Disclaimer: I own nothing besides the original concepts and narratives that I have introduced in this story.
Chapter 5: Glass Ceiling
Later that day...
The faint glow of an impending dusk was bathing Hagoromo in its burnt orange hue as he stood unmoving on the sidewalk in front of a very familiar looking Japanese styled house.
It had been almost fifteen minutes since he brought Yuno to her house, yet he had not moved an inch ever since he lost sight of her when the metal door leading to her garden closed in her wake.
His attention might have been solely focused on his beautiful flower during the time he spent walking her home, however, as soon as he no longer found himself in her presence, thoughts which born inside his mind ever since the events from that park made themselves known to him.
That was the reason why he had been standing rooted in place for the past fifteen minutes, after all, with no clear indication of whether he would move or not anytime soon.
He had been carefully analyzing his actions during the most recent events, but in spite of his meticulous contemplation, he had yet to come to a definite conclusion.
The only thing he had so far was a simple question.
What moved him to display cruelty toward those humans when he should have just been apathetic instead?
After all, he was clearly aware of the fact that he had long ago acknowledged his apathy toward humanity.
So, then...
Why had he acted with any emotion toward those girls? Why had he shown malicious intent toward humans, when he should have simply not cared about them?
Such were the questions whose answers still eluded him. Questions that in order to obtain the answer for, he would have to think more deeply on the matter.
He would have to immerse himself into his contemplation, in an introspective manner similar to what he had done when he had secluded himself in the Genesis dimension for a whole week.
However, he knew that such a drastic measure was not needed in this case, for he was certain that a simple distancing from his current position and toward a more tranquil place should suffice.
A brief glance around himself told Hagoromo that for the time being he was the sole occupant of the small street, so he wasted no time and instantly hovered into the sky, vanishing from his previous spot in a barely distinguishable blur.
Meanwhile...
A soft sigh escaped Yuno's lips as she gazed at the wooden ceiling of her bedroom.
She had been lying in her bed for the past dozen or so minutes while her thoughts wandered back to the events which had taken place not even an hour ago.
She could vividly recall the words that her beloved Hagoromo had spoken to her, the words which had brought her such immense joy, that at that time she had thought to be dreaming for a brief moment.
He had told her that she belonged to him, that he would never leave her. And then he had cradled her in his strong arms, bringing her close to the warmth of his chest as he swept her off her feet.
All of that was still so incredibly fresh in her mind, that whenever she closed her eyes, she could see his sharp and focused eyes peering deep into her own with a sheer intensity that sent pleasant shivers down her back, before she would hear him speak those fateful words to her over and over again.
Letting out another dreamy sigh, Yuno closed her eyes and focused back on the wonderful memory as she basked in the incredible sensations that it instilled in her being.
She could slowly feel herself being overcome by an intense warmth as his words echoed in her mind, overwhelming her with a feeling of love so intense that it slowly burned her body with a pleasant heat.
She quickly grabbed one of the pillows on her bed, bringing her lithe arms around it and squeezing it tightly to her chest, before her face also found its way within the pillow's softness as she began to roll around in her bed.
It took her a few good minutes until she eventually came down from her emotional high, and by the time she did, she could feel the accumulated tiredness of the day slowly catch up to her.
Still, it was rather early for her to go to sleep and her exhaustion had yet to actually leave its mark on her, so she decided to spend some more time thinking about her beloved Hagoromo before sleep finally claimed her.
However, now that her previously intense emotions had also calmed down significantly, she could actually view the events of the day from a more clear perspective which allowed her to easily remember some things that would have otherwise escaped her notice.
From the very beginning she had realized that her Hagoromo was very different from anyone else she had met up until that point, but she had not paid too much mind to the mysteriousness he seemed to be surrounded with, since at that time she had thought it to be simply another aspect of his, albeit a rather strange one.
But with her spending more and more time with him, she had slowly come to notice more of these small details, which when taken individually would have been slightly odd but not that unusual, yet if actually put together would quickly hint toward something else, a much more mysterious nature than what she had initially perceived to be the case.
His speech regarding the notion of killing intent and the fact that he had been able to kill someone with it had proved to be a huge tipping factor that prompted her to start looking for more of those little details, and as soon as she had actively sought for them, she was easily able to come up with a significant few.
The first one to come to her mind was his elegant and refined behavior, one which when coupled with the allusions that he often made to royalty as well as with the way he sometimes spoke, made her believe quite firmly that he was of at least noble descent, if not of an actual royal one.
It might have sounded rather far fetched, but that was what she had managed to come up with by making use of the information that she possessed.
Another thing that she found to be odd was the fact that he seemed to be using a rather archaic manner of speech when he talked to her.
Then there was the matter of her injury from before vanishing as if it had healed at an almost absurd rate.
She had checked herself in the mirror earlier to see what had happened and she almost couldn't believe her eyes when she saw the perfectly healthy skin of her abdomen.
She had absolutely no idea how something like this was possible.
Sure, she'd heard about some more esoteric means of treatment such as energy therapy and other similar things, however, most of those were either weird voodoo practices or outright scams.
His name was also something that she found to be incredibly unusual. She had never heard anywhere before of the name Ōtsutsuki, except for maybe once, during one of her history lessons when their teacher had shown them an obscure passage from the second volume of the Kojiki, which contained information on the genealogies of the eleventh emperor of Japan.
She vaguely remembered the name of Ōtsutsukitarine no Miko being mentioned in that book, and that gave her more basis to her initial theory, although, she still lacked information for it to be anything more than an assumption or a guess.
But that didn't change the fact that her Hagoromo was definitely much more than he seemed to be letting on, and that with every passing moment she was becoming increasingly more curious about this mystery that seemed to be shrouding him.
Back with Hagoromo...
The gentle and tranquil atmosphere of the sky had indeed proved itself to be the perfect place for him to deepen his musings as he randomly drifted away, only several feet below the thick blanket of clouds that was his sole companion.
His thoughts had slowly grown more profound as his mind tried to figure the answer to what had been plaguing it for the half of the past hour.
More minutes passed by as Hagoromo continued his deep musing on the subject, when out of a sudden, the answer made itself known to him in something akin to an epiphany.
All of this time he had been trying to force himself to actually feel something for the humans, and that had been the reason for why he had acted with such cruelty and malicious intent toward those girls.
But that was not all, since he had also realized just how wrong it felt for him that he was still trying to force himself to care about the humans, regardless of how he had been doing it, since it was obvious that this time around he had chosen the opposite part of the emotional spectrum.
However, now that he finally became aware of this, he also understood just how pointless it truly was for him to act in such a manner, because deep down he had already stopped feeling anything for them ever since he had permanently discarded his naivety and foolishness back there in Indonesia.
So he would stop trying to force himself to feel anything for them, for it would simply be useless to continue doing as such, since he had long ago accepted the finality of his decision when he had stopped caring altogether about humanity.
The conclusion to his deep and rather lengthy introspection was accompanied by a sudden feeling of liberation, not unlike the one that he had felt in the aftermath of his wrath from two weeks ago.
Yet, as opposed to that time, right now, this freedom that he was currently experiencing also had a distinct air of finality to it. This time he definitely knew that he had cast away any and all of the remnants that might have still possibly tied him to his foolish and naïve past ideals.
A brief inspection of his surroundings immediately told Hagoromo that he must have crossed quite the distance ever since the beginning of his little journey, as the dusk which had been about to settle upon Japan at the time of his departure was now replaced by what seemed to be the closing of midday.
Deciding that he might as well see where he had ended up during his aimless flight, the young man momentarily ended his advance through the sky and hovered in place as he glanced down at the relatively huge mass of land beneath his feet.
His pale eyes quickly morphed into the all-seeing dōjutsu and with the peerless sight granted by it he began to observe in detail the landmass below.
The association of various mountains, hills and plains, coupled with several specific sceneries of which he had become aware after his extensive accumulation of knowledge courtesy of his clones, easily brought him geographical recognition as he identified himself to be currently floating several miles above the country of Yemen.
Still, such details easily paled in relevance to the other things his fabled eyes had come to witness as they were sweeping over said mass of land.
A rather strong feeling of déjà-vu filled his senses as the young man observed with slight interest how in quite the few locations over that country its natives seemed to be massacring each other for reasons which were currently unknown to him.
With his previous realizations still very fresh in his mind, Hagoromo knew that it was mere whimsical curiosity that kept him watching those people killing each other only a few kilometers below his feet, so he decided to study them a little longer, since he did not have anything else to do anyway.
