2026-08-15: A Ceremony at Christmas
- Log: A Ceremony at Christmas
- Cast: Yua Ijuuin, Miho Ijuuin, Tyrrha Ijuuin, Takashi Ijuuin, Natsumi Ijuuin, Juuzou Ijuuin, Ritsuko Ijuuin, Yurika Ooshiro, Fuyu Ooshiro, Yume Ooshiro
- Where: Rengedai - Ijuuin Estate
- OOC Date: 2026-08-15
- IC Date: Dec 25 2012
- Summary: This time, when Yua gets married -- in the eyes of her family, if not the law -- she really does get to wear her ryusou, just like Miho wears her mother's kimono. They dedicate themselves to each other, as Yurika ensures the Gods are watching, and have a wonderful day... even though they're still missing the presence of their mother on Yua's side.
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ijuuin has posed.
Yua and Miho are attending Father's estate for Christmas. There's a ceremony they want to do, on this, the most romantic day of the year...
... and finally, Yua's getting 'married' in mama's ryusou -- the bingata watansu passed down through their family, a beautiful spectrum of fuschia, red, white, and green printed atop the blue fabric over her red and fuschia dujin top and kakan skirt, a tableau of pine boughs and clouds. In the olden days, even a priestess family like hers which attended the castle would not have been granted such a boon as bingata, a printing method both labour- and time-intensive; these days, the exclusivity of the art once almost lost is held more in its price, with bingata silk printing easily costing upwards of 150000 yen or more.
Which is why they've passed the same one down through the family for generations, now.
Her ryusou has more open sleeves, a thinner waistband, a shorter cut than Miho's kimono; even with her winter watansu coat, her clothes are built for the Okinawan heat.
She comes to the hall, carrying a basket of flowers; it is a basket she crafted herself, and they are flowers she grew herself. The low circular table they sit at -- on cushions, as is tradition -- has been set up with the things they'll need for their displays, but of course, first they must sit.
Both the Ijuuins, as it happens, and the Ooshiros -- because Yurika, Yume, and Fuyu are here, too, the matriarch wearing her noro robes as the others wear their watajin coats over their kakan and hakama respectively. Even though Tyrrha's an Ijuuin, she's in ryusou clothing, too... perhaps she's the greatest sign of synthesis between them.
... Yua's grandmother, rather than her father, is seated beside Takashi; it is she who rules their family, in their fashion.
<Pose Tracker> Miho Ijuuin has posed.
Yua and Miho are both here. Here for a reason.
Miho is also in something very old, a beautiful wedding kimono that once her mother wore. The fact that she is allowed to wear it for this is the surest sign that her parents approve of their relationship, for all that they cannot let it show in public. ...Well, maybe that would be an even surer sign. Tradition is tradition, though.
Miho sits with the Ijuuins now, in preparation to sit with Yua in particular when the ceremony is done. She looks over the Ooshiros, and is glad of their presence.
...Naturally, she knew she would be glad to see her parents, brother, and sister.
Miho waits for the flowers; shew aits for Yua's action. Her table is already set up with the components for wht she will do. While it is not to be the full ceremony, she has prepared the individual dishes, the leaves, the water that she will heat...
But for now, she waits.
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ijuuin has posed.
OST: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ss7aFUbwzec Vienna Teng - Harbor
Between the dishes and the water are flower-pots; they await her.
Yua needs a little help to sit down so low; she can be excused if she lets her legs sprawl to the side of her, when she's newly twenty-six weeks along. Just one fortnight more, and she'll have gotten Hiroki past the most fraught proposition of a pre-term birth in the second trimester... just a few weeks more, and he'll be able to breathe under his own power.
There are things which make that harder; showing her devotion isn't one of them.
Once they're seated, Yua presses her hands to her knees, bowing to her family. (Both of them; one might abandon one's childhood family on the mainland, but in Okinawa, a mother's hearth is never closed to married women.) Well, they practiced this, but... she's still nervous!
