Feudal Japan

Before she went to slide the door across, the Emperor challenged her "My new wife refuses to consummate our marriage tonight? I am the Emperor and your husband, you obey me!" She stopped while holding the door, trembling in her flimsy shift.

Finding the courage to confront him, Yoshimura explained to him "It's been a long and happy day of celebration, my husband is too drunk and Tomatsu is sleeping. My husband, I have already succeeded in bringing our beautiful son Tomatsu into the world, I do not need or desire to bear more of your children. You are my Emperor and husband, will you respect me and my wishes as your wife?. You disgrace yourself, threatening me with my life for me to bow to your wishes. A real and honourable man, need not do this or treat me this way. I have only been yours because I respect and honour my father, even though I never agreed with him" Too drunk to care he waved at her a dismissive gesture, as if to shoo her to sleep in the other room. He was just about to start undressing when the bedroom door knocked, he looked over his shoulder, then to the sliding door where Yoshimura was pulling at it.

"Leave that, don't close it!" he stumbled across the room to open the main double doors to the bedroom, leading out into the corridor. Being greeted by Keiko and her lady-in-waiting, presenting her to him before leaving them both with a bowed head.

Keiko would smile at him after bowing her head, eager to impress him "I could not help but hear my Emperor's troubles with his new wife, I have come to you tonight to honour your agreement for me to be your favourite. If she won't have you on your wedding night, then I will" He welcomed her into the bedroom, closing the doors behind her, looking to his wife standing scantily clad in the divided section of the bedroom. She goes to close the sliding door again, looking at him with some disgust at his drunken behaviour, ignoring the Cheshire grin from Keiko, playing on her lips.

Looking across to Yoshimura, seeing the sliding door inching closed "I said, don't close it, you will watch and learn how to please your husband, your Emperor. If you do not satisfy me Keiko here or others will" Yoshimura did not seem to worry about this, she knew he would take different lovers all the time before the marriage.

It would be her lady-in-waiting that gave Yoshimura food for thought though. Laying on her floor mattress in the dividing room, she had overheard everything also. "My Empress, forgive my interruption if I startle you, your new husband openly takes another lover in front of you. I know you do not love him and know he has taken many partners before now. You must consider, if she succeeds in falling pregnant with his baby, that child will have a claim to power after Tomatsu."

Yoshimura would turn back to watch Keiko kissing the Emperor while starting to undress for him. Yoshimura replied to her lady-in-waiting, weighing heavily, considering her words "Even if she falls pregnant, Tomatsu will still be first Emperor in succession, why should it matter? Why should it bother me?"

Both figures in the bedroom in front of her eyes were naked and kissing, hands sliding and brushing all over each other's flesh. Laying themselves on the bed together, the Emperor taking up his position on top of Keiko between her soft, wide thighs.

The lady-in-waiting lowered her head before replying to Yoshimura again. "My Empress, do you think someone like Keiko with her desire for power and status will not threaten your son's position in succession? To place her own son first! Will you not defend your new marriage against such a challenge on behalf of Tomatsu and protect his rightful future?" stunned by this revelation and knowing her past with Keiko and men she fancied in the village where she grew up. She knew her words to be true, that Keiko was a scheming, manipulating woman who had always opposed and interfered with her life.

"I cannot stop this? I cannot prevent them? I will take Tomatsu out of this place, if she can provide him an heir, he can have succession. I will not raise Tomatsu to challenge to be Emperor, not with so many people around that are disloyal and will want his death. If my lover Richard will forgive me and help me escape, maybe protect and hide us away? where we can live a quiet life, raise Tomatsu safely." Yoshimura sighed to her lady-in-waiting watching as Keiko now mounted the Emperor's cock riding him on the bed, vigorously.

Holding a supportive hand to Yoshimura's shoulder, the lady-in-waiting accepted what was being said before responding. "Can you really spend a life on the run? looking over your shoulder, not knowing where the danger may come? I was there the day the foreigner returned to the palace, I saw the look in his eye change from hope to heartbreak. Do you think you can now count on his support? There are many here loyal to tradition, loyal to the line of succession, they will not accept Keiko's potential future son, while Tomatsu lives." Turning to her lady-in-waiting with a serious face, knowing the gravity of the situation.

