Chapter 9
2011
The devil is knowledgeable.
Satoru-san pauses mid-bite, "Who told you that?"
Megumi wipes the sweat from her brow and presses her cold water bottle to her neck. Summer is a special kind of hell. The humidity is high, and the breeze is nonexistent.
"Yamato-sensei," She answers.
Satoru-san sighs in exasperation and mutters, "Chitose and Daizo are fucking idiots. We need to change the vetting process, no more referrals or recommendations."
She recognizes both of those names, one a cousin of Satoru-san, the other the son of Himatsu-obaa-san and personal assistant of Kiyooka Chitose.
"Megumi, history is written by the victors; it is rarely factual and often skewed to fit a biased narrative." Megumi nods, and the alpha continues, "Sugawara no Michizane was an omega. He carried and sired, had a husband and several concubines. He was a marvel, and broke the binaries and lived like his contemporaries. That probably fueled those that betrayed him," She notes somberly. "Anyway," she continues, "Taira no Masakado was an alpha, but the Zen'in bloodline traces through Takiyasha to him. Takiyasha was a beta, the progenitor of the Zen'in and the creator and first conjuror of Ten Shadows."
Satoru-san is a fountain of information. Her version often explicates what she's been taught, providing color and intrigue to the black, white, and grey.
Her history tutor taught her that while omegas of a certain class or family could play an important role in wars, politics, or education, they usually supported their mate or defended home and hearth. Powerful techniques favored the dominant sex. Every recorded Six Eyes was an alpha, and every recorded Ten Shadow wielder was an alpha. Its manifestation in her marked her as an anomaly.
"Male or female, alpha, beta, or omega, none of it matters, Megumi," Satoru-san constantly stresses the importance of this. "Power is power."
"Why would they change it? What's the point of changing it when there are people like me and you?"
Satoru-san smiles, "There's no one like us, my precious little student."
"You know what I mean," Megumi says impatiently.
The alpha dips her spoon into the cup of shaved ice, takes a generous scoop, and pops it into her mouth. She chirps, "I do!"
Megumi waits for her to continue.
"In Japan, the ratio between male and female is relatively even, but if we add in secondary gender, we see what history's victors created. For alphas, males comprise seventeen percent of the demographic, while females comprise thirteen percent. For omegas, females make up twelve percent of the binary while males make up the rest," she stops and eats another spoonful of shaved ice. "The preference for sons, alpha or beta, resulted in infanticide. Female alphas and male omegas were aberrations; female betas and omegas were burdens but still held value. This has resulted in secondary gender discrepancies, we see this here, but also globally."
If Megumi thinks about it, any representation she's seen for omegas has been women. She sees herself in them; she can only wonder how male omegas feel. The media portrays a certain image of alphas, betas, and omegas; seldom do they deviate from it.
"The preference for daughters is a contemporary phenomenon. Fifty to one hundred years ago, I would have been smothered in the cradle or deprived of an education and married off to an old fart."
Megumi can't imagine it; she says as much.
"You're right, I would have found a way," Satoru-san grins mischievously. "Where there's a will, there's a way."
The devil is knowledgeable; she possesses the tree of knowledge and consumes fruit from its branches regularly.