Page 32 of Black Widow's Kiss

“Anyway, you know what I’m referring to. But you may also know that whatever shit he’s gotten away with in the past, he won’t be able to with me.”

“If that is the case, then what are you doing here?”

I stared back at her unflinching glare and released my building anger with a chuckle.

“Look, in spite of being, how do I say this? Being surprised by our wedding, I want to make this work. At the very least, I don’t want to have to kill him and I don’t want to wake up in the middle of the night with a knife in my throat.”

“Or not wake up at all,” she added.

“Right. So, anything you can tell me about how to handle him or what his deal is, I would be appreciative.”

Yuki said nothing else for a while. I knew this negotiation technique. Whoever spoke next lost. That wasn’t going to be me. But feeling the pressure, it could have been.

“Are you familiar with the Edo period in Japan, Mr. Ricci?”

I laughed. “No, I might have missed that day in history class. And call me Dante.”

“Well, Dante. The Edo period has been popularized by America’s fascination with Samurai.”

“Oh, okay. Yeah. That’s the time with samurai and ninjas and shit. What about it?”

“The Samurai were expected to maintain their honor above all else. And to visit a brothel was considered beneath them. However, what was considered a status symbol was for them to take on a kagema.”

“What’s a kagema?”

“A kagema was a boy who hadn’t yet lost the beauty of youth. It was with them that a samurai would develop a mentor / apprentice relationship.”

“Okay,” I asked unsure where this was going. “And this has to do with Kuroi how?”

“Our father designated that Kuroi be such a kagema.”

I leaned in trying to understand what Yuki was saying.

“Sato made Kuroi one of these, what do you call them?”

“Kagema.”

“And what did being a kagema involve?”

It was only then that Yuki’s eyes dipped.

“Woah! Your fuckin’ father made his own son a prostitute?”

“Isn’t that what he is to you? Would I have not been the same if Kuroi didn’t have the honor of your hand in marriage?”

I froze. “Different fuckin’ thing. Whether I got tricked into it or not, we’re married. This ain’t any sort of fucked up mentor / apprentice situation.”

Yuki took a sip of her tea.

“A rose by a different name.”

“Okay, well, that shit don’t fly here. If Kuroi doesn’t want to be with me, he can grab his stuff and get the fuck out. Nothing’s stopping him.”

“And yet, he stays,” she pointed out.

“Right. He stays.” Having heard my words, I considered it.

Why did he stay? Who was I to him? I had heard what Yuki had explained, but this kagema thing couldn’t be what I was thinking it was. Not even Sato could do that to his own son. Yuki had to have gotten it wrong. She clearly has some fucked up ideas about marriage.

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