Have you ever had one of those people that don't really understand that someone hates them? Kawaii kind of is like that. But in her defense, the Rensakage's past experiences have been coming back to haunt her. That normally causes a great deal of stress to a person
The Rensakage glared at the little cripple as he stumbled out of the room. She couldn't understand, how had it all gone so wrong? Now she was left with caring for the little moron for who knows how long because . . . ugh! "Rensakage?"
The Rensakage looked up when she was reminded of the OTHER thing that was irritating the shit out of her. The leader of the Surujin clan and his wife were there, both looking pissed off at the message.
The Rensakage put Kawaii out of her mind. She had other, more pressing matters to attend to. "What?"
The Surujin clan leader almost got the Rensakage to laugh as he pointed at the scroll. It reminded the Rensakage of how the child who ate the last cookie in the cookie jar would point at their sibling to pin the blame on someone else. "Why should we pay for the damage that was the Kusarigama clan's doing?"
After suppressing the urge to just go and kill the moron in front of her, the Rensakage spoke to him. "You are not paying for all the damage, it's half and half. After this, the 'Great Cripple' will be sending a message to the Kusarigama clan about this exact same incident."
As she expected, the Surujin clan leader refused to yield. "Oh, I see. Because we were both involved, even though our side specifically did no damage to any of the objects in that shop, we absolutely have to pay half?"
Unable to contain herself anymore, the Rensakage slammed her palms against her desk. "BULLSHIT! I was there, I saw you do property damage, and it is my job to figure out who's to blame. BOTH sides almost destroyed that building, so both sides will pay the price! Do I make myself clear?"
The man gnashed his teeth, but said no more. His wife on the other hand wasn't quite as happy with it. "Bullshit, my lady! Just like ALWAYS, you're eyes don't see a damn THING! FIRST, you don't help with the disappearance of Nanabi's jinchūriki. THEN you start putting curse seals on the tongues of over half the damn village, and just look at this! Look at Kawaii! He adores you, even though you are so cruel to him! You continually call him things such as 'the great cripple', you deliberately tell him to do things you know he can't do, and you don't even feel pity for him!"
The Rensakage gnashed her teeth. "Oh, I see. You think that I have the time to raise a child? You think that I have the time to raise a cripple? I am the Rensakage, not a mother! About Nanabi, have you forgotten that it was me that finally found the jinchūriki's corpse? And yet Nanabi didn't suddenly level the village, I wonder who risked their life to deal with that thing? Now stop belittling me about things you don't understand and pay what's due!"
For a bit, both sides glared at each other. Then the woman grabbed out some money, slammed it onto the desk, and the two of them stormed out of the office. The instant they slammed the door shut, the Rensakage sat back down, feeling the sweat pour down her face.
That had been too close. The wife of the leader of the Surujin clan had almost put it all together. What they hadn't figured out was that everything they had noted, the disappearance of Nanabi's jinchūriki, the Rensakage having so many people given the curse seal of silence placed on so many people, then the sudden appearance of Kawaii, it was all connected.
The Rensakage gnashed her teeth when she thought about the cripple. That plan had been going so well before . . . ugh! She couldn't believe those two had the nerve to . . . whatever. That was past. Now next up, she needed to get the message to the Kusarigama clan. "Kawaii, come on in."
She grinned when she heard the 'Okay' from Kawaii. Maybe this time would be the time she finally managed to piss him off. It had almost turned into a game she played, she had yet to see Kawaii angered. "It's a matter of urgency, Kawaii."
After he gave another okay, she listened as his unique footfalls made their way to his office. She knew he couldn't go any faster, but that didn't stop her from stressing out Kawaii. "I don't think you understand the meaning of urgency, Kawaii."
She heard Kawaii at the door, and she immediately raised the pressure. She knew Kawaii couldn't open the door quickly. "Urgency, Kawaii! That means now!"
She heard Kawaii speed up, soon he was trying to grasp the doorknob. It should only take a little bit more pressure to finally get him to snap, to finally grow angry. "NOW!"
Even before her voice stopped resonating through the air, the door practically flew open and Kawaii quickly stumbled into the room, looking flustered. Good, now he would only need to learn that his orders didn't really need-
"Twenty seconds!"
What? The Rensakage was left baffled at Kawaii's joyful expression. "Kawaii, I need you to now bring this scroll to the Kusarigama clan."
Kawaii cocked his head in confusion. "That's what the rush was about?"
Okay, so she still had a chance to get him angry. "Oh, there was no rush. I just wanted to-"
But to her shock and frustration, Kawaii's eyes suddenly lit up. "Oh!"
