Mizuki sank down to her knees, wondering if what she had just heard was really true. Would she really be getting married? And to that man of all people?
Mizuki continued to stare at her brother, hoping that he'd laugh and say that it was all a joke, that no one would ever even consider suggesting that she marry that lecherous old man. Instead, Akira just looked back at her expressionlessly before saying clinically, "The elders have decided that as a rare female, you must be married to a man of sufficient status to maintain the necessary level of bodyguards to protect you. Similarly, as you are a pureblood, your husband must be the same. With these requirements in mind, it has been decided that in two months you will marry Hayato Kato. The elders have also expressed an interest in being informed as soon as a child is conceived, with the hope that such an event will occur in a maximum time period of three weeks after your marriage. For this purpose, the elders will be monitoring your menstrual cycle in order to ensure that the wedding occurs at the optimal time for conception."
"But," Mizuki started, but found that she was too numb to even begin to form the protests that were rattling at the back of her mind. In an almost detached fashion, she acknowledged that it wouldn't really matter if she said anything or not. Females of her kind were extremely rare and, as a result, as soon as she was born, the elders of her clan had taken her into the main household to be groomed as a future broodmare. This marriage was the culmination of all of their planning for the entirety of Mizuki's life, and they wouldn't let a little thing like the fact that she was unwilling change them.
Seeing the despair that his sister was quickly falling into, Akira quickly looked out the window. Knowing that his sister's ever present "protectors" were far enough that they wouldn't be able to hear the two of them speak, Akira closed the windows and knelt next to his sister's slumped form.
Reaching forward, Akira pulled her into a gentle hug. Stiffening for a moment at the uncommon sensation, Mizuki quickly relaxed into her brother's embrace and, for just a moment, let the dam that held all of her emotions open up as she sobbed into Akira's chest.
Feeling the shudders coursing through Mizuki's body and the wetness spreading across his chest, Akira was almost consumed by guilt for not being a better brother. Focusing on Mizuki, he gently stroked her hair until her sobs became less frequent and, eventually, stopped all together. Knowing that there couldn't be much time left before one of Mizuki's guard dogs came by, Akira loosened his hold on her enough that he'd be able to stand at attention immediately if he felt someone's presence, though he didn't let her go.
"I'm sorry, Mizuki," Akira whispered the words that he had been wanting to say since he had first found out about the elder's decision, back when his sister had first been born. "I should have kept you hidden, made sure that the elders never knew you existed. I was naive to think that they would let you stay with me and Okaa-san, especially after Otou-san died. If I had been smarter, then maybe you wouldn't be in this prison."
Pulling back slightly in surprise, Mizuki looked at her brother's eyes, remembering all of the time that he had spent training with a sword despite his dislike of violence, all so that the elders would select him as one of her guards. If it weren't for Akira, Mizuki would probably never have even known what the sky looked like, much less actually having left her room, albeit rarely, and seeing the courtyard. "You're wrong, Onii-chan. The elders always keep such a close watch whenever there's a pregnancy, they'd have known immediately that I was a girl, no matter what you did." Drawing in a breath, Mizuki straightened up and said, "Besides, at least when they move me to Kato's compound, I should be able to see at least a little bit of the outside world."
The siblings shared small, sad smiles, both trying to keep their composure and joke about how Mizuki would finally get her dream of being allowed outside of the elder's compound. Neither of them acknowledged the fact that the moment that the journey to Kato's compound would be the first and last time that Mizuki would see the world outside of the compound the elders had forced her to live in from the moment they had stolen her from her family, even though they both knew that it was true.
Hearing footsteps approaching, Akira quickly stood up and stood next to the door so that when the elder's spy of a court lady walked in, nothing would look out of the ordinary. "Excuse me, sir, but Mizuki-ojou-sama must take a bath now. The elders are having a feast to celebrate her engagement."
Clenching his fist at the facade of respect that the sycophant gave to her master's prisoner, Akira nonetheless managed a polite bow and said, "Then I will return to my watch now, Mizuki-ojou-sama," before he walked out. As he glanced back, the depressed look he saw in his sister's eyes caused Akira to rush to the corner. Putting all of his anger into the blow, he punched the stoner wall that encompassed the compound as hard as he could.
Clutching his fist at the sudden harsh pain, Akira couldn't help but remember all of the times he had seen pain flash across his sister's face since she had come to this glorified bird cage. And with those memories also came the crushing reality of his own helplessness, causing anger to surge through him all over again.
Dammit, how did I let things get this far? Where did I go wrong? Was it when I got a midwife from our clan for Okaa-san? Should I have gotten a human midwife instead? Would that have stopped this? Or maybe if I'd fought the elders more, they'd have let me keep her?
Akira's rage finally beginning to recede, he took his hands away from the wall and noticed, in a detached fashion, that his knuckles were bleeding. As he watched the blood fall to the ground, Akira finally came to a realisation.
No, it wasn't that. This was caused by my decision to stay in this damn clan. I should have taken Okaa-san out of here as soon as I found out she was pregnant. Nobody would have stopped me, everyone thought that Okaa-san was sterile and that's the reason she treated a child born from another wife so well. If I'd just thought clearly, we could have been gone before anyone even thought that she might be pregnant, maybe we'd even be living in the human world right now.
Akira couldn't help but snort as he thought about the humans that he'd seen when he went into town for supplies. Those elders are always saying how the humans are weak and limited creatures, yet they have so much more freedom than any of us born into this accursed clan. They can breathe without having to worry about one of those old bastards telling them to stop. Mizuki would be happy there. She could still be happy. I'm one of her guards now and everyone knows that we talk. I'm just about the only one that she'd allowed to talk to.
Before, I could never even think about using our time together to sneak her out, there were always too many people around. But everyone will be busy when the wedding gets closer, trying to impress that pervert. If I stole a uniform from one of the maids, the two of us might be able to just walk out of here, say we're on an errand.
Watching the wounds on his knuckles slowly close up and fade, not even leaving a trace of any scars, Akira began to walk towards his post, knowing that for his plan to work, he would have to look perfectly normal. Thinking through the logistics, Akira decided that the day before the wedding would be the best time to act since all of the men in the clan would be in the dining room celebrating their good fortune while Mizuki would be locked into her room in order to "preserve her purity".
Smiling for the first time in a long time, Akira began thinking about what he'd need to prepare for their new lives.
I can see a lot of people being a bit pissed at me for posting this when I should be updating all my other stories. And my explanation for that is a bit of writer's block, so when I got new ideas for this story (I actually came up with it a while ago) I decided that writing something is better than nothing.
This story is actually an idea I had a couple months ago but I never really write because I felt like it needed something else/I wanted to finish my other stories. Anyway, I was reading xGlassFoxx's Transcendent and I was like, that would actually be a pretty good way to make this story work. For the record, I really do recommend that you read her story, it's pretty good if you keep an open mind about it.