Okay this will the be the second time I upload this chapter...hope it works now! I've found a way that doesn't tend to glitch (fingers crossed!)

Disclaimer: in the end, we are all MADAO


One Hundred Times

.: four ten :.


31. Crib

The moment the robber picks the lock, Zenshi is up. Without disturbing Tsukuyo, who has had a most tiring day, he slips out of the room and shades toward the intruder. He hears nimble, soft footsteps edging toward Yugao's room. A flicker of light off a blade, and suddenly Zenshi is lunging after the man because it's not a robber it's a hired hitman.

He never manages to catch the man. Instead, Yugao thrashes in her crib, hoarse cries like a kitten's rising from her throat. The knife spills across the floor, sliding across the tatami mats. The intruder is pinned to the ground, a set of glinting teeth at his throat.

It is then that Zenshi truly appreciates saving the irritating little alien wolf pup one year prior. With brilliantly glistening blue-black fur and a stripe of vicious white down his chest, Lang, who is larger than most of Earth's canines, looms with intimidation. His fangs poise at ready around the man's jugular.

He is the protector.

32. Miss

"I don't miss him." Tsukuyo folds her arms. "I don't."

Hinowa, who is darning socks, bats her eyelashes.

"You don't?"

"I don't."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure." But Tsukuyo's cheeks flush slightly pink, and Hinowa knows she's won.

"You miss him."

"I don't! I don't miss'im at all."

"You don't miss me?"

Tsukuyo whips around, finding herself face to face with Zenshi. A gargled shriek comes inadvertently from her lips and she throws her arms around him. A split second later, the blonde courtesan scrambles to push him away and frown.

"I didn't miss ya."

"Was that a little girl squeal?" Zenshi asks.

"No."

Hinowa rolls her eyes. "Just admit it, Tsukki, you missed him."

"I did not."

"I got that on tape!" exclaims Seita. The boy then proceeds to run for his life.

33. Tree

There is one tree on their end of the campus — an ancient oak that towers over the courtyard between dorms. There is plenty of room for gorilla Amanto to climb up into its lengthy, sturdy branches and have tea parties and banquets. There is a clique of bird-like alien girls that often perch on the topmost branches and gossip their afternoons away. The base of the tree's trunk is so wide, one can walk a good minute without ever seeing the other side.

Zenshi escapes the balmy mid-spring semester within those branches. Sitting at the base is too exposed; instead, he finds footholds in the rock-like bark and swings up to where a few gorilla are slurping drinks. At the sight of the young Yato, they immediately hoot and crash into higher canopies.

"What a socialite," Mei chimes from beneath him.

He throws a book.

34. Abandoned

It's just a dream. Abandoned on a planet where he has no ties, no memories, no points in time. But he's never had a real place to belong. His time is not a line, but a dimension with many parallels and layers and levels. He cannot kill the little boy whose knees quake because it reminds him too much of his daughter.

He cannot bleed to death because he is already dead.

Delong stares forlornly at his hands, clean, pale, unstained.

He meanders until the Lieutenant clasps his shoulder gently and tells him that his wife and daughter would like to say hello.

A lot has changed in this abandoned timeline of his.

Yes, quite a lot.

35. 4:29 A.M.

Mei hates waking up before her alarm. She also hates staring at the clock when she can't sleep. The clock reads 4:27.

She attempts to roll onto her back, but every muscle in her body aches and blames the paralyzing blow of the man in the cloak. He'd swept out of nowhere, from the depths of Yoshiwara's streets, and parried her every move like he'd known them for seven years.

And he had.

Mei decides she hates Zenshi when the clock reads 4:28. Her blithe, merry acceptance of her new rank dissolves into bitterness, a barbaric self-exile that places roiling frustration in her gut. She hates him.

The soft glow of the digital timekeeper is adamant but unconcerned. Just like him. She hates him.

"Lighten up," he would chide. "I'm not holding my breath for you."

It's 4:29 A.M. She can't be sure she hates him, still.

36. Guns

Matako is not there to cover her back. The Kiheitai shrinks into nothingness the moment she enters the room, and suddenly she's very alone in the capacious space. The camaraderie between herself and the Kiheitai's top marksman leaves Mei callously exposed, vulnerable.

"Welcome."

Four gunmen train their weapons on her. Four swordsmen fill in the spaces where she could duck out. She is expected to kneel, but of course, Mei does not. She has never yielded authority, not even to the galaxy's greatest.

She would not kneel for the leader of the Hitotsubashi faction.

But she will admit that his slicked back hair, patterned cravat, and extravagant jacket are more than just for show. His eyes are cold and dismissive. He is a man of power, of evincing royalty.

"Hitotsubashi Nobu Nobu."

He smiles.

37. Sacrificial

Everything is sacrificial.

Ungyou's life.