Aw, DAMN IT! Not another 'oh!' moment! The Rensakage couldn't believe it as Kawaii smiled even wider. "I get it! Thanks to the fact that I felt the need was urgent, I was able to take ten seconds off of my fastest door-opening time! Thank you, my lady!"
Rensakage was left fuming in rage at Kawaii's inability to be angered as Kawaii grabbed the scroll and stumbled towards the door. This was ridiculous! How could the child not be angry? Here she was, forcing him to speed up and exhaust himself, and he was never angry at her! She just couldn't believe it! She had just been thanked by doing something that should have ended with Kawaii being furious at her?
No, she had to focus. That wife of the Surujin clan had just gotten too close to the truth. The Rensakage needed to fabricate a story that would raise her own status. If she could get Kawaii hated-thus making him finally hate HER-that would be a bonus. She needed them to keep from knowing the truth about Kawaii, and how he came to be under the Rensakage's 'protection'. Twenty minutes later, she was still working on that thought when the door burst open and the Kusarigama clan leader walked in. Oh, goodie. It was another argument that she had to do. And this time Kawaii was enjoying a piggyback ride! This was ridiculous! "Get the Great Cripple off of your back now!"
The Kusarigama clan leader looked completely startled that the Rensakage had said that, but she didn't care. She was in a foul mood at the moment. As the Kusarigama clan leader set Kawaii down, Kawaii looked at the Rensakage with big eyes. Ah, so that was the way to piss him off? "You think I'm . . ."
The Rensakage and the Kusarigama clan leader were both taken off-guard when Kawaii broke out into a broad smile. "Great? Thank you so much, my lady! You don't know how much that means to me!"
No way. This was ridiculous. Kawaii had completely tuned out the word 'cripple'? She couldn't believe it as Kawaii left the room happy. How stupid could one person be? "Huh."
The Kusarigama clan leader looked at the Rensakage with a confused expression. "Just a little naïve, huh? Now let's get down to business. You want us to pay how much for a fight that was instigated by the Surujin clan, and a fight in which they did all the property damage?"
The Rensakage gnashed her teeth at the foolish man. "I am not in the mood to negotiate. The Surujin clan already handed over their share of the money, now it's time for your side to hand over your share."
The man gnashed his teeth as he reached for the money. "Well, there's no way I shall let those savages outdo me. I'll prove my clan to be the better in every way. That includes confessing our crimes."
The Rensakage gave a slight smirk, but her posture must have given her relief away because the man chuckled as he handed over the money. "They certainly do like to argue, do they not?"
The Rensakage nodded as she accepted the money. "When I agreed to be the Rensakage, I had no idea I would be holding back two dogs to stop them from going at each others throats!"
The man gave a slight chuckle as he turned around, but when he opened the door he stopped and looked over his shoulder. "By the way . . . I am curious as to where Kawaii came from."
The Rensakage frowned, and reinstated the lie as if sticking to her story would make it true. "He was found abandoned. That's all."
The man grinned cruelly as he spoke again. "Well, I wonder . . . he looks a lot like . . . those two. I would be more specific, but I can't because of the curse seal on my tongue. Now that I think about it . . . didn't those two have a child born to them right before their disappearance?"
The Rensakage frowned, trying to quell the uneasiness in her stomach. This was bad, the man was correctly guessing Kawaii's heritage . . . but he didn't have all the facts he needed to accuse her of something. No, she was more worried that he would find those facts by himself. She didn't trust herself to speak, she could give away vital information by mistake. If the public knew of her actions, of her involvement in that experiment . . . well, losing her place as Rensakage would be the least of her worries. "I do not keep tabs on what everyone looks like. I expect it is nothing more than coincidence."
To her surprise, the man left it at that. The Rensakage almost sighed in relief when the man left, but soon sobered up. She needed to figure this out. If the two clans put their heads together then they would be so close to the truth . . . it sent chills up her spine.
No, that wouldn't happen. The Surujin clan and the Kusarigama clan were fierce enemies, they both had that blood-feud going for so long . . . the Rensakage sighed as she realized it just wouldn't happen. No, she should instead be nervous if a third party heard both side's theories and put them together. She gulped at that thought. It wouldn't even take much thought to . . .
With a sigh, she got up. She needed to take a walk to quiet the storm of her mind, and to come up with a plan just in case the worst should happen. It did occur to her that the correct thing to do was to accept the consequences of her actions, but now that she was no longer so inexperienced that idea seemed . . . dangerous. Her mature self would never have agreed to it, and that thought that she had done it before tormented her to no end.
"My lady?"
When the Rensakage turned around, she was both startled and annoyed by seeing Kawaii. Even now, here was the result of her most grievous actions . . . it felt like the world was taunting her, demanding she face the consequences even though that most certainly would result in death. "I'm stressed at the moment and you're not helping."