His lovely Yuno was most likely sleeping at this hour given the timeline differences, and he truly had nothing else better to do other than waiting for her to wake up.
However, to his sudden surprise, as he continued to observe the events transpiring in that country, the young man began to feel something rather odd. Something which if he had to put into words, then he would liken it to a cold warmth, one that was completely different from the comforting warmth which he felt whenever he was with his darling.
He idly wondered what this feeling could be, and after several moments of contemplation, he reached the conclusion that this had not been the first time when he had felt as such.
There had been other instances which had evoked this particular feeling within his being, and all of them had been part of the events which had taken place in that park the day before.
At that time he had felt the same very feeling, however, he had not been capable of categorizing it due to his attention being almost completely focused on Yuno.
But now that he had enough time to properly label it, he would take his time to thoroughly study it.
Briefly looking away from the mass of land beneath him, Hagoromo quickly noticed that the cold warmth which had been suffusing him had also disappeared, yet as soon as he returned his sight back to that country and its humans, he experienced the same feeling blossom once more.
And with the return of that cold warmth, something else was also brought along.
A particular memory. One about words of wisdom spoken by his darling.
He perfectly remembered the memory that Alduin had given him a little over a week ago. The memory which involved a magnificent speech on Yuno's part.
A speech about how a desensitized being, one devoid of passion, would seek, nay, crave amusement.
Which was why he could not stop the chuckle that had been threatening to escape his lips the entire time.
He was faced with mirth that was born from the incredible fact that a teenage girl had unlocked the mental plagues of his life.
How could he not laugh in the face of such realization?
So laugh he did, and his amused chuckles slowly grew in intensity, until they turned into a full blown laughter that lasted for several good minutes.
By the time he was done laughing, Hagoromo was more than sure that he would not be able to find a word to properly describe just how marvelous and unique his Yuno was. Not that he had to do such anyway, since he was certain that describing her with any word other than perfection would be an unforgivable sin.
But besides that, there was one more thing of which he was now certain. And that was the fact that humans were actually humorous, and more so, that he had been actually having fun watching them so far.
Still, this now begged another question.
Was there anything that he could possibly do to amuse himself even further? To make the scene below his feet even more humorous for him?
He took a few moments to ponder on that.
From what he had observed thus far, those humans seemed to be rather lacking in their performance, which in turn affected the quality of the entertainment. So, in order to rectify that, he would have to strike at the root of the problem. He would have to do something that would liven them up a bit.
However, for him to do that in a manner which best suited the current situation, he would have to first acquire some more knowledge on the subject of those massacres taking place at the ground level. Such as the reason for why they were happening.
He might have acquired an extensive knowledge of this world during the past week, however, there were some things which he had deemed unimportant to know about, since they were nothing more than trivialities. And if they actually happened to suddenly become interesting, such as in the current scenario, then he could easily inform himself.
Which was exactly his intention in this case. After all, it would be laughably easy to do so, given how all that he had to do would be to simply find someone relevant enough to the topic he needed to become aware of and either read their mind or use his dōjutsu to read their lips if they happened to be speaking.
A few moments later and his all-seeing eyes caught sight of someone about whom it could be said that they were clothed in relevance.
The person in cause appeared to be a middle aged man wearing a white colored head scarf and a white robe as he stood seated upon the ground in reverence, zealously praying for the victory of one side of the people who were engaged in the conflict taking place a mile or so from his position.
Surrounding that man were a dozen or so of other similarly clothed people of both genders who appeared to also be praying alongside him.
Deciding that he had obtained enough information for him to be capable of properly choosing the most suitable option for deriving his entertainment, Hagoromo gave another brief contemplation on the subject at hand as he sought for a method which would fit best with his previous observations.
The answer that he came up with almost made him grin in anticipation.
It was a good thing that he had also sent a clone to read about topics involving religion, because, as he had just noted, such things seemed to be a great source of amusement. Especially when irony was also being invoked.
So, without wasting another moment, he outstretched his arm and slowly clenched his hand around the pitch black substance that began to materialize in the form of an orb next to it, prompting it to instantly change shape and turn into an ebon shakujō.
Then, he slowly raised his staff toward the sky and with a theatrical flourish of the hand he brought it down in a sweeping arc which sent thunder, hail and fire crashing down to the earth.
A moment later he stretched out his shakujō once more and repeated his previous action as he sent another wave of destruction toward the land beneath his feet. And for the following ten minutes or so, he continued to do just that, raining thunder and hail, in the midst of which was fire, all of them converging down upon the country of Yemen.
By the time he was done raining destruction upon the earth below him, Hagoromo decided to add the finishing touch, so he pointed his ebon shakujō toward the land and with an effortless flexing of his power, he made it as such that each and every one of the rivers that ran through there would be changed from water into blood.
As soon as he was finished with the last of the preparations, he dismissed his staff and proceeded to admire the fruits of his labor.
An amused smile slowly found its way on his ethereal visage when he noticed the varying expressions of terror and panic which most of the people seemed to have developed in the wake of the grand show that he had put for himself.
They had indeed livened up quite a lot, that was certain.
Good thing that he had possessed the foresight to aim more at the landscape rather than at the people themselves, because having them die as a result and missing their expressions of pure dread would have definitely been a waste.
Although, he doubted that just some flaming hail would have been capable of any significant casualties at all. Such a means was more intended toward damaging stationary targets rather than targets which could dodge them.
Still, terminal velocity could often be quite the tricky enemy for the average human, so...
But regardless of that, he could say with certainty that his actions had made the scene below much more amusing and entertaining than how it had been when he had first taken notice of it.
And yet, nothing of that would have actually been possible had there not been any humans to fill in the role of actors on his stage, since, in the end, that was exactly what the essence of his recent realizations had been. That the humans were truly humorous and that if watching them had been so fun, then having actually played with them had truly been incredible.
Even more so when the chess master and puppet master would take good care of his toys, so that they might continue to entertain him for more than just once during a show.
But that, of course, if they were satisfactory enough in quality, for otherwise they would be of no use to him. After all, what meaning would there be to a toy incapable of entertaining its owner?
A chuckle escaped Hagoromo's lips at that thought, before it quickly evolved into laughter when a particular thought entered his mind.
Had this been what his mother had felt while she had been at the top of the world?
Probably not, as she had definitely seemed to have been much more concerned with her problems regarding chakra and amassing her White Zetsu army...
But even so, he was certain that during the time when she had been worshipped as the Rabbit Goddess, she must have felt at least similar to how he was feeling right now.
However, it was truly not befitting of him to question any of his mother's reasonings to such an extent, for if there was one thing that he considered unwavering when it came to her, then that thing was the sheer respect that he had for her.
He might have been forced to fight and subsequently seal her, yet he had not even once stopped from considering her to be his loving mother, nor had he ever lost even an ounce of the unfathomable amount of respect that he held for her.
Bringing his musings to an end, Hagoromo decided that it was almost time for him to return back to Japan, since he would have to be there for when his darling woke up from her sleep.
So, with one last appreciative look toward his handiwork, he let out another amused laugh as he willed open a tear in the fabric of space-time.
A moment later, he stepped inside the darkness of the portal and dismissed the electromagnetic field he had been using to conceal himself from those pesky satellites, all the while musing about a particular topic, which he was sure to keep in mind and refer to extensively in the future, since it had proved to be a wonderful source of amusement.
Who knew that religion could be so entertaining?
Several minutes earlier [Cathedral of Causality]
A frustrated groan cut through the relatively silent atmosphere of the purple tinted cathedral.
"Dammit!" Murmur voiced out in exasperation. "Just where is that thing hiding?!"
Normally, she wouldn't have been in such an irritable mood, however, after spending almost a week looking for what could be best described as a needle in the hay sack, she wasn't feeling exactly thrilled.
Plus, the fact that she had also not read even one manga during all of that time wasn't helping her situation. She feared that if she continued without her precious manga for much longer, then she might very soon start exhibiting withdrawal symptoms.
Another groan escaped the tanned girl's mouth as she continued to look on a holographic monitor that displayed a live map of Sakurami City with countless of red dots flashing at random points over its surface.
Those were the causalities that she had yet to check...
A streak of purple lightning hitting the spot right next to her instantly brought Murmur out of her sullen thoughts as she quickly jolted up from her seated position.
Not even a moment later, and a dozen more purple bolts began arcing throughout the room, prompting the miniature girl to run around erratically as she attempted to dodge the incoming lightning.