"You are talking about civil war, a coup, the death of my husband, probably the death of Keiko, her unborn baby and Yamasaki. Leaving her daughter an orphan to achieve Tomatsu's position as Emperor, I cannot support such action and have so much death on my conscience" The breathless sounds of sex filled the room while the 'trying not to watch' pair stood in the sliding doorway whispering among themselves. Turning his head to check that his wife was still in the partition gap and making sure she was obeying his demand. Reinforcing his authority over her by making her kneel and watch, to humiliate her while he took pleasure from another woman, Keiko. Yoshimura gently lowered to the hard wood polished floor on her soft rounded knees, stone faced and expressing no emotion. With the discussion she had just been having with her lady-in-waiting swirling in her mind, she watched reluctantly as Keiko brought the Emperor to a climax on their marital bed. Laying together as if lovers, both of them out of breath and cuddling up. Yoshimura would silently take her leave, finally sliding the dividing wall behind her. Sharing the mattress with her lady-in-waiting in the adjoining room as her baby son slept soundly.

Chapter Palace days: Insurrection part 1 Schemes and sabotage

Although the husband Emperor and wife Yoshimura shared a bed together, their marriage and life was strained to say the least. The more Yoshimura refused him the more he would turn to Keiko. Neither husband and wife would speak of the activity when together, maintaining an uneasy status quo until Keiko finally and successfully gave birth. Naming the Emperor's second son Katsuro, meaning 'victorious son' the scheming and impatient Keiko was still not satisfied with Yoshimura and Tomatsu's presence. Drawing up plans of her own with Yamasaki advising her misadventures, sending a message to her father to align his troops in the north to side with Yamasaki's palace guards.

Late one evening the European Richard was summoned to the palace, after taking up residence in the surrounding city, outside the palace walls. He had been getting drunk most nights ever since that day since he was reunited with Yoshimura. He had visited his favourite soap houses, and took no satisfaction or pleasure from what he paid for. Meeting the Emperor in his study room while he was talking with Yamasaki about troop movements. Noticing the Emperor's favourite Keiko at his side, cradling Katsuro in her arms while she breast fed him, Her lady-in-waiting tending to Mayumi, the Emperor would turn to Richard, seeing him in a dishevelled, unkempt and untidy state. He was smelling of alcohol and looked as if he had not shaved for several days. He was almost unrecognisable to his eyes as he tried to include Richard in his plans being drawn up, while playing out strategies over a map. Not realising until looking at the map of troop placements that Yamasaki's had a hidden agenda. Realising that scheming plans were being drawn up between Keiko and her fathers troops. After the meeting Yamasaki would pull Richard to one side to straighten up his act and try to set him straight, not knowing what had gotten into him. The former saviour and part time foster father Yamasaki would try to persuade loyalty to his secret cause, unwittingly confiding Keiko's plans with him. Richard showed no care or enthusiasm for such schemes, only reminding Yamasaki "you have command of many men here in the palace and support from the north with Keiko's, fathers forces. You do not need my loyalty or participation to achieve your goals"

Yamasaki responded by manhandling him by the scruff of his tardy uniform, pinning him to a corridor wall "you're a disgrace, presenting yourself in this state to the Emperor, arrange the shipment of guns for our cause. Your loyalty to Katsuro and our cause will be rewarded"

Laughing in his face, while pinned to the wall, with casual drunken disregard, speaking with the courage of truth that alcohol brings. "You disgrace yourself, I am now ashamed to think of you as a father figure. This man I see before me has become a stranger to my eyes. You conspire and dishonour your loyalty to the Emperor, you plan to subvert and replace him with an illegitimate heir. Your standards have fallen so low, you have lost much respect following this woman, that has you by the balls. I never realised you were so easily swayed and led by your cock" Angering the former father figure even further, receiving another shove against the wall before being released.

