men who returned with Lord Yamada. Ryosuke, the lord’s nephew, was there as well. The two of them were quite shocked when Lord Masaki introduced Sho as the head of the Sakurai clan and Jun as his consort.

“I didn’t know supernatural creatures also got hitched!” Lord Yamada commented after noticing so many couples among the clan leaders.

“We do, but for different reasons,” Masaki said with a smile. “It’s an alliance. Having a partner increases a vampire’s power, giving them access to the abilities of the other.”

Lord Yamada hummed. “And you’re monogamous?”

“I suppose we are, in the sense that we do not take more than one consort,” Masaki replied. “Most couples aren’t romantically or sexually involved, though, and each partner keeps the freedom to have other lovers.”

Relief seemed to wash over Kurono’s face after hearing that. Jun had to bite back a grin. Later, while they had dinner, Kurono came up to Jun and asked to have a word with him in private. They went out of the room for a moment. Kurono seemed nervous, which was unusual in him. He blushed a little when he started talking.

“Are you and Sho-chan by any chance…?”

“Together?” Jun completed for him. He laughed when Kurono just nodded in response, looking embarrassed. “Not in a way that could be an obstacle to you.”

Kurono’s eyes went wide. “You know about us?”
“Yes,” Jun said with a triumphant grin. “To be fair, I think everyone does. You two haven’t been exactly subtle. Also, I’ve known Sho-san for so long that it’s pretty darn obvious to me when he’s into someone. I knew you had the hots for each other since that little tournament.”

“And you don’t mind?” Kurono raised his eyebrows. “If I was his consort, I’d sure as hell not let anyone touch him.”

“I can understand why you’d think so,” Jun said with a nod. “However, we agreed that it was for the best to stay out of each other’s sexual lives. We have to wait two thousand years for our nuptials. That is a long time to be with just one partner, don’t you think? Everyone likes a little variety now and then.”

Kurono hummed. “So… you’re not worried at all? What if I steal him away from you?”

That right there was Jun’s biggest fear. He wasn’t going to let Kurono know that, though.

“Kurono-san, with all due respect, we are nowhere near the same,” Jun said with a smirk. “You’re a human being. Your lifespan is quite short compared to ours. After you’re gone, he’ll still be here, and I will remain by his side. Would you say I have any reason to worry?”

Kurono looked a bit taken aback. Then, he laughed. “Jun-sama… I think I just fell for you a little.”

They returned to the room discreetly. Kurono bowed at Jun and went back to his warlord’s side. He flashed a smile at Jun from there.

Sho gave Jun a worried look when he sat down. “What did you guys talk about?”

“You,” Jun replied.

Sho gasped, his eyes going wide. “And?”

“And you have good taste in men,” Jun said. “I like him.”

To Sho and Kurono’s delight, Kurono was assigned to remain at Sho’s palace. It was the perfect scenario for their relationship to blossom. They became inseparable. Sho fell for Kurono hard, perhaps more than he had fallen for any of his past counterparts. Jun got a little concerned that when the inevitable end of their relationship arrived, he wouldn’t get over it easily.

A group of thirty samurai was stationed at the palace with them, including Yamada Ryosuke. He was a great sparring partner. He helped Jun master the use of more weapons.

“You’re making time so that they can be together, aren’t you?” Jun asked him one day. “The other warriors also offered to assist our clan members in their training.”

Yamada smirked. “We like to see Kurono-dono happy,” he said. “Plus, it isn’t always that we get such strong opponents to spar with. Our forces will be very well-prepared for the battlefield thanks to you guys.”

They staged mock combats and sieges, as well as other sorts of military operations. It turned out to be incredibly satisfying for the vampires, who found in it a new outlet for their inner bloodlust. Some of them had been repressing that side of them for years. It was a liberating experience. Sometimes Sho and Kurono joined them, but it was mostly Yamada who took charge. There was not a dull day for them during the following five years, until Yamada suffered a serious injury when he fell from his horse during one of their staged combats.

The fall damaged his spine, leaving his body paralyzed. He was just in his early twenties, so young, and doomed to a very unpleasant life. He was a warrior who could never fight again. He’d depend on external assistance for everything until the day he died.

Lord Yamada came to the palace as soon as he heard of it. He prostrated himself before Sho and Jun, begging them to turn the young man into a vampire. His men urged him to stand up, but he wouldn’t budge.

“He’s my late sister’s only child, the only one I have to remember her by. She was my only full sibling,” he said. “I’ll offer my life in exchange for you curing his body if need be.”

Jun was quite moved by the man’s sorrow. “If Lord Masaki approves of it, I shall do it.”

After getting Lord Masaki’s approval, with the warning that it was the only time they’d turn any of Lord Yamada’s men, Jun proceeded. Yamada laughed when he was told about it.

“I’m sorry,” he said, glancing at Kurono. “If I will be the only one turned, that means you cannot become a vampire to stay with Sakurai-dono.”

Kurono shook his head, smiling at him. “It’s fine. I didn’t intend to do that anyway.”

Jun chained Yamada to four pillars, as was the custom. He patted Yamada’s cheek to calm him down before sinking his fangs into his neck. Then, he poured his blood into Yamada’s mouth and helped him swallow. Yamada fell unconscious right away. The warriors and Lord Yamada looked on with pale faces, growing worried when Yamada didn’t show any signs of life.

“D-Did it work?” Lord Yamada asked.

“Watch and you’ll find out,” Jun replied.

There was full silence for the next few minutes. Then, a scream pierced through the night. Yamada raised his head, his eyes two pitch-black pools. The warriors took a step back in fear.

“Sleep,” Jun commanded, his eyes glowing blue. He turned to meet the lord’s eyes. “You can relax now. He’s safe.”

Lord Yamada kissed Jun’s hands, crying as he thanked him over and over again. He asked that his blood be used to feed his nephew the first time he awoke. Jun said it could be arranged, as long as Yamada didn’t drink it directly from him—he did not mention the side effects of getting bitten to avoid traumatizing the poor man. The lord also promised to visit as often as his obligations allowed, and to be there the day Yamada regained his consciousness.

Kurono helped Jun take care of Yamada. He was pretty curious about vampires and made tons of questions. When he heard that a human getting their blood sucked reached an orgasm during the process, he wanted Sho to do it to him. Sho, however, refused to drink his blood.

“If what you want is an orgasm, there are many other ways I can give you one,” Sho told him.

“But you guys said they are way more intense than the regular ones!” Kurono whined. “Can’t we do it just once?”

Sho relented at some point. The sight of Kurono sporting the mark of Sho’s fangs on his throat became rather common after a while.

They were still lovers when Yamada regained consciousness ten years later. Yamada looked a little lost and confused at first, but the presence of so many familiar faces made it easier for him to start dealing with the new circumstances. He suffered no lasting trauma from getting his memories unlocked. Fuma, one of the clan members, was tasked with keeping Yamada safe and teaching him basic vampire skills.

Jun wouldn’t be around after all.



During those years living among warriors, Jun had become increasingly curious about war. And it so happened that Lord Yamada had just started a rebellion to overthrow the military clan that was supporting the emperor. He had allied with a former rival clan to do so.

Jun requested permission to join the warlord’s troops on the battlefield. “I have the training but no real experience,” he said. “I want to go out and do something.”

Lord Masaki was opposed at first. “Remember our vow of no interference.”

“I have no aspirations of power,” Jun replied. “If I promise not to take any position in the human government, will you allow it?”

Jun’s argument won out in the end. He was granted leave, and he’d be using the name Matsumoto Jun, borrowing the family name of his presumed biological father. He wasn’t the only vampire to join the battle; many others who were itching to do something other than hanging out in their territories decided it’d be a good source of entertainment to put their skills to test. Sho was the only one who opposed vehemently to the idea.

“You’re not going anywhere, much less by yourself!” Sho snapped at Jun when he came to inform that Lord Masaki had permitted him to go along with a newly formed battle squadron of vampires.

“I won’t be by myself! Ueda-kun is coming with me!” Jun protested. “He told me you had already agreed to it!”

“Because he didn’t say that you’d be joining him!” Sho banged his fist against a table.

Kurono, who was sitting by Sho’s side, tried to soothe him to no avail. He looked quite scared at that moment. He’d never seen Sho angry.

“You aren’t even of age yet. You’re barely over two hundred years old,” Sho reminded Jun. “The sun can still damage you!”

“Like a sunburn is that big of a deal!” Jun rolled his eyes at him. “You never got this angry when the other clan members were relocated by themselves before their coming of age. I’m stronger than any of them was back then!”

“That was different!”

“How!?”

“They weren’t my consort.”

It was then that Jun noticed: Sho wasn’t mad at him, he was terrified. His eyes had filled with tears, and he averted his gaze before excusing himself and leaving the room. Kurono followed him, looking concerned.

Sho didn’t talk to Jun during the days before his departure. Jun thought that he wouldn’t come to see him off. He was surprised when Sho showed up that morning. Sho hugged Ueda and whispered something in his ear. Ueda nodded, smiling at him. Then, Sho walked up to Jun.

“I cannot convince you to stay?” he asked. He pursed his lips when Jun replied in the negative. “Alright…”

Sho grabbed Jun’s left hand and kissed his knuckles, right over his ring. Jun did the same to him. They stood holding hands for a moment, their foreheads touching.

“I’ll be fine,” Jun said. “You don’t need to worry so much about me.”

Sho nodded, looking resigned. “Will you stay in touch?”

Jun felt a wave of warmth wrapped around him. He sent Sho one of his own in response. “Of course.”

Sho stood on the same spot, watching as the men disappeared into the distance. Jun was riding next to Ueda, who talked to him through telepathy.

“He told me to protect you with my life and that if anything happens to you, he’ll never forgive me,” Ueda said, chuckling a little.

It made Jun feel all warm inside to hear that.



Ten years passed before Jun could return. The campaign had been a success. The former ruling military clan had been deposed, with the two victorious clans sharing the power for now. Jun had seen both warlords meet, and he was certain that, sooner or later, they’d be at war with each other. He hated to admit it, but he couldn’t wait. He’d never felt more alive than when he was fighting the enemy troops, wielding two blades in his hands. As a vampire, seeing so much blood being spilled was quite thrilling.

During the war, he had also happened to hook up with warriors from time to time. His craving for dominating other men only increased with each encounter. Humans were quite willing to submit to his wishes, even those that involved more violent acts. He did his best to avoid harming them in any way, though.

He was happy to return home for a while. Deep down, however, he couldn’t wait to leave for another battle.

