Arc Two, Lost Mission; Chapter Four, Missing Piece
"Ohayou." A soft voice greeted her as Mokuren returned to the world of the conscious.
Frowning. the brunette turned to face the blonde who sat beside her bed. "Do I know you?"
"My name's Ayano." The girl reminded her, and the previous day's memories filtered in.
"Oh." Mokuren said at last. Ayano seemed a little exasperated with that response, but relaxed soon enough.
"I've got about an hour to teach you how to be Zoruna Mei, so you'd better get up. I washed you and gave you new clothes, in case you were wondering about those. We've had a couple different healers work on you but I'm sure it still hurts. How did you get in that state?" Ayano wondered, making Mokuren's bed carefully as the kunoichi stood up.
Mokuren shrugged, unwilling to answer. Ayano frowned over at her. "Don't shrug any more. I don't think I ever saw her shrug, if she had an uncertain answer she'd make a face, or move her hand like this." The blonde demonstrated the movement as well as the face, and Mokuren copied her. "Not quite like that, move your lips like you're pulling open a bag by its strings." It took a few tries before Ayano was satisfied, and then with a mirror Ayano had her practice a few other facial expressions.
"Can I ask who I'm expected to fool?"
"Mei's father, Zoruna Ryuu."
"Why?!" Mokuren was startled into asking, turning to stare at Ayano.
Ayano shifted her weight to one foot uncomfortably. "I suppose you do need to know. Mei... she died a few years back, but... Ryuu-sama wouldn't accept that. He insisted that she was still alive, however much we argued, even with the body in front of him he disagreed. He's gotten rather violently upset at us of late for not looking hard enough, he requires every team to take a picture of Mei with them for reference and has begun punishing people who return without any new information on her location. We haven't given him our report yet." Ayano added, her tone lightening slightly.
"I don't expect you to know everything about being Mei within an hour, but we're giving you a trial run with him. Every morning when he wakes up he asks the servants where Mei is and cowards that they are, they tell him she's out in her garden... where we buried her." Ayano nearly choked out the last phrase, before clearing her throat and unsteadily continuing. "He always goes straight out there, but not with any hope these days, just resignment. If you were sitting there in her chair, acting just like her... I imagine he would think he was dreaming. We'll knock him out if anything gets out of hand and give him something to make his memories blurry if you screw up - or, actually, even if you succeed. We can't have him ignoring three years of business. We'll re-introduce you tomorrow or the next day, depending on how successful you are."
With a nod, Mokuren digested that. After a few moments pause, she asked, "Hey... what was Mei to you?"
"Heh?!" Ayano squeaked, blushing brightly. "Don't ask it that way! I was her maidservant!" She let her blush fade. "...and her best friend." The girl added shortly, her shoulders slumping.
Mokuren bit her lip, and then awkwardly patted Ayano's arm. Comforting wasn't her strong suit. "You don't like that I have to pretend to be her at all." She observed.
Ayano wiped away a couple of tears. "You need to, though. He can't keep hurting people this way... and honestly, I don't even like that you resemble her. But that doesn't mean I'll hesitate, if we fight again!" She hastily warned Mokuren, realizing the way things sounded. "Now come on, I've got to show you the garden..."
Thirty minutes later found Mokuren perched on a chair in the strangest underground space she'd ever seen, stranger even than Gyo Shokudou's basement. It was brightly lit by an odd combination of torches in the center and glowing crystals along the walls. An attempt had clearly been made to make it look as if the crystals grew here naturally but they were far too at odds with the sandstone. Still, the overall effect was pleasant.
She didn't know what was more troubling in this situation, really. On the one hand, there was no guarantee that this charade would actually protect her teammates, and on the other...
There was something Mokuren found terribly ironic about pretending to be a beloved daughter to a doting father. She knew the role well enough, certainly, but it had been such a long time and thinking of her father, of how disappointed he would pretend not to be at the choices she had made, she felt her gut twist with guilt.
All too soon, the door opened. Mokuren had only a few moments to look at the man known as Zoruna Ryuu before he was on her. For a moment she forgot herself and very nearly attacked, before she recognized the hug for what it was. She forced herself to relax and hug back.
"I knew it... I knew you were alive." The first statement to go against Ayano's 'trial run' plan, but not the last.
Hearing the hope and pain in his voice, Mokuren felt a wave of pity for him. "Tadaima." She mumbled - not really caring for a plan, just then.
Hours later, when she had been dragged around the place by a toddlerlike adult, giddy with the happiness of having a daughter again, and shown everything, and barely escaped making up a sob story to explain away the absence of 'Mei', Mokuren would scold herself thoroughly for that sympathy. These were enemies, but she had not treated them that way, really; the entire day had been so surreal, and she hated to admit even to herself that she had enjoyed having a father again, even a pretend one nothing like her first. She really hoped Temari would come and find her before she grew too close to these people.
Some part of her didn't think it would be all that bad to live as Mei for a while longer, though.
End Note: Fixed some spelling and divided Ayano's text a little better, this chapter still makes me a little sad.