"Boss, can you please stop acting like nothing is happening and do something?!" she yelled at the towering figure in the middle of the cathedral, before she had to duck another stray bolt of electricity.
However, all that she received was a deep, amused chuckle.
"Deus, this really isn't funny!" the tanned girl shot back almost immediately.
"Oh, but I assure you it is, Murmur," the God of Time and Space spoke from his ivory, jagged throne, before he pointed at one of the holographic panels floating in front of him, prompting it to triple in size. "Here, look at this."
Murmur was about to offer another one of her indignant retorts, but her words failed to leave her mouth when she noticed the events playing on the floating screen enlarged by her superior.
A myriad of bolts of lightning. Countless shards of flaming hail. Streaks of fire illuminating the sky.
All of those raining upon what appeared to be the country of Yemen, sending all of its populace in a crazed frenzy as they either attempted to flee from the destruction, cowered in terror, or prayed to whatever god they believed in to spare them from whomever's wrath had befallen them.
It was quite the frightening sight, if she were to be honest.
However, she knew that there was no time to muse about it, since it was beyond obvious as to what the cause to all of that had been.
It was definitely the work of that infuriating thing, if the similarities to the spectacle that it had put up two weeks prior in Indonesia were anything to go by.
Still, she should actually be grateful to its meddling this time around, because due to the fact that it was constantly affecting the causalities and changing them at such a rapid pace, there were high chances for her to be able to at least locate it.
As such, she wasted no more time and began inspecting the causalities in an attempt to determine the position of this unknown entity that was messing around in their world.
And to her incredibly pleasant surprise, after a few minutes of tinkering with the causalities, she managed to locate the place from were all of the changes seemed to be originating.
A split second later, and a holographic screen popped into existence in front of her, showing her with clarity and detail a live image of the perpetrator who had been taking away all of her manga time so far.
She took some moments to properly inspect the image, before she realized that the unknown entity who had given her so many headaches thus far actually looked like it had come from one of her shōjo manga.
Still, she knew that appearances could be deceiving, and in this case, they would be very deceiving.
After all, she had just seen with her own two eyes how that young man with flowing white hair had been spending the past few minutes throwing around destruction to a country from several kilometers in the sky.
She briefly wondered what she should do now that she had managed to get a glimpse of this mysterious entity. Probably not much, if anything at all, since it was more than clear that whomever this young man was, he obviously outclassed both her and Deus, if his feats shown so far would be of any indication.
Actually, she wasn't sure why she had even been so stubborn about finding more about it in the first place. She should have just kept to her manga when she had seen Deus acting so uncaring about the whole business.
Her musings were interrupted when she heard another deep chuckle cut through the silence of the cathedral.
She quickly threw a sidelong glance at her boss and felt the urge to sigh at what she saw. He was having fun while watching the people of Yemen react to the admittedly supernatural phenomena that were being caused by that young man.
"Oh, that is so ingenious!" she heard him suddenly exclaim. "Look, Murmur, our mysterious guest had just turned all of the water from the rivers in Yemen into blood. Is this not incredibly amusing?"
The tanned girl looked away from her superior as he had once more began chuckling at the holographic screen before his throne, and instead opted to look once more at her own video feed from the skies of Yemen.
Something which she quickly came to regret when she saw the young man laugh in a not too unlike manner than her boss.
And seeing that, she immediately dismissed the floating monitor and stared blankly at the wall in front of her as she was faced with a rather disheartening realization.
She should have just ignored all of this crap ever since day one and simply remained with her shōjo manga.
Letting out a weary sigh, the diminutive girl went to a corner of the cathedral where a pile of her manga could be seen, all the while lamenting about how she had wasted the better part of her last week chasing around an unknown entity that had turned out to be an almost splitting image of her boss, headaches and weird humor included.
In hindsight, she should have known that nothing sane could have come out of something which her boss had deemed to be incredibly interesting and highly entertaining.
But hey, one must learn from their mistakes, right? And fortunately for her, she had all of the time in the world to do as such.
That of course if the world didn't end before Deus chose a successor to his throne...
2005/05/23 18:45 [Sakurami City]
Hagoromo and Yuno were walking along one of the many streets of the bustling city, their hands linked as they basked in the warmth of each other, content with just being one in the presence of the other.
Neither of them seemed to care about the occasional stares that they were receiving from the passersby, the former because he simply did not care about such trivialities, and the latter because she was too focused on her beloved's presence to care about anything else, but also due to the fact that she seemed to be somewhat lost in her thoughts.
Which was true, since even during her time at school, she had been quite distracted as she had found herself constantly returning to the musings that she had begun on the previous night.
So far she had contemplated about the various things that she had noticed to be related to her beloved's mysterious nature, but with how little information she actually possessed, she hadn't made too much progress and her curiosity was slowly overwhelming her.
In the end, she realized that if she truly wanted to sate her curiosity, then she would have to ask him directly instead of fantasizing about various theories with barely any knowledge on her part.
Slightly turning her head to gaze at her beloved's enchanting visage, Yuno finally decided to ask him something about himself.
"Um... Hagoromo," she began, feeling the beginning of a blush spread over her cheeks when Hagoromo's pale eyes met her own cerise ones. "If it's not too much, I would really like to know more about you, so... uh... could you please tell me something about yourself?"
She felt her cheeks heat up even more when she saw him send her one of his charming smiles.
She idly wondered if she would ever be able to face that smile of his without having her cheeks redden, but she didn't get to dwell too much on that thought, as she heard him speak a few moments afterwards.
"Of course, Yuno. It would be my pleasure to tell you something about my past."
She offered a cute smile of her own to his response, before she listened to him as he began speaking.
"I'll tell you something about my mother, Ōtsutsuki Kaguya."
As soon as she heard him utter that name, a thought quickly sprung into her mind as she immediately remembered of an instance when this particular name had been mentioned in the same obscure passage which had been shown to her by the history teacher during a class.
However, she had to file away that train of thought, as Hagoromo quickly continued with his speech.
"You see, my mother had been an idealist. She had wanted to change the constant feuding that plagued the lands, and eventually, she had obtained a leadership position through her charisma and goodwill. The feuds stopped, and there was peace. That was when she gave birth to me and my brother, Hamura, who had sadly died a while ago."
When she registered the last part, as well as the way Hagoromo's voice had taken on a saddened note when he spoke, she was about to say something to comfort him, however, she was interrupted by his words.
"Do not worry about that, my dear," she heard him speak in a gentle tone. "My brother had lived a fulfilled life and had passed away with no regrets. I shall always keep his memory living through me, but I would never dare tarnish it by continuing to wallow myself in sadness at his death."
She visibly calmed down when she heard him say that and decided not to say anything and let him continue with his story.
"So, as I was saying, after settling down, my mother has had two children, me and my brother. She had raised us with great love and care, teaching us the intricacies of the world and the history of our people as we grew up."
Yuno noticed the tone that her beloved used when he spoke about his mother and that brought back her the memory of her own parents, two rotting corpses in a cage.
She might have not cared about her parents anymore, but now that the saw how much Hagoromo seemed to care for his family, she felt herself grow afraid at the idea of him ever finding out about what she had done to her parents.
She might be certain that he wouldn't leave her even if he did learn of that, however, she didn't want him to ever think any less of her, or even worse, to look at her in disgust for what she had done to her own family.
She was quickly brought out of her musings when she heard him speak once more.
"I loved my mother dearly and respected her greatly. Both me and my brother had agreed long ago that she had been a loving mother."
By now, Yuno was certain that she really didn't want for Hagoromo to ever find out about her dead parents.
"And because of that, it was incredibly painful for me and my brother when we had to watch as our mother changed before our very eyes... so much that, in the end, we were forced to isolate her. Imprison her."
Hagoromo's words momentarily struck the rose haired girl speechless as she wondered what could have led to such a thing. Fortunately, she quickly got her answer when she heard him continue.
"Despite the initial peace, my mother eventually grew disillusioned at how no matter what she attempted, the clans would subtly continue with their conflicts in the shadows. That was when she ceased to be her kind and gentle self. She came to believe that only despotism could lead to peace, so she became a tyrant... And yet, in spite of all of that, I had never stopped seeing her as my dear mother, nor had I lost any of my respect for her."
When she realized that he wouldn't be saying anything else, Yuno took a few moments to contemplate on the story that her beloved had just told her.