When Jun dismounted, Sho ran up to him. His eyes went wide as Sho knelt on the floor, bowing until his forehead touched the ground. When he got upright again, he stayed on his knees. He took Jun’s hand and kissed his ring like he did when they parted.

“Welcome home,” Sho said, looking up at Jun with glassy eyes.

Jun blushed. “Sho-san, please, stand up!” he said, immediately helping Sho get back on his feet. “What’s with you?”

Sho pulled him into a hug. “I don’t know,” he said with a little laugh. “When I saw you again, I felt so relieved that my knees just gave in.”

Not far from them was Kurono, watching them intently. He greeted Jun with a smile. His appearance hadn’t changed at all since Jun first met him, and that was around two decades earlier. He was in his late forties and had chosen to give up his position as a general to stay by Sho’s side, as well as to look after Yamada.

Sho stuck by Jun’s side the entire day. He listened attentively to his stories, although he told Jun that he could have never imagined him to have such a violent side. He also updated Jun on what had happened at the palace while he was away. Yamada was progressing at an impressive pace, although he and Fuma had a rather strange relationship. Most days Sho couldn’t tell whether they were best friends or couldn’t stand each other. Nakamaru, on the other hand, had taken a liking to Yamada. Kurono spent a lot of time with the three of them.

As for the overseeing, there had been a slight spike in zombie sightings. The reason was that the house where a certain clan kept its newly turned members had been attacked. The clan members managed to catch them, but their leader was reprimanded for keeping so many mindless vampires at the same location. There were twenty of them in total.

“The clans are growing,” Sho said. “Ours only added one member, but most clans added at least fifteen.”

“It’s the war,” Kurono commented. “Things will only go downhill. I think it’s wise to increase your numbers in case you ever have to defend your territories.”

Kurono’s thoughts were very in line with the decisions that had been made decades earlier. His suggestion to speed up the clans’ growth merited some consideration. Direct action wasn’t a concern at that moment since their allies had power, but what would happen if there ever appeared someone to challenge them? They wouldn’t set themselves at the top of the human hierarchy, but they couldn’t become pushovers. They’d have to fight with all they had. Lord Masaki liked the idea. He gave free hand to the clan leaders to decide whether they wanted to turn more people or not.

Jun could only stick around for a few months before he was sent away on another mission. During the following years, it continued like that. He’d go and fight for up to a year, then return for a well-deserved break. It was a lifestyle he could see himself getting used to.

Sho didn’t like to see him go. They continued communicating through telepathy, but the messages Sho sent were invariably laced with sadness and longing, despite his efforts to cover that up. It surprised Jun a little. After all, he was still in a committed relationship with Kurono, and they seemed to be as happy as ever. As decades passed and Kurono got older, however, Kurono tried to convince Sho to end things with him.

“You’re too beautiful to tie yourself to an old geezer like me,” Kurono said during a banquet. “I’m over sixty years old, Sho-chan. It’s time you move on!”

Kurono’s hair was completely gray. He had some wrinkles, but not as many as other men his age did. His back looked somewhat hunched, and he complained that it hurt almost every day.

“This body isn’t what it used to be. I can’t keep up with you anymore,” Kurono added with a chuckle. “You should be with someone like Jun-pon, who’s strong and young and attractive. He’d do a much better job at keeping you satisfied.”

Sho rolled his eyes at him. “Stop it,” he said, kissing Kurono on the lips. “You know none of that is why I am with you, my love.”

Sho was as devoted as ever to Kurono. If anything, Jun would say he had grown to love him even more. But Kurono’s advanced age worried Jun. Humans rarely lived over seventy years back then.

Kurono surprised them all by getting to the very advanced age of ninety-seven years old. He grumbled on his deathbed that he was pissed, for he had planned to live at the very least one hundred years. He got quite sick in his mid-nineties, though, and while his original illness was cured, his body never fully recovered.

Sho didn’t leave Kurono’s bedside at all during his last days of life. He looked pale and weak, and Jun had to force him to rest, promising to take care of Kurono in his stead. On his last afternoon alive, Kurono talked to Jun while Sho slept.

“Jun-pon, give me your hand,” he said. He laced their fingers and gave Jun a serious look. “I need you to promise me something right here and now.”

“Anything, Kurono-san.”

“I know that you love going out to battles. Trust me, nobody loved it more than I did back in my youth,” Kurono said with a little smile. “But I want you to stop doing it after I’m gone.”

Jun’s eyes went wide. “Why?”

“My death—no, don’t even try saying I’m not going to die, I know I will. My death will sadden Sho-chan for sure. If you’re also gone, I worry that it’ll be more than he can handle,” Kurono said. “He gets worried sick every time you leave. He’s a bundle of nerves, and he freaks out whenever you’re late in talking to him through telepathy.”

Jun pressed his lips into a line, lowering his head. He had no idea until then that Sho worried so much about him.

“To lose his partner of so many years and be deprived of the company of his most beloved man at the same time would be torture for him,” Kurono continued. He smirked at Jun’s shocked expression. “What? You don’t think he loves you more than he loves me?”

Jun shook his head. “It’s different between him and me since we’re both vampires,” he said. “It’s not love. He can only feel that for humans.”

“Bullshit,” Kurono laughed. He coughed a little but then grinned at Jun. “I’ve only had, what, sixty-something years or so to know him. It doesn’t compare to the hundreds of years you’ve spent together, but I can tell that what he feels for you goes much deeper than he lets on.”

Jun lowered his eyes, not knowing what to say to that.

“In any case… will you promise it, Jun-pon?” Kurono squeezed Jun’s hand feebly. “Will you stay by our Sho-chan’s side?”

Our Sho-chan, he said, as if he considered Jun to be his equal in Sho’s heart. Jun couldn’t help tearing up a little when Kurono kissed his knuckles reverently, the way Sho always did when sending Jun off.

“Y-Yes, of course,” Jun nodded, feeling a knot on his throat.

“Then I can go in peace,” Kurono said. “Call Sho-chan now. I’ll say goodbye to him.”

Jun went out while they said their goodbyes, to give them privacy. He could hear Sho sobbing as Kurono talked. From what he caught of their conversation, Kurono was thanking him for all the years they were together.

“It all started in this very room, remember?” Kurono said. “I’ve been crazy about you since then. You were the best thing to ever happen to me. I almost wish I didn’t have to be parted from you.”

“Please, my love, don’t leave me yet!” Sho cried. “How will I go on without you!?”

“You’ll be fine, Sho-chan,” Kurono replied. “Don’t ever forget that I love you.”

Then, Kurono went silent. Sho screamed in despair when he noticed that his vital signs were gone. Jun rushed into the room and held Sho between his arms while the priest and mortician came into the room, to being the rituals required for the funeral. Sho cried until he fainted, overcome with sadness. Jun felt impotent to see him like that, knowing there wasn’t anything he could do to lessen his pain.



Kurono’s grandchildren took care of the wake and funeral ceremonies. They knew of Kurono’s link to the Sakurai clan, but they had no idea about his relationship with Sho or that they were vampires. Typically, only family members would wear a completely black kimono during the ceremonies, so they found it curious to see Sho and Jun wearing black kimonos and striped black and white hakamas.

“Your grandfather was truly like a patriarch to our clan,” Jun said to explain it. “He raised our parents like they were his children. We owe so much to him.”

The grandchildren were quite proud to hear a lord speak so highly of Kurono. They hadn’t known him much. They agreed that, given the circumstances, it was appropriate for Sho and Jun to mourn on the same level as they did.

Sho swooned while Kurono’s body was being cremated. Jun had to hold him by the waist for him to keep standing. Kurono’s grandchildren gave them a small urn with part of Kurono’s ashes, something Jun profusely thanked them for doing.

To be supportive, all clan members opted to wear muted and dark colors during the period of mourning. Sho himself was only ever seen wearing black. He didn’t talk or go out much, and he refused all invitations to social events.

Lord Masaki was quite considerate. He let Jun and the other clan members take over Sho’s responsibilities until he was fit for duty again. He only expressed his concerns after noting that Sho continued wearing black months after his year of mourning was supposed to end.

“It’s like he’s lost his will to live,” Masaki commented to Jun after talking to Sho in private. “Jun-pon, you have to be careful.”

Jun paid more attention to Sho after that. He noticed that Sho had very little food and blood. He didn’t get enough sleep either. Jun never saw him cry, but Sho had become uncharacteristically distant from everyone. It was worrisome.

He decided to force Sho to keep living. His efforts weren’t appreciated by Sho, as he expected, but preventing him from harming himself was enough reward for the troubles he took. He had to rescue Sho several times that Sho got in dangerous situations on purpose. He couldn’t even lecture him afterward because Sho looked so miserable that he would have felt like a monster if he did.

Three years passed. Sho wouldn’t change his mourning clothes or join the clan for their usual activities. It occurred then to Jun to try something different.

Sho was in the veranda, pretending to watch the warriors training nearby. He had a vacant look in his eyes. Jun sat down and started playing the biwa for him. The songs he played had been composed by Kurono; he had taught them to Jun many years earlier. Jun wasn’t as good with the instrument as Kurono was, but he hoped his interpretation would be good enough for Sho to recognize the songs.

The moment he played the first few chords, Sho’s breath hitched. He looked at Jun with wide eyes, his hands trembling in his lap. He broke down in tears before the first song was over, wailing as Jun continued playing for him. All the pain he had bottled up inside himself those years could finally pour out. By the time Jun was done playing, Sho seemed to have been freed from a heavy burden.

Jun put the biwa aside and wrapped an arm around Sho’s shoulders. “It must have been hard to keep it all to yourself for so long,” he said. “That’s no good, Sho-san. You know that you can rely on me, don’t you?”

Sho sniffed. “You’d be mad if you knew what has been on my mind.”

“Tell me anyway,” Jun replied. “I promise not to judge.”

Sho took a deep breath. “I thought I had come to terms with being a vampire, but I was wrong,” he started. “How can I ever be okay with a curse like this!? I had to outlive the man I love for the third time because I can never grow old with him. And I can’t even kill myself to follow him to the next life because vampires don’t get reborn. But if I keep living, I might meet him in his next life, only to lose him again. It fucking sucks!”

Jun rubbed his back in silence and let Sho continue venting.

“I feel trapped, Jun-san. I just want to be free, to put myself out of my misery,” Sho said. “But you won’t let me do that.”

“Never,” Jun replied. “I promised Kurono-san to look after you when he was gone. And even if I hadn’t, don’t forget you’re my consort. I won’t abandon you; not now, not ever.”