"Miho Ijuuin," she addresses her in full, for once, "I want to warm your home, from this world to the next. Since you sheltered me, I've worked hard to see your gardens flourish. I've brought you ivy," she pulls it from her basket, to lay it on the table, to decorate the space, "to speak to our eternal love and friendship in our marriage. Within it I weave Euryops daisies," she adds, as she pulls bright yellow flowers to weave between the vines of ivy, "which bring cheer to cold Winter days and urge harmony in marriage, just as these flowers bloom in harmony. Our love, too, exists in context with our husbands... and while I am for you, our home will nourish us all."
She places sprigs of white flowers in the flower-pots, as she says: "I've brought you hihiragi, from our native shores, whose blooms are rarely seen, to honour your foresight and protection. And I have brought you the first kanhizakura bloom," Okinawa cherry blossoms, from one of her bonsai trees, "to welcome our union to spring. Their pink I join with pink camellia," she slips another pink flower into the pots, "to represent all we have overcome, our determination, and our endless love. With them I bring shepherd's purse," she slips more white flowers in, to compliment the striking pink blooms of the cherry blossoms, "to offer myself to you completely."
In the end, it's a spread of white, pink, yellow, and green; each white flower is paired with a pink flower, to ensure no overtures of death, and the yellow of the daisies balances the green of the ivy's leaves pleasingly.
"Please accept me as guardian of your honne and home," she says, referring to the true feelings one keeps inside, in contrast to those tatamae feelings Miho must attend to in her position. "I promise always to care for your precious feelings, and to ensure you flourish just as these flowers have. Let me make sure you have a warm home to return to, at the end of your day, with a hot meal and compassion for your daily trials. Let me raise our children to always honour you. I will be sensitive to you, always." Hands to her knees, again, she bows and asks with humility: "Please protect me and our children, and steady me in sickness and in health, and guide me always towards what is right and honourable. Please accept me as your sokushitsu, to stand by you, always."
<Pose Tracker> Miho Ijuuin has posed.
Miho is always there to help Yua, in matters such as these. It's only appropriate that she does, isn't it?
...it is to Miho.
They did practice, and Miho is addressed. She waits, and listens. She keeps her eyes on Yua the entire way through how she speaks, meets her eyes if Yua will. She watches as Yua arranges each flower; speaks of each. Their love, and in context...
Miho is silent; the arrangement is beautiful. And so is Yua.
"Yua Ijuuin," Miho addresses her in turn, and bows in return from her seated position.
"I accept. My home will forever be yours. And..."
She rises.
"You, who would guard my honne and home..."
Miho steps behind the table, and bows to both families again.
"Yua Ijuuin," she says again. "...Accept the shelter I offer you," she implores, sparking the flame and setting the water onto it. She knows precisely how long it must sit, precisely how long it must heat short of boiling. "Accept what sustenance I can give you, for my hearth will always be yours." She stirs the matcha, preparing it for its introduction into the water, and then, in her kimono, brings the small meal she has prepared in individual portions to each family member in turn, Tyrrha included of course. By the time she returns the water heats, and Miho strains and applies the powder and the water, putting them all together.
"You who would be my guardian of home, allow me to protect you out in the world," she says. "Accept my hands as your shelter, my blade as your shield."
"As you provide me somewhere to return, let me guard you in the world outside, and guide you where you need guidance."
"My sokushitsu... Accept my place as seishitsu, and we will live in harmony."
Our love in context will share all those we care for..."
"But never without your place in it."
She finishes brewing the tea, but this tea is only for her and for Yua; she offers the cup to Yua, first.
"Here. This is a token of what I shall provide you; always shall I rely on you."
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ijuuin has posed.
Yua does meet Miho's eyes, quite often -- though she looks to her family, too. Her grandmother, who officiates; her father through birth, and her father through Miho; the mother who is able to sit here, her birth mother still unable to bring herself to leave Okinawa, as Yurika travelled out to meet them. Her elder sister, and her younger; her new brother, too. Her eldest daughter...