It was a very sad one, tragic even, and it made her want to hug him and remind him that she would always be there for him.
Actually, she would do just that, because she loved him so much that she couldn't bear the thought of him ever being sad.
He might have not shown it on his face, but she knew that it had pained him when he had spoken about how he and his brother had had to imprison their mother, because she had become a danger for everyone around her.
So, she let no other second to pass and quickly embraced him in a loving hug, which she was certain that it would let him know just how much she cared about him and how she didn't want him to be sad anymore.
After a few moments of tightly hugging him, she glanced up at his face and was relieved to see a small smile gracing his lips.
"Thank you, Yuno," she heard him utter softly. "And don't worry about me being too saddened about having to reminisce this. It had happened quite the long time ago, and I had come to be at peace with it."
She noticed him pause as a thoughtful look crossed his features.
"Besides, I had managed to see her once more before she had passed away," she heard him add in the same soft voice. "I was able to speak to her one last time, and that had been enough for me to finally be completely at peace with everything that had happened."
Yuno continued to admire her beloved's content smile for a few more moments, before she finally spoke as she briefly tightened her loving embrace once more.
"I'm glad."
Following that, she let go of him and resumed her walking alongside him, slipping once again into her musings as she thought about the things that she had just learned about her Hagoromo.
However, she didn't get to dwell too much on any of her thoughts, because not even a minute later, she heard him say something which completely took her by surprise.
"Say, Yuno, have you told your parents about our relationship yet?" Hagoromo asked in a slightly curious tone as he glanced at the rose haired girl walking next to him. "And if so, then what had they said of it?"
It was a seemingly innocent question, however, for him it served a rather important purpose.
He had resolved to unravel the circumstances regarding his darling's alternate persona, yet he would never dare infringe upon her privacy as he respected her too greatly for doing such a thing.
However, what he could do was simply try to learn more about her, things that could definitely allow him to understand better what had led to the creation of her repressed self.
And since she had shown him to be of a similar mind on this matter, he had not hesitated to ask her his own question. After all, even without this reason prompting him to seek to learn about her, he still did not know too much about his lovely flower, so he would have desired to get to know her better regardless of that.
Only a few moments had passed since he had spoken his question, and as he gazed at her surprised face, awaiting her response, he could clearly see the storm of emotions in her eyes, despite the great effort that she seemed to be putting into hiding it.
That was enough to solidify his previous assumption that the subject of her parents must have definitely been a very sensitive one to her, but on the other hand, it told him next to nothing about what he had been wondering thus far.
In the end, it seemed that he would have to inquire for one last thing, and depending on the response that she gave him, he should be able to decide on what further approach to adopt.
He would not pry, but he would neither stand idle and watch when he could instead act for the sake of her wellbeing.
Not to mention that sooner or later, she would still have to confront whatever it was that ailed her so much. She would have to do that in order to achieve balance and harmony with herself.
After all, those were the prerequisites for her to finalize her blossoming.
So, with that thought in mind, Hagoromo asked his beloved one last thing.
"Yuno... Did anything happen between you and your parents?"
The moment she heard those words, she felt a pit form in her stomach. She quickly tried to hide the shock present on her face, as well as the multitude of emotions that threatened to bubble at his mention of her parents.
What could she say? What answer could she give to his question? Could she actually tell him what she had done to her parents?
She glanced at his face and she felt her previous fears grow tenfold. She didn't think that she could ever bear to see those eyes look at her even with the slightest hint of disgust.
Yet, what could she do? She couldn't possibly lie to him. Even the thought of her lying to him brought an almost overwhelming feeling of guilt over her.
So, then, what could she do?
She had to do something. She had to make her mind and say something already, because otherwise, she was sure that he would realize that something was wrong. That something was bothering her. And then, if he asked her even further, she wouldn't be able to deny it.
Yuno's troubled mind was brought out of its musings when she heard Hagoromo address her once again.
"You do not have to reply to that if you do not wish to, Yuno," she heard his gentle voice and felt his hand tenderly squeeze her own. "I am never going to demand any answer from you, my dear."
However, all that his words did was only make her feel even worse.
The guilt that flooded her when she heard him say that made her realize that she had almost betrayed his feelings. And that made her feel disgusted at the hesitation that she had displayed so far.
How could she be so hesitating when she had seen how forthcoming he had been with telling her about his past? Yet, the very things that he had told her had been the catalyst to her indecision.
After all, she had felt from his voice and seen on his face just how much he had loved and respected his mother. And how sad he had sounded when he had told her about how he had had to imprison his own mother.
Those were the things which had brought such fear into her, because she dreaded the reaction that he would have if he ever learned of what she had done to her own parents.
However, despite all of that, she knew that she couldn't even think about betraying his feelings by doubting him ever again. Not after what he had declared to her the day before.
That was why she knew she couldn't stay silent. She had to tell him something. The truth, because she couldn't even dare to think about lying to him.
Yet, the fear that she currently felt was still too profound for her to tell him everything.
"My parents..." she began in a barely audible voice as she cast down her gaze. "For the past few years they neglected me. My mother used to abuse me on a regular basis and my father was rarely home to do anything about it. But they stopped recently, so... now I'm fine."
In the end, she had decided to tell him most of what had happened, and to leave aside the part where she had starved her parents to death, even if it made her feel guilty for withholding part of the truth from him.
Yuno looked up from the pavement and briefly glanced at Hagoromo's face, only to be almost struck speechless by the intensity that she had seen being reflected in his pale eyes for a few moments.
It brought her immense joy to know that he would react with such outrage at the treatment that she had been given by her parents, yet, for all of that happiness, it did nothing to lessen the guilt that she was feeling.
However, when she felt his arms wrap around her form and bring her close to his chest, she was sure that she would forget about it for at least a short while.
She stood in his gentle embrace for the next minute, basking in the warmth that he radiated as all of her worries were momentarily shoved away from the front of her mind and replaced with bliss.
She didn't say anything, and nor did she need to hear him say to her anything either, because his hug so far had told her all that she might have needed to know. The feelings that he conveyed to her through his simple hug had been more meaningful than a thousand words could have ever been.
When she eventually felt his arms loosen their grip around her, she glanced once more at his face and noted that his previous anger was replaced by a gentle smile. She offered him a smile of her own, before she leaned back from his hug.
She gave a brief look to her surroundings, realizing that she had reached the destination of their walk, so she glanced back at him and finally broke the silent atmosphere that had settled upon them for the past few minutes.
"I guess that I'll be seeing you tomorrow..." she voiced out in a rather disappointed tone.
"Of course, my dear," she heard him reply, and felt her previous smile return.
She gazed at his still smiling face for a few more moments, before she eventually turned around and headed toward her house.
Hagoromo looked at the retreating form of his darling as she walked toward the metal door leading to her front yard.
Her reaction to his last question had clearly told him that the subject of her parents held quite the gravity, something which had been solidified through the words that she had followed with.
The fury that her revelation had brought him had been like no other in a long time.
He had not felt such intense anger even when he had seen how the people of his world had perverted his teachings of ninshū.
But he had quickly understood that his reaction had been actually normal given the degree of feelings that he had come to harbor for the lovely flower who had ensnared his heart in less than two weeks.
A chuckle escaped his mouth at that thought. She was truly a special one, that he was certain of.
Noting that by the time it took him to finish his brief musing, his darling had already disappeared behind the walls of her house, Hagoromo turned around and began walking as he admired the crepuscular charm of the fading evening.
A few moments later, he glanced at the ebony glove covering his left hand and spoke.
"Alduin, I have a task for you."
He was immediately met with twin sickly yellow eyes and a grinning mouth filled with jagged teeth, which quickly appeared on the back of his hand in response to his previous words.
"Of course, father," Alduin replied without any delay. "Anything you wish."
The white haired young man took a moment to synchronize with one of the clones that he had stationed in the city's library, before he spoke once more.
"I would like for you to infiltrate the Gasai Bank and investigate its owners," he spoke in a calm tone as he returned his focus back from that clone. "Learn everything that you can about them and then return to me with your findings."
As soon as he finished speaking, he felt the glove briefly shift, before it quickly liquefied into a black ooze that pooled onto the concrete below.
"Understood, father," he heard Alduin reply as it began to sink into the ground, until it completely disappeared from his sight.
Following his creation's departure, Hagoromo returned to his musings while he continued his slow paced walk along the street.
He had clearly seen on his beloved's face how she had kept a part of the story about her parents to herself and he had understood her reasons for that. There must have been something even more grave involved than what she had actually told him.