“What if I end up hating you for it?”

Jun smiled. “You’d have to be alive to hate me. I’d be satisfied.”

That made Sho laugh a little. He shook his head, narrowing his eyes at Jun. “I don’t know whether that makes you the best or the worst.”

That night, Sho slept in Jun’s room. He had a serene sleep, probably the longest he had in years. Jun was outside training when he came out the next day. To his surprise, Sho was wearing a dark blue kimono with a dark gray hakama. Those were mourning colors, but they represented less deep mourning than the black he’d been wearing up until then. It was a good start.

It would take a few months for him to leave his palace for the first time since the funeral. Jun accompanied him to inspect the island. He noted that Sho didn’t seem so weak anymore, as he was getting enough nourishment. At the end of the year, Sho attended the celebrations at the castle with the rest of the clan. He turned in early, but he was more willing to resume his social life.

Sho wore vivid colors for the first time at the clans’ summit ten years after Kurono’s death. It was then that Jun considered he had finally moved on.

*

“After I’m gone, you should tell Jun-pon that you love him.”

That was the last thing Sho expected Kurono Kei to tell him on his deathbed. Kurono’s voice was barely above a whisper, probably because he knew that Jun was on the other side of the wall. He gave Sho a mischievous little grin when he said it.

Sho had no time to comment on it, for then Kurono had proceeded to give him his farewell, reassuring Sho that his love for him was unchanged. Sho was so devastated after losing him that he hadn’t pondered on those words again after that day.

The humans were having another period of relative peace. Rumors of betrayals and rebellion brewing up north reached them from time to time, but not much happened. The vampire clans had seized most of the lands surrounding Lord Masaki’s possessions and had also started selling some of their properties, especially those located far from there.

Jun and the other vampires continued their rigorous training. Human warriors came to spar with them from time to time, but gradually more and more vampires from other clans joined them. Even the younglings who couldn’t withstand sunlight held their sessions at night.

Sho didn’t join the training for years, but he watched everything from afar. It was hard, especially when the men organized little tournaments and mock battles. Those things reminded him of Kurono too much.

His clan members insisted that, as their leader, he should join. “We’ll always strive to protect you, aniki, but if you’re ever on the battlefield, you must be as ready for it as the rest of us,” Ueda argued. “There are military leaders who have started acquiring firearms from the continent, and there are also new types of swords that you might be interested in learning about.”

The new weaponry was what intrigued Sho the most. He was gifted a katana, which was shorter and more convenient to use than the long swords he owned. As for the firearms, he found them most interesting. Their projectiles caused quite a big damage when used against humans, but vampires had it much easier to heal from projectile wounds than from deep slashes. They also lost less blood, as the internal bleeding that could be lethal for humans wasn’t a problem for vampires.

When Sho finally joined, he had to take a while to get used to it again. He hadn’t exercised in a long time, so his body was a bit rigid. He hadn’t lost his strength, but it was evident he wasn’t in his best form.

For the next few years, Sho was fully immersed in his role as overseer, his only other interest being training. It was his longest period of abstinence and moderation ever. He was a vampire, though, a creature defined by lust. For blood, for power, for violence, yes. And also, for physical pleasures. Luxurious, exotic foods, exquisite alcohol, all sorts of activities done for leisure rather than work, and, of course, indulging in sexual intercourse with an attractive, stimulating partner. To deprive himself of so many things that were essential to his very existence was detrimental to his well-being. He felt that something was missing from his life those years, but he couldn’t put his finger on what. It was the start of spring, a few months before Jun’s three hundredth anniversary, that he realized what it was.

There were two group training sessions during the day: one in the morning, for human warriors and vampires over two hundred years old, and a second one after sunset, for newborn vampires. Sho preferred to join the group in the evenings, to serve as an instructor, and because the exercises were less demanding. However, Jun ordered him to switch to the morning group.

“The younglings aren’t strong enough opponents to spar with you,” he said. “You aren’t challenging yourself at all by remaining among them.”

Lord Masaki seconded the motion. “That would also free you to attend the meetings with other clan leaders in the evening. You know most of us aren’t morning creatures.”

Thus, it was decided he’d be among the more experimented group. He had different sparring partners every day, as Jun was testing who would be the best fit for Sho’s skill level. One day, Jun’s usual sparring partner wasn’t around, so he decided Sho would spar with him.

“It’s been a long time since we last did this. You’re probably much better at this than I am right now,” Sho pointed out.

Jun laughed. “Don’t worry, Sho-san. I’ll go easy on you.”

The fight turned quite intense. As expected, Jun had become a lot stronger after going to war. He was more flexible and had an advantage when it came to acrobatic moves. Sho, on the other hand, had a superior upper body strength.

After almost an hour of constant fighting, Jun found an opening and made Sho fall flat against the grass. He used his lower body and hands to pin Sho in place. They both were panting, trying to catch their breath. The fight had gone on for so long that they worked up quite a sweat. Jun’s face was flushed, as was usual for vampires after any sort of physical activity under the sun. Sho probably looked about the same.

“Too bad, Sho-san. It’s your loss.” Jun smirked as he looked down at Sho. His voice sounded a bit husky, probably because he needed to hydrate. Still, Sho found it incredibly arousing. The whole situation, being pinned under Jun, was turning him on quite a bit. The way Jun stared back at him told him that he wasn’t the only one affected by it.

“Yeah…” Sho cleared his throat. “You beat me.”

He didn’t make any move to push Jun away, even though Jun’s hold on him wasn’t so tight anymore. His heart raced as Jun tentatively diminished the distance between them. When he was close enough, Sho pecked his lips.

They shared a few short kisses at first. Jun didn’t go for a longer one until Sho did so first. They smiled at each other sheepishly between kisses, both feeling a bit flustered by it all. They stopped making out after a while to get some air.

Sho wasn’t inclined to move yet; he didn’t want it to be over. He grinned when Jun pinned him a little harder and dove for another kiss. Sho didn’t know for how long they continued, but he couldn’t wait to do it again.

The next day, they sparred again. Like the previous time, their fight continued for a long while and ended with Jun subduing Sho. Being manhandled like that was satisfying as hell for Sho. He knew that his desire was evident by the end of it, for Jun had just proceeded to push him flat on his back between kisses afterward.

It became a routine. They sparred, Sho lost, they made out. Nothing had happened beyond that, but Sho was dying for more. He hinted it to Jun by giving him suggesting looks and accidental touches now and then. Perhaps he needed to be more obvious with his intentions.

During a banquet for some important guests from the Yamada clan, Sho ventured to slip his hand over Jun’s thigh while they watched a dance performance. Jun’s expression remained perfectly neutral while Sho fondled him. Everyone was so focused on the dancers that nobody noticed it.

Sho stopped, feeling a bit frustrated that his action hadn’t elicited any response from Jun. He excused himself and went to his room to look for a bottle of sake he had been reserving for that night. When he stood up with it in his hands, he felt Jun’s arms wrapping around his waist.

His breath hitched when Jun cupped his balls. “J-Jun-san…” he moaned, tightening his grip on the bottle as Jun fondled him through his clothes. “The guests…”

“I don’t think you give a fuck about them,” Jun whispered in Sho’s ear. He snatched the bottle away from Sho’s hands and set it on the floor. He trapped Sho against the wall afterward.

Sho felt his face getting warm as Jun started undressing him. The garments lay on a heap at his feet while Jun caressed his body.

“Turn around,” Jun said. He started pumping Sho’s erection with one hand while grinding his hips against Sho’s ass.

Sho stood with his palms open against the wall, throwing his head back as the pleasure started to build up. Jun covered Sho’s mouth with a hand to muffle his moans and sped up his movements. After Sho came all over Jun’s hand, Jun let go of him. He wiped his hand with a cloth and gave Sho an open-mouthed kiss. It appeared he intended to leave.

“W-Wait!” Sho pulled him by the sleeve of his kimono. He was still in a daze, with his legs shaking and threatening to give in any moment.

“What?” Jun asked. He looked so serious that nobody would have been able to tell what he’d just done to Sho a moment earlier.

“Don’t go,” Sho said. He reached for Jun’s obi to untie it.

Jun didn’t show much of a reaction while Sho slid his kimono off his shoulders. He started looking affected when Sho got to his undergarments. His erect cock was resting against his lower belly, its head glistening with come from a previous ejaculation. Sho reached for it, but Jun stopped him. He grabbed both of Sho’s hands, pushed him against the wall, and pinned his wrists above his head.

“I’m at my limit,” Jun said in Sho’s ear, his tone desperate. “Sho-san, if you’re just teasing me—”

“Fuck me,” Sho cut him off. He managed to take hold of Jun’s hands and guided them to his ass. Then, he wrapped his legs around Jun’s waist and pulled him by the nape for a kiss. “I’m all yours tonight,” he whispered on Jun’s lips.

Jun’s eyes flashed purple. He penetrated Sho in one hard thrust and rammed into him against the wall. It wasn’t Sho’s first time being fucked in that position, but Jun was for sure the first man who used such force with him. His toes curled as Jun hit his spot, bucking his hips harder every time. Sho held on to Jun’s strong arms, looking into his eyes that continued glowing a pretty shade of purple. He screamed Jun’s name as he reached his orgasm, clenching his hole around Jun’s dick. Jun came inside him with a grunt. And while both were still catching their breaths, they felt the arousal coming back.

They didn’t make it to the bed until much later. Jun took Sho right on the floor several times. They were too horny to care, though. They fell asleep in a tangle of limbs, completely spent after hours of sex. Sho opened his eyes the next afternoon to find Jun playing with his hair. He blushed when Jun stared back at him.

“Slept well?” Jun asked.

“Y-Yes…” Sho replied.

Jun pulled him up for a kiss. Sho giggled when Jun climbed on top of him and started kissing down his neck and chest.

Later, they finally opened the bottle of sake Sho had been looking for the previous night and had it along with some delicious treats prepared by the new cook Jun had hired for the palace. Sho even asked for a second serving, something he hadn’t done in years. They did nothing but revel in each other’s company that day.

This was it, Sho thought to himself with a grin. Jun had just fallen asleep, and he had his head on Jun’s naked chest. This is what I needed.

Everything was right in the world again.



The new stage of their relationship wasn’t without its troubles.

Jun seemed to have the idea that Sho wanted him to adopt a more dominant persona. He couldn’t be blamed for coming to that conclusion. After all, it was Sho’s attraction for the newer, more aggressive side of him that started their recent encounters.

