A nova shone forth with blinding radiance that forced Tasuke to shield his eyes and look from the light that blasted throughout the room. A brush of winds graced his side, likely the girl making her retreat. She was gone when the shine waned, disappeared with the dawn that boiled over the horizon outside. He wasn’t able to gaze upon the empty window for long before the woman from earlier bolted in the room, crying a name.

Azalea, hmm?

A fitting name, he supposed, but such a traveling train of thought grinding to quite a halt when he noticed Aki’s inclement glare. It was more than enough to launch pins into his heart, of both mild regret and increased criminality. She wasn’t happy with him, slightly in the doorway with arms folded in contempt. He could only hope that she would dart off and save him an argument, but that was not her way. She would challenge him. The most he could do was head towards the door and hope she kept silent as he passed. That did not happen, however. He’d only made it about four steps away before she raised her voice, the normal friendliness replaced with harsh octaves. “Do you have nothing to say to me, Tasuke? Do you have any idea how I feel about this?”

You want to stop me.

And stop him she did, at least in terms of him walking any further. The hands he left at either side began to tremble with a mix of grief and anger. His mouth went as dry as desert sands, but he found the strength to reply, glance frozen to the smooth lacquer of the oak floor. “Not really, Aki. This is something I’ve decided to do…”

He heard her heavy footfalls, thunderous stomps that trickled adrenaline into his veins. He shut his eyes and welcomed the darkness, for once at peace within it. His motives were beyond him or his importance, his value. He had no objections to dying as a martyr of peace, not one. It wasn’t until he felt her hand upon his shoulder that he opened them, Chiaki spinning him around and raising her right hand. Then he felt something else. A hot, painful and echoing slap across the face that knocked him into a rightward stumble; while he had expected it, that didn’t reduce the sting of her strike. Tasuke could see the anger clearly now, her cheeks red and tears in her eyes. The glistening rivers gathered at the corners, ready to fall while she bit her quivering lip. She was shaking.

“You idiot. Do you know what you’re doing, really…?” She shook her head in protest with a hard blink that tossed liquid stars into the air, voice reduced to weak string of words. “I… I don’t want to lose another person I love.” She ran at him, though not in attack, but desperation. She slammed into his chest and clenched the fabric of his kimono in her hands, quaking with a sob as she rested her head against his exposed flesh. “You’re all I have, you know…? I’ve lost Aoi…I can’t lose you, too…”

She began to weep hard, her shoulders jerking with the teardrops. He couldn’t even move for a moment. That paralysis returned, though this from internal pins that made a cushion of him with their prick of pain and guilt. His lips sunk into a sorrowful grimace while he looked down at her crown, through the obsidian and white strands and into the heart that beat against him in powerful hammers. His own was like a slug, Tasuke as if the living dead while she cried into him. Until then, he hadn’t any true idea that she actually considered him important. He’d thought she was forcing herself for the sake of the sister he had heartlessly massacred, a shield to keep the pain from eating her heart like a worm within the apple. He knew now he was mistaken, that she genuinely loved him…and that he couldn’t leave her.

I…don’t want to leave her…

Slowly, compassionately, Tasuke lifted his arms over her shoulders and pulled Aki close. Suddenly his own heart pounded like a jackhammer, alive once more as the calefaction of their embrace sizzled electricity through his being. She stopped shaking, at least much less intensely, and wrapped her arms around his waist in loving return. His cheek nuzzled carefully against her hair, a sort of brotherly gesture that both brought a smile to his face and eased the lightning storm that sparked from his excited blood-pumper. His words came softly, unheard by even the dust of the passageway. “I will stay with you, Aki. I promise you that.”

She looked up with wide, wet eyes, as if shocked to hear his words. “You will…really?”

He nodded with a brightened smile and glowing complexion. “Yes. Don’t be surprised, though. You have a gift for getting through to me, you know.”

Her eyes narrowed with joy, teeth flashed in her grin while she giggled heartily. “I suppose I do. But what about Shisuka?”

“I’ll convince her,” he said without thinking, despite knowing that it would not be nearly so easy as his calm phrase suggested. Her wounds ran as deep as canyons cut into the earth, and little could slake her sheer thirst for blood. However, he was sure he could sway her resolve, as Aki had his. After all, neither of them seemed to consider the impact foreign influence would have on their cherished traditions, now that he thought on it. Aoi’s tavern would become a place of brutes and drunkards, and Shisuka’s temple would run rampant with other religions and greedy vipers that sought gold for another’s salvation. It would seem that the Shogunate served a good purpose, at least in that aspect. But it didn’t mean he had formed an affinity for it. He supposed the most he could do to change anything was to start at the dirt and build up, to give strength to the people and cripple the powerful—though not in the way originally intended. He had until tomorrow night to sort his ideas, but for now, he would spend the morning with the Winter Iris, the girl that pulled the drowning from their pools of darkness.

And I will have to deal with Retsuya, as well.

He wouldn’t have to worry about looking for her, however; she would seek him out as she so desired, but the next time would be the last.

__________________
Armies lay in waste, their corpses strewn along, an all-too-faint breath of death, a shallow little song.

With my sword I kiss the wicked, and bring them to their knees, with this sword their evil is answered and heaven is well pleased.

Those who spread the tainted seed, who know that they have sinned, will feel the icy steel I swing like a whisper in the wind.