A purple head glided through the throng of market-goers, idly taking in the bustling activities (mainly bargaining from the adults and a game of catch from the kids), various alien vegetables and meat that shined in all sorts of colours under the sun, and of course, the near endless greetings that were politely sent his way.
"Good morning, Earthling-ssi!"
"Ah, Earthling-ssi, morning!"
"Morn' to ya, savior! How abou' some meat? Freshly slaughter'd!"
"I'll charge you these fruits at half-price, okay?"
Takasugi had actually been accustomed to such courtesy even before saving this swinehole. Musingly, he drew links between this marketplace and his Kiheitai ship; the greetings in the latter were not so informal, and it definitely did not stink of mud and meat (although blood was another issue...), but what the spacecraft missed out the most was the genial, warm atmosphere that this dingy village radiated. Something he could not say that he disliked.
His zori stopped at the heart of the plaza, shuffling as he twisted his body around with a searching eye; the aloof Japanese certainly did not venture out into anything crowded (aside from a festival) just to receive greetings. He had woken up to an abnormally empty hut and table in the morning, with no sign of blonde hair anywhere. The pang in his stomach drove him to her house, but he was tersely and coldly told by a black-haired woman that "she isn't home" and for him to "please leave". Inwardly swearing to drench his katana in her blood, he did as he was told and soon found himself at the center of the village, his mood dampened to dangerous levels. If she was not facing him due to a reason as frivolous as embarrassment from yesterday's events, he will kill her.
Even the sight of a stunning beauty did nothing to his souring scowl. Not that it would in the first place.
"Ah, Earthling-ssi!" Nayu smiled prettily. "A very good morning to-"
"Have you seen Suseri?"
"What?" Lashes fluttered, confused at his cold dismissal. Beside her, Ryuki blinked curiously as well. "Isn't she at your hut every morning?"
Obviously not if I'm looking for her, Takasugi suppressed the growl and settled for glaring at a nearby fruits stand. Then, a blob of pale yellow some distance behind it caught his attention and he blinked to focus on the approaching girl, frown deepening with her every step. He could already imagine her pathetic attempt of a disarming, apologetic smile, offerings of whatever excuses, along with beeseeching clapsed palms. However, reality betrayed his expecations when she stopped abruptly beside him.
Then, Suseri, in all her glory of unkempt hair, sallow complexion and heavily-bagged eyes, pointed a bold finger at the contrastingly beautiful Nayu, who merely crinkled her nose in apprehension and confusion.
With a loud, confident voice, the dishevelled blonde girl made her declaration for all to hear.
"Nayu, I challenge you for the title of the King's Concubine!"
The entire plaza fell dead silent.
Every single villager stared wide-eyed at the girl, completely flummoxed, flabbergasted. Disbelieving. Did the normally demure and gentle young medic just brazenly challenged the village beauty over a title that only the latter could have? After a sustained bout of silence, Ryuki broke the tension stumblingly. "S-Suseri, what are you talking about? It must be a joke... right?"
"I've spent the entire night thinking about it." The girl in question withdrew her hand and tucked it between crossed arms, ignoring the massive wave of whispers occurring around with her eyes focused intently on her self-appointed rival. "There is no justice in choosing just you for it. If given the chance, I can be every bit as charming and beautiful as you, and I ought to deserve every right to contend your place as the King's Concubine."
Takasugi, whose eye had widened by a fraction out of surprise, withheld a chuckle, smirking darkly at the scene. This is going to be interesting...
On the opposing side, Nayu could only open and close her mouth repetitively in disbelief, rendered speechless by the absurdity of it all. Ryuki mirrored her inflated eyes, his brows locked and knitted.
"As such, please make your own dresses from now on, and I will make mine." Suseri started to turn, and then returned for an afterthought, "actually, you don't have to make one, since I'll be the only one going to the palace."
"Follow me, Earthling-ssi." She instructed lightly as she brushed past the man. Far too amused to chide her for giving him commands, he walked a few steps before turning to nod at the astonished crowd, particularly to the wide-eyed couple. "Well... I guess I found her."
The retreating duo disappeared from the staggering, buzzing crowd, leaving in their wake the biggest talk of the town.
Chapter Ten:
The Human Heart Comes to Realise
"So, are you really going to the palace?" He asked after the silent trip to her house, watching her mount rice onto a bowl.
"Of course." She replaced the pot lid when she was done and arranged the dishes onto a tray. "Do you think I will joke about something like this? I really did spend the whole night contemplating, you know."
An olive eye idly discerned the approaching Asato, cogs in the mind behind it beginning to spin. "Why the sudden ambition?"
"I said it already, didn't I?" Suseri placed the platter before the purple-haired man inclined on a wooden bench, even helping to uncover the lids of the filled ceramic to release the fragrant fumes of its contents. "I don't think it's fair that only Nayu has the chance to go to the palace. I want to go to the palace too. I-"
"Cut the lies," came his terse interjection. "What happened?"
"You either accept that, or nothing at all." The blonde girl delivered her stance smoothly, complete with cordial close-lipped smile. "Now, please enjoy your breakfast."
"...It's already lunch." A sigh, and he idly picked up the metal chopsticks laid neatly beside his rice.
With rising insincerity, her smile leaked hints of mild annoyance. "You've become quite talkative, Earthling-ssi."
Considering the determination to end the topic ever so present in her tone of voice, Takasugi decided to concede to her wishes and drop the matter. For the moment, that is. Whatever information he wants, the Kiheitai leader always gets, and there was no way he would allow a simple alien girl resist that. And anyway, he mused as he chewed on seasoned cabbage and watched her retreat to the kitchen, given her personality, she will eventually tell me on her own accord in the end.
He was not ignorant enough to not notice her change in demeanour this morning. In the short span of time they had spent for the day so far, the perceptive samurai saw how her mind seemed to be preoccupied and how her heart seemed to belong somewhere else on their wordless journey from the plaza to her abode. Despite performing the same actions and executing the same style of speech, there was something off about the way her eyes looked, and something uncharacteristic about the aura she emanated. Not to mention, there were the underlying notes of desperation and conviction when she issued her challenge to Nayu. It was almost as if she had questioned the purpose of the life she had led and was anticipating her next course of greater action. It was almost as if she was starting to distance herself. Almost as if she cared for something more than her beloved village.
There was an issue she realized over the previous night, and Takasugi found himself actually wanting to determine what it was.
"SUSERI!"
An incensed voice, made scratchier by the force exerted in delivering it, screeched from inside the house and Halmeoni charged out towards her granddaughter with surprising speed, latching onto the younger girl's ear and giving it a malicious twist which caused enough pain to elicit a cry. Although the human had witnessed the scene many a-times before, it never held such anxiety and intensity as it did now, and neither did the old woman look so appalled.
"I heard it from Ryuki, is it true that you want to be the King's Concubine?" She was almost begging for her denial, her flustered mental state forgetting to converse in Japanese. "Is it true? Is it?"
Suseri remained silent, merely closing her eyes to tolerate the pain.
"IS IT?" The elder screamed, veined eyes wide in fearful disbelief as she already knew the answer. "WHY?! WHY, YOU STUPID GIRL? WHY?"
"Halmeoni, please don't ask questions," the youth pleaded, fruitlessly fighting the rising lump in her throat, "please!"
"HOW CAN I NOT?" The pain inflicted on Suseri's ear grew exponentially with that she did on her grandmother's heart. "AFTER ALL THOSE HORRIBLE THINGS THAT I TOLD YOU ABOUT THE PALACE, ABOUT BEING A CONCUBINE, YOU STILL WANT TO GO THERE AND BE ONE? SUSERI, DO