Book of Gramarye

Title: The Fine Art of (Demonic) Diplomacy
Fandom: 鬼灯の冷徹 | Hoozuki no Reitetsu /黒執事 | Kuroshitsuji
Rating: T
Summary: In which Sebastian receives a distinguished visitor from the Far East, Hoozuki makes a few polite enquiries about the nature of a certain Faustian contract, and the niceties of international infernal politics are discussed over tea.
Notes: Some time ago, a fail_fandomanon rec request for anime and manga with interesting and grotesque demons led me to recommend the Hoozuki no Reitetsu manga and anime series. And as I was writing out a description of the series (Japanese Buddhist Hell as a satire on modern Japan), I decided that Hoozuki and the titular Sebastian from Kuroshitsuji (Black Butler) absolutely needed to have a lovely demonic teatime together, with insane amounts of keigo-rendered-into-English because savage politeness is always a treat to write. Thanks to the delightful encouragement of several commentators, a fic idea started to take shape. Running with the concept of the international infernal bureaucracy, it seemed all too plausible to me that a senior civil servant from Japanese Hell might find a reason to go out in the field to meet with a high-flying operative from a rival foreign agency.... (Also on AO3.)

(In keeping with the period vernacular, the term Oriental is used briefly within to refer to Asian people -- not the done thing today, obviously, but reasonably acceptable at the time.)

( The Fine Art of (Demonic) Diplomacy )

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