Sho did enjoy it when Jun took a dominant role during sex. Relinquishing control was something Sho had always found exhilarating. To have Jun top him and use his body whichever way he pleased gave him the most mind-blowing orgasms of his life. That new attitude, as exciting as it was for Sho, didn’t feel like it came naturally to Jun, though.

He only started noticing it after a few weeks. The initial thrill having passed for both of them, it became evident that Jun was uncomfortable. What was going on in the bedroom had started to affect the way he behaved outside of it too. Jun used harsher language when he talked to Sho, but the look in his eyes betrayed that he felt bad doing so. He avoided physical touch when they were in public. Not that they had ever been into public displays of affection, but he moved out of Sho’s way all the time.

“Isn’t Jun-sama acting strange lately?” Yamada, who knew Jun fairly well, asked Sho one evening. “Did you two have a disagreement?”

Sho frowned. “Why do you ask?”

“He’s being mean to you,” Yamada said. “It’s unusual.”

On Jun’s three hundredth anniversary, Sho brought it up while they lied in bed after making love. “You’re so grown up now,” he commented, caressing Jun’s chest. He kissed the mole by Jun’s nipple—he continued to be enchanted by it. “You’ve changed a lot. The difference between you from three hundred years ago and the man you’re now is like comparing a kitten to a tiger.”

Jun arched an eyebrow at him. “That much?”

“Well…” Sho cupped Jun’s cheek. “When you lower your guard, I can see that the kitten is still in there. It just doesn’t come out as often.”

“And is that a bad thing?”

“It depends. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’m really into this new side of you, but I already thought you were perfect before,” Sho said. Jun’s eyes widened as Sho kissed his forehead. “So… if you ever feel like you just need to be a kitten again instead of this tough, domineering tiger, I want you to know that it’s fine. Both sides of you are equally amazing.”

Jun sighed in relief and buried his face in Sho’s chest. He let Sho pull him into his embrace and whisper sweet words in his ears. He looked up at Sho with bright, joyful eyes, blushing to the tip of his ears. “Sho-san, I’m not a ‘tiger’. Not with you, anyway,” he mumbled. “I thought that’s what you wanted from me. Because, you know, t-that’s… that’s the kind of men you like.”

Sho sighed and rested his forehead against Jun’s. “Jun-san, you don’t need to force yourself. I like you for who you are.”

They reached a better balance after that night. Jun continued being more assertive and dominant when they were in bed. However, he made it clear that he wanted Sho to dote on him. It appeared that until their talk, it hadn’t occurred to him that both things were compatible. They engaged in more displays of affection in private. It made both of them more at ease to keep that to themselves.

Things advanced quite nicely between them. It reminded Sho of those amazing years they had been together, back at the castle. After their second vow renewal, however, something interrupted their peace.

A group of traveling entertainers arrived at Lord Masaki’s castle. They were quite famous in the province, especially the lead singer and dancer, a man named Yano Kenta. Since the clan leaders’ summit was coming soon, Lord Masaki hired the performers to stay until then at his castle.

“You won’t believe how incredible these guys are!” Masaki told Sho and Jun excitedly. “I told them to come to your palace tonight so that you can see them. I think you’ll agree with me.”

The clan members received the entertainers with much applause. They performed at night after supper was served. Sho almost choked on his sake when he saw the lead performer. No fucking way…

Yano Kenta was Taka. He had reincarnated.

“Yano-san designed the kimonos for the whole troupe himself,” Masaki commented to Sho and Jun. “He’s a very accomplished artist. And you hear that voice?”

Sho just nodded and turned to look at Jun, whose eyes were trained on Yano’s form. His expression was impossible to read. He was gripping a bottle of sake with a lot of force. He ended up breaking it when Yano beamed in their general direction after the song ended, and then he rushed out of the room.

“Jun-san!” Sho jumped up to his feet and followed him. He found Jun in his room, whining while he cradled his right hand, which seemed to be bleeding. “Let me see that.”

Jun hissed when Sho extracted a large piece of ceramic from the palm of his hand. He moaned as Sho sucked a little blood from his wound and then licked it so that it’d heal immediately.

“What happened, baby?” Sho asked. “What made you get so upset?”

Jun pulled his hand out of Sho’s hold. “That guy is Taka, isn’t he?”

“He is,” Sho replied with a nod. “What about it?”

“Last time, after he showed up, y-you…” Jun gnawed on his lower lip, his eyebrows contorting into an expression of pure despair. “I don’t want it to happen again!”

Sho couldn’t stand hearing him talk like that. He pulled Jun against him and started kissing him. Jun seemed to resist for a moment but then melted under Sho’s touch. He allowed Sho to climb on top of him and undress him. He held on to Sho’s shoulders while they made love.

Just as they had their release and were making out, there was a knock on the door. “Sho-chan? Are you and Jun-pon in there?”

Sho pulled back for a second to reply. “We’re here, my lord, but we’re busy.”

Jun had turned on his side, with his back to Sho, who wrapped an arm around him. Sho proceeded to suck on Jun’s neck while fondling his balls. He used his other hand to cover Jun’s mouth.

“Oh, but I was going to introduce you to the performers! Yano-san really wants to meet you both!”

“Tell him I’m sorry, but we can’t meet tonight. He’s welcome to visit us again another day if he wants,” Sho replied. He smirked when he noted that Jun was hard again. He stopped fondling him and grabbed his hips.

“S-Stop! He’ll hear us!” Jun looked at him with wide eyes. Masaki was still outside, trying to talk Sho into coming out of the room.

Sho pushed Jun to make him lie on his stomach and placed a cushion under Jun’s hips. Jun looked at him over his shoulder with a supposedly angry expression; the purple hue of his eyes betrayed his true thoughts.

“Come on, Sho-chan! Let’s go back!” Masaki whined.

“Can’t do,” Sho said. He spread Jun’s buttocks to start fingering him. “We’ve got a private party going on in here.”

That seemed to be hint enough, for Masaki laughed and said his goodbyes. As soon as he was far enough from the room, Sho withdrew his fingers and replaced them with his cock. They made love until the morning. Sho should have asked Jun more about why he got upset, but he didn’t.

Three days later, at the summit, Yano and his group had another performance. They really were very accomplished entertainers, and their dancing was so elegant, so perfectly executed, that Sho couldn’t look away. That is until Jun forced him to do so.

Without caring about the other clan leaders, Jun pulled Sho into a long, passionate kiss. Both of his hands were cupping Sho’s face in a way that he couldn’t look anywhere else but at Jun. Sho managed to use telekinesis to roll down the blinds around them, to get some privacy even if everyone already knew what was going on. Jun broke the kiss for a second to smile approvingly at him. Then, he pushed Sho until his back touched the floor and climbed on top of him to continue making out.

Jun only freed him after the music stopped. He sat up again and rolled up the blinds with his telekinesis. He looked perfectly composed, not even a hair out of place. Sho, on the other hand, was still lying on his back, breathless, with swollen lips and so erect it was painful. He blushed when he heard the laughter this caused among the other clan leaders.

Lord Masaki and Yano Kenta came to greet them a couple of minutes later. “The lovebirds over here are, as you already know, Lord Sakurai and his fair second-in-command, Matsumoto Jun.”

“Nice to meet you, my lord. And Jun-sama,” Yano bowed at Sho, then turned to bow at Jun.

Masaki left them for a moment, to drag another of the performers to meet another couple of clan leaders. Yano grinned when he was gone and scooted closer to Sho. “I’m so glad that things worked out between the two of you,” he said. “Last time we met, I remember that you hadn’t told Jun-sama how you felt about him.”

Sho’s eyes went wide. “Pardon?”

“Although… I cannot remember when that was.” Yano frowned, his arms folded across his chest. “Jun-sama did look younger than now, though. Must have been some years ago!”

Sho and Jun exchanged a shocked look. It appeared that, as the previous time, Yano remembered Sho for some reason. But he also remembered Jun!

“Do you remember anything else of our last meeting?” Sho asked.

Yano chuckled. “Not much, to be honest,” he said. “I’m sure we’ve met before, and that Jun-sama was with you back then, but you weren’t lovers yet.”

“It’s been a while indeed,” Jun said. He grabbed Sho’s hand, intertwining their fingers. “Things have changed.”

“I can see that,” Yano nodded. “I’m glad.”

They had a little talk, in which they could confirm that Yano Kenta resembled his past counterparts a lot. Jun relaxed as time passed, but he still didn’t let go of Sho’s hand. He’d sneakily press kisses to Sho’s shoulder or neck sometimes, giving him an innocent look afterward. Masaki returned later and took Yano with him. The man waved at them as he walked away.

“He’s the same,” Sho said. “He even said that he likes fishing.”

“You won’t accept his invitation to go fishing with him and Lord Masaki, will you?” Jun asked. He scowled at Sho when Sho took a second too long to answer.

“Come with us,” Sho said. “It’ll be fun.”

That was enough to appease Jun and put an end to his bouts of jealousy towards Yano Kenta.

After that, there were no other major issues to speak of during almost a hundred years. It was the longest uninterrupted period of their relationship thus far where neither of them had other lovers. There had been no planning on their part, no conscious decision to only have each other. Both knew that they were free to be with someone else if they so wished and hadn’t done it anyway. Their companionship was something that Sho came to treasure even more with each passing day. He liked to believe that Jun felt the same way.

That was also the last period of peace before war erupted all over Sunrise Land.



They were enlisted in the newly created vampire army shortly after their third vow renewal. Much to their shock, they were separated.

“As the overseers, your clan is vital to us right now, both here and on the battlefield,” Masaki said. “We need half of you to remain in vampire territory while the other half goes out there.”

“I did get that,” Sho said, irritated. “What I don’t understand is why Jun-san and I can’t be in the same group! He’s my consort, for fuck’s sake!”

“It’s precisely because of that!” Masaki continued. “Not only can you both use the same skills, but you also are the only two vampires with those particular abilities who have a stable telepathic bond regardless of distance. If one of you is out there, he can keep us informed of what’s happening on the battlefield!”

Jun sighed. “I hate to admit it, but he’s right, Sho-san.”

Sho let out a strangled cry and buried his face in his hands. “Why are we participating in this anyway!? It’s a human war!”

“Our human allies have deserted us. They’re being cornered by their rivals on all fronts,” Masaki replied. “We need to infiltrate all factions to know what’s going on, and we need good warriors here to guard our lands. We’re not joining this war to favor either side, Sho-chan. We’re fighting for survival.”