He might have not said anything about it, for he would have not dared pry, however, the simple fact that he had seen the gravity of the matter troubling her, had made him take the previous decision of thoroughly investigating her parents.
After all, there was nothing to respect about the privacy of those two insects, so he could easily get more information on the subject from their side.
2005/05/23 19:15 [Gasai Residence]
Yuno stepped into the private confines of her room and immediately closed the wooden door behind her.
She stood still for a few moments, before she suddenly felt all of the strength in her legs leave her as she leaned with her back against the door.
Only one thought was running through her mind as she stared with wide eyes at the ceiling of her bedroom.
She had lied to Hagoromo. Her purpose of existence. She lied to him...
She felt herself crumble at that thought, her legs giving out completely under the weight of her sin.
She slowly slid down the door, until she felt the coldness of the floor touch her, moment when she curled up into herself.
There was no use denying it and she knew it. Her treacherous mind was all too forthcoming with providing her that information.
I lied to Hagoromo... I lied to him, didn't I? she thought, overwhelmed with guilt. Half truths... are still lies... I lied to Hagoromo, how could I... He looked at me so acceptingly, felt my rage at the injustice I had suffered...
She brought her arms around her knees and hugged them closer to her chest.
I didn't mean for them to die... I didn't... How was I supposed to know that mama and papa would be so weak after a few days! Mama sometimes left me without food for over a week, didn't she? I survived... were they weak?
Her eyes widened in realization.
Yes... It was all their fault... They shouldn't have died! If they hadn't been so weak... Then... then... there would have been no possibility for any hint of disgust to ever appear on lovely—oh so accepting and beautiful— Hagoromo's face.
Yuno closed her eyes and slowly exhaled a sharp breath. She moved her head from its resting position on the floor, her eyes still closed, before she suddenly opened them and stared blankly at the room in front of her.
Hagoromo said I belong to him. Hagoromo said I belong to him. Hagoromo said I belong to him, she continuously repeated in her mind, feeling the words rapidly empower her.
She stopped hugging herself and began to slowly rise up, a charming smile adorning her beautiful face.
Feeling much better than a few minutes before, she stopped reassuring herself and allowed her thoughts to wander once more back to the story that Hagoromo had shared with her.
She replayed it obsessively in seemingly perfect detail as her mind slowly analyzed everything that she had learned about her beloved.
"So... I was right!" she suddenly exclaimed, before she threw herself on her bed and hugged one of her pillows. "My Hagoromo is truly a prince. High nobility at least!"
She rolled on her back and stared at her ceiling, her pillow still tightly clutched to her chest.
"Japan still has clans, doesn't it?" she spoke to herself. "And if the gossips are to be believed, then they don't like each other much... Perhaps... Hagoromo is a descendant of a branch family of the Imperial House of Yamato?"
For the next few minutes, Yuno contemplated on her theory, feeling herself become more and more calm at the thoughts of her Hagoromo.
Eventually, she felt the accumulated tiredness of the day begin to take its toll on her body, which quickly ended up with her falling asleep as she continued to think about her beloved in her dreams.
The next day...
Hagoromo was resting with his back against the thick bark of a tree, enjoying the tranquil atmosphere of the nature and the pleasant tingle of the verdant grass brushing against the skin of his hands as he gazed in contemplation at the distant horizon.
He could clearly understand why his mother considered the world as being her precious nursery. It was quite the beautiful sight to behold. The nature was a tranquil and exquisite thing, with endless specimens to observe, one more interesting than the other.
However, as opposed to her, who had developed a rather significant loathing for the humans, he could actually tolerate their existences.
To some extent, that was.
But even so, it was quite the considerable difference, for he did not turn every human that he saw into obedient minions as his mother had come to do during the later times before her eventual descent into madness.
So, in a way, he did not exactly see the world as his precious nursery, but more as his favorite sandbox. A very entertaining sandbox filled to the brim with various playthings ready to amuse him at a moment's notice.
Concluding his musings, the young man directed his attention away from the horizon and to his left, where he had noticed the figure of a middle aged woman with shoulder length brown hair slowly approach his position.
A brief glance told him that she was not unpleasant to the eyes, not that it mattered to him in the end. It was more of an idle thought or more accurately, a simple observation of his meticulous mind.
Her clothing appeared to be the kind of casual attire that one would frequently see on female accountants, with it actually consisting of a white button down shirt, a pair of black heels, black trousers and a matching jacket.
He idly wondered why Alduin had chosen a female as its host for this time, however, he quickly realized that it must have been simple whimsy on his creation's part.
Alduin was a genderless entity, more so when it did not even identify itself with a particular gender.
The sole reason for why it actually referred to itself as his son was simply because it would have been rather odd for it to claim to be his daughter with such a deep, raspy and distinctively male voice. Although, he was certain that witnessing the humans' reactions to such a claim would have indeed made for quite the amusing sight.
His attention was once more brought upon the sight of Alduin's host when he noticed her start screaming in agony as countless black tendrils erupted from all over her body.
It was a good thing that he had decided to spend the afternoon inside the middle of a forest, for otherwise he might have had to chastise Alduin a bit for being way too enthusiastic with his choice for amusement.
Still, he reasoned to himself that it was quite alright for Alduin to act in such a manner, given how sparse the times when it would get to entertain itself had gotten these days.
In the end, it was only right that his son also got to have its fun, no?
Several moments later, and the young man realized that he might have given his verdict a bit too early when he saw how the woman writhing in pain only a few feet away from him partially exploded in a shower of gore and blood.
"You are getting rather ingenious with how you discard those meat suits of yours after you are done using them," Hagoromo spoke in an amused tone, idly observing how the countless droplets of blood and the few flying chunks of meat and viscera pelted the invisible wall of force that he had erected in front of him.
The young man glanced at the newly revealed humanoid form of Alduin who stood in all of its grinning glory surrounded by the torn remains of the now dead woman, before he addressed it once more.
"Well then, Alduin, tell me what you have found about those two insects."
"Yes, father," the black tinted creature replied as it quickly discarded whatever of that woman's insides which might have still clung to its form, before it took a few steps until it reached the sitting form of its father.
Hagoromo dismissed the invisible barrier and watched as his creation turned back into an amorphous blob of pitch black ooze, before it started slithering up his left arm, where it assumed the form of an ebony glove once more.
Not even a moment later, and he felt information rapidly enter his mind as Alduin began to share all of its findings with him.
"Thank you, Alduin," Hagoromo spoke when he noticed that the information transfer had stopped. "You have done well."
The sound akin to a content purr coming from his glove prompted the young man to let out a chuckle, before he once again immersed himself in his thoughts as he mused over what he had just learned from Alduin.
Apparently, Yuno's parents had been gone on a vacation for the past two months or so, and the only information that their employees had managed to get about their whereabouts had been a phone call from their daughter, who had actually been the one to tell them why they had not gone to work.
Now this by itself was not anything worthy of suspicion, however, when coupled with what his beloved had told him the day before, he could definitely see a few discrepancies.
He clearly remembered how his darling had stated that her parents had stopped abusing her recently, which could be associated with their departure and extended vacation, however, the fact that she had still seemed to be so troubled about the matter even after months of their absence was what raised a few question marks in his mind.
However, with such little information there was nothing that he could conclude without it being pure speculation on his part, and that was something which he would never do, for he always assessed the matters thoroughly before even thinking about taking a decision.
So, that left him with only one option.
He would have to take the active role in this case, for otherwise he would be just wasting time. Not that he minded spending even more time with his beloved, yet he knew that the sooner he solved this problem, the sooner she would get her peace of mind.
But besides that, he was rather eager to finally see her finish her blossoming.
He had seen on multiple occasions how beautiful she could be, and that had quickly sapped away at his resistance. His patience might have known no bounds, but in the face of such beauty and splendor... even it would eventually crumble.
And that was why he wanted to get everything done as soon as possible.
Because he wanted to see her flourish. Because he wanted to see her whole. Because he wanted to finally have her by his side.
As his equal.
Yet, for that to happen, he knew that he would have to first get her to become one with her repressed self. Then, he could at long last reveal his origins to her, and only after that he could finally give her true power as well as a place alongside him for eternity.
So, with those things in mind, he instantly vanished from his spot, his destination being his beloved's house, where he would finally make both his and her wishes come true.
2005/05/24 16:15 [Gasai Residence]
Hagoromo stood patiently in front of the steel door leading to Yuno's house as he waited for her to come and invite him inside.
