.
.
Outside, the storm lessened, the red sakura sticky and trembling in the cool night air.
Katsushiro watched with quiet eyes as the two sisters drifted off into sleep. Komachi rolled and switched position numerous times, a compressed bundle of energy even in slumber. Beside her, Kirara closed her eyes, but from the way she was breathing katsushiro knew she was still awake. When Kirara slept, her hands would clench into small fists and press up against the side of her cheek the way a child's would; it was a quality he secretly found endearing. When they first traveled together, so many years ago, Katsushiro would watch darkly as Kirara pressed her face to her hands, breathing deeply and sinking softly into the ground. Then he would look up and see Kambei-sama chastising him with silent eyes, and he would slink back with the rest of the other men, who had slept a little farther outside the circle to give the sisters more privacy.
But Kirara was awake, she was awake and her breathing was erratic. She shivered and Katsushiro longed to lie next to her, perhaps wrap her small body up beside his and share with her his warmth.
It was, as they say, a wasted thought.
Katsushiro was not even supposed to be in the city when the sisters came. It was only by chance he was there, challenged to yet another fight with yet another samurai. His reputation had grown in the years of his travel, and people would speak in whispers as he walked past: Katsushiro the brave, who faced the Nobuseri untouched and unscathed, emerging miraculously from the fire and smoke. It came to pass that other samurai, obstinate and untested in battle, would try to prove their virtue by fighting against him, and Katsushiro often found himself inexplicably surrounded, angry eyes and raised katanas pointed in his direction.
And he would defeat them, because unlike his metal enemies, these samurai were easy to slash and cut with a sword.
The last he heard, Kambei-sama had given up his arms and retired quietly in the country, where the older samurai tended to a small garden and lived peacefully among the monks. Shichiroji-dono had married and returned again to his civilian life. And the villagers....
Katsushiro's face darkened. He still did not understand entirely what had happened to drive the sisters back to the city. There was no real need to sell the rice, just the old man's premonition that the girls should go and that they should go alone. It angered him that they would trust the old man with such blind faith, and it angered him even more that Rikichi did not call them out for their foolishness.
Kirara sighed, and Katsushiro saw that she had finally fallen asleep.
Katsushiro moved and stirred the fire quietly, tossing in a few dry branches and fanning the flames. The sisters were asleep and for some reason that made him feel lonely. They breathed but offered no companionship, and Katsushiro never felt more alone. How many years has he traveled, place to place, wandering like a monk in search of salvation? How many years has it been since he's had a place he could call home?
xXx
.
Kirara woke to find Katsushiro still awake, and holding his katana and staring at the fire. "Katsushiro?"
"Lady Kirara. You're awake."
She wrapped her shawl around herself and sat down next to him. "You look like you could use some company," she said.
Katsushiro didn't answer, staring silently at the flames.
xXx
.
"Back in the city, I almost didn't recognize you," Kirara said. "You look so different. Older. If you hadn't spoken I would have thought you were someone else," Kirara said.
"It has been a long time," Katsushiro said. "When you knew me, I was just a boy. Surely you didn't think I would stay the same."
"No, I suppose not," Kirara said.
Behind them, Komachi sighed, her crystal dangling just beneath her chin. Kirara saw the question in his eyes. "I gave it up," Kirara said. "I gave it up the night you left, but....but you had already decided to leave."
Silence met with silence. Kirara pushed back a strand of hair and glanced up at Katsushiro's face, which was lined and marked with weariness.
"I'm sorry," Kirara said. "I don't know what possessed me to say that." She tossed a piece of wood into the fire. "Rikichi and Sanae had a son. Things were rocky between them at first, but now it is as if they were never apart. Komachi has been mikumari for a few years now, and she continues to bring about good harvest. And I'm sure you have already heard, but the lady Yukino finally tamed Shichiroji's heart. They were married last spring--"
"Kirara-dono, please," Katsushiro said. "I have not forgotten that night. You do not have to apologize."
Kirara blinked, quickly. She twisted her shirt in her hands.
"Why did you leave us, Katsushiro?" Kirara said. "We needed you; we all needed you. But you left and you didn't even say goodbye."
"I am sorry, Kirara-dono, but I had already fulfilled my duty to Kanna Village. It was time for me to go."
Kirara glanced up, but Katsushiro's face was a mask. He picked up a knife in his hand and started scraping the wood.
"That's it?" Kirara asked. "You left us without a word and that's all you have to say? You act as if it were nothing--another contract, another duty to be fulfilled..."