... but it's always Miho she comes back to, as her one-eyed gaze becomes consumed by Miho's own heartfelt display.
She needs to be serious, but she can't help smiling, her joy full to bursting as Miho swears her home to her.
Yua now becomes a party to be presented to -- though she remains beside Miho. (It is a ceremony written by necessity, in at least one part; getting up is harder for Yua than it is for Miho.) All her attention is on her betrothed, as she hears her name again. She can't stop smiling, hearing her beautiful words.
"I accept," she says, her heart full to bursting. "My seishitsu... I will always rely on your shelter."
It is Yurika who speaks, now. "With the Gods as your witness, you will take three oaths three times," and she is not so old as to be frail, still young in her seventies, stern as the maritime cliffs. San-san-ku-do is an old samurai art; of course it would feature here.
But things are a little different, this time... because they're both women.
Yua sips from the cup Miho offers her, three times -- and passes it to her to sip, too. The second cup, Miho will drink from first; Yua sips, when she is done. The third is given to Yua, first, again, and three times she sips before she passes it to Miho again.
Miho is the one leading, but Yua drank first... because she didn't want Miho to feel like she was being placed as a man.
They don't need to attend to worries of women speaking before men in their relationship, after all.
(Though it's notable that Miho pours each cup, too.)
The bough which Yurika lays on the table, though, isn't just evergreen -- it's evergreen and kuba, the Chinese fan palm. "Just as the kuba grows in our utaki, our sacred sites, so have I brought a bough from my own tree to bring our Gods to this place, as the evergreen calls the Ijuuin's Gods. The eldest woman of the house shall attend the shrine and household prayers," here she looks to Yua, older by scarcely a month, "and make her responsibility the harmony between them. Soon we will come into urizun, the wet season preceding spring, and Yua Ijuuin will give birth. By the Gods, Miho Ijuuin will protect her, then, alongside the men beside them. The Gods themselves were matchmakers to this union. Let us be doubly grateful for their provenance, as we recognise their dedication to each other and their family."
"I'm grateful," Yua bows, again, as she presents their offering -- a haiku, composed by Miho and written with Yua's beautiful calligraphy.
Since Yurika's handling the ceremony, it's Fuyu who handles offering the Ooshiro's own offering -- a bottle of awamori, an Okinawan liqueur made from distilling rice rather than brewing it. He's already discussed this with Takashi, of course: the significance to their shared union is in the sheer age of the drink, the oldest distilled beverage of Japan, traditional tribute both to Japanese shogun and Chinese envoys.
<Pose Tracker> Miho Ijuuin has posed.
During her own vows, Miho of course does look other than only to Yua... somehow. Her father, who has allowed this in the first place; Yua's father, who is now in this way her father, too. Her brother, with his easy smile and calm demeanor; her sister, who found peace with this idea because of her affection for Yua and the fact that they're both still marrying men.
Tyrrha, who assuredly has never been to witness such a thing... and the officiant, Grandmother, whom Miho has come to so respect.
Yurika speaks. Miho and Yua drink the tea she has prepared.
...She appreciates not being placed as the man, for all that she prefers a masculine presentation outside traditional places.
And Yurika speaks...
"May all of our Gods watch over us," Miho intones back. "I am grateful."
The Ijuuins have their own offering, of course, tailored to the moment--and something that suits the status of their family, reaching out to join hands with the Ooshiro family. Their offering is larger not as a sign of ostentation, but to show appreciation for the family whose daughter will live with theirs.
But the Ijuuins themselves each react in turn; Takashi is respectful towards the priestess Yurika, not only as a matter of appearance but in apparent sincerity. His wife is smiling upon both Yua and Miho.
Takashi is no priest or priestess, but he will say a word when the Gods have spoken first, in time when it is his turn.
"I am glad to see you so bound," he says to Yua and Miho. "Surely, your fortunes will be forever entwined, and both dear to me as well."
It's not a long speech... but it's appropriate for the Patriarch to say a few words.