A few more moments later he heard the sound of footsteps rapidly approaching, before he noticed the door open, revealing to him the sight of his darling standing behind the doorframe as she appeared to be still dressed in her school attire.
"Ah, Hagoromo!" he heard her greet him with a joyful smile. "Come in, come in."
He returned her smile and greeting as he took a few steps inside the house.
"Hello, my dear. I am glad to see you again."
He watched with his smile still in place as his darling's cheeks became adorned with a small blush at his words.
He briefly glanced around him, inspecting the interior of the house for the first time, before he looked back at Yuno.
"This is a lovely house," he spoke in appreciation. "The traditional style is always such a refreshing sight. It is truly a shame that more and more people discard it in favor of a more western one."
He heard her giggle as Yuno moved to close the door behind him, before he noticed her send him a knowing look as she walked past him.
He raised a nonexistent eyebrow in response, however, that only made her giggle again as she gave him a mysterious smile.
An idle thought entered his mind at that sight.
Who would have thought that she would get him to experience an air of mystery similar to what he had been employing with her on so many instances during the past two weeks?
Nevertheless, it made him chuckle inwardly as he quickly understood that she must have deduced something from the purposeful clues that he had placed in the story from the day before.
It honestly made him feel proud at her. She possessed a very keen mind and a sound analysis for detail. Another thing that they seemed to have in common.
Once again, he chuckled inwardly, before he shifted his attention back on the girl standing in front of him, noting how she still had the same cryptic expression on her face.
"Thank you," he heard her eventually speak, ending it with yet another giggle.
He briefly wondered how she would react when he would tell and show her the actual truth, but did not dwell too much as he did not wish to accidentally spoil the surprise for himself.
Instead, he discarded his shoe wear and placed it in the designated spot several feet away from the door, before he glanced back at the rose haired girl as he spoke.
"Say, Yuno, are your parents not home? Because I had been expecting them to come and give their greetings by now."
As soon as he was done speaking, he immediately noticed how, just as the day before, a myriad of conflicting emotions crossed Yuno's face at the mention of her parents.
Which made it very clear to him that there was something he was most certainly missing regarding this entire matter, for even if they had stopped abusing her recently, she should have been feeling at least safer at the fact that her parents were not around her.
Yet, amongst the many emotions that she had tried to suppress, he had seen one which clearly did not match with the current circumstances.
Fear.
He was brought out of his musings when he heard her slightly distraught voice as she gave her reply to his previous question.
"Yes... they are on... a vacation..."
It truly did not sit well with him to see his beloved experience such distress, however, he knew that it had to be done in order for her to reach the bliss that awaited her.
There was no other way that it could be done. She had to confront whatever ailed her and overcome it. She was strong enough to do it and all that she had to do was simply endure the stress for a little longer.
"Oh, I see," he quickly spoke in understanding, before he gave her a genuine smile. "It is a shame truly, since I was thinking that I should perhaps introduce myself as their future son in law."
Hagoromo felt slightly better when he saw how Yuno seemed to no longer be troubled and immediately brighten up after hearing his words.
"Follow me, Hagoromo," he heard her say to him in a loving voice, a prominent red dusting adorning her cheeks as she headed toward what appeared to be the main hallway of the house.
He silently began walking after her, taking a few moment to inspect the hallway as he passed through.
There appeared to be a multitude of charts and papers taped on each of the walls, and after quickly skimming through some of them, he figured that they must have been related to the matter of Yuno's abuse at the hands of their parents.
And that made the previous fury that he had brought down to a smoldering anger slowly get more intense, prompting him to resolve that those insects would definitely get their due punishment when he eventually saw them.
Several moments passed, and the young man's attention was instantly brought to a door which he was about to pass by when an odor that he knew all too well was registered by his senses.
The putrid smell of death and decay.
He immediately realized that something had died behind those two doors, but beyond that, he was still left with questions.
It could have been an animal that got accidentally trapped somewhere, or it could have very well been the corpse of someone who had died in there.
However, given the information that he had managed to gather thus far, he was leaning toward the second option.
Unfortunately, he was still missing some pieces of the puzzle in order for him to be able to solve it, so he would have to wait until he gathered all of them, for otherwise he would be simply working with endless theories and assumptions.
Though, one thing was certain.
Whatever had happened behind those doors, it was directly tied to why his beloved was so distressed whenever she heard her parents being mentioned.
Hagoromo ignored the smell of rotting flesh that filled most of the hallway and continued to follow Yuno who seemed to not be minding the odor at all, something that did not go unnoticed by him.
Another clue which told him that whatever was behind those doors, it must have been there for quite some time for her to become used to the putrid smell.
One minute later and he interrupted his walking when he noticed Yuno stop in front of a door next to the end of the hallway. He waited for her to go in, before he also came in what he had deduced to be the living room upon entering.
"Please, have a seat," he heard her address him, a happy smile present on her features as she pointed to a table in the middle of the rather modest room. "I'll go prepare us some tea, so you ca make yourself comfortable in the meanwhile."
"Alright, my dear," he replied warmly as he watched her turn around and walk out the door.
A few moments after he was left alone, Hagoromo began to absentmindedly inspect the content of the room, before his eyes eventually settled upon a TV set placed a few feet away from him.
Realizing that he had never actually used one of these devices himself, he grabbed the remote control from the table and attempted to turn the television on.
Only to have nothing happen after he had pressed the power button.
He tried again, using the other buttons, however, he was met with the same results.
He glanced up and attempted to turn on the ceiling fan, only to be once more met with no results.
He stood up and went to press the switch on the wall next to the door. Again, nothing happened.
At first, he had believed that the lack of illumination in the foyer and on the hallway was due to the fact that it was still light outside, however, in truth, it seemed that there was indeed no electricity whatsoever in the entire house.
It did not take him long to realize that this was yet another missing piece of the puzzle, and that he was getting very close to finally solving it.
The faint sound of footsteps on the hallway prompted him to return to his place at the table and seat himself as he waited for Yuno's return.
Several moments later and his darling entered the room with two cups and a steaming kettle on a small tray.
He observed her as she placed the tray on the table, before she began filling the cups with tea.
When she was done, she quickly handed him one of the cups with a smile on her face.
"I hope you'll like it," he heard her say. "It's a special recipe that I came up with a while ago."
Hagoromo took a sip from his tea and quickly decided that it was quite delicious. There was something about the way all of the different flavors complemented each other that made the beverage have quite the exquisite taste.
However, as much as he might have wanted to stay and enjoy this tea with his beloved, he knew that there were much more pressing matters which had to be attended to right now.
After everything was done, time would no longer be a constraint for her, so she would be able to do whatever she wanted for as long as she wanted to.
"I was wondering," Hagoromo suddenly began, immediately getting the rose haired girl's attention as she was about to seat herself at the table as well. "Do you happen to know why there is no electricity?"
By the time he was done speaking, he felt the same unpleasant sensation from before return when he noticed the tears that started to fall from his beloved's eyes, as well as the pained expression that now marred her beautiful face.
Yet, in spite of the guilt that he felt at making her shed tears, he knew that there was no other way.
She had to conquer her emotions and psyche, so that she could achieve the required mental state for controlling true power. Otherwise, if she did not overcome the current disharmony within her mind, she would never be able to utilize the power that he intended to gift her and she would also be at risk if she ever attempted to use it in such a state.
His chakra was incredibly powerful and it could easily consume the unprepared mind. To control his power, one would need a strong mind free of any disturbance, an indomitable will and a body capable of housing such great power.
She already possessed the necessary will, and while her body might not be exactly powerful enough, his chakra would take care of that and strengthen it accordingly.
However, her mind was the only thing that he could not help her with. Not because it was not within his power, but because it would be disgraceful to her should he do it in such a manner.
He had already established that she possessed an adequate mindset, however, she needed to overcome the plagues of her mind on her own.
He knew that she was able to, and that was exactly why he had opted for this approach instead of having to wait endless days until she was capable of mastering the art of meditation to a degree which would help her reach that state of mind.
This was the only help that he could offer her.
He could provide her with this shortcut, but only because there already existed a personified divide in her mind. Otherwise, she would have had to do it the same way that he had done it when he had been training in mastering his power during his youth.
Hagoromo was brought out of his musings when he noticed Yuno suddenly stumble as she was about to fall.
He instantly sprung from his seated position and caught her from falling, his arms quickly circling her waist and back as they brought her body close to his own.
