A Summer's Day at the River
In some ways, Ouri Kagami was just like Keisei. Even when she hadn't known that he was Keisei's adopted brother, she had thought that there were some parts that were strikingly similar. It wasn't something in their faces, she knew, as Keisei's strong jawline and nose and everything didn't correspond with Ouri's roundness and innocence at all.
She'd never say it, but she was sure that it was the determination they shared was something that made them real brothers. Keisei fought with the tenacity of a pit bull, all gnashing teeth and disregard for his injuries. While Ouri was a much more delicate creature, his steadfast desire to aid others burned brightly in his eyes. Makina had recognized it almost instantly.
What did it really matter to her, though? So long as he stayed out of the way, his resolve was of little relevance to her. He was just someone important to Keisei, but he was nothing to Makina.
She stared down at the younger brother from a high branch in the trees. She hadn't meant to watch him as he took the smaller children for a trip to the tiny river in the woods, hadn't known Keisei had coerced him into it, but in the end Makina's attention was hopelessly attracted to the Kagami boy.
"Hanagami!" squealed one of the children, a reckless little boy, as he bounced around on the rocks. "I'll bet you can't catch me!"
"My name's not Hanagami, Shouta! You brat!" Ouri screamed after him, pulling up his pant legs as he followed the bait and dashed into the water. Children laughed and hindered him on purpose. On the other side of the bank, the boy named Shouta blew a raspberry. "You're all brats! I'm not buying ice cream for you guys ever again!"
"Oh no!" Some of the children bellowed. Apologies they didn't really mean echoed off the tree trunks. The laughter abruptly started up again when Ouri resumed his chase and Shouta realized he was a target again.
Makina didn't get it anymore. Once upon a time, when life wasn't so damn cruel, she could have understood the frivolity. Now human children were, while endearing when alive, just more potential dangers. They needed to be protected, but they also needed to be eliminated. Life and death were the same horrible thing, vicious and unrelenting, and as an exception to the laws of nature, an abomination against everything, Makina knew it all too well.
"Hey, Ouri," a little girl on the bank asked, softly splashing her feet in the tiny current with her yellow dress hiked up to her knees. "Last time you got us all ice cream, you were still living with us. Didn't you buy Keisei two?"
"That's right," Ouri answered, pausing in his endeavor. Shouta looked relieved, but he was ready to start running again the moment he was sure Ouri would resume the hunt. "What about it?"
The girl smiled. "Do you think it impressed his girlfriend?"
Girlfriend? Makina frowned. That didn't sound right. She knew Keisei had a strange penchant for moe-moe anime girls, 2-D in the extreme with gainaxing breasts and unreal butts, but romance was a very small factor in her monk's life, if it was even there at all. Keisei knew his obligations and none of them allowed for courtship.
Ouri seemed to be hiding a grin behind a scowl. "I'm pretty sure it didn't. When he came back, he had ice cream all over himself. I think the girl got mad."
"Oh no!" the children repeated as though scandalized.
Ouri nodded as though he were a sage, the brazen boy. "And now that you all know, I think it'd be really cool if you all made fun of him when I bring you home."
Makina took a few moments to register Keisei's poor outcome before she distinctly remembered Keisei offering her a cup of ice cream, half of it vanilla and the other chocolate. He'd also been almost an hour late, an hour that could have lead to disastrous consequences for some poor souls, and she'd promptly thrown it straight back at him. They were talking about her!
As the realization hit, Shouta had waded back into the water. Insistently, he tugged on Ouri's shirt hem. "You should come home, too, Hanagami."
The rage that Makina had witnessed over the silly nickname earlier wasn't present. Instead, Ouri smiled a little sadly and pat the child on the head. "That's not fair, you know. You're trying to guilt me into moving back in." Ah, there was that resolve, that generous agony that would help the boy keep his feet, but bring suffering. She knew Keisei carried that same stupid weight with him always.
"But we miss you, Ouri," another boy said. He didn't bother rolling up his trousers and the water had drowned the material.
"And Keisei does, too!"
"Sorry, guys," Ouri told him. He opened his mouth to say more, but the watch on his wrist made a high, monophonic beep. Instead of continuing his own defense, he said, "It's three o'clock, guys. I promised I'd bring you back. Go get your stuff together, okay?"
The children choir let out one last, "Oh no!" before their little bodies were scrambling towards the riverbank to collect their things. They pushed and pulled at each other to make way, but no one was getting hurt. Makina admitted to being a little relieved. She sagged in her bird-of-prey posture for a moment and grimaced when the branch trembled.
It was too much to hope that Ouri hadn't noticed and his eyes rocketed up to the branch. "You...?" Makina read on his lips, heard the whisper of a voice.
She turned on her heel and darted away from the river clearing, racing through the thicker tree branches. That wasn't supposed to have happened and she bitterly bit on the inside of her cheek. Thick, black, dead blood filled her mouth.
She wouldn't screw up again. Cutting ties with Ouri Kagami was imperative.
A/N: Takes place after Ouri witnesses Makina killing the shikabane of the little girl in Aka.
There are also allusions to my first Shikabane Hime piece. There are also other references in here. Also, I guess this can be written for Sandie93, who requested Ouri and Makina. Not quite what I'm thinking Sandie-san wanted, but I think writing Ouri and Makina interaction is kind of weird for me.