Miho, by this point, is looking primarily at Yua though.
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ijuuin has posed.
Both their sisters struggled with the idea, in fact; Yume was flatly against it, until she saw Miho's determination after Yua disappeared. She thought it was weird. And even if it's still kinda weird... she definitely can't say they're not serious, so she's not going to complain about them these days.
(Besides, Yume thinks, at least Yua's got a real husband too...)
Fuyu, at least, is much more open-minded and easy-going about it all; so, too, Yurika. (And Tyrrha, of course, knows what she's been told about the world.) Yurika joins hands with Takashi, nodding to him, gravely. She may be the matriarch, but she recognises the patriarch, in turn.
So, too, does Yua -- who smiles, warmly, hearing Takashi's words. "Thank you, Father," she says, bowing to him. "We're honoured by your warmth. And we'll always be grateful to you for travelling all this way to invite the Gods to our binding, Grandmother," she smiles, to her, as well. "It may not be the marriage I spoke of when I was young... but I'm still so happy."
"It's the happiness of couples which is the true offering," Yurika says, and she smiles, too. "All the Gods recognise the diversity of existence. Here or there, the stories account time and time again the creativity of divinity. You'll discover the future together."
The celebration is at once small and encompassing, kept to direct family yet characterised by the Ooshiro's joy; Yurika, over the course of the day, gets to know Tyrrha, including a moment where Fuyu and Takashi take her aside to explain the truth of the matter. (Well, the truth as they understand it; as much truth as they've been able to hear.) There is sake, and awamori, though of course there's also juice for Yume and Tyrrha and Yua -- who takes some time to sit with the two of them and encourage Yume as the next in line to wear the beautiful print outergarment, in the manner teenage girls have of fantasising about their marriage.
When it comes time to go home, Yua and Miho help Tyrrha out of her ryusou and tuck her into her charging station for the evening, having had a lovely family dinner already. Once she's taken care of, they retire back to their room to take care of their outfits --
-- though Yua takes a moment to twirl, in her own ryousou. "Ahh," she smiles, face flushed, all bubbly, "wasn't I so pretty?! And Mimi too! You were so elegant...!!"
One of Yua's greatest regrets was not being married in her ryusou... it must have meant quite a lot to her to wear it now.
<Pose Tracker> Miho Ijuuin has posed.
Miho's determination did a lot in her life--looking for Yua. For one, it eventually found Yua.
Juuzou Ijuuin is a participant in the family sport of spoiling Miho, meanwhile. He is pleasant and warm and had no trouble with Miho's preferences, having figured them out a long time ago. If anything, he's impressed that she's managed to find a way to have it both ways. ...If anyone takes issue, well, he has a business to run and a family to guide, too.
Yua is happy... so Miho, too, is happy. She considers Yurika's words. To discover the future together...
Well, eventually they do return home. Miho is still in her kimono while Yua twirls, and she smiles warmly at her wife. "You were beautiful," Miho agrees. "You are beautiful," she corrects.
"And I am glad. ...It would be unseemly, to be anything less when standing next to you."
She reaches out to touch Yua's face. "I love you... sokushitsu. Yua."
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ijuuin has posed.
(We note here that Yuken, Yua's youngest brother, looks up to Juuzou... but to be honest, he looks up to Miho more. Miho has a sword. It's so cool, just like in anime. ... Yuken's staying with his mother, though. Just like her, he hasn't felt up to travelling for a while...)
"Mm, mm! Mimi was so beautiful, too...!" Yua hums, happily, and all the more for how she sometimes feels bad about how she looks right now. That weird mask over her face, that weird line on her belly, and not to mention the stretch marks...
... but if Miho still thinks she's beautiful, Yua doesn't have to worry about it all that much.
She is butter melting, beneath Miho's fingertips, sighing happily as she tilts her face into her palm. "My seishitsu," she purrs, gently. "I love you, too..."