Gazing at her face, he noticed that she was experiencing extreme dizziness and nausea, and that she was on the verge of fainting, so he quickly helped her calm down with a small application of his chakra.
"Breathe deeply, Yuno," he calmly told her when he noticed her open her eyes as she regained her senses. "Everything is alright. I am right here."
However, despite his attempt at calming her, he noticed how the expression of fear had yet to leave her face, and after a few moments of deep consideration, he finally understood.
The last piece of the puzzle fell into its place, and he knew the reason for why Yuno acted like that. Why she felt so much fear whenever he mentioned her parents.
She feared that his view of her would change if he were to ever find out about whatever it was that was hidden behind those wooden doors.
And by now, he felt that he knew exactly what was behind those doors. And the mere thought of it brought him intense anger. Anger at those insects for daring do such a thing to her. To his Yuno!
The pupils of his pale eyes rapidly faded until only their outline was barely visible and the irises visibly enlarged as the veins around his temples engorged.
His byakugan effortlessly pierced past the physical barriers and immediately saw the contents of that room.
And when he finally saw with his own eyes what lay behind those doors, he felt wrath course through him.
The small cage.
The bloodstains inside it.
The missing patches of the tatami mats next to the cage.
The dried up half digested grass in the back of the cage.
And lastly, the lifeless husks of those two insects at the front of the cage, their withered hands desperately reaching for the outside past the iron bars.
Had he not possessed such strong mental discipline, Hagoromo was certain that he would have made an example of those two right there and then. Of what would happen to those who dared harm his Yuno.
Still, it was very fortunate that he possessed such flawless control over his mind and emotions, because it would allow him to enjoy the eventual time of their punishment much, much more.
After all, as some people of this world would say, vengeance was a dish best served cold.
Calmly bringing his fury under a tight leash, Hagoromo deactivated his dōjutsu and focused back on his beloved as she was infinitely more important than dealing with those two insects. And besides, he would not dare deny her the chance to have the first hand in delivering their punishments.
But before that, there were still a couple steps which she had to first take.
So, with that thought in mind, he empowered his eyes with his chakra until they rippled and gained a purple tint.
Then, he gently cupped Yuno's face with his left hand as he gazed into her startled cerise eyes, the pitch black crescent moon symbol on his palm shining a dark light through his ebony glove.
"I was wondering, do you happen to know why there is no electricity?"
As soon as she registered his words, Yuno froze in her spot as she understood that the sole thing which she dreaded would actually come to be true.
Tears rapidly pooled in her eyes when she realized that in order to continue concealing her secret—the ugly truth, she would have to further lie to her Hagoromo.
There was no way out of this, and she knew it. If she wanted to keep him from finding out about her parents, then she would have to keep deceiving him.
And that thought alone made her feel a wave of vertigo strong enough to make her stumble and fall down.
Yet, she never got to experience the pain of hitting the wooden floor as she felt two arms wrap tightly around her and stop her from falling.
She slowly opened her tear filled eyes, but was hardly able to see the face of her beloved through all of the dizziness and nausea that seemed to have overcome her.
She felt her consciousness rapidly slipping away, however, before she could have passed out, she suddenly felt all of the previous dizziness and nausea vanish as if a hand had simply swept them away, and quickly experienced a weird but not unpleasant sensation wash over her as it instantly cleared all of her senses.
She slowly opened her eyes once more and this time she clearly saw the expression of concern that was on her beloved's face.
"Breathe deeply, Yuno," she heard him say in a calm voice. "Everything is alright. I am right here."
Yet, despite hearing his words, she was unable to stave off the fear that had taken a hold of her being and would have started crying once more had she not been interrupted by the gentle touch of his hand when it cupped her face.
She quickly sought his eyes, but was instantly taken aback by what she saw when she found them.
His eyes were no longer the peculiar yet exquisite white that she had become used to seeing and admiring during the past two weeks. Instead, they were a deep, mesmerizing royal purple color.
But that was not all.
The pupils appeared to have shrunk to small dots, and surrounding them could be now seen black concentric circles which spanned the entirety of the no longer distinguishable irises and sclerae.
She continued to look in wonder at those unnatural eyes, feeling increasingly uneasy the more she felt their gaze upon her.
It was akin to being stared at by something which did not belong to this world.
Something which did not exist in accordance to it.
She felt that those eyes gazing at her could only be described as being simply otherworldly.
However, she did not get to dwell too much on that thought, because she quickly felt her awareness and perception of the world begin to change, until her consciousness completely faded into darkness.
The sight that welcomed Yuno when she regained her senses left her confused and mildly shocked as she could do nothing but simply stare at it in complete bafflement.
Gone was the interior of her living room, as it seemed to have been replaced by a drying endless meadow, with the grass withered and dying.
She quickly looked around her in an attempt to figure out where she was, however, the moment she took in the rest of the scenery, she was filled with even more apprehension.
The skies above were dark and gloomy, and in the far distance, the silhouette of what appeared to be a lonely figure was casting an enormous shadow, which loomed over the entire dying meadow in a cloud of depression.
She quickly decided that she felt incredibly uncomfortable in this place, wherever she was, since it reminded her a bit too much of some things which she would not want to experience ever again.
Trying to ignore the despairing atmosphere as best as she could, Yuno began walking in the direction of the distant silhouette, hoping that by doing so she would be able to learn more about the place where she had found herself in.
After several minutes of walking through the decidedly inhospitable place, she was finally able to properly discern the figure of that person, and was further shocked and confused when she realized that said person was actually a girl who looked almost identical to her.
The sole difference between them being only their eyes, something which she had immediately noticed when the girl had turned around to regard her arrival.
"Who are you?" Yuno asked in a rather guarded manner as she stared at the sea of blood surrounded by pitch black that were the girl's eyes.
Her question, however, was met with an amused snort followed by derisive laughter.
"Oh?" the girl sounded amusedly. "So the princess has finally decided to visit me?" she gave another laugh. "My, what a surprise indeed."
Yuno quickly narrowed her eyes at her doppelgänger's sarcastic remark and was about to say something, but was interrupted when the girl standing a few feet in front of her spoke once more.
"Now, now, there's no need to get so hostile," a smile slowly formed on the girl's face. "After all, we are one and the same, aren't we?"
A look of shock followed by one of understanding dawned in rapid succession over Yuno's features as she stared at her look-alike, whose smile was becoming wider by the second.
"There you go. Now you understand," the identically looking girl spoke patronizingly. "It wasn't so hard, was it now?"
After a few more moments of silence on her part, Yuno finally spoke in a candid tone.
"You are the voice that tormented me all of this time, aren't you?"
These words made her double snort once more in amusement.
"Tormented?" the girl asked almost incredulously. "All this time I've been here helping you, and you say that I've been tormenting you? Are you truly this ignorant?"
"Then, pray tell, what should I call these acts of yours, huh?" Yuno retorted, anger slowly bleeding in her voice. "Do you seriously think that you've been doing anything but tormenting me?"
Her doppelgänger didn't seem to take her words very well, but she didn't care. After all of the misery that she had put her through, taking this verbal lashing was the least that she could do.
"Do you have any idea of what kept you alive during all of those times when you should have died in that cage?" the look-alike girl voiced out, sounding incensed. "Do you even have any clue about who it was that kept you safe and sane during those times?" her voice went up a note as she continued. "It was me, you ungrateful bitch! I've taken as much of your negative emotions as I could and kept them away from influencing you! I've helped you get through your shitty life in that cage, and this is how you thank me?! By saying that I've tormented you?!"
Yuno was left momentarily speechless by the revelation that her double had just made and she could only think over the things that she had just learned.
What the girl had said actually made sense.
In a sort of twisted way, this entity standing in front of her had protected her over the years by isolating her from anything that could have harmed her in some way.
That was why she had tried to make her doubt her Hagoromo at that time.
Still, as much as this made sense, it didn't make it any better, since despite the help that she had tried to provide, this look-alike of her had also made her life miserable. And while she could have overlooked that, she could not overlook the fact that she had tried to keep her away from her Hagoromo.
Which was why she would not be apologizing for her previous remark.
"I'm not going to apologize," Yuno spoke flatly as she gazed in the blood red eyes of the girl, only to be surprised when instead of seeing her become even more angry, she actually saw her eyes soften a little.
"I know," the doppelgänger spoke, surprising the rose haired girl even further. "And I don't even want you to apologize, because it is me who should, in fact, apologize."
