Flower Mirror Chronicles [Heian-Era Japan]

(Main text completed May 23, 2026)

(Entire work completed September 6, 2026. Thank you for staying with me!)

Yuko was born into a collateral branch of the imperial family of a provincial governor in Kyushu, and was a bright, beautiful child.

...Then, just like some unlucky protagonist in a story from Tang China, war broke out one day and left her an orphan.

Luckily, one of her father's former retainers took her in. When the empress ascended the throne, her adoptive father was rewarded for supporting her and rose to become kampaku of the new dynasty.

Then he had a sudden fit of madness and sent Yuko to marry the puppet crown prince.

Fortunately, with a powerful minister for a father, she could do whatever she pleased within the palace, including, but not limited to, carrying on affairs and throwing the harem into scandal.

So she decided to make her cheap dad one of her madmen. After all, Murasaki Shikibu wrote about it too!

...The bad news was that one of the empress's madmen was also her powerful minister father.

Worse, the empress seemed to have become one of her madmen too.

Even worse, she was just one of many people in the palace having affairs.

*

Content warnings (to be added):

· There is a male supporting character who falls in love with a man.

· All the characters are in a pretty bizarre state of mind. It's already the Heian period, so cut them some slack.

· This tiny workshop doesn't hold back. It contains all sorts of outrageous elements. Ship whoever you want. In principle, this is only recommended for readers with no hard limits who enjoy chaotic fun.

· Set in a fictionalized version of the Heian period. Some characters are inspired by history and "The Tale of Genji." Anything that doesn't match history is something I made up.

· Apologies for the elementary-school-level writing. If you leave a bad review, I'll hide under the covers and cry TT

-

Please check out my new story next door, "Mito Komon Is a Beautiful Girl." I'd love your support TT

(Blurb to be updated)

[Edo period | gender-swapped Mito Komon | scheming, chuuni, righteous old lady who transmigrated x crippled, lovesick former shogun husband x tsundere, devoted scholar and former minister]

Late at night, Iwase Village at the foot of Mount Fuji.

The corrupt magistrate opened a box of sweets and lifted the treats on top. Beneath them lay several stacks of gleaming koban coins.

He grinned. "Echigoya, you've got quite the nerve~"

"Oh, not nearly as much as you, Magistrate~"

Just then, a clear young woman's voice rang out from the shadows. "I will not allow such wicked deeds!"

A girl appeared, with another girl dressed like a maid following behind her.

The corrupt magistrate looked the girl at the front up and down. She had a pretty face like a peach blossom, and her brightly colored, gorgeous kimono was made with Yuzen-dyed fabric.

But even townspeople could afford something like that. The corrupt magistrate sneered. "They're just a couple of little girls. Kill them both~"

The townspeople (?) girl rubbed her forehead and sighed. "Can't be helped. Yae, teach them a lesson!"

After a baffling scuffle, the maid shouted, "Silence! Silence!"

Then she produced a small inro carved with the hollyhock crest. "Do you know who this princess before you is? She is none other than the former deputy shogun, Lord Mito Ningoku!"

The corrupt magistrate and the unscrupulous merchant instantly fell to their knees, gaping. "What? You're Mito Komon?"

-

The half-blooded little girl Tokugawa Kosuzu transmigrated into the princess of the Mito Tokugawa family, Tokugawa Suzuhime.

Because she could write Chinese characters at the age of nine, she became a famous prodigy far and wide.

Ten years later, the latest succession race began, and she went all in on her crippled young boyfriend, Tokugawa Kishu.

After inheriting the shogunate, her disabled boyfriend's first act was to appoint her, with tears in his eyes, as head of the Mito Tokugawa family and deputy shogun of the realm.

But before long, her boyfriend promoted his arch-enemy to chamberlain and started arranging to bring a noblewoman from Kyoto down to Edo.

Kosuzu: Yay, I'm out of here! You think I wanted this awful 24/7 job?!

-

After losing her former husband as a powerful patron, Kosuzu was forced into seclusion. She took the name Nene, daughter of a wholesale seller of crepe from Echigo, and traveled incognito through the provinces, playing the role of a humble, peace-loving old lady.

When she reached Nagoya, she flashed her inro and rescued a scholar from the former Liang dynasty.

The consequence of her misplaced kindness was bringing home a living nightmare. This proud scholar from a fallen kingdom saw at once that she was a fake prodigy. From then on, whenever he got the chance, he corrected her on the Confucian classics, practically wanting to tutor her from the Three Character Classic onward.

But his cooking really was delicious... Kosuzu bit her handkerchief with teary eyes. Endure it, endure it!

-

Under the stars, lectures continued through the night at Komagome Mansion.

The next morning, Kosuzu lifted the palace curtain and was so shocked she nearly died on the spot.

The man was lying in the mud, the triple-hollyhock crest on his sleeve worn almost beyond recognition.

He raised his pale, dirt-covered face. "Suzuhime, could you do one last favor for me?"

*Content warnings (to be added)

· The second male lead appears in the third arc.

· All the male characters are virgins. There are separate A and B routes, each with a happy ending.

· Most characters are based on real people, but the story is essentially a shoujo-style romance, not historical fiction. I made a lot of things up.

· Nobody has a shaved forelock.

Theme: The splendor of flowers reflected in a mirror.