Kantarou stared into the glass-like water of the pond. The water reflected his image perfectly, like a mirror. Kantarou red eyes contrasted with the cool blue of the sky that the pond reflected, as well as with his pale, white skin. Looking at his odd red eyes and pale skin reflected in the pond made Kantarou ashamed. He hated his skin because it was the first thing that people noticed when him, he hated his eyes more though. After people looked at his skin they would never fail the gaze at his ruby colored eyes. Kantarou's eyes attracted attention where ever he went. If the attention he recived was positive then Kantarou would have no problem with his abnormal eyes, but every where without fail people condemned him for the color of his eyes.

That morning Kantarou and Haruka were going to a new town to do an exorcism. This turned out to be a horrible idea. This town rarely saw foreigners or even outsiders so Kantarou and Haruka were the talk of the town. At least they were until the townspeople got a glance at Kantarou, then Haruka dropped off of the townspeople's radar. Kantarou could not help but remember what the townspeople said about him. One man took one look at him and shook his head muttering 'freak' before turning away. An old woman screamed 'devil' at him before running to get the town's priest so he could exorcize Kantarou. There were many other townspeople who said something along those lines to Kantarou when he first came into the village, but the worst comment of his appearance happened after the town had settled down.

Kantarou was going around the town looking for information. He happened to see a young woman standing next to a shop door as if she was waiting for something. This caught Kantarou's attention so he went to investigate. Once Kantarou had gotten to the woman he had not even said a word yet before the woman exploded, 'How dare you pretend to be human you monster! Stay away from this town and go back to where you came from!' she had screamed. Her hysterical screams had reminded Kantarou of what his past, of when many other had spat similar things at him.

As he thought of the past again Kantarou sunk down to his knees next to the pond. He kept staring at his reflection, kept thinking how ugly and creepy he looked. Memorys of the near and distant past floated through his head making silent tears flow from his eyes. From experience Kantarou knew that when you cry it's better to just let it all out, and so Kantarou buried his face in his knees and cried.

Kantarou was so intent on crying that he did not notice that someone was coming up behind him.

"Kantarou?"

Kantarou jurked out of his tears when he heard the familiar voice of his tangu behind him.

"Why are you crying over such trivial things?"

Kantarou ignored the tangu's question in order to stand and stare at Haruka blankly.

"I like your eyes," Haruka said with a matter of fact tone.

Kantarou's eyes widened at Haruka's announcement.

"You do?"

Haruka could barly hear his master's answer and frowed at Kantarou unusually soft voice.

"They are beautiful Kantarou, they remind me of jewels."

Kantarou's ruby eyes filled with tears as he stood up and turned to face Haruka.

"Thank you, Haruka."

Haruka opened his mouth to answer when he felt a weight on his chest. Haruka glanced down to see Kantarou's face buried in his chest. Haruka let a small smile escape his lips and let his arms rest on Kantarou's hips. Haruka decided not to bother his master when he, and his master, were so content with the position they were in.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I got this idea from volume 7 of the manga! And I just had to write it down. Oh! I do not own any of the characters in Tactics they belong to Kinoshita-sama and Higashiyama-sama! Please review!