Author here. Thank you for your reviews :)

I did say this was going to be an interlude, so please don't go "baaawww where is my shiznat D:"

Think of the following as a series of photos taken through the years to get us near the present day.

Mai-hime and related belong to Sunrise.

Interlude: My Most Important Person

Shigeru was five and Kyoko was four when the tremors first began. Back then there was no explanation for them. Doctors were befuddled and Fujino Tetsuo was growing short on patience. First District was a struggling pharmaceutical company with ridiculous ambitions but enough talent to back them up. Within a month of discovery the patriarch of the Fujino family invested enough money to build a fledgling facility. As the scientists attempted to decipher the cause of this strange disease, Kyoko shook and strained under restraints in a locked room in the far corner of their mansion. As a curious and determined young boy, Shigeru managed to unlock the door and peek in during the middle of these monthly attacks.

Her silver eyes with slit pupils displayed nothing but acute fear. Her upper body was shaking under the restraints but remained relatively normal despite the tremors. From the waist down was nothing more than a writhing mass of silver scales. It was unnatural, an abomination. Kyoko turned her head when she heard the strangled gasp come from outside. They stared at each other for a long moment before Shigeru shut the door.

They never spoke of it.

Shigeru was fourteen when he first heard of Shimazu Kiyo. The girl was from a fine family with foreign influences, his father Tetsuo would boast. Her great-grandfather was a highly decorated officer in the Russian army before the revolution that took place. However, the family had fallen on hard times and it was through some deliberation that the Fujino family even considered looking into the crumbling family. The girl was hard-working and very well-educated; she attended the same prestigious academy that Kyoko attended but through a scholarship rather than influence. This wintry beauty observed the world with eyes the same shade as the rare aquamarines Kyoko wore around her neck and just as coldly as those precious stones.

"The two of you are going to marry, Shigeru," Tetsuo announced one day over dinner.

The mouthful of rice fell from Shigeru's wide-open mouth.

"WHAT."

"Isn't that nice," Kyoko announced before sipping her tea.

"You stay out of this," Shigeru snapped.

"Shigeru!" their father thundered. "It's high time you actually take your place seriously for once! Why, I was betrothed to be married to your mother when I was three and we turned out quite well! Children these days…"

"I'm not marrying her," Shigeru muttered mutinously as he set down his chopsticks and got up from the table.

Kyoko observed her brother leave and smiled one of her secretive smiles. Tetsuo observed his daughter with a soft sigh. The medicine that First District had been testing was working wonders on his daughter. The tremors failed to bother her as much and she could even go out into high society without being talked about behind her back. But there was something strange that touched her eyes and left a visible cold taint that Tetsuo knew would never quite go away. The bridge between her and her brother could never be rebuilt.

"… Kyoko? What are you thinking of?"

"Nothing, father. Nothing at all."

"Brother."

"Yes, Kyoko?"

"The match might be a good one, you know. It might take you back down to earth for once."

"You're only agreeing to it because you want to make me miserable."

A laugh.

"Maybe. Maybe not. I only have your interests at heart, brother. You honestly tell me that you don't care for this girl?"

"How can I? I don't even know a thing about her."

"Shame. That attitude of yours could be your undoing, you know."

"It's all just a game we play, nothing more."

The first meetings between Shigeru and Kiyo took place in two radically different atmospheres when he was sixteen and she was fifteen.

The first was held in a tea house in the Shimazu residence. He shifted in his seat as she slowly went through the methodical process of a formal tea ceremony. She tucked the sleeve of her kimono back and gently rested the ladle down on top of the iron pot in the hearth. Ceremony dictated that the conversation would be exchanged between the hostess and guest of honor—his father, in this case. His job was to sit and enjoy the sweet cakes that had been provided to stave off the wait. The tea had been prepared in the same agonizingly slow fashion that caused his legs to nearly fall asleep. He couldn't remember the last time he was in the seiza position for this long. His father wiped the rim of the bowl before passing it towards him.

His hands went through the routine precisely. He turned the bowl, took a preliminary sip of the thick, frothy tea, and murmured the correct phrase under his father's watchful eye. After taking two more sips he set the bowl down and wiped the rim before turning it back to its original position and passing it back to the hostess. Glacial blue eyes connected to muddled maple-red. The look beneath those foreign eyes was unfathomable but he was undeterred. She was very beautiful, but he wasn't impressed. Familial duty held no importance to his mind. He mirrored her cold look with one of his own. The rest of the idyllic winter afternoon was spent in relative silence.

