Ch469. The mad clan

"How did the family reunion go? Hagoromo knows he has a new step-daddy, yet?" Rei teasingly asked with a grin as soon as Kaguya reappeared back in the seal formation.

Rei expected Kaguya to be at least a bit embarrassed about it, maybe even try to hide it from her son. Alas, his expectations were totally wrong.

Hearing his question, Kaguya betrayed his expectations when she puffed up her chest and proudly proclaimed, "Of course! It was the very first thing I informed him of! Alongside your ability to satisfy my needs in bed."

Rei's plan to make Kaguya blush backfired spectacularly and instead of her, it was now him that couldn't prevent his cheeks from slightly reddening as he speechlessly asked, "You... what?"

This was not how this kind of situation was supposed to go. Shouldn't a mother be at least a bit reluctant about telling her son that he has a new stepfather?

His imagination worked overtime and when he realized what kind of talk Hagoromo just went through with his mother... Rei actually pitied the guy. Unlike Kaguya, he held no grudge against him so, from Rei's perspective, Kaguya was being damn cruel here. A son being forced to hear all about the sexual exploits of his mother? Ew...

"Yup. We even agreed that I will visit again. My son might have unknowingly imprisoned himself but like a good mother, I at least should regularly make sure his sanity is not deteriorating." Kaguya cheerfully said, and Rei gave a silent prayer for Hagoromo's sanity.

Kaguya was not that bad when it came to her behavior. She was definitely better and more reasonable than Mei. But she could be the right bitch to anyone who earns her resentment.

Kin was the prime example of this. It wasn't as if Kaguya was overworking the girl just because she was bored. Kaguya didn't like how Kin tried to make eyes at Rei, so the girl was punished and Kaguya put her through the exact same routine as Riful.

That was why Rei didn't mind Kaguya viciously playing with Kin and acting like a total bitch to her. In a way, the ex-Oto kunoichi deserved it.

Until you earned Kaguya's ire, she was as harmless and cuddly as a slightly annoying and very clingy rabbit. Once you did earn it, though...

"We can't have his suffering abruptly end because he went insane, now, can we?" Kaguya gleefully added, wistfully sighing as she was already mentally planning what kind of conversation she should strike with Hagoromo to maximize his emotional torment.

'Yup. Exactly my point.' Rei looked dryly at her.

But he wouldn't voice his thoughts. It was not him who was trapped for a millennium in the darkness of a seal, cut off from his powers. He had no idea how that felt to Kaguya and he had no familial ties with Hagoromo.

Cleverly adopting the motto, 'Family business should stay in the family.' Rei mentally threw Hagoromo to the wolves for his own peaceful love life.

The dude deserved it anyway...

"Maybe I should really make him a sibling? Kaguya mused, muttering under her nose barely loud enough for Rei to hear, causing him to involuntarily take a step away from her, "Hmm... I really want to be a mother again and it would probably make him at least a bit jealous if I let him watch how I care for my new baby. Especially since he wouldn't be able to stop himself from watching because of his overly emotional brotherly 'love'."

Rei's eye was twitching as he heard her plotting how to emotionally torment Hagoromo while fulfilling her own desires...

And it rubbed his humane and fragile sensibilities the wrong way. Kids shouldn't be used that way! At least she really wanted to be a mother again and was not going to try getting pregnant only for emotional blackmail on her oldest son.

From all the tales about the Otsutsuki clan, Kaguya had told him, this kind of approach could be considered very odd by their standards. Children, sex, pleasure, love... these things didn't matter to them. They were raised to not put so much importance on these.

Sex was no longer deemed efficient or beneficial as the clan tried to match the best seed with the best mother and bioengineer the children to maximize their potential.

Love was useless and unneeded. The children didn't even have parents since most of them were 'developed' in a laboratory, rather than normally born.

Children were experimented on and trained until their early teens, and only the strong and most resilient survived. Then, depending on their latent potential for growth, they were assigned rankings.

Their entire clan was segregated into ranks where every individual was led to believe in striving to accomplish his own goal no matter the cost. To strive for higher ranking and more resources for their own development.

There was no camaraderie between them. Everyone was raised to be a selfish git, only thinking of their own benefit.

But there was also a clear subordination mentality where the top dogs were the most powerful and could order the weaker people to do anything they desired. It was the world of the survival of the fittest in the most ruthless sense.

It wasn't as if Kaguya wanted to be sacrificed to the God Tree. She was also raised in the usual Otsutsuki manner. But she was ordered to die. And in that situation, most low-ranked Otsutsuki would simply obey, not trying to fight their fate.

Because, in their perspective, there was no point anyway.

In short, the Otsutsuki clan was a sick place that created emotionally dead people. It sounded like a very advanced societal experiment made by mad scientists who completely abandoned their conscience for scientific progress and just wanted to see how far they could push it before their little test subjects mentally crumbled.

It was a wonder that Kaguya was so well-adjusted and even could fall in love with her previous husband after that kind of upbringing.

Still, hearing her plotting and seeing the semblance of her past mindset in her plans made Rei feel somewhat exhausted. "Human common sense doesn't work well with you, does it?" He wearily asked with a wry smile.

"What are you talking about? I am very sensual." Kaguya furrowed her eyebrows at Rei, making him snort.

"Right..." He shook his head in a new-found amusement. "Right, you are."

"So... Is there anything else you want to do or can we return to cuddling under the sheets?" Kaguya expectantly asked, tightly latching onto Rei's arm.

Otsutsuki might not believe in sexual procreation but Kaguya sure as hell found her meaning in life in it and she would be damned if she wasted even a second of her alone time with Rei.

Unfortunately for her, Rei indeed had a different proposition.

"Hmm... What would you say about saying hi to your past comrade?" He hummed, making Kaguya disgruntledly frown.

"Who?" She sullenly asked, slowly realizing that her attempt to get Rei back to bed was probably not gonna succeed.

"The one you betrayed and left dying with only his upper half of body left." Rei nonchalantly said, causing Kaguya's eyes to widen. There was only one man who fit this description!

"Isshiki? Is he still alive!?" Kaguya exclaimed in alarm and her grasp on Rei went rigid as her two eyes shifted into a blood-red Rinne-Sharingan and grew darker.

Isshiki couldn't be allowed to live. Kaguya knew what kind of man he was. Her peaceful life could be ruined if she allowed his continued existence.

Kaguya's expression was enough of an answer for Rei but he still asked, "So?"

"Yes." Kaguya said in a low tone with her eyes growing stormier, "I still owe that bastard for trying to sacrifice me. How dares he survive my sneak attack? I will make him regret clinging to his pathetic life." She said, her voice dripping with hostility.

Isshiki had to die. For her uninterrupted and abundant sex life with her beloved Rei.