It's been a long time since I've put up a new chapter, so thank you all of my old readers for being patient. Thank you as well, to new ones who have given me encouragement to keep up with the story! I value all of your reviews, alerts, and favs, and I just hope I can continue to give you guys a good reading.

"I understand the difficulty of forming a policy due to political infighting, but this must be decided soon!" That much he could tolerate. However, being detoured to several representatives of Japanese legislation, and not the individuals concerned, he could not. "Is she to be continued to be kept at a benevolent distance as a younger sister, or is she to be a bride? It will soon become unacceptably indecent to have her stay in the house and have her in limbo between the two. She is almost of marriageable age!"

Two representatives began to speak at once, but one spoke over the other with clear, assumed authority until his opponent silenced himself. "Colonial relations with Taiwan will continue as per the established policies of the Governor General of Taiwan and his Chief of Home Affairs," he stated.

His apparent subordinate immediately protested. "It is the opinion of the Party President of the Rikken Seiyukai that the colonials be integrated into Japanese society."

"So that is the opinion of the man whose family steadfastly opposed the reforms and government that he is currently working for!" the first one countered. While his opponent struggled to find a reply, he took the chance to completely ground out any further objections. "This policy is based on that of the United Kingdom's, whose legacy as a colonial power cannot be ignored! The colonized population is genetically inferior to that of the mainland. The two should be kept separate as much as possible. That is to say, the uncultured barbarians have no place in Japanese society."

Kiku quickly ended the meeting before it devolved any further. If they could not decide on what to do with just one small island colony, how was he to be the role model to make up where China failed?

Kiku blustered about the house. His visitor would soon arrive, and it was of the utmost importance to give a good showing. Mr. Arthur Kirkland was not just an individual he could venture to call a friend, but also a major political power whose connections could prove useful. He looked about anxiously, and his eyes set upon Wan wan attempting to arrange flowers. That girl! She was not yet a full adult and she was already trying to play the hostess. Of course, she would be wearing one of her more expensive kimonos. Price meant nothing to her.

"Mei, please. Can't you continue with that on the other side of the house?" he asked.

"This is already a corner of the house where no one comes. Would you rather I continue my work at the front gate? I'm not offending anyone's sensibilities. Ask the servants. Am I trying to insult our esteemed visitor?" There were only the two of them in the room. "No, I didn't think that was my intention at all," Wan wan replied without looking up. She continued to snip away at her arrangement.

"Don't be impertinent, Mei. This isn't someone who will play along with your 'mistress of the house' act." Wan wan froze for just a moment when the words left his mouth.

This time, her movements were less measured, less deliberate. Just as Kiku Honda was about to threaten her with a minor punishment, Wan wan gasped lightly in pain. Her shears had slipped and cut a finger. "It's nothing. Don't you have an important guest coming?" she said quickly. She had indeed cut herself on accident, though she held her hand delicately and winced in an exaggerated manner.

Kiku knew the childish game she was trying to play, and refused to take part in it. He left without a word. Wan wan stared at the space he had occupied moments ago, and then picked up her shears once more. She never was good at flower arranging; she preferred an unruly riot of bright colors and tumbling greens to simplicity and subtlety.

"Mr. Kirkland, welcome!" "Welcome, Mr. Kirkland!" The servants very nearly groveled to give face to the host. The host himself greeted his guest warmly, immediately apologizing for being unable to give a grand reception. The young mistress was noticeably absent.

Kiku quickly swept his guest away, hoping to lessen the chances of encountering Wan wan and whatever horrifying rudeness she may have planned to unleash to spite him. Along the way, he continued to apologize for the grand dinner which must surely be inferior to Mr. Kirkland's own meals. There could be no way that Kiku Honda's poor shack with gleaming wooden floors could possibly compare to a Western home that Mr. Kirkland is more accustomed to.

However, Kiku nearly stopped midsentence when he saw Arthur pause. His guest was trying to peer into a room whose door was left just slightly open, enough to catch the eye and make the mind curious. Arthur thought he saw a girl snipping away at flowers. Her barely raised eyes met his, and he was the first to dart his away. He didn't remember if Kiku Honda had any siblings. A servant? No, too well dressed by far. What a strange girl. She was just slightly too young for him to comfortably crack a lewd joke about later on in the evening, so he kept silent.

Arthur slowly swirled the wine in his glass, a redundant action since a decanter had been provided. Kiku Honda had truly taken Westernization seriously. The wine was not only decent, but also actually complimented the meal. Kiku's eagerness to learn had touched him enough that he muddled through more than a few dinners with wine that he didn't need Bonnefoy to know was absolute rotgut.

"I trust you've heard of Belgium," Arthur said after the laughter and catching up had subsided. He felt uneasy, dishonest, really, about waiting for an appropriate amount of time to pass to reveal the true purpose of his visit.

Of course Kiku Honda had. He had also heard of Mr. Kirkland's ultimatum to Germany.

"And you still remember the terms and conditions of our treaty."

Yes, he did. When he received word of Mr. Kirkland's planned visit, he already anticipated what his friend would ask of him.

"Then it should be no surprise to you that I request military assistance against Germany's aggression."

"I will commit the full force of my military," Kiku said, nodding.