Grunting a stern retort to him, Yamasaki huffed "Clean yourself up, sober up, arrange the guns for her fathers forces in the north" Walking away from each other in the palace, Yamasaki was unsure of his foster son's attitude and defiance. Turning to a servant on his way out, Richard instructed them to pass on a message face to face with either Yoshimura or her lady-in-waiting. Informing them illicitly of Keiko and Yamasaki's schemes and plans, before mounting his horse in the stable yard and heading for the city garrison. Taking personal responsibility for meeting with an up and coming new young soldier, General Kagawa. Finding his way initially to a tavern and drinking heavily while waiting, sending word to the garrison for Kagawa to meet him. The armed and sober young General making inquiries in the packed out tavern. Seeking out the urgent messenger before finding him slumped face down at a table. Being the only European in such a place had its advantages when wanting to be found, the General ordered some of his men to assist in the removal of the incapacitated Richard from the premises. Supporting him under both arms across their shoulder backs and dragging him away outside to try to sober him up. Waking to find himself on the floor of the soldiers garrison, surrounded by Kagawa and his men, he would finally be able to relay Yamasaki's plans. Thinking about it carefully, Kagawa did not have enough men and support to go up against the Emperor's forces in a direct assault on the palace. He would entrust Richard to ride out with a message to the mountainside accommodation where his and Yoshimura's parents resided. Warning them of possible reprisals and to help facilitate a move to a more secure location. The next morning a more sober lone figure mounted his horse and made good speed through the countryside. This was while Kagawa, with some of his finest soldiers split up, some headed to the palace to replace the guards around his sister. While the rest diverted to intercept the rifles heading to Keiko's father in the north, dawn broke by the time Kagawa's men intercepted the latest shipment of rifles. The lines of Emperor's soldiers and wheeled transport cart wound its way through the tree lined pass as Kagawa's men descended upon them at speed.

Arriving at the palace with a handful of his finest soldiers, Kagawa would appear as being loyal to the Emperor and Yamasaki, meeting with them to inform them of unfortunate news. Making his troops sound heroic and loyal, Kagawa would report that his scouting party was unable to repel an invasion they spotted looting the shipment. Explaining that his men arrived too late and the rifles had already been stolen by enemy forces. He requested that he and his travelling few men remain in the palace. Taking time to visit his sister and nephew after asking the Emperor if he could assume responsibility for her personal security. The Emperor would allow this, dismissing Kagawa before turning to Yamasaki to send a message to Keiko's father about the delayed shipment. With a bowed head he too was dismissed from the Emperor's presence, he would leave, reporting to a brooding with impatience and disappointed Keiko. The Emperor would then retire to his bedroom to his wife Yoshimura, finding her ready in her night shift and her lady-in-waiting in the adjoining room with a silent Tomatsu. Laying together Yoshimura would settle with her back to her husband while he tried to make advances to have sex, getting the usual cold shoulder of refusal.

Waking frustrated in the morning he dressed and arranged a meeting with the more enthusiastic Keiko, she was eager to have Katsuro become first in the line of succession. Trying to convince him to arrange for a divorce from Yoshimura so that she could marry and take her place. He was against this proposal, remaining loyal to his first born Tomatsu in refusing to arrange a divorce. This silently angered Keiko, frustrating her to accelerate her own plans and schemes, out of spite and now raising Katsuro she too refused to be his favourite. Although not impressed, he simply turned to the remaining women of the O-oku to choose another favourite to entertain him the next night. Yoshimura would be made to sleep in the adjoining room with her lady-in-waiting and son, listening to another favourite Mitsuko, sexually pleasuring her husband all night.

After almost a year the Emperor had grown tired of Yoshimura's refusals and defiance, leaving the bedroom under her occupation he arranged to empty out another for himself. This would be so he could entertain Mitsuko and future favourites, undisturbed. Kagawa and his men would organise a rotation guard of loyal soldiers, keeping his sister safe. She would reward him by introducing him to a very loyal but older Kimiko.

After being made the Emperor's reject and gifted to Richard for one night, Kimiko had no home or family to be sent back to. Yoshimura had made sure from her husband that she would remain in the palace as a second lady-in-waiting to her. This placed Kagawa in the prime position to be able to delicately organise Yoshimura's escape from the palace with Tomatsu and with the support of her ladies-in-waiting. Plotting a diversion with his men outside the city, they would gather and reunite with a returning Richard supplying them with the stolen arms.

Chapter Palace days: Insurrection part 2 Keiko strikes back

Brooding with her blood boiling impatiently, Keiko stressed at Yamasaki, frustrated that the Emperor just chose other favourites instead of divorcing his wife. Ordering the General to organise his coup on this night, she would go and distract the Emperor by organising his bath replacing his usual servant. This plan was leaked to Yoshimura by Keiko's lady-in-waiting looking after Mayumi and Katsuro, but remaining loyal to her Emperor while in the service of Keiko. Yoshimura would consult with her brother that while her husband was occupied in the bath, this would be the best time to make their escape. The bathroom would be sealed and guarded with both Keiko and the Emperor inside, she would only wear a silk dressing gown of a soap house worker to meet him. Undressing in front of him while he lay in the water he asked where his usual servant was and why she was there. She smiled and knelt to one side of the metal tub, reaching into the water to toy with his cock, pressing her lips to his. " I have sorely missed my Emperor, the General no longer favours nor pleases me, I gave your servant the night off to come to you. I wish only to be your favourite again, that boney bitch Mitsuko will never fall pregnant with your heir like I have."