The vampires had to make a lot of difficult decisions during the previous decade. They had sold all the properties and land they owned outside of the province where Lord Masaki’s castle was located, as it was becoming hard to defend them. They used their riches to get a hold on the entire province and any adjoining land they could acquire. A vast area of the main island was now under their full control. They had human tenants living within their borders, who had no idea that their lords weren’t human. That was the territory they needed to defend.

Jun had been assigned to the group that would be infiltrating the human battles. He’d take half of the clan members with him, along with vampires that had been selected from other clans to temporarily swear loyalty to him. Sho would be patrolling the vampire lands with another group of vampires. They had no choice but to comply with their orders.

They were together the whole day before their departure. They knew it’d be difficult to be apart after so many years of permanent companionship. They promised to visit the Soul Realm every time they slept, to share their memories of the day and exchange information. They had discovered how to do so recently: with just one touch of their foreheads while they were in the Soul Realm, they could see everything the other had done during the day.

“How long do you think we shall be apart?”

“I hope not too long,” Jun replied, burying his nose in Sho’s nape as they cuddled for the last time before their departure. He inhaled deeply and let out a sigh. “I’ll miss you terribly.”

Sho smiled. “Yeah, I’ll miss you too.”

Their groups rode together until they reached the border of the vampire lands. Jun looked over his shoulder one last time and waved goodbye at Sho.

They wouldn’t meet in person until their next vow renewal, one hundred years later.



The humans had gone crazy—at least that was how most vampires saw it. All over Sunrise Land, in the five islands, the humans were fighting with all they had to achieve power. The military clan that used to be their allies on the main island had been obliterated after a failed rebellion. New factions had risen, and there was no telling how long it’d be until there could be some semblance of peace.

The first few years were quite difficult for everyone. All vampires old enough to withstand the sun were defending the borders of their territory. Even Lord Masaki himself had to join them from time to time. They had built houses all along the border for the squads, keeping the precaution to not make them too similar.

Word started getting out among commoners that there was peace within their lands, so the vampires had to look out for unarmed peasants who popped up near their posts. Once they were confirmed to not be spies, something they had to check through mind control, they were allowed to pass. The humans were happy to work at the vampires’ fields, saying that the conditions were much better than at their former lords’ lands.

Some neighboring landowners with no affiliation to the military clans approached the vampires. They were willing to cede some of their lands to the vampires in exchange for protection. However, that meant the border the vampire army defended was getting larger.

“Lord Okada said that he has a group of fifty younglings that turn a hundred years old in a few months,” Sho told Jun through the Soul Realm. “There aren’t any that can relieve you and your men by now, though. It’ll take at least a hundred years to get enough younglings over two hundred years old.”

“It’s fine. I think everyone is having enough entertainment over here,” Jun replied with a laugh. He cupped Sho’s cheek. “The only hard part is that I won’t be able to see you in person.”

Jun and his men used seduction to infiltrate multiple armies. They were fighting among the ranks of every existing faction, switching sides every few months to avoid detection. The hostilities hadn’t stopped for long enough to give them time to go back to the vampire lands.

They appeared to be enjoying the battles. Vampires were predators, it was no wonder that they felt so at home slaughtering enemies. It satisfied their lust for violence, not to mention that there was an abundance of bodies to feed on. Jun’s memories showed how savage he could get. When Sho called him a ‘tiger’ before, he hadn’t meant it literally, but it fit more than he thought. Whether it was in the field, with his dual blades stained with blood, or seducing high-ranking officials, Jun had unleashed his inner beast.

To have powerful warlords at his feet, begging for his cock, proved to be something that satisfied Jun a lot. He drove them mad with desire and then used that to find out their deepest secrets and strategies. Like Lord Masaki had instructed him, he never used that information to favor any human. It was for the benefit of his brethren—for Sho and their clan—that he made the humans’ fantasies come true and then left them with vague memories that they probably thought were only wild dreams.

“You’re kind of evil!” Sho laughed as Jun showed him some of those episodes in the Soul Realm. “You could at least let them keep the memories.”

“Ah, but it’s a lot more fun this way!” Jun smirked. “Sometimes I do it just to keep them thirsting over me, not knowing they technically already had me.”

Sho shook his head. “See, that’s just mean for no reason.”

“I have a reason! A very powerful one!” Jun huffed. “If these fools weren’t all trying to murder each other, I could be with you at home right now. I despise them for keeping us apart.”

Sho kept Lord Masaki and the other vampire lords informed of the humans’ movements thanks to Jun’s reports. In turn, he provided Jun updates regarding the situation at the vampire lands.
Vampires at the other islands had followed the main island’s example and isolated into their territories. They promised to send reinforcements as soon as their younglings were old enough to join the battle. They had more than enough men to spare and a much smaller territory to cover.

It was around two years after it all started that Sho came across someone both he and Jun had been expecting to appear. It was near his current post, a mansion located very close to the border. Sho had gone to the river, was washing his body when he noticed a man looking at him…

“Stop.”

Sho frowned when Jun pulled away, cutting the transference of memories once they reached that part. “What is it?”

“Ohmiya Yuuji,” Jun mumbled, looking down. “I’d forgotten he was coming next.”

“His name is Yamada Taro this time,” Sho replied. “From what the guys who let him cross the border said, he’s not related to the Yamada clan, though.”

“I see,” Jun nodded. “Anyway, you can keep whatever happens with Yamada to yourself. I’m not interested in knowing.”

It was an unexpected reaction. They had agreed to being just friends, for the time being, knowing that vampires weren’t very good at abstinence. Sho hadn’t objected to seeing Jun’s memories when he seduced men left and right, even though he did feel somewhat jealous.

Still, he chose to accept Jun’s terms and kept the affair to himself. They never talked about it after that day.



The night Sho met Taro was lovely. The full moon was bright, not a cloud covered the millions of stars shining above; summer was almost at its end.

Sho had just returned from a month-long battle north of the mansion that served as his group’s headquarters. The warriors just kept coming at them, they barely had time to recharge their energies. He was exhausted and quite stressed out. At the mansion, only three members of his clan awaited: Yamada, Nakamaru, and Fuma.

“You should go to the river and take a bath, Sho-sama,” Yamada suggested after their meal. “The water is quite pleasant this time of the year.”

Sho thought it was an excellent idea. Warm baths were great, but as it was so hot that night, the river sounded like a better option. He changed into a yukata and took a towel and soap with him. Nobody offered to join him, so he went by himself.

The river was just a short walk away. Sho undressed, folded his clothes, and set them on a rock. He submerged into the water, sighing at its pleasant temperature. Later, after scrubbing his body and rinsing it again, he noticed that a man was watching him, with his mouth hanging open.

He was a little surprised, but he couldn’t deny that excitement bubbled up inside him when he recognized that face, so beloved to him in other times. He smirked as Taro tried to pretend that he hadn’t been watching all the while.

“Come here, I won’t bite,” Sho said, beckoning him over. Taro gulped. He walked up to Sho, looking a little nervous. “Your name?”

“Yamada Taro,” Taro replied. “And you are?”

“Sakurai Sho.”

At hearing that, Taro went red. He knelt on the ground, lowering his head. “My lord! I’m so sorry! I… I had no idea!”

Sho laughed. He tapped on Taro’s head. “Stand,” he said. “I’m not mad at you.”

Taro didn’t look up as he got to his feet again. He gasped when Sho raised his face by the chin.

“You liked what you saw, didn’t you?” Sho purred in Taro’s ear, making him shiver. “You can be honest with me.”

“Y-Yes…” Taro whispered. He whimpered a little when Sho grabbed his crotch.

“Undress,” Sho said, letting go of him. He walked back into the water and waited for Taro.

Taro was a little different from his past incarnations. For once, he happened to be a virgin. He didn’t try to hide it—being direct was a trait he did share with his past selves. “I’ve never done this before,” he told Sho after they kissed for the first time.

Sho hummed. “You mean with a man?”

“With anyone,” Taro chuckled. “I was never much interested in women. And I didn’t know if I’d ever find a guy who was, well… like me.”

He looked a bit embarrassed when he said it. He probably saw himself as a deviant. It wasn’t rare in rural communities to be prejudiced against those who didn’t fall into what was considered normal when it came to sexual matters.

Sho cupped his face to give him another kiss. Taro sighed and put his hands on Sho’s chest, allowing Sho to deepen the kiss. He ran his hands down Sho’s sides, then down his back and butt. He gasped when Sho pressed their bodies closer, making their erections touch. Given Taro’s inexperience and bashfulness, they didn’t go too far that night. They made out and masturbated each other. Then, after getting dressed, they went separate ways.

Their formal introduction was a couple of days later. Taro was courteous and gentle when he greeted Sho. He had his siblings with him, the oldest of whom were just fifteen years old. Sho took a liking to the family, so he decided to help them out as much as he could.

Taro was the eldest son of a large but poor family. He was the only child from his father’s first marriage. His father remarried when he was a teenager and had six more children with his second wife. The two of them had died during a siege a few months earlier.

Yamada had been patrolling when Taro and his siblings crossed the border. “I recognized who he was in his past life right away,” he admitted to Sho after Taro left. “After doing the usual check, I brought them back with me.”

“They asked for permission to work at your fields,” Fuma said. “We helped them build a little shack. The four younger children stay at home all day, tending to a couple of animals and an orchard. Taro-san and his fifteen-year-old twin brothers go to your fields every day.”

“We let the kids come here sometimes to eat and play, though, since they don’t live far from here and get bored sometimes,” Nakamaru said. “I hope it’s not against the rules. He was such a good friend to us in his past life; it’d feel wrong not to do so.”

Sho laughed. “Not at all! It pleases me very much that you’ve done this,” he said. “But why hadn’t you mentioned anything?”

The three exchanged amused looks. “We wanted it to be a surprise,” Yamada said. Then, he smirked. “Although you didn’t look much surprised.”

In the following years, Sho and Taro became close friends. The Yamada family came to visit the mansion almost daily. Sho couldn’t be around all the time, due to his duties, so he saw them every few days. He taught Taro to play the biwa which, as expected, was something he ended up excelling at. He even helped him find good opportunities for his siblings to work elsewhere once they grew older, as it wasn’t very safe for the family to live so near to the border.

They kept meeting by the river whenever both had the time to spare. They mostly spent the night talking about their worries. Taro didn’t understand much about battles, but he let Sho talk his ear off, ranting about this or that warlord that made things difficult for their army. And if they happened to be in the mood for it, they hooked up on a grassy patch under a large tree. It was a way of unwinding for the two of them.