Yuno raised a curious eyebrow at the girl's words.
"I should have not doubted his intentions at that time..." the look-alike spoke apologetically. "But I was too stubborn and distrusting to believe that what he had showed you was real. Yet, after I've seen it with my own eyes, I could no longer deny it—him. And that's why I am sorry. Because I had tried to keep you away from him, when I should have in fact encouraged you to pursue him further..."
Yuno seemed to be considering her words for a few moments.
"I... accept your apology," she eventually replied. "But I am not going to forget what you had tried to do."
Once again, Yuno was surprised when her doppelgänger acted in a manner completely different from what she would have expected. That is, she began to laugh at her.
"Hah, I seriously can't believe that you've just said that," the girl spoke incredulously after a few moments of laughter. "Don't tell me that you already forgot about it?" she further questioned when she noticed Yuno's confused expression. "Oh, that's rich! And here I thought that our meeting would quickly become dull."
"Just get to the point already!" Yuno raised her voice in irritation. She was really getting tired of this double of hers with how she managed to get under her skin so easily.
"Oh, don't get angry, princess," the doppelgänger drawled, a mocking smile slowly forming on her face. "We wouldn't want you to also add anger issues to your list of problems, right next to your hypocrisy, would we now?"
"Speak. Now!" Yuno hissed at her look-alike in slowly bubbling anger.
"Oho! That's a nice face. Although, I should know that, since I've seen it on myself each and every time when I had to listen to your stupidity," the girl jeered, uncaring of Yuno's growing anger. "But to answer your question... Try to remember your discussion with him from the day before. More specifically the part where you told him your little story. Hm, I wonder what he would think when he finds out that you've been lying to him this whole time. Or when he learns of the truth that you've been deliberately trying to keep away from him."
As soon as she registered her doppelgänger's words, Yuno immediately felt all of her anger drain as it was replaced by guilt.
She remembered the words of deceit that she had spoken to her beloved, yet was unable to dwell much on those thoughts as the mocking voice of her double quickly sounded once more in her ears.
"I wonder... I wonder what dear, lovely, so supporting, so loving Hagoromo would think when the truth is finally revealed" the girl spoke in thinly veiled contempt. "You've seen how much he respects and loves his family, even after they had long died. So... I wonder what he would say once he learns of the monster who had killed her own parents," she gave a derisive laugh. "Sure he could only be disgusted in the face of such a sin, no? Just imagine beautiful Hagoromo's eyes, those eyes which you so adore to gaze upon as they look at you in contempt and disgust."
"No..." Yuno whispered in denial as she desperately searched for something in her mind to hold onto.
She couldn't fall again. Not this time, because she was certain that if she fell now, then she would lose everything. There was no longer anyone to pick her up in here. She was alone inside what appeared to be her own mind, with only the embodiment of her negative emotions. It was obvious to her what would happen if she were to stumble and fall in here.
She glanced toward the sky, and briefly saw, amidst the darkness of the thick clouds, a small silvery ray as it shined down upon the twisted meadow. It didn't last for too long, yet it had lasted long enough for her to notice it.
She wasn't sure what it was, but she knew what it meant. It was hope. The hope that had kept her strong this whole time. To hope that he had given her.
"You're wrong..." she began, staring her look-alike in her crimson eyes with newfound conviction. "He would never think of me like that. Even if he were to learn of what I had done."
And it was true, for she had seen it. Even if she had not realized it at that time, her mind had recognized it. Her subconscious had understood what her eyes had seen and had kept it for her, until the time when she would need that memory to help her.
That was what she had seen moments earlier among the clouds.
The mental representation of Hagoromo's love and of the hope that he had been to her. The hope that would always prevail and would never be vanquished by the darkness of her doubts.
She felt a genuine smile form on her lips as she spoke her next words to her doppelgänger. "And that is because he had already accepted me. I was blind to not see it earlier, but now I do. I finally see what had been before my eyes this entire time." Tears of happiness fell from her eyes. "Hagoromo... he had already accepted me for what I am. The only thing that remains is for me to accept myself." She wiped away her tears and gazed with resolve in the blood red eyes that had been looking at her critically during her entire speech. "And that includes you as well, because, well, you are a part of me, too."
By the time when Yuno finished her speech, she noticed from her peripheral vision how the meadow around her seemed to be slowly changing, as if the world itself was becoming more brighter.
The withered grass flourished.
Daisies began to grow among the now verdant blades of grass.
The skies lightened as the thick blanket of clouds dissipated.
But probably the biggest change of them all was the beautiful sun that had been revealed in the middle of the sky.
It was silver in color, like the moon, but still bright enough to be considered a star.
A breathtaking star that singularly dwarfed everything else in this world.
"It's truly wonderful, isn't it?"
Yuno could only nod at the words of her look-alike.
"This is how your heart had slowly come to look like ever since the day when you had first met him," she heard her double speak again. "Oh, and I assume that you no longer need me to tell you what that sun is, no?"
Yuno shook her head. "That's what Hagoromo represents to me, isn't it?" she replied, still transfixed by the sight of the silvery sun above her.
"Yes, that's what it is."
Yuno glanced back at her look-alike. "So, what is going to happen now?" she asked, bringing the girl's attention from the gigantic sun back to her.
The doppelgänger smirked. "Impatient, are we?" she spoke wryly, but a glare from Yuno quickly got her to drop her sarcasm and answer the question. "Well, initially I would have taken over you, had you not gotten over your stupidity." She ignored Yuno's narrowed eyes and continued. "But now that you've seen past that and had finally acknowledged your own self, you just need to accept what I represent." She paused briefly, her smirk widening. "Or you could just leave, but then you will have to live with a voice inside your head. So, what do you choose?"
Yuno listened to her double's words with an unreadable expression on her face as her eyes seemed to dull, and when the girl was done speaking, she began to silently walk toward her.
The option that she had chosen was more than obvious.
It was the one where she wouldn't have to share her Hagoromo with anyone else, be them even a part of her own self.
He was hers and she wouldn't let anyone else have him.
The doppelgänger looked curiously at Yuno as she slowly approached her, and was about to say something in questioning when she felt herself be embraced in a hug, however, she was quickly interrupted by the sharp sting that she felt in her chest.
Yuno looked in confusion at her look-alike as she suddenly began laughing, despite the box cutter that was plunged hilt deep into her chest where her heart should be found.
Oddly enough, the was also no blood, but that small detail paled in comparison to the rather unexpected reaction that she had gotten from her doppelgänger.
She expected to see at least some shock, not that content—and proud?—expression on her face.
"Aww~, don't be surprised," Yuno heard her look-alike say as she returned her hug. "I've been intending for this to happen ever since I saw and heard your resolve. That's why I've added that second option. Because I knew that it would definitely get me the reaction that I wanted from you."
The doppelgänger continued when she noticed that Yuno had yet to completely figure her reasoning.
"I embody your negative emotions, Yuno. Of course that I would wish for a fitting end. And besides, doing it this way would also help you get in tune easier with all of the repressed emotions that will return to you after this is over."
A look of understanding crossed Yuno's face as she listened to the girl's explanation. It was definitely a twisted way of doing things, but it was one to be expected given her nature as her repressed negative emotions.
"Thank you," Yuno eventually spoke, however, she was once again met with a completely different reaction from her doppelgänger than what she had been expecting.
Although, now that she thought better, it kind of made sense, given what she had learned about her so far. After all, she was inherently attuned to reacting like this.
"Don't thank me," the look-alike snorted in derision. "I don't deserve it."
And following those words, Yuno watched as the girl in her arms began turning into light particles which were quickly getting absorbed into her.
The last thing that she heard from the embodiment of her negative emotions before she completely vanished were a few words which she completely agreed with and that she promised to never stray away from.
"Never doubt your heart, no matter how black it might be... and never... never doubt him again."
By the time when all of the light particles got absorbed into her, Yuno could clearly feel the change within her.
She felt as if a long lost part of her had finally returned where it belonged.
She felt empowered by all of the intense emotions welling up within her.
She felt complete.
But most importantly, she felt as if she was finally able to see with clarity the extent of the feelings that her beloved held for her.
Feeling a surge of euphoria suddenly course through her, Yuno looked toward the bright sky, her eyes manic and her mouth widely open as she uttered a single word.
"Hagoromo..."
A moment later, she realized that her perception of the world began to change once again and she could barely hold in the excitement that she felt at the mere thought of getting to see him again.