As the Rensakage began to walk more through the halls, she was surprised when she felt Kawaii's small hand brush against her own. She looked down, and saw Kawaii smiling at her. "I can help, follow me!"
As the Rensakage watched, Kawaii forced himself to turn around then stumbled away. When he looked back at her eagerly, the Rensakage, intrigued to say the least, followed him. Kawaii stumbled through the halls, his very presence seeming to taunt the Rensakage.
Soon, Kawaii attempted to climb some stairs. It only took Kawaii one fall back before the Rensakage decided to help him up, she didn't have all day! But as she got all the way up, she was startled to find them on the roof of the building. Why . . . As the Rensakage looked at Kawaii, Kawaii smiled and held up his arm. It took a few seconds to realize he was attempting to point at a stool up on the building. That was odd, what was a stool doing up here? "This is my favorite spot to relax."
The Rensakage froze in shock, Kawaii was . . . he was actually trying to help her calm down? This was . . . huh, ironic to say the truth. The very thing that was causing her so much stress was trying to calm her down, but . . . "I fail to see how this gets anything done."
It was . . . cute that Kawaii was trying to help her, but how was sitting on the stool supposed to help her? Kawaii smiled as the Rensakage asked him to demonstrate, and soon the Rensakage watched as Kawaii painstakingly sat himself down on the stool. Soon, he smiled as he lifted his arm to 'point' at the sky. As the Rensakage looked up, all she really saw were clouds. What Kawaii said startled her. "That one looks like a person."
She looked up in confusion, but soon . . . yeah, she kind of saw it. It wasn't very clear or anything, but it was there. The head was a little large, it reminded her of . . .
She wasn't entirely certain how it happened. All she knew was that soon she was sitting on the stool, pointing out what different clouds looked like with Kawaii's eager help. She almost forgot about everything else as she focused on the clouds, and for the first time in ages she smiled. Once the two of them had identified clouds that looked like people, dogs, dragons, kunai, pencils/senbon needles, and a large grinning face, the Rensakage realized she still had a job to do.
She was shocked to find herself almost . . . her thoughts were so much clearer, she felt ready for more work. She found herself almost grinning at Kawaii. "How . . . I admit it. That helped a lot. Just . . . how?"
Kawaii smiled at the Rensakage. "Whenever I feel unhappy, I like to take a break from life and just let my mind wander."
The Rensakage grinned as she got up. "Unhappy? I have NEVER seen you without your smile, Kawaii. What could possibly make you unhappy?"
Kawaii blushed a bit before he answered. "I-it . . . I mean, it's almost . . . I feel embarrassed that everything takes me so long to do. I keep finding myself just wishing I was . . . well, normal. Whenever it gets bad, I come up here and sit on the stool. The stool means a lot to me, I got it up here all by myself!"
The Rensakage froze. He . . . but with his hindered motor skills, he shouldn't be able to . . . then again, that was why he was so proud of getting the stool up here, because it was so difficult for him to do. Kawaii's face flushed with pride as the Rensakage complimented him on getting the stool up there. As the two of them reached the stairs, the Rensakage gently helped Kawaii down the stairs without even realizing it. She didn't even notice the change in her personality, to her it felt normal. As she spoke to Kawaii about how the Surujin clan and the Kusarigama clan were driving her crazy with their constant bickering, Kawaii actually frowned in confusion. "I just . . . I don't understand. What's the point in holding a grudge?"
The Rensakage almost froze in place. Kawaii didn't seem to notice, he soon stumbled out of sight going who knows where as the Rensakage pondered over Kawaii's words. He refused to hold a grudge, because he saw no point in it? Eventually, the Rensakage sighed as she headed back to her office. She still had quite a bit of work she had to do.
Alright, just clearing a few things up here. Kawaii DOES have brain damage, but his intellect and personality aren't truly affected by it. He's not a 'cripple' in the sense that his legs and arm are injured. Instead, his mind can't understand how to get his body to move properly, as such he has a hard time moving his limbs because it's overworking his brain to get more than one limb to move. He's one of those people that you pity because they aren't as lucky as the 'normal' person, yet he's accepted that fact. The main thing that Kawaii did to help calm the Rensakage down was not him pointing out the clouds to her. It was that he finally got the Rensakage's mind off of her work, he helped her by letting her taking a few-minute break from her work by doing something intellectually stimulating.
Hopefully the next chapter will come soon. See, I'm really working on these to help improve my writing style. As such, feedback for what people like and don't like would be greatly appreciated.
Update 2/24/12
Seriously, extra emphasis on the feedback! How can I improve if no one's willing to tell me of my flaws, or strengths?
