Blunder

"Do you feel fine now, Lu~?" Makoto cheerfully asked. And she definitely didn't let go of a chance for some cuddling.

"Don't fret. I'm already healed by your presence~." He teased. The two were completely on their own world.

"I know my husband can be... frivolous, sometimes. But don't you think you went too far this time, Orihime?" Ei questioned the culprit.

"I did, and he fully deserved it. Besides, even though he looks slightly injured, Lu doesn't seem tired at all." Orihime rebutted.

"Yet, that doesn't mean he can't feel pain. In the end, you harmed him. And pretty badly at that." The slightest bit of anger in the Archon's voice brought up differing reactions.

The Kitsune were perplexed and nervous about the sudden hostility. Makoto was worried, but she believes that it was totally justified. While Lu was just feeling amused...

"You're smart aren't you, Orihime? Surely you can understand why my husband wore gloves during training..." Origime felt dumb at the realization. Why didn't she figure out such a simple trick?

"It's to focus possible injuries into one part of the body and hide it. Such a sight might disrupt the spar after all. And right now! I'm sure that if I remove that-" If they simply used Tenshukaku as their venue, the palace would unquestionably hear the rant of an angry wife.

"Say nothing more, Ei. Any injuries I might or not have have already healed at this point anyway." Lu took the attention of his wife away from the grim fox lady.

"Let's get the food we worked hard to cook, Ei-chan~. It might go cold at this rate." Makoto invited the Shogun with a bright smile.

"... I guess so. Going any further will only portray me as a hypocrite. I'd rather not make a fool of myself in front of my dear husband." Ei reluctantly agreed.

"Take care, you two~." The amused deity waved them off.

And the two were now alone like it was in the beginning.

...

...

...

"I'm sorry..." The guilty Orihime meekly apologized.

"Don't worry, I think nothing of it." Lu accepted with his usual smile. But it wasn't enough to appease the ashamed lady.

"How about this? Tell me the situation of Yae and we're even." He proposed.

"This is it? Everything that happened earlier was for this?!!!" She felt nothing but betrayed.

"Orihime." The deity uttered with a dark look, which shut the furious Kitsune.

"Please do not accuse me of manipulating my wives ever again. They did all of this on their own accord..." He said in a heavy tone, while staring directly at the scared maiden.

"...Forgive me. For some reason I can't think calmly like I used to. I'll tell you about what you want..." Orihime remained silent for a while, and Lu only waited during it.

"Yae is doing fine. Both her job of being the Guuji, and one of the Three Great Yokais are proceeding smoothly. 𝘛𝘰𝘰 𝘴𝘮𝘰𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘭𝘺 𝘪𝘯 𝘧𝘢𝘤𝘵, 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘳𝘦𝘫𝘶𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘺 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨... 𝘰𝘳 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘰𝘯𝘦." She started.

"Other than that, little Yae was frantic about something it seems. The only peculiar part is the amount of clothing that was getting delivered to the shrine in the past couple week." The Kitsune tried to garner some reactions from him to confirm her possible theory, but it was futile. As the guy she's trying to read, was only smirking right at her.

"Not gonna ask if I know something?" Lu grinned mischievously.

"I'll pass. I think I had enough of your games for a month." Orihime rolled her eyes.

"That would be a problem... I plan on playing with you for eternity after all~." He fired a flirty wink at the lady.

"...𝘚𝘶𝘪𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧..." She hurriedly averted her entire face away from him.

...

"You two seemed to be having fun~. Everything okay now?" Makoto approached them with a cheeky smirk.

"Nothing of the sorts. We were just discussing a possible future... for Inazuma." His side glance made the blushing fox lady want to bury herself to the ground.

"I see. So? Care to fill me in on the details?" The self-proclaimed older sister gave him a pleading look he couldn't possibly refuse.

"Can't see why I shouldn't." The deity shrugged. If anything, he should share any important stuff about Inazuma with them to hear their own opinions.

"It wouldn't be a lie to say that the current Inazuma surpasses the other nations when it comes to strength. We have two Archon-level gods after all, 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘦𝘦 𝘪𝘧 𝘐 𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘭 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘭𝘺... So I'm sure they are going to make their own move soon." He then drank his tea elegantly.

"Don't forget the prototype visions you made and all the other things. You probably have some countermeasures placed in Inazuma... but that won't stop 'them' from acting." Makoto let out a disturbing amount of killing intent at that last sentence.

"I'm sure they would. And if they come... All we need to do is to annihilate them..." A familiar voice joined in.

"Woah. Hold your tits, ladies. Not that you have much, Makoto." Orihime was taken back at Makoto's earlier change of vibe, but nothing tops Lu's vulgarity. Makoto herself didn't take the slander well.

"Don't get mad sister. I am certain husband loved those small lumps of yours~." What Ei said wasn't totally reassuring at all.

Lu had his fun and finally found time to look at newly arrived Ei, in which he was taken aback by what he saw.

She was completely fulfilling the role of a wife by wearing a traditional maid outfit, while carrying a pot of the new and improved miso.

"Beautiful..." His genuine praise hit Ei like a truck as she lost her footing, and was about to drop down.

"Ara~. Seems like Ei-chan is weak to those kinds of compliments~." Luckily, Makoto caught both her and the result of their hard work.

Even though she wanted to let go of her sister due to jealousy, she helped her get back up nonetheless.

"I completely forgot while we were here in the first place..." Lu uttered as he cleaned up the mess and brought out a new set to replace it.

My man got his priorities straight by making sure he has a lot of kitchen-related products...

***

Sumeru is out and I'm ready to speedrun it later!

As usual, Gimme those powerstones. I believe we can still make it.