The second meeting took place in a boxing gymnasium several miles away from the Fujino residence. Despite Tetsuo's initial disapproval he relented and had allowed his son to take up a sport outside of what was deemed proper. It wasn't to say that Shigeru did not excel in traditional arts, but boxing was what his heart came home to. The rhythmic pounding of gloves hitting punching bags and the swish of jump ropes was the sweet music to his haven.

She looked terribly out of place in her blue and gray kimono as she stood amidst the curious boxers, but if she was uncomfortable she failed to address it. Instead she primly folded her hands in front of her and watched Shigeru as he circled around another boxer in a sparring match. He jerked his head back to avoid the straight left for his chin and weaved around the follow-up punch. As he ducked and got in where the fists couldn't reach, he unleashed a series of left and right hooks that dug into his opponent's sides before the man stuck his elbows down to knock the blows away. Shigeru ducked the incoming punch aimed for his head and finished with an uppercut that blew past the man's defenses and pummeled his chin with such force that his mouth guard spilled out in a spew of spit and blood.

The gym was relatively empty by the time Shigeru moved on to bag work. His wrapped fists tapped at the speed bag at a lively pace even as he felt those cold eyes lock onto the back of his head. Finally he grasped at the bag with his hands and turned to face her. He noticed the towel in her hands and frowned.

"… I don't need it."

Kiyo offered no response. Shigeru returned to the speed bag but did not continue with his drill.

"You and I both know that we aren't cut out for this arrangement," Shigeru said after a moment. "There's no point in going through with it."

"It's not for you to decide," Kiyo replied simply.

Suddenly he lunged for her, backing her into the wall and placing his hands on either side of her head. She stared steadily back at him even as his breath hitched from his earlier exertions.

"I am not going to be ruled by the stuffy traditions of our fathers. If that's the way you like it then that's just you."

Her eyes narrowed. The fingertips on his arm felt deceptively light before her fingers tightened around his wrist. He saw the ceiling for all of two seconds before his back collided painfully into the unforgiving floor. His lungs ached and he let out an uncharacteristic wheeze.

"You are not alone in feeling cheated," she hissed. "But do not take it out on me, Fujino-san, when I am resigned to the same fate as you."

A spark of blue fire flickered from within the glacial depths of her eyes before his sight was covered by the towel she flicked over his face. Shigeru never felt such a conflicting mix of anger and desire.

The engagement was officially announced on Shigeru's eighteenth birthday. He fixed the stiff collar of his shirt and smoothed over his white waistcoat before shrugging on the tailed tuxedo jacket that completed his white-tie wear.

For nearly three hours the engaged couple had sat down at the head of the table in stiff silence as the guests lauded over the favorable union. He pulled at his tie but kept it on when he registered the prying eyes of his father. With a resigned sigh he looked over to his side and felt a strange sense of comfort to see the patient expression on his fiancé's face.

After the initial pleasantries subsided and the guests began to make their wall to the expansive ballroom, Kiyo retired to change out of the ornate kimono and into a ball gown for the evening. He paced around the base of the stairwell that led out into the ballroom with agitated steps as he rubbed his gloved hands together. Something did not seem right, but he put his thoughts on hold when he turned and caught sight of the white dress in front of his eyes. He offered his arm and she took it.

They walked in to polite applause and appreciative smiles for the newly engaged couple who exhibited identical half-smiles. They did their dance on the center of the floor to the orchestra's string quartet and jerked their bodies along like silver-stringed marionettes to the adoring eyes of those around them. Their steps were flawless even as their eyes were distant. A perfect couple.

A winter's couple, encased in crystalline ice and marred by the frigid atmosphere.

Silver eyes studied them from the hushed silence of the appreciative crowd. Kyoko glared at the couple for a long moment before disappearing with a swish of her dress.

"That was not in the rules, brother."

"It's fine, isn't it? And your game had no rules anyway."

There was no dashing display of everlasting devotion that caused Shigeru and Kiyo to finally warm to each other. That particular moment came with the sound of knuckles grinding into someone's jaw.

Now that he thought about it, Shigeru knew that he shouldn't have thrown that punch. But the Marguerite kid deserved it. He was asking for it, especially with his derisive attitude and smug expression. He was given a stern lecture by his father that culminated into another dangerous attempt at a fight. Shigeru was smart, however, and took his father's request that he cool his head before it was cooled for him. So he retired to his room and stared out the window towards his backyard's rendition of winter's last stand against the heralds of spring.

The door to his room opened soundlessly and he turned to see Kiyo step in with a roll of bandages and a small tin of ointment. He returned to his sentinel position by the window even as she sat next to him on the windowsill and reached for his hand.

"… I don't need it."

Cool fingers grazed against his knuckles, soon replaced by the numbing cold of the ointment.