Delong's life.

Jenhao's presence.

Zenshi's loyalty.

His sister's love.

But he has yet to gain anything in return for all these things lost, and all he can do is stare out the window of his leaky little ship and recall the times when they smiled.

38. Snow

Mutsu does not believe in love stories. Nor does she believe she is capable of participating in one, for she is a stark, cold character and the day she falls in love will be the day Katsura Kotaro has common sense.

Yet there is something warm and tingly that passes through her when she spots them: Zenshi, wrapped in a scarf she sent him last year, in stride with dumb ole Tatsuma, who is fabulously spiffy in a new navy pea coat.

"It's not cold," is the first thing Mutsu says.

Zenshi casts a glance upward, and Tatsuma laughs his donkey braying laugh.

"Whaddaya mean, Mutsu? It's snowing! How aren't you cold? Your cheeks are red!"

Her fist finds his face and leaves a nice black eye, a fine contrast to the thin layer of frost in the grass.

39. Balk

Sarutobi Ayami is one hundred percent kunoichi.

She is also one hundred percent stalker, fan girl, and passionate lover (in a unilateral relationship, that is).

When it comes to her work, however, she can become anything. She does not balk at the most dangerous of requests, even ones that are borderline suicidal. Bakufu, Joui, name it and she does it. For a whopping fee, of course.

Her newest assignment whisks her to one of the many Amanto embassies in the great city of Edo. This building — the layout of which she has carefully memorized — has ornate, pearly gates and a large, Greek Pantheon-style forefront. She takes a glance at her target, nods as if to affirm her mission, and proceeds with utmost caution. Her goal is to slip in, slip out, and make the assassination as quick and painless as possible.

Glibly, Sacchan momentarily lets her mind wander to how much she shall enjoy hiding in Gin-san's closet for the rest of the day after this assignment.

Someone taps her shoulder.

"Can I help you?"

Sacchan wheels around, startled. She hasn't even moved past the gate along her secretive route by the hedges, and here is a man in a suit, looking somewhat peeved but mostly disinterested in her ventures. It's time for a guise.

"O-Oh dear," she exclaims far too loudly. "Yes, certainly! I was looking for the—"

She freezes midsentence because the face she looks up into now is horribly familiar. In fact, if she just glances down, she can find that exact face on her target photo.

"The Secretary-General? You'd be looking at him." The man straightens, and he is quite tall. He looms before her and looks stunningly intimidating. Sacchan struggles to close her gaping mouth and rearrange her verbal skills. The man continues, "I suggest you inform your client that his request is impossible. Especially seeing as you haven't gotten past our front gates."

"I—"

"Sarutobi?"

Sacchan whirls around again, this time to see a familiar blonde courtesan trailing their way.

"Tsukki?"

"What are ya doin' here?" asks Tsukuyo.

"I, well, um," stutters Sacchan, stuffing the photo of the Sec-Gen into a belt. "Nothing."

Dressed in all black in broad daylight, three knives and a vial of purple poison blatantly visible on her belt, Sacchan spells both assassination and moron all at once. The make things worse, the photo that she tries to hide flutters to the ground.

"Nothin', huh?"

"Yep. Nothing."

Needless to say, Sarutobi Ayame makes a run for it.

40. Heal

Zenshi has seen fingers reattached, spilled guts pushed back in, prosthetics made to replace lost limbs. But the sight of a man that walks in his missing half his body, on the verge of going up into the heavens right then and there, somehow still making it into the clinic, freezes him to the spot.

Zenshi is ten years old. He cannot honestly say he is frightened when the man grips him by the shoulder with one hand and croaks, "Kid, get me a doc," but he cannot say he is completely calm, either.

Almost immediately, nurses and staff seize the man and drag him to the nearest intensive care unit. Zenshi watches them go. One year ago, he had found himself in that room, wondering if he'd ever again see out of his right eye.

"Zenshi."

He turns; it's his aunt.

"Go and see if your mother needs any help at home."

"I'd like to stay." He's so excruciating polite that she purses her lips and hesitates.

"All right. Only if you stay out of the way." They're useless words because he is but a shadow, gliding seamlessly behind her as she makes her way to the operating room.

He watches intently to learn, but he is an ersatz diamond compared to her genuine skill.

She heals. He can only imitate.


Notes:

-"Abandoned" is from the point of view of Delong and can be connected to EoW's last chapter.

-"4:20 AM" can also be connected to EoW

-Whose perspective is "Sacrificial" from?

-Sacchan is hilarious.

References:

-Lang literally just means "wolf" in Chinese. [I'm so original aren't I. I've named people "freedom freedom" in two different languages.]

Pairings:

-SAKAMUTSU. Yes.

-Mei x ...? (it's a real bizarre one...and it doesn't work out for them in the end...)