* Prologue: Reminiscing *

•• She gazed at the green expanse of the rolling meadow that encompasses the riding grounds of the Akashi manor. It looked, from her vantage point atop a sakura tree, like a sea rolling with viridian waves as the gentle spring breeze blew over them. It was beautiful.

Around her, birds chirped their merry tunes as they hopped and flitted on the tree branches, weaving in and out of the snowy pink petals that would fall down occasionally at a single puff of the wind. She watched a couple of them float slowly to the green sea below her, and a voice from her memory echoed in her ancient mind.

"Sakura blossoms fall at a rate of five centimeters per second, the same speed as a snowflake!"

She felt a tug on her hand, and she looked down to see a small hand entwining itself with her larger one. The boy looked up at her with a proud grin as they walked down the sakura-lined path leading to the central garden in front of the manor.

She smiled at the boy's enthusiasm. The boy had always been like this during their early morning walks. She gazed at the falling petals around them, and thought if they indeed were falling at five centimeters per second. She held his hand gently in hers, careful that her nails won't graze his tender skin, and a lone fang glittered in the early morning air as she said, "That's interesting, little kit."

"I know! That's why I'm sharing it with you!" He laughed merrily in that high-pitched voice of a child's, then let go of her hand as he skipped ahead of her, enjoying this momentary freedom before he gets locked up in his own study, where all he does is to listen to his private tutors' boring ramblings about a particular lesson and to learn them perfectly principle by principle. The only breaks he would have until four in the afternoon would be for snacks and mealtimes, aside from those, he'd be sitting behind a desk that's well too large for him, with a stack of books in front of him with contents that are too advanced for his age.

As he romped about the place, his companion followed him at a close distance behind, merely watching and not saying anything. No orders, no complaints, just an amused glint in her gold eyes and a faint smile on her lips, a tip of a sharp canine tooth visible at the edge of her mouth.

After a while of playing around, the boy came up to her, seated beneath one of the trees that lined up the path. He sat on her lap, and looked up at her face eagerly. His small hand reached out and played with a lock of her hair that framed her face. He held it near the tip and turned it over and over in his fingers, fascinated by its color.

"What you doing, kit?" she asked, her arms around his little body in a loose embrace. She raised an eyebrow as he leaned back to her chest and continued playing with her hair.

"Your hair is like snow..." he answered quietly, as is speaking to himself. Then all of a sudden, he sneezed, and she chuckled as he regained his composure.

He released her hair then glared up at the fluffy fur that covered one of her shoulders. He pushed them away from his face. "Why do you have to have this — this thing anyway? It makes my nose itch!"

This was the only time he could raise a complaint without being lectured about manners, duties, and whatnot. The voice behind him said with a lace of mirth, "Oh, but you love them, don't you? You said they tickle your ears."

"Hmm.." he buried his face in them playfully. "Indeed, I do like them. They remind me of Yukimaru's mane."

"Mine is softer, though."

He giggled. "I wish I could stay like this forever... Ne, promise me one thing." His eyes shone with seriousness that one wouldn't expect from a seven-year old kid.

"Hmm-mmm.. Promise you what, kit?"

"That we'll continue having our morning trips together."

"Of course. I'm not about to leave anytime soon."

"I'll miss you if you go away someday." There was the unmistakeable sincerity of his sadness reflected in his tone. She patted him on the head.

"Don't worry, little one." She ruffled his hair, marveling at their softness. "I have the whole of eternity to take walks with you."

"But you have to go someday, right? Like Grandma and Grandpa did?"

She smiled at him. Of course, he was talking about death. He was still a child, yet he already had an idea of how life works.

"No. As I've said, I'm not going anywhere. That's promise."

"A promise?"

"Hmmm-mmm."

"Then let's swear it on it!" He held out his tiny pinky finger to her. A childish gesture to which she complied.

"I promise not to leave my dear little kit and stay by his side forever and take morning walks with him everyday." She laced her pinky with his, and he beamed up at her happily.

They stayed that way for a while, and then, she pushed him gently off her lap. Time's up; they have to return to the manor, where breakfast was waiting, along with his parents and after that, his dreaded lessons. He was reluctant to return; he'd rather spend the whole day with his companion here. Sensing his hesitation, she tugged on his hand as she led him towards the house, his cheerful spirit now dampened with sadness.

"I'll join you in your lessons, kit."

"But you said you find them boring..." he sulked, dragging his feet behind him.

"Yes, I do find them boring. But you got History, Literature, and music lessons today, so I think I can manage."

"Are you sure?" the boy perked up.

"Yes, yes, I'm a hundred percent sure, kit."

Her words sent the boy's spirits up, and by the time they entered the manor, he was being the composed heir, his steps confident and sure as he walked before her, yet if one would look close enough, his crimson orbs was shining in secret happiness.

How many years had it been since then? When she first saw him as a little child? Or when he finally breathed his last? How much time had passed her by? Decades, centuries, or was it a whole millenia? She shrugged; she never was one to care much for that abstract notion of time. Time means nothing to an immortal being like her. Everything in her life is just a repetition of something else that she'd done before. It was like playing a song on repeat — the music starts then ends, only to go back to play itself once more. Unless you turn off the radio, there was no way it would stop going in circles.

This is how her life goes — the purpose of her endless existence.

A call from below broke her from her reverie. A boy, eerily identical to the one in her memories, was standing there, calling her name, asking for her to go down and play with him. She gazed in those crimson orbs, wishing that somehow she'd find that familiar warmth in them, but she was disappointed.

No, he is not him. Never been, and never will. She shook her head and jumped down from her perch. Her yukata billowed in the wind. As she took his hand in hers, she was reminded again of the fact that this was a different person she was holding. It created a weird feeling in her unbeating heart; one close to what humans would call 'nostalgia', which of course made her laugh inwardly at the very thought of it. What was she thinking? Only humans feel that way. But there was no denying it; but then again, out of all the heirs she'd come across in her immortal life, only one managed to leave an impression in her vast plain of memories.

Where everything was blurred and distorted, ravaged by time, only her memories of him stood out clear as if they only took place yesterday. Every single detail, every word said, she can recall with startling accuracy. It's like he is the only thing that mattered to her.

She held up the pinky finger that had once encircled his own. The one where they sealed that promise of forever. She smiled. She'd kept her promise.

Ninety-six years. That's how long she spent together with him. She'd seen him as an innocent child, to a impulsive adolescent, then to a rational adult. She was there as he grew up from a helpless baby to a wizened old man. She was there when he spoke his first word, took his first step, played his first basketball match, experienced his first taste of death, took his first loss, regained his first self, created his first own company, had his first child, down to his last words, his last breath, his last smile. She'd seen him in both his best and his worst. She'd known him better than anyone else, much more than his wife, than his mother, more than his own self. She was the only thing that remained constant in his world, her unchanging appearance and demeanor that only seemed to remind him that he was changing day by day, yet he held on to her — his only pillar that stood unmoveable in this constantly shifting and turning world. She remained, long after he had left this dimension to somewhere else that she couldn't possibly reach. She was forever chained to this earth, bound by her shackles to her duty, with no possible escape nor reprieve.

Two words came unbidden to her lips. She said it again, liking the way it seemed to roll of her tongue. The only person able to carve a permanent mark on her being.

His name — Akashi Seijuurou.

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