The main reason why they didn’t become a couple was the terrible timing of their meeting. Sho was preoccupied with the war efforts, coming and going all the time with his reports, assisting in battles, and patrolling. Taro, on the other hand, was struggling to feed his siblings. Later, he started getting worried about how he’d help them marry into other families. Neither of them was in the right mindset to fall in love.

Taro moved from the area around fifteen years later. All his siblings had gotten married by then, so he was living all alone. The second eldest had been fortunate to marry the only daughter of a wealthy farmer who lived east of there—still within vampire territory, but outside of Sho’s lands. He wanted Taro to live with him. Taro couldn’t be prouder.

The day they said their goodbyes, Sho was a little sad to see him go. He hoped that when they crossed paths again things wouldn’t be so hectic.

*

When the day for them to meet for their fourth vow renewal approached, Jun could feel Sho’s nervous excitement floating around him. It started about a year earlier. He didn’t know whether Sho was purposely sharing the feeling through their telepathic bond, or the feeling was just so strong that Sho couldn’t keep it under control, but he found it most endearing.

Jun, too, couldn’t wait.

The last hundred years had been a constant battle for him. He had fought under all banners, infiltrated even the Emperor’s inner circle. Matsumoto Jun was now a name that inspired fear in anyone that heard it. A ruthless mercenary whose true allegiance was unknown, whom powerful men wished both to murder and take to their beds. It was thought that the name itself was an epithet to design a certain type of warrior than just one man. That or a moniker passed down the same family line, to continue perpetuating the legend. Jun wanted to forget about Matsumoto Jun for a while. He knew he could only do so between Sho’s arms.

It was quite cold the day they had to meet. Jun sat on the glowing spot for hours, waiting for Sho’s arrival. The sun was setting when Sho finally appeared on the beach. He ran into Jun’s open arms, beaming at him. They kissed each other senseless, their hands roaming all over each other’s bodies. It had been way too long since they held each other. Jun wondered how he had resisted all those years.

“You have a beard now,” Sho commented with a little laugh. “I didn’t know you did.”

“I kept it hidden from you in the Soul Realm. I wanted it to be a surprise,” Jun replied.

After the vow renewal, they went straight to the room assigned to them at the castle nearby; they had permission to stay there for a week. They barely stepped out of their bed, opting to use that time to indulge in each other’s company. Whenever they left the room, their hosts gave them shocked looks, probably due to how loud they got at times. They had nothing to be ashamed of, so they never apologized for it.

It was sad when they had to part ways, but they knew it’d have to be like that. Reinforcements had arrived from the other islands, but none of them could replace Sho and Jun in their posts. An overseer’s disciple had just had his betrothal ceremony, which meant that in the future there would be a couple capable of doing what they did. Until then, they’d have to be strong and endure separation.

Not much changed with humans in the following decades. The vampires continued monitoring them closely. They concluded that the situation would remain that way until a strong enough military leader appeared and managed to unite the rival factions.

“If us vampires were able to intervene, the war would be over,” a vampire commented. “Jun-sama has all the warlords pining over him. Even the Emperor wants him! If he asked them to make peace and submit to him, they’d do it in a heartbeat!”

Jun laughed when he heard that. The words spread among the vampires, who thought it was a hilarious solution to the war, and eventually got to Lord Masaki’s ears.

“He said that it could be a possibility,” Sho told Jun through the Soul Realm. “If they don’t solve it in the next two hundred years, he said he’ll free you from the vow of no interference so that you can become Supreme Ruler and have the warlords and Emperor become your harem.”

“For real!?”

“He even said he’d kneel before the Elder of the East himself to get approval for it.”

Jun shook his head. “He must be quite tired of the war.”

“You know how much he likes to travel and throw parties. He hasn’t had time to indulge in any of his predilect activities. He’s going nuts,” Sho said. “If it wasn’t because of the little harem that he has going on at his castle, he’d be murderous.”

Lord Masaki’s latest way to amuse himself was to go all over the vampire territories to find talented artists and bring them to his castle. He had dancers, musicians, painters, and actors living within his walls. He couldn’t spend a lot of time there, but it was said that when he visited the castle all of his proteges would pleasure him, and not only through their art.

“Taka is there,” Sho told Jun. “His stage name is Kaibutsu, he’s a dancer. I heard he’s Lord Masaki’s current favorite.”

“Did Lord Masaki recognize him?”

“Not at all!” Sho replied. “He’s got a poor memory for faces, especially when it comes to humans. He says they’re not worth memorizing.”

Thankfully, nearly a decade before Sho and Jun’s next vow renewal, their fifth, the humans reached a temporary truce. A system of feudal lords governed by the triumphant warlord, who proclaimed himself the new shogun, was established. The Emperor became more of a figurehead, although in Jun’s opinion the Imperial family had lost most of their power centuries ago, back when they decided to isolate the court and focus more on their leisure than on governing.

Lord Masaki found himself in a rather uncomfortable position, though. The five vampire territories within Sunrise Land had to send their lords to a meeting called by the shogun. The lord who didn’t attend would risk continued warfare. To avoid it from happening, Lord Masaki, along with four overseers, went to meet the shogun.

The five vampires managed to use their powers into manipulating the humans to stay out of their borders and not subject them to strict watch or taxation. With that out of the way, they could focus their energies on what mattered: getting their lands’ internal affairs in order.

The vampire population was counted by the thousands. It didn’t present a problem yet, but Lord Masaki banned turning any humans into vampires until new order. He sent most of the vampires who had come from the other islands during the war back to their homelands. Some had chosen to stay, renouncing their former clans to be adopted by one of the main island's clans. Sho and Jun’s Sakurai clan, for example, had around six hundred new members and was the largest in Sunrise Land.

Due to the new system of human government, the overseer clans became their respective islands’ vampire army. They were tasked with keeping the borders secure and conducting island-wide inspections every couple of months, to check that there weren’t vampires living in human territory and to monitor new developments in the political sphere. Within the vampire lands, the army was scattered all over the border, in groups of ten members. Each group was free to decide how many would be on duty over a determined period. The members rotated places every year, and fifty had to remain at either Lord Masaki’s castle or Sho’s palace.

Three hundred years of relative peace ensued. For Sho and Jun, however, work wasn’t over.



Intimacy was the last thing on Jun’s mind. Perhaps it was due to how long he’d been on the battlefield, almost two hundred years of uninterrupted war-related activities. He’d grown so accustomed to it that he still slept at the warriors’ quarters instead of the rooms that were reserved for his personal use. When Sho told everyone that he’d be splitting them into groups to leave for the border, Jun immediately offered to go with them.

“I’ll report to you weekly via telepathy, or whenever there’s anything urgent,” he said. “And I can check on all the groups while I’m away.”

Sho frowned. “I was thinking more along the lines of having weekly telepathic reports from each group leader and checking on them in person once or twice a year.”

“Well, I think my way is better,” Jun replied with a grin. “No offense, Sho-san.”

“And when will you be home?” Sho asked, sounding exasperated. “I have barely seen you for the past two hundred years!”

“I’ll drop by every few months,” Jun said with a shrug.

Jun didn’t get why Sho was so insistent on it. His brains were still clouded by bloodlust, he had no interest in any pleasure that didn’t include the chance to drain someone’s lifeforce. It’d take years of boring patrolling around the vampire territory’s border for him to go back to his senses and, finally, start longing for home. But he had taken too long. Sho was looking for company elsewhere.

Things had changed during the time Jun was absent. Small human towns had been started popping up within vampire territory. If the vampire population had grown, humans weren’t far behind. Vampires mingled with humans more often, opting to use illusions to hide their identity rather than forming permanent alliances with specific families.

“Sho-chan has gone back to romancing humans,” Masaki informed him. He rolled his eyes as he talked of Sho’s latest conquests. “Nothing long-term, thank goodness, but you know it always ends up escalating.”

Jun sighed. Their vow renewal had passed some months earlier. It meant that Ohmiya Yuuji would reappear sooner or later.

It happened during a summer festival in the town nearby. Lord Masaki was excited after hearing of it, so he asked Sho and Jun to accompany him. They disguised themselves as peasants and joined the celebrations. There was tons of music, alcohol, and food, courtesy of the town’s wealthiest families. Lord Masaki was having the time of his life. He got Sho to join in the fun, and both were quite inebriated. Jun decided to stay sober to keep an eye on them.

Jun saw Yuuji long before Sho did. The same face and stature, the same mischievous gaze. And when he first saw Sho, his jaw had gone slack. He didn’t take his eyes off Sho for the rest of the evening. He seemed envious when he saw other people talk to him. At last, he came up to their group after a while, holding a bottle of sake.

“Hey,” he said with a grin. “I had never seen the three of you around here.”

“Oh, we don’t live in this town,” Masaki replied, giggling. He was already half-drunk. “We just came because of the festival.”

“Well, then welcome! My name is Wakui Takuro,” the man replied. “I moved here recently, but if there’s anything you need, don’t hesitate to tell me.”

As he said that, he was staring right at Sho. Both seemed to want to jump each other right then and there.

They drank and chatted for a while. Jun noticed that Takuro was getting bolder with the way he touched and flirted with Sho. At some point, Masaki had escaped from the group. As he was quite inebriated, Jun excused himself to go find him. “I’m sorry, but I need to bring that fool back here before he does something stupid,” he said.

He had to walk all over the town before he could locate Masaki. After dragging him back to the spot where they had been sitting, he realized that Sho and Takuro were gone. Sho didn’t reply to telepathy, so he used his powers to make Masaki fall asleep before setting out to find Sho.

He’d rather not have seen what he saw.

Takuro and Sho were having sex in a small alley between two houses. Takuro was taking Sho against the wall, with one of Sho’s legs wrapped around his waist. Jun turned away and went back to where he had left Masaki sleeping. Sho came back later, looking disheveled.

“So… we’re leaving now?” he asked.

“Yeah, I was just waiting for you,” Jun said. “Where were you?”

“Uh, I…” Sho blushed when Takuro walked right past them and winked at him. “I just took a walk.”

Right…

The next time Jun saw Takuro was at the palace. Jun had ordered a set of plates at the local master artisan’s shop. Takuro happened to be said artisan’s apprentice. To say that Takuro was shocked to find out that Sho was Lord Sakurai, the head of a branch of the Aiba clan that ruled over the entire province, would be an understatement. And while that seemed to intimidate him a little, it didn’t stop him from flirting openly with Sho. He was thrilled when Jun placed an order for a new set of teacups, for it meant he’d get to drop by again.