Meanwhile and as silently as possible with Tomatsu, Kimiko and the lady-in-waiting were entrusted to slip through the palace with some of Kagawa's men for protection. While Kagawa himself accompanied his sister, all being loaded and travelling light on horseback in the courtyard, racing away into the city. Yamasaki's men sounding the alarm bell but failing to close the Fujimon gate in time before they exited, hearing the bell from the bathroom Keiko pulled a long sharp eight inch metal pin from her dark folded hair and plunged it into the bare neck of the Emperor. Watching the water run red as his body lay in the steaming tub, collecting her silk robe and wrapping herself up, she also made good her escape. The guards posted outside the bathroom were distracted and confused by the defence bell ringing, allowing her to go unnoticed to her bedroom. Reuniting with her children and lady-in-waiting which had them settled for the night. With the bell ringing the women of the O-oku would close their only main entrance, barricading themselves inside. Yamasaki searched through the palace, organising men to their posts and a scouting party to go after Yoshimura and her brother. Before the men could escape the courtyard, Richard had arrived with the rest of Kagawa's men causing a distraction and closing the main gate. Kagawa's men bought time for Yoshimura to escape further, holding Yamasaki's men valiantly defending the Fujimon gate before making their escape, as palace soldiers began to outnumber them.

With the power vacuum needing to be filled and the eventual discovery of the Emperor's body in the bathroom, Yamasaki's and his men had already assumed controlling key positions in the palace. They had also managed to execute some opposing Generals which were too slow to respond to the alarm bell. Acting in the name of her son and heir Katsumo, in the absence of Tomatsu change was swiftly brought in by Keiko. She quickly assumed power declaring herself as the first Empress until Katsumo was old enough to claim his rightful position. As predicted this did not please the O-oku women, devoted to the tradition of being loyal to the male line of succession. Seeing them as her main rivals and competition Keiko would be quick to cut off supplies or execute anyone sympathetic to the women trapped in O-oku. It would be a long time before the women would eventually relent and negotiate for supplies, Keiko's only condition was their sworn loyalty to her son and her rule by proxy as his guardian. Yamasaki spent the next few weeks, sending out scouting parties, moving troops in a search for Tomatsu with no success. Some of Kagawa's soldiers and men were not so lucky however, being rounded up and executed on the spot for treason. They would be accused of organising and colluding with the enemy to murder of the Emperor. Richard had made good his escape with some of Kagawa's men towards the small fishing town trading port. He would leave instructions for the Dutch traders to no longer support the cause of the new Empress. Arranging for another port to be used to supply soldiers still loyal to the last Emperor, Yoshimura and her son Tomatsu. He would leave the small fishing town alone wandering into the mountainside valleys, moving from village to town.

Keiko would still face many challenges to her authority and rule, most of these were swiftly dealt with by accusations of disloyalty and summary executions. These would be carried out under orders from her uneasy alliance with Yamasaki, both had become power hungry in the aftermath. The ageing General disagreed with her decisions over military matters, having seized power. Keiko would set about trying to keep him in his place, while he tired of her public embarrassments and refusals to have sex with him at night. The Naginata soldiers of the O-oku would illicitly conspire and plot to overthrow Keiko many times, in collusion and communication with loyal forces beyond the city walls. Keiko would seek out among the generals loyal support, choosing some of the more younger men to spend the night with in exchange for protection. This would enrage Yamasaki once he found out through the network of whispering servants in the palace. However when making a confrontation with Keiko about this he was met with stiff resistance and opposition. The General would draw his sword for the last time that night as the other men outnumbered and killed him under orders from Keiko. In an attempt to draw Richard or Yoshimura out of hiding, she would let it be known across the empire of Yamasaki's demise. Also making sure this would also serve as a warning to others which may try to undermine and overthrow her control. To drive her point home, she would arrange the random execution of some of the Naginata soldiers as she suspected their treachery.