Yua reaches up, to steady herself against Miho's shoulder, in turn. "Hey," she says, her voice still soft. "Tonight, let's try... okay?" She cuts off precisely what they're working on, but of course, even if Miho didn't know, the lid of her gaze and shy smile would carry it across. "... I want to be close to you," she adds, softly.
"Even when everything is so dark... you've always been there for me, Mimi. I feel safe, when you're cradling my face... like we really will see the future together. It means so much to me... really..." And in it is one of her greatest gratitudes, a core driving value made manifest, and a terrible fear allayed, as Yua extrapolates the love in her heart.
<Pose Tracker> Miho Ijuuin has posed.
Miho does have a sword. It's very cool.
Miho smiles while Yua hums happily. None of those things make Yua less beautiful to her--all the more, because the way her body is shifting, it is for their Hiroki. How could she view Yua's hard work as anything but wonderful?
...Particularly given just how hard she has had to work, with all the difficulties in the process.
But Miho shapes the melting Yua beneath her with a simple hand to hold her against herself when she steadies herself there. To try? "Yes," Miho agrees. Miho does know, even before Yua smiles so shyly, and she says, "I would like that, too."
But everything...
"That is what I want," Miho says. "I'm glad. ....It means a very great deal to me, too."
"...Come, let's put away our nice things."
But each motion of that can be loving, too.
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ijuuin has posed.
Where Yua falters, Miho's always been there to steady her, to remind her of the value of her work. Yua went over her speech for days, figuring out how to express how much Miho meant to her... that she invoked it was impeccably deliberate.
And Miho can surely feel her heartbeat, pressed against her, as it flutters when she looks up to her.
"To both of us..."
Miho she trusts to handle mama's bingata watansu with the greatest care; Yua, in turn, is impeccably delicate with Miho's mother's kimono. "It's beautiful," she sighs, feeling the silk for a moment, before she finishes smoothing it as she hangs it up. "Mother was a big help when I was deciding on flowers, you know? I just wish..."
She sighs, a frown creasing her brow, for a moment. "... ah, mama's not well," she interrupts the thought, as she thinks of her. "And Ken-kun takes his duties very seriously, even though he's still in middle school... at least if they're back home, everyone can take care of them, right?" Yua's aunts, Miho knows, didn't make the trip so that they could continue taking care of Yuna while Yurika was gone.
"Besides," she smiles, again, "I got to wear mama's ryusou, so I'm sure she felt how happy we were today!"
<Pose Tracker> Miho Ijuuin has posed.
Miho feels it. She feels it against her own fast heartbeat, steady but not so calm as her demeanor suggests. She is a woman of strong emotion, and this is one of those times when it's plain to those who can actually see it.
...But as ever, that strength can be applied gently; she is very careful with Yua's attire. She smiles back. "I'm glad to get to wear it for you."
A pause. "Yes, I'm sure she was, but..." But. "I understand," she says. "But they can take care of her... and I hope that's true. I certainly will carry this particular happiness with me."
"...It seems to me that it can be seen, without even looking for it. I feel as if it must radiate..."
Maybe Miho waxes poetic, now and then.
She hangs up the beautiful garments with deft care. "I certainly see it in you."
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ijuuin has posed.
That Yua is warm, too, is a thing better expressed as an engine than a settling cake; she might grow weary all too easy, in her own sickness, but she's the furthest thing from tired right now.
And Miho's strength is energising, too.
"It was beautiful," Yua says, again, her cheeks flushed. "You were so beautiful. You are," she brings it to present tense, too. "Even after... especially after," and if her face grows a little brighter as she says it, well, they are putting their clothes away.
She is given pause as she worries over her mother, but when Miho says she's carrying that happiness, Yua smiles again. "Mm, mm," she hums, happily. "I see it...!"
She makes sure that Miho's mother's obi is arranged and hung properly, so it won't crease or crinkle -- but once she's taken care of it all, she turns to her, her smile shy again.
"Hey... would you like to see a little more...?"
She is the one who invites Miho into the comforts of the home; and now, at least, it is a joy which cannot be torn down by the horrors of her memory.