His visits became more frequent, and Jun got to learn a bit about his life. Takuro was the only son of a neighboring town’s priest. He had little interest in spirituality, so he stopped living at the temple when he was a teen and moved to a small house he had in the outskirts of this town, which he inherited from his mother’s family. There were rumors that he had actually left his home because his father blamed him for the accident that caused his mother’s death, but his mother’s relatives didn’t agree, so they took him in.

“We need to test him,” Sho told Jun. “Bring out a biwa for him when he comes tomorrow.”

Jun hadn’t done it on purpose, but the instrument he brought that afternoon to tea happened to be Kurono’s favorite. Jun played a song on it, he couldn’t even remember where he’d heard it, but he used to play it a lot when he was away during the war. He taught it to Takuro, who didn’t have much trouble learning the melody. As expected, he was a good musician.

Suddenly, Sho excused himself and left the room, leaving both Takuro and Jun confused. Takuro gave Jun back the instrument and ran after Sho, who had rushed to his room. Jun silently followed the two of them.

“Did anything happen, Sho-sama?” Takuro asked.

Sho sniffed, shaking his head. He was crying. “My brother is an asshole,” he said, laughing as he wiped his face. “That song you played was composed by someone I loved. He passed away years ago, but I… I still get emotional when I hear it.”

Jun’s eyes went wide. Oh, fuck! He had completely forgotten that it had been Kurono who taught that song to him.

Takuro gasped. “Oh… I… I’m so sorry! I didn’t—”

“It’s not your fault. You didn’t know.”

“I feel terrible now,” Takuro said. “Because of me, you were reminded of something so painful.”

He grabbed Sho’s hand, caressing it with his thumb. Sho blushed when he closed the distance between them by taking a step forward.

“Do you still think of the man who wrote that song?” Takuro asked, his voice barely above a whisper. Sho nodded a bit. Takuro cupped his cheek. “Is there anything I could do to get you not to think of him?”

Sho let out a low moan when Takuro kissed his cheek. He closed his eyes and let Takuro continue kissing him, getting close to Sho’s lips every time. Takuro kissed the corner of Sho’s lips, then pulled back to talk right into Sho’s ear.

“Tell me, Sho-sama,” he said. “Can I help?”

He waited for Sho’s affirmative reply to crash his lips against Sho’s.

Jun stormed off the palace, feeling like his heart was being broken into a million pieces. This time it had been him who unwittingly pushed Sho to someone else’s arms. He used a technique he learned during the war to prevent Sho from using telepathy to locate him or communicate with him. He returned a few days later, feeling tired of wandering around. To his surprise, Sho was waiting at the palace’s entrance.

“Where the heck were you!?” Sho snapped at him. “Why have you been ignoring my telepathic messages!?”

“It’s not ignoring, it’s called shielding,” Jun corrected him. “It’s a little something the guys from the southern islands taught me. Pretty useful!”

Sho grabbed him by the front of his kimono. “You’ll stop it at once!” he growled.

“Unhand me. Now,” Jun growled back. He bared his fangs at Sho when his words did not affect him. “I don’t have to tell you where I am all the time. You’re not my master.”

“You’re right, I’m not. I’m your consort, but I guess that doesn’t mean as much,” Sho said, letting go. He gave Jun a disappointed look and turned around to leave. “Next time have the decency of leaving a note. That way I won’t worry for nothing.”

The situation between them was tense for a long while after that. Sho refused to talk to Jun about anything that wasn’t related to their shared duties. He didn’t spar with Jun when he trained, he didn’t take Jun with him when he went out of the palace. And when he was absent, he didn’t use telepathy to talk to Jun.

Wakui Takuro’s visits became so frequent that Jun wondered why didn’t he simply move in as he had done in other lifetimes. It irritated him to see that man. What annoyed Jun the most, however, was how happy Sho was whenever Takuro dropped by. If at least he had been on speaking terms with Sho, the blow would have been easier for him to take.

He confronted Sho one day, after much deliberation. “I have the right to do it!” he told himself. “I’ve only ever asked him not to ignore me over his human lovers. Well, he’s doing it, isn’t he!?”

So, he walked into Sho’s room with firm and decided steps and trapped him against the wall. Sho raised an eyebrow.

“Let me go, Jun-san,” Sho said in a warning tone. He tried to push Jun away unsuccessfully. “This isn’t funny. I have things to do.”

“Like what? Hanging out with that human?” Jun growled.

“Takuro-san is my good friend, so—”

“Friend!?” Jun gripped Sho tight enough for his knuckles to go white. “You’re going to deny that he’s your lover?”

Sho rolled his eyes at him and then, in a swift move, managed to get Jun’s hands off him and push him to the floor. He sat on Jun’s belly and pinned both of his wrists to the floor. “I said friend because that’s what he is,” Sho replied. “Why would I lie about something like that?”

“B-But you two… you spend so much time together! A-And I know you…” Jun blushed and looked away as he remembered when he saw them hook up at the festival.

Sho smirked. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say you sound jealous, Jun-san,” he said, leaning until their faces were almost touching.

“It’s hard not to be when you don’t pay me any attention.”

Sho huffed. “Can you complain when you’re the one who chose to spend years away from me?”

Jun didn’t know what to say. He started feeling embarrassed and stupid. His eyes filled with tears as he wondered whether he had any right to censure Sho’s behavior in the first place. It wasn’t like they were a couple at the moment to start with.

To Jun’s surprise, Sho let go of his wrists to cup his face and start kissing him. When they parted for air, Sho laughed at Jun’s dumbfounded expression.

“I don’t get it,” Jun mumbled as Sho started kissing his neck. “I… I thought you and that man…”

“I just told you we’re just friends, didn’t I?”

“Well, yes, but…”

Sho sighed and gave him another kiss on the lips. “I wanted you to believe I was with Takuro-san to make you jealous. Because I, too, was feeling ignored. And I hate that.”

Jun snorted. He suddenly felt so relieved that he started laughing until tears ran down his cheeks. Sho kissed his tears away. Then, he started undressing Jun to continue kissing his entire body. He looked up at Jun with adoring eyes while his lips worshipped Jun’s skin. Jun propped himself up on his elbows to get a better view of him.

From the corner of his eye, he noticed they were being spied. Takuro was outside, close enough to the room to see everything that was going on.

Jun smirked when their eyes met. He pulled Sho up to give him an open-mouthed kiss. He looked at Takuro again while Sho sucked his nipples. He had a rush of satisfaction when Takuro looked away and left.

Takuro returned to his hometown a few months later. He reconciled with his father, so he would take his rightful place as a novice priest at the family’s temple. His relatives said that his decision was motivated by heartbreak. Nobody knew who his supposed lover was, though.

Sho didn’t seem too affected by the departure, possibly because he and Takuro kept a constant correspondence until the latter’s death. At times Jun couldn’t help having some bouts of jealousy, but since Sho was otherwise faithful and devoted to him during those decades, he didn’t mind it that much. The two of them even attended the man’s funeral at his family’s temple.

Jun could swear he saw Sho shed tears during it, but he’d rather not think about it.



A series of minor skirmishes between warlords made Lord Aiba decide to start preparations in case another war erupted.

“You may form new nests as soon as you can,” he said to the vampire lords during the summit. “Get volunteers among the human soldiers working for you. Assign a few experienced vampires to watch over the nests. We don’t want to have zombies running around now of all times.”

From the Sakurai clan, Jun was chosen to turn the soldiers. The nest would be located at the building he had been occupying since the palace’s reconstruction, but once the ten years passed, the newborns would be moved to Lord Masaki’s palace, to make room for a new batch of volunteers. He had Nakamaru, Kamenashi, and Yamada assisting him after they discovered that, as Jun’s children, they could also exert some mind control over their new siblings.

It was after the second group of newborns was sent to Lord Masaki’s castle, barely months after Sho and Jun’s sixth vow renewal, that a man who introduced himself as Shinigami arrived at the palace, looking for a job.

“I heard this is where Lord Aiba’s troops gather,” he told Jun when he arrived. “I also heard that if I wanted to offer him my services, it’d be Lord Sakurai whom I’d have to convince.”

Every once in a while, there were men who arrived at the palace saying similar things. Lord Masaki had given him the order to test any volunteers. If they fit Jun’s standards, they’d join the troops that stayed at either Lord Masaki’s castle or Sho’s palace, until an available post was found at the border for them. To prevent them from noticing anything strange about their masters, they didn’t move places once they were assigned to a post so that they didn’t run into the same vampires more than once.

When the man said his name, the men around Jun gasped. He was a warrior who defected from an enemy warlord’s army; he had quite a reputation for being ruthless. Also, from what the men said, he was thought to be dead. When Jun questioned him about his reasons, Shinigami laughed.

“I slept with the lord’s daughter, and she was found pregnant right before the lord secured a marriage to the shogun’s son for her,” he said. “He sent two men after me, so I killed one and told the other to lie when he returned.”

The man refused to give any certain details about his background. He asked Jun to call him Shinigami-kun. And, given he passed the test, he was granted stay at the palace.

Jun didn’t identify him as Ohmiya Taka until that night. The men were drinking and having an animated conversation, some started singing when they were drunk. Shinigami stood up and danced with a grace that awed most of the men around him. There were loud cheers and applause for him by the end of his short performance.

When Sho returned two days later, he did recognize Shinigami right away. And Shinigami walked up to him like he did every time, with a wide grin. “Hey! Haven’t we met somewhere?”

Sho chuckled. “Oh, I highly doubt it.”

Shinigami frowned. “But why is your face so familiar to me, then?”

The same question every time. To that day, Sho and Jun had no explanation for why Shinigami seemed to remember Sho’s face. It was similar to the way Yuuji was always attracted to Sho at first sight, but it weirded Sho and Jun out more. At least Yuuji didn’t remember anything from the previous times they met.

Contrary to the expectations raised by his fame, yet perfectly in line with his past lives’ counterparts, Shinigami turned out to be a quiet, calm man. He was even a little bit of an airhead at times. He liked to paint and tried to teach Sho how to do it well. He praised Sho’s abilities, saying that he found Sho’s drawings were expressive and had a lot of charm. Sometimes, Sho and Shinigami would go fishing together in a lake nearby or at the river. That seemed to be another recurrent interest.

The truly new interest of his was that he liked to make confectionery and was quite talented at it too. Sho was quite addicted to the sweets he made, so much that he delayed the time for Shinigami’s departure for a while.

It took until the New Year’s banquet for them to hook up. They had seemingly started kissing as a joke while they were tipsy. But then, they got so worked up that they were undressing each other before reaching Sho’s room. Their moans could be heard from a long distance. Jun found some of their garments strewn outside of the room. Suddenly, he heard laughter.