"Wasn't it?" Katsushiro's eyes were cold.
"Then you truly are a great Samurai, Katsushiro-sama," Kirara said, bitterly. "Like Kambei, your heart is dead. It was a mistake to see you here." She stood and pulled her shawl tightly around her.
Katsushiro grabbed her by the arm. In one swift movement, he pushed her back against the wall, her heels scraping against the cavern floor.
"Katsushiro!"
"If my heart is dead, it's because of you," Katsushiro said.
"Let me go," Kirara said.
"Do you know what you've done to me?" Katsushiro asked. "What I've gone through to please you?"
"Katsushiro, please--"
"You have no idea what it is like," Katsushiro said. "Roaming from port to port, with only blood and battle to sustain you. You said you wanted a man with the scent of war. And I say to you, those men are dead."
Katsushiro was shaking. He let go of her hand. "I am sorry, lady Kirara," Katsushiro said. "I...I do not know what came over me...."
His shoulders hunched, and suddenly he did not seem so different. His face was close to hers. She could feel him lean closer, his parted lips just barely touching her own.
"I will accompany you to the village, but I will keep my distance. I will be near if you need me."
"K-katsushiro..."
He turned away, his cloak whirling behind him. Kirara clutched her arm and fell to her knees.
"I cannot be with you, lady Kirara," Katsushiro said. "You were right, it was a mistake to come here. I'm sorry."
Kirara sagged, dropping to the floor. A shadow passed over her and Katsushiro was gone.
xXx
.
Komachi woke up to nee-chan crying. "Sister?"
Kirara was on the ground, her knees to her chin. She was sobbing hard, fat tears rolling down her cheeks. "Sister what's wrong?"
"Komachi." Kirara wiped her eyes. "Katsushiro's gone. He left us."
"Sister..." Komachi hugged her sister, tight. "He'll be back, sister," Komachi said. "He left his sword here, see? See sis, don't cry okay?"
Kirara hugged her tight. "I'm so glad you're here," Kirara said.
xXx
.
Katsushiro did not come back. Komachi struggled to lift the katana, but it was heavier than she thought it would be. "Stupid Katsunoji," Komachi said. "I can't believe he left his sword. Now we have to carry it and it's so heavy!"
Kirara strapped the pack around her back and hefted the load off her shoulders. "Give it to me," Kirara said. "I'll carry it."
Stupid Katsunoji. Komachi was so mad at him. He shouldn't have made sister cry. "When I see him I'll give him a piece of my mind!" Komachi said.
Kirara said nothing. She trudged slightly ahead of Komachi, following down the mountain path and taking care to step not so close to the edge.
Komachi was bored. She was tired of walking. By the mountain were some wildflowers growing through the cracks. Komachi glanced ahead, then went to the wildflowers. She sat on the ground and started picking them, one by one, and fashioning them into a little bouquet. Her little crystal sang, pulsing brightly with the sunshine, and Komachi was starting to feel a little bit better.
xXx
.
"Nee-chan, nee-chan! Look what I got!"
Kirara turned to see Komachi bounding down the mountain path, holding flowers in her hand.
"Look nee-chan, see? I got these for you! Do you like them, huh, huh?"
"They're really pretty," Kirara said. She took the blooms from the little girl's hand and tucked them into her pocket.
"These are like the flowers Katsunoji tried to give you before, aren't they?" Komachi asked. "Remember, sister? He picked them and he was hiding behind a tree. But we could hear him, since he wasn't a very good samurai back then."
Kirara smiled sadly. That was also the day Kotsushiro killed for the first time: because she had asked him to. (He had spent the afternoon picking flowers. It made Kirara feel ashamed.)
"How come you and Katsunoji had a fight?" Komachi asked. "I thought you were getting along. I saw you last night, you two were making moony eyes at each other and I thought you guys would kiss."
"It's complicated," Kirara said.
"It's not fair!" Komachi said. "Grandmother always said you need to get married, and Katsunoji came back and you could have married him, and we could have been a family again like before. But you yelled at him," Komachi said. "You're always yelling at everybody."
Kirara bowed her head.
"He'll come back, sister," Komachi said. Kirara shook her head.
"I don't think he will."
A/N: omg, I've done like fifty-million revisions on this chapter before I could get the dialogue to flow right *headdesk*
I have a soft spot for the Mikumari sisters. I think they're cute. I realize my fic is really heavy on the Komachi!speak, but whatev. I like it :) I'm also a fan of Angsty!woobie!Katsu, but yeah. We'll see where it goes from here.