"I know." Slowly the bandages covered his knuckles. "You didn't have to do that."

"… He looked at you like you were below him, like trash. All because you aren't swimming in a bathtub of gold like he thinks he is." His fist began to close but she stopped it before he ruined his bandages. "He deserved to have some sense knocked into him when he ran his mouth off like that."

She finished her work with a neat bow. As she snipped the ends and put away the ointment something seized Shigeru's heart and caused him to grab onto her shoulders. She turned and looked at him warily.

"Just say the word, and I will cancel this engagement. I'll fight whoever stands in your way."

"Why?" Kiyo asked after a terse silence. "Is this one of your attempts at freeing yourself from marriage?"

"No."

Now Kiyo stared at him in disbelief. Shigeru smiled a crooked smile and rubbed the back of his neck.

"You don't have to feel cheated anymore. I won't have you resign yourself to a life where you get ridiculed like that."

"… What if I do resign myself to that life?" Kiyo asked quietly.

Now it was Shigeru's turn to grow contemplative. His answer came soon enough, however, as his smile grew more relaxed.

"Then… I won't let anyone so much as look at you like you were below them. I'll fight anyone who thinks you don't deserve a chance."

"I suppose I'll have to stock up on bandages, then."

The smile was not a half-smile that Shigeru had seen from the serious young woman in front of him. Instead her eyes melted into a warm aquamarine glow. They leaned towards each other and touched foreheads in the silence of an early spring afternoon.

"I love you."

Her response was quiet and simple as she leaned in.

"… Congratulations on Kiyo's pregnancy, brother."

"Thank you, Kyoko."

"Still, though, I'm amazed how well the two of you get along now that you've been married for a few years. Back then you couldn't stand to be in the same room with her."

"That was in the past, it doesn't really matter." A pause. "You're bitter about losing, aren't you."

"Who said I lost, brother?"

"… What do you mean?"

"Think about it. You know that genes won't lie. You carry the same gene that causes this… impairment of mine."

"And it hasn't developed, so I don't know where you're going with this."

"I wonder…"

"This… is going too far, Kyoko."

"You said it yourself, brother. This is just a game, and there are no rules."

Another pause.

"And it's alright, isn't it, brother."

"I regret to inform you, Fujino-san, but your wife… was unable to recover from the delivery."

Shigeru stared in mute disbelief but did not lose his composure just yet. His newborn daughter stared up at him with crimson eyes as he cradled her with silent tears.

"Shizuru. Shizuru is your name."

He closed his eyes and wondered if it really was better that she had been born with his eyes rather than the heartbreaking blue eyes of her mother.

When Shizuru was nearly six months old, her father dressed her up in the warmest clothes and took her with him to his first business trip since the death of his wife. Despite the gaping hole left in his heart he kept a smile on his face due to the quiet bundle in his arms.

First District Pharmaceutical was a drab building painted in shades of gray. It blended in nicely with the rocky landscape around it. He walked through the obligatory tour given to him by eager scientists but soon he found himself alone in the lobby of the facility with his daughter snoozing in his arms.

"Ah, what a cute baby. How old is she?"

He turned and stared into calm forest-green eyes beneath glasses framed by black plastic. The woman standing before him looked to be of the same age. Her long dark air was pulled up into a ponytail and she wore a pristine white lab coat indicative of her position in the lab.

"Thank you. And she's six months come next week."

"I see, a winter's child."

He noticed her rounded stomach and gave her a crooked smile.

"Expecting?"

She absently rubbed her belly. "In a month or two, although I think the baby wants out as soon as possible."

"A summer baby, huh."

They drifted to a comfortable silence as he gently pat his daughter's back.

He returned to his boxing gloves and jump ropes by the time Shizuru turned five. The little girl with dark red eyes always stood in a kimono with her hands primly folded in front of her. The boxers gave her kind smiles and let her watch in her serious manner as her father went through his workout for the day.

If his sight turned blurry enough from one too many knocks to the head, the small girl in the corner morphed into a slim figure wearing a blue and gray kimono. She possessed the most beautiful aquamarine eyes. He shook his head and smiled to himself. When his fight was finished he felt a towel hit his upper back. Shizuru beamed as he took the towel and wiped himself down before patting her on the head with a bandaged hand.

It's not alright. I'll fight whoever stands in our way… for all of us.

AN: To be honest, at the end of the day when I read over all of this, I felt sorry for them. But if this wasn't written out, their motives probably would have stayed in the dark.

If there are any pressing questions, drop me a line, lol.

The next chapter should jump back to the story. Thank you for your patience and comments :D