“I can’t believe we seriously did this,” Shinigami said.

Jun chose not to find out whether that was a one-time thing or not—it’d hurt more, to be honest. In any case, the affair was cut short a couple of months later. Seeing Shinigami’s ability, Lord Masaki offered him to become a vampire. Shinigami rejected the offer, his memories of that meeting were wiped, and he was sent to the border with a group of soldiers.

Jun had no idea if he and Sho ever met again. He didn’t want to know.



A routinary check-up on the vampire warriors at the border three years after Sho and Jun’s seventh vow renewal gave them the first sign of impending war.

They had just used mind control to send the human warriors to sleep while they received the vampires’ report. It was standard those days, given that the number of humans joining their army had increased and they couldn’t risk being discovered.

“We’ve detected the presence of more warriors from clans that aren’t allied with us in this area,” one of them, who was currently the leader of the group, said. “They haven’t tried anything, but we find it very suspicious.”

As they were talking, a man came out of nowhere and attacked the group. The man launched himself at the vampires with a sword in his hand. Sho stopped him in one swift move, trapping him beneath his body.

Sho’s eyes flashed blue. “Do you come alone?”

The man gasped as Sho pressed his sword against his neck. His eyes glowed bright blue as Sho took hold of his mind. “Yes,” he said. “I was sent to assassinate your men and take you hostage, Lord Sakurai.”

“By whom?”

“The shogun’s nephew,” the man replied. “He wanted you to force Lord Aiba into joining a coup.”
Sho’s eyes went wide. “Sleep,” he commanded the man. He released his hold on him afterward.

The shogun’s nephew was a warlord whose territory was located north of the vampire lands. There had been rumors of him planning to go to war against his uncle, but this was the first real proof they had of it.

Sho ordered the men to tie up the man with chains and cover his head. He and Jun would take him straight to Lord Masaki’s castle. In the meantime, he ordered all vampires to reinforce the posts in the borders.

Lord Masaki wasn’t surprised by the news. “It’s starting again,” he said with a sigh.

Because of the measures they’d been taking since a century earlier, they had enough younglings over the age of a hundred years old to join their army’s ranks. With some protective gear, it wouldn’t be an issue to have them at the border posts when it was necessary. The ones from clans different to the Sakurai would all have to swear allegiance to Sho’s clan during the war. Preparations for it were already underway.

“Alright, I want to see the face of the man they hired,” Lord Masaki said.

Neither Sho nor Jun had noticed who the man was until they removed the cloth bag covering his face and the gag over his mouth. There was no doubt: he was Ohmiya Yuuji’s latest incarnation.

Lord Masaki stared the man down for a while. “Your name.”

Sho kicked the man when he didn’t reply, earning a glare from him. “You heard Lord Aiba. Talk!”

The man muttered a curse between his teeth, earning another kick. He grunted, glaring at Sho angrily. “They call me the Shinigami.”

Masaki snorted. “People aren’t original, huh?” he commented with a laugh. “Does every warlord’s personal killer immediately get that moniker?”

The man shrugged. “If that’s not good enough for you, you may call me Koro-sensei.”

Masaki arched an eyebrow. “That another alias? Mind telling us what it stands for?”

“You’ll never know,” the man said with a grin.

There was no need to use mind control to get him talking. He gave the vampires the information they wanted but requested in exchange that Lord Aiba told his employer that he had died during his mission, to save his pride. He gave them details about the place and time where he was supposed to rendezvous with his master.

It was decided that Lord Masaki would leave with a group of vampires immediately and ambush the warlord. They’d then come in with a severed head—they’d create an illusion for them to think it was Koro-sensei’s head. Sho and Jun would keep the assassin under strict watch at their palace. It was mostly empty, with all the men having gone to reinforce their defenses.

Koro-sensei seemed to enjoy taunting Sho. He tried to escape once, but Sho trapped him right away with an ease that left the man astonished. He continued his taunts and seemed to enjoy when Sho got riled up enough to beat him.

“If I didn’t have these things trapping me, this would go a lot differently,” he said, showing his shackles. “But you’re not man enough to face me like that.”

Sho chuckled. “You seriously think I’ll free you?”

“I don’t,” Koro-sensei smirked. “Because you’re afraid that you wouldn’t be able to catch me.”

His remarks finally affected Sho, who untied him for a fight. Jun would be nearby, to make sure Koro-sensei wouldn’t escape.

The fight was brutal. Sho didn’t hold back at all, using more strength than he usually did when fighting humans. He subdued Koro-sensei, accidentally injuring one of his arms. Instead of being mad, that seemed to make Koro-sensei stop antagonizing Sho. It was as if he decided that being trapped by such a strong opponent didn’t discredit his abilities. Sho, moved to compassion by the man’s state, shackled his feet instead of his hands. He tended to Koro-sensei’s wounds and talked to him every day.

In the meantime, Lord Masaki had dealt with the warlord. He planned an ambush and caught the man, along with thirty of his men. To drive his point home, he kidnapped the warlord’s favorite concubine, a beautiful young man, and threatened to murder him if the warlord didn’t back off. He brought the concubine back to his castle, to ensure that the warlord would keep his word. He’d be returned once the warlord made good on his word of telling his allies to retire their troops from the borders of the vampire lands.

It worked like a charm. Reports got from the patrolling groups that the human armies were retreating. Lord Masaki was pleased that his plan worked, although he felt bad for the means he used to intimidate the warlord. On the other hand, he supposed it wasn’t all that different from the warlord sending a trained assassin to kidnap Sho.

As for the assassin, he didn’t know what to do with him. “We can’t kill him, but we can’t let him stick around,” he said. “Who knows what he might attempt. I don’t trust him.”

“I don’t think he has bad intentions, my lord,” Sho said. “For now, he’s requested to become a servant at our palace.”

Masaki hummed. “That’s quite risky. I don’t know, Sho-chan.”

“I’ll take responsibility for him.”

Lord Masaki allowed Koro-sensei to stay, on the condition that he remained shackled by both feet and wrists. Also, Sho would have to keep the man by his side at all times. It meant, however, that Koro-sensei would find out that his master was a vampire.

The revelation didn’t shock Koro-sensei at all. “I knew there was something not normal with you. Nobody is that strong!” he said after Sho explained things to him. “Rest assured. I won’t tell anyone of this.”

It wasn’t like he’d have much chance to do so anyway. After all, the palace was still mostly empty, with only a few human servants around to deal with the upkeep of it. Koro-sensei was allowed to spar with Sho and Jun every couple of days, during which time he’d be unshackled. The rest of the time, he remained like that.

Jun didn’t know how far they ended up going. He presumed that, like the other times, they eventually hooked up. Koro-sensei stayed at the palace for years after all. Jun did his best to keep busy so that he’d have an excuse not to see what was going on between them. Sho wasn’t allowed to leave the palace without his captive anyway.

Sadly, the relationship had a tragic ending to it.

As they expected, the rebellion staged by the shogun’s nephew plunged the whole island into war. Some warlords tried to invade vampire territory, which meant that the vampires had to fight them directly. Sho and Jun were leading the army, and Koro-sensei had joined them. He was much older then, nearing his fifties, but still quite adept at all forms of battle.

They had been fighting a certain warlord for days. They had the upper hand—since most of their warriors were vampires, they didn’t tire as easily as humans did. Sho was so focused that he didn’t see a man coming to attack from the back. Koro-sensei, however, did spot the man and pushed Sho out of the way on time. He was stabbed right through his chest.

The man attacking him let go of his sword in horror. “Koro-sensei!? Is it you!?”

Sho and Jun learned what the nickname meant that day. Koro-sensei had trained many assassins during the time he worked for the shogun’s nephew. The man who stabbed him was the apprentice who gave him the nickname. It was a bittersweet victory.

They won the battle and annexed the warlord’s territory after taking the warlord, his clan, and his army prisoner. Most of them were executed, but Lord Masaki chose the strongest men of the lot to turn them into vampires. After that, another two warlords surrendered to Lord Masaki. Within the conditions to surrender, they had to send their strongest men and clan members to the castle, where they were offered to turn into vampires in exchange for the protection of the humans in their territories. The vampires wouldn’t take control over their lands, but they requested accommodations to set new posts along the extended borders.

Lord Masaki’s terms of cooperation with the warlords were simple: they’d be there to protect the entire region from attacks coming from other warlords, but the Aiba clan would not go out of the established borders to engage in offensives against the warlords that weren’t under their sphere of influence.

By the end of the war period, which lasted over two hundred years, the whole northeast and east of the main island were under vampire surveillance, although the core vampire territory was much smaller and more heavily guarded. The vampire army came to be feared by enemies, gaining fame for ruthlessness and bloodthirst.

Sho and Jun parted ways again after their eighth vow renewal. Sho would remain within vampire territory, and Jun would be at the extended borders. They continued exchanging information every time they got some sleep through the Soul Realm. While the war continued, they only meet in person for a week every time they renewed their vows. Jun knew that the Ohmiya duo appeared again, but he refused to hear about them. He knew their names and the basics about their lives.

First, there was Taka, whose new incarnation’s name was Mitsuo, a confectionery seller from a small town. Sho frequented his business for years. And while he had a sweet tooth, Jun wondered if it was that why he kept going back to it. He knew that Mitsuo wasn’t married.

Around a hundred years later, Yuuji’s reincarnation, Aoki Taiki, the only male child of a wealthy warlord, came to live at Lord Masaki’s castle. His father had recently surrendered to the Aiba clan when he and Sho met. Unlike the usual pattern, the meeting happened before Sho and Jun’s vow renewal, so he was in his early twenties instead of his thirties. From what Sho told Jun, he acted like a bratty, spoiled prince during his stay at Lord Masaki’s castle, which lasted a few years.

Finally, a little before the war ended, Taka’s next reincarnation, a wealthy merchant called Hiroyuki who was on his way to Edo, stayed at Sho’s palace for a while. The man left when the news about the new shogun’s victory reached the region.

At that point, Jun had become confused about his feelings for Sho. He could be perfectly indifferent about Sho’s love and sex life for decades, which made him believe that perhaps he had gotten over Sho. But then, the moment either of the two Ohmiya men showed up, his heart started aching again. And he was frustrated because Sho just couldn’t stay away from them.

“That means you still love him,” Toma, also known as Lord Ikuta, who had been fighting by Jun’s side the entire war, told Jun as they were riding together as they returned to the vampire lands. “If you didn’t, you wouldn’t mind it.”

Jun sighed. He couldn’t deny it, unfortunately.



Part Four