Arthur looked for signs of reluctance or fear, but Kiku was unexpectedly calm. It was not that his face was unreadable, but as though he took the call to action as a favor too insignificant to devote true thought to. Truthfully, Kiku did feel numb; it was unwise to be excited before his goals were actually realized. Sooner or later he was bound by his word to ally his military with England. He knew Arthur was suspicious of Germany's growing foothold in China, and it benefitted both that he be the one to put an end to it. The United States of America already loudly declared its neutrality, but he would not waste this opportunity. The influence it would bring to him, power that was practically bestowed upon him, it was exactly what Kiku needed.

Wan wan fidgeted as she waited for Arthur Kirkland to finally leave. It may be unseemly for the young mistress to eavesdrop on the master's dinner conversations, but no one ever said it was wrong to hear it second hand from the servants.

Of course Kiku would absolutely insist on following through with all of the polite social rites. As soon as Kiku was a safe distance from the door, she pounced. "You're going to fight in a war?" she said, immediately reproaching herself mentally for being only able to state what was obvious.

The man gave her a casual glance. "I thought you no longer cared about the importance of this visit?"

"What will happen to you? Who are you fighting? Why do you have to involve yourself in something that doesn't concern you?" Wan wan babbled. She knew it was bold and beyond her place to make such demands, but his lack of strong emotion about the matter strangely compelled her to act like a fool to compensate.

He waited for the question that she did not ask, yet, he assumed: What will happen to me? However, he found only her genuine distress.

"This will not be like China; unlike 'him,' I will not fail," Kiku said, with a heavy tone that indicated that there was to be no further discussion. Wan wan was silenced by how easily he identified the crux of her worries, but even then his confidence only made her more uneasy. It was not the first time she had heard a proud man's refusal to consider the possibility of defeat, no matter how much Kiku denied any connection.

She had now become so accustomed to seeing him in military uniform that it was strange to see him dressed otherwise. When Kiku first put it on in his official declaration of war against Germany, she'd blushed at the figure he cut. He was powerful, confident, and different. Wan wan had felt that she must be something wicked and depraved to keep stealing glances at him, but the change in him both awed and intimidated her. It was a reminder that he, the mild mannered and gentle one who strained himself to humor her, was the same person who gave China his scar. This Kiku Honda was not someone who would tolerate her outbursts and disrespectful conduct.

He had to have noticed the way she began to shrink from him, for why else would he have bothered to suspend his endless planning and celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival? He even brought pomeloes himself this year to share with her, though he drew the line at mooncakes: that was his tradition, and have yet to make an appearance in the countless Mid-Autumn Festivals he'd celebrated since the two cut ties.

Wan wan looked over to Kiku. On a holiday when families gather to feast, it was once more only the two of them. However, she reminded herself that in the middle of a war, the Great War, she heard it being called, that Kiku found the time to come at all was something to be grateful for. He had long since stopped personally tutoring her, and she saw more of him on accident than at meal times. When they were able to interact, she found him more quiet, tense, as though he were continually poised for action but could not yet do so. Wan wan's light-hearted banter, meant to break through his tension, only seemed to have no effect at best, and irritate him at worst. Strangely, when at first she was afraid of his defeat, she was now wary of his growing power and the change it was producing in him, even when he did not win every battle.

"Have you heard of the Moon Maiden, Chang'e?" she asked. They had been sitting in silence for at least an hour, with the Tsukimi dango untouched and only her share of the pomeloes eaten. She did not wait for his reply to continue speaking. It had taken her that hour to build the nerve to speak; too much internal struggle had gone on for her to not go through with it.

"It really starts with her husband, the legendary archer Hou Yi. When ten suns suddenly appeared in the sky and threatened to scorch the earth, he shot them down one by one until only one remained. For his great heroic acts, he was made king. However, the power he received slowly corrupted him, until he was no longer the great man who saved countless lives, but a cruel and greedy despot." Wan wan took a quick glance at Kiku, who had his eyes closed and the vaguest hint of a smile on his lips.

"After ruling for many years, Hou Yi began to fear death. Perhaps he was partly motivated by the knowledge that he would pay for his crimes in the afterlife, partly because he found it impossible to imagine an end to his reign. He searched relentlessly for the Immortal Elixir, and finally found it in the form of a single pill meant to be split between himself and his wife. However, Chang'e, helpless to prevent her husband's brutal violence, refused to allow his reign to continue forever. As soon as she could, she swallowed the whole pill so that none was left for Hou Yi.

"Hou Yi caught her, but by then he could do nothing. In his anger, he chased her and she tried to jump from the window. Because she had taken double the dose, she began to rise into the air instead of plummeting to the ground. Though this only angered Hou Yi further, even he could not bring himself to try to shoot his wife down. Chang'e eventually flew to the moon, immortal and lonely but successful in sparing her subjects."

Wan wan blinked quickly, and continued to stare into the Harvest Moon as she did the whole time she told the story.

It was different from what Kiku was told of the Moon Maiden. He could imagine him warning the young Wan wan before handing her over, trying his best to poison her against Kiku. So he, bitter about his own inability to fend for himself, would rather hope for Kiku's downfall than take the same steps to claim power.

He repeated his words from long before. "This will not be like China; unlike 'him,' I will not fail."