Ack! I've been getting lazy with my writing muse from too much schoolwork, so my mind ended up writing this instead! I'll be sure to wake my other muse up in the near future!
Enjoy!
Today was but a normal day for Parsee Mizuhashi. Guarding the bridge was her only duty, her life's purpose now that she was a yōkai. Such an ill fate.
She was always seething with jealously. She hated everyone that wanted to cross the bridge. She was envious of how they had so much freedom. But her? She could only watch them go past her, sometimes gleeful, sometimes static in nature.
God, how I hate them. Parsee gritted under her teeth. She'd just let a human couple walk past her, in hopes that they would go away quickly. Instead, they decided that the best place to have their first kiss...
...was on her bridge.
The couple kissed tenderly for but a moment before they made their merry way towards the Ancient City.
"Stupid couples... why do they think that my bridge is a great place for affection?" Parsee glared at the couple as they left. "They're so stupid, so dumb, so... childish! Scenes like that are only depicted in fairy tales... and that makes it worse! Oh, I'm so jealous..."
Before Parsee knew it, the couple had come back, but instead of a normal walk through, they were running past her.
Who followed the couple was someone that surprised Parsee quite a bit.
Satori Komeiji, the satori that could read the hearts of others, was walking on the bridge, towards her.
"Hello, Parsee. I'm glad to see you're doing your job." Satori was around a foot shorter than Parsee, so she had to look down when she talked to her.
"What do you want? I don't need you to brag about your freedom to me." Parsee turned around and leaned against the rails of the bridge. "I suspect you're here to cross."
"Always in a sour mood," Satori observed. "and your thoughts are just the same as always. You haven't been in a good mood since you were-"
"Shut up! I don't need a satori to tell me what I already know!" Parsee retorted. Her eyes began to glow green as she spoke.
"I suppose I'll answer your question now. I'm not here to cross your bridge."
"...what? Why-"
"-aren't you crossing the bridge?" Satori finished Parsee's statement. "I'm here to cordially invite you to the Palace of the Earth Spirits tonight for dinner. Consider yourself excused from your duties tonight if you decide to accept."
"I..." Parsee turned around to look at Satori.
"Your thoughts have already answered for you. 'What would a night away from the bridge be like'? I don't have an answer to your question, because you'll find out for yourself." Satori finished.
"Grr... I suppose I can't refuse, now can I?" Parsee's glowing green eyes turned back to their normal shade. "I accept your... invitation."
"I'm glad to hear that from your lips and not just your thoughts. Tonight, then. There's no start time, so free to come whenever you'd like."
Satori slid her feet around and walked away, leaving Parsee with more questions than answers.
Why did she invite me in the first place? I hate it when people do that!
"Excuse me?" A young girl, no older than ten, approaches Parsee while she's still in thought.
She thinks she can just go around and flaunt her status! She even has her pets to talk to!
"Miss Bridge Princess?" The girl pokes Parsee in the shoulder.
"AND THEN!" Parsee turns around and looks the girl straight in the eyes, but pays no mind to her. "And then, she has her sister that just comes OUT OF NOWHERE to talk to her sometimes! And you know who I have?"
"U-Um-"
"I have MYSELF!" At this time, Parsee's eyes were glowing immensely. "I'm so jealous of the company she always has, whether expected or unexpected!"
"I-I'm sorry!" The girl bowed and ran back where she came from.
"Huh? There was somebody here?" Parsee watched the girl as she ran. "Must've missed her..."
~Parsee is currently doing her duty spitefully, please wait...~
...
"I'm done."
Parsee began her trudge to the Palace of the Earth Spirits, not paying any heed to the people who wanted to cross from the Ancient City.
The Ancient City is quite huge, in retrospect to the Human Village above ground. Quite an enormous amount of oni live there, including Parsee's supposed friend Yuugi Hoshiguma. It probably wouldn't be a good idea if she talked with Yuugi at the moment, so she tried as hard as possible to avoid the places she usually is.
A few yōkai of many sorts noticed Parsee walking through the village, their stares directly on her.
"What are you looking at?" Parsee turned her head at the passerbys, and they pretended that they never looked at all.
The same action continued until she got past the Ancient City and on the path to the Palace of the Earth Spirits.
Quite a lot of animals were roaming about the path. Cats, dogs, birds... even a carnivorous tiger every now and again. None of them dared to get near Parsee.
"They must follow strict rules set by Satori if they won't come close to me." Parsee watched a bird fly above her head, squawking.
The path wasn't very long, so she managed to make up lost time quite easily, arriving at the entrance in short minutes.
"Unyu? It's the bridge princess!" Utsuho, Satori's hell raven, yelled from inside.
"You mean Parsee," Rin's voice was also audible from inside. "Satori-sama! Parsee is here!"
"Yes, yes, I heard," Satori was already at the front entrance, opening the doors. "Welcome to the Palace of the Earth Spirits. My animals didn't give you any trouble, yes?"
"N-No. They didn't." Parsee said.
"And yes, I do keep my animals under strict jurisdiction. It keeps them in line, but they don't mind it." Satori smiled, making Parsee feel a bit uncomfortable.
"Well, that's good to hear... I guess?" Parsee said a bit questionably.
I forgot she could read my mind for just the slightest seco-
"Everybody does," Satori sighed. "Please, come inside."
Parsee took a step inside the palace with a bit of awe. There was no pets to be seen inside, save for Utsuho and Rin.
Of course, she found something to be jealous about.
"It's so... big and roomy in here," she mumbled under her breath, eyes gleaming with her jealousy. "I wish the bridge was as big as the inside of this palace..."
"Did you say something?" Utsuho tilted her head.
"And the decorations truly outdo the ones in my small home under the bridge.." She gritted her teeth.
"Parsee," Satori said, "let's go to the dining room."
"I bet the dining room is better than mine, too..."
Satori grabbed Parsee by the shoulders.
"Parsee, let's go to the dining room."
The sensation of Satori's touch made Parsee's eyes dim down to their normal shade.
"A-Alright." She squints.
Satori slowly took her hands off Parsee, resulting in their hands lightly touching eachothers' briefly.
"Urk... s-sorry." Satori's face turned a bit red.
"C'mon, c'mon, I wanna eat!~" Rin ran down one of the hallways.
"Me too!" Utsuho flew after Rin.
"No running or flying in the hallways!" Satori shouted, storming after her two beloved pets.
"Sorry, Satori-sama!" Although they both apologized in unison, the two continued to run and fly, respectively, down the hallway into the dining room. A furious Satori was trailing right behind them.
Parsee watched the scene unravel with a hint of disdain before following the trio.
"Pfft, 'strict jurisdiction'. Yeah right." Parsee snickered a ways away, pacing her steps quite nicely so that her and Satori were in step together.
"Quite the handful..." Satori muttered to herself. "Oh, I'm quite sorry, Parsee. I forgot you were here."
"Don't compare me to that sister of yours." Parsee said.
"Sorry." Satori made no effort to sincerely apologize as she made her way into the dining room.
The room was around the size of the entrance but, in comparison, most of the decorations were placed on the floor instead of the walls.
As elegant as I suspected... it's truly outdone.
"I appreciate your honestly, but really, the Scarlet Devil Mansion has better accommodations than I," Satori gestures to the table. "Please, have a seat. I'll be out with the food shortly."
Parsee obeyed and took a seat at the dining table, which spanned over half the room.
"Satori-sama's a really good cook!" Rin exclaimed.
"Is she, really?" Parsee rested her arm on the table, then resting her chin on her hand.
"Unyu? I thought she was?" Utsuho scratched the top of her head.
"Ignore her, she's just trying to use reverse psychology." Rin patted Utsuho on the shoulder.
"Am I? I didn't notice." Parsee smiled a bit.
"That's very kind of you to humor my pets," Satori came out carrying a tray of food, which looked quite huge due to her small stature. "We'll be having rice and various vegetables for dinner."
"AW, not again!" Rin whined.
"I thought we had vegetables and rice yesterday, not rice and vegetables," Utsuho said. "See, Rin, it's not the same as yesterday! I bet it tastes better!"
Man, she's so dumb...
"She is, but we don't tell her that," Satori sets the dish on the dining table, then takes a seat across from Parsee. "I hope my cooking satisfies your tastes."
"Uh... thanks..." Parsee blushed a bit.
"Itadakimasu," the four of them said in unison. Utsuho and Rin began to chow down immediately, while Parsee paced herself accordingly. Satori hasn't touched a bit of the food.
"Aren't you eating, Satori?" Parsee asked, pointing her chopsticks at the almost empty plate of rice.
"I'm not very hungry at the moment." Satori placed her hands in her lap.
"...okay."
Parsee continued to eat. Satori continually stared at her, as if she thought Parsee was hiding something from her. Of course, that's not the case. Parsee didn't know of Satori's stare until she looked up from finishing her food.
Satori inadvertently moved her eyes away from Parsee's gaze. Instead, her third eye looked upon Parsee, who, in return, shuttered a bit.
"I-It was really good, thanks." Parsee thought nothing of it, thinking that her stare was because she might have bumped into the table. Parsee placed her chopsticks down on her empty plate.
"You're quite welcome," Satori sighed in relief. She looked over and noticed her pets waiting patiently for the consent to leave. "Utsuho, Rin, you're excused."
The two immediately hightailed it out of the dining room to attend to their duties once again.
"I only let them have a long dinner break because I knew you were coming." Satori got up and began to collect the empty plates.
"Is that so?" Parsee got up and took the tray in her hands. "Let me help. It's the least I can do."
Satori nodded and placed all the empty plates and used chopsticks on the tray.
"Your help is greatly appreciated," Satori turned around and began to walk. "Follow me so you can take the tray to the kitchen."
Parsee walked behind Satori the whole way to the kitchen, which was no different than an ordinary kitchen.
But it's still better than mine... Parsee bit her lip.
"Just place it on the countertop and I'll deal with the matter after your departure." Satori said.
"Alright." Parsee sat the tray on the countertop. "I guess I'll take my lea-"
"No! I mean, don't leave yet. I don't want you to leave yet. I mean- urk, please stay and enjoy some tea with me out back."
"... If that's what you want." Parsee shrugged.
She's acting a bit odd, at least that's what I think.
Satori took note of her thought and tried to fix her demeanor.
"I apologize. It's quite hard for me to have a conversation with someone other than my pets or Koishi... giving that I don't go out that much."
"Oh. That's completely understandable." Parsee's eyes lit up a bit, thinking about the secluded and relaxing life that Satori has compared to her normally busy day.
"I'll prepare the tea. You can go ahead and exit out through those doors," Satori points at a set of double doors.
And so she did.
"Here's the tea," Satori came out with a tray with two teacups and a teapot on top. "I hope you enjoy chamomile. It's the only tea I know how to make."
"I'm sure it's fine..." Parsee's eyes slid to the teapot, running over its elegant patterns.
"It's quite beautiful, isn't it?"
After setting the tray down, Satori sat adjacent from Parsee. She poured tea for the two of them.
"It smells very good..." Parsee remarks.
"Why, thank you." Satori slid one of the teacups over to Parsee. She then looked at her as she did in the dining room, studying her every move, reaction, and thought.
Parsee lifts the teacup to her mouth and takes a sip.
It's warm... and the flavor is quite rich, too...
Satori said nothing, but smiled in response to her thought.
... but it's still better than mine. Parsee sat her teacup back down in spite.
"Parsee," Satori said, concerned, "there's a reason I asked you to come here."
"Oh, and why? To show off your elegant palace in retrospect to my gaudy home under the bridge?" Parsee's eyes lit up green.
"No, it's not. Do you even notice how jealous you get over petty things that YOU can fix yourself?" Satori gestured to her teacup. "You just need practice to get better at making tea."
"I don't have time because of my duties."
"Well-"
"You have time. You don't go out much," Parsee looks off into the distance. "I'm so busy that I don't even have time to myself."
"That's why I asked you to come here." Satori took a sip of her tea.
"To entertain you?"
"No. To help you." Satori says.
"I don't need your help. I'm just fine. In fact, I love guarding the bridge." Parsee faked a smile.
Not really. But her thoughts said otherwise.
"Don't lie to yourself," Satori sets her teacup down and glares at Parsee. "Don't you see that by invoking a fake sense of enjoyment, nobody can tell the difference when you're truly happy or just plain melancholic?"
"It's not like anyone cares in the first place." Parsee looked away.
But... I care. Satori touched Parsee's arm. I really do.
Without a word uttered, the thoughts that were in Satori's mind were conveyed through an action.
"I care enough to tell you that I want to help you. Let me help you, Parsee."
Parsee looked over at Satori.
"...how can I know tha-"
"-that things won't end up the same. I assure you, I'll make every effort to make sure that they don't. I won't leave you to tend to that bridge every day in jealousy, in spite... in grief."
Grief...
She knew that word well. She wouldn't have become a yōkai if it wasn't for-
"Don't even think about it, Parsee. It... pains me too much to let you dawn upon it."
"Why would it-" Suddenly, the realization of Satori's true power came to Parsee.
All at once, the painful memory came to her mind.
Standing on the wooden bridge was Parsee and her lover, so close to eachother, but yet so emotionally apart.
"I'm sorry," the man in front of Parsee said. "but I found someone else that I'm in love with."
"No, there can't be! You haven't been seeing someone else, have you?"
The man said nothing, but looked down.
"How could you... how could you do that to me? To us?"
"I had no choice but to do this. To leave you."
"You don't have to... you have a choice, and you know that." Parsee's green eyes began to tear up.
"I have to go."
"Don't go... don't leave me here!"
The man turned and began to walk away, only turning his head back to tell Parsee one more thing.
"I never loved you in the first place."
And so he left Parsee on the bridge, full of sorrow, grief... and envy.
Envy of the girl that took her lover away.
Parsee's eyes began to tear up a bit, not in jealousy, not in anger...
But in pity. True pity for Satori.
Having to know about all of the pain that I went to without having to ask me about it...
"... please, don't take pity on me. I'm content with my life," Satori's monotone look turned into a bit of a frown.
...is worse than any of the pain and suffering that I went through.
Parsee began to cry, but didn't utter any sound from her mouth.
"Please... just stop crying for me." Satori couldn't help but tear up a bit as well. Her third eye did the same.
Parsee moved and wiped the tears from Satori's eyes, even her third eye.
"You're not content with your life. You want others to accept you for who you are."
"That's..." Satori sniffed.
"The truth? Is that why your sister..."
"... my sister closed her third eye so that she couldn't be hated anymore," Satori looked down towards her chest. "but for the cost of being loved by others that hadn't previously known her before she went through with it."
Satori sighed, then continued:
"Nor can she really feel emotion, either. Her subconscious mind is in control of her now. She always looks so happy, but I suppose that's what her subconscious wants her to believe..."
"I'm sorry..." Parsee said.
"... I love my sister for who she is now, but I don't like the fact that she closed her third eye instead of coming to me about her problems."
"I would hate that, too..."
"But, you know what?"
Parsee looked Satori in the eyes.
"What is it?"
Satori took hold of Parsee's hand and held it.
"At least I could get to you before you did something stupid."
What is this feeling? This sensation? Satori blushed, and so did Parsee.
Satori immediately let go of Parsee's hand and looked away.
"...thank you for coming tonight."
"I'd love to come over again sometime." Parsee was still blushing profusely.
"Yes..." Satori smiled, the leftover tears making her eyes glimmer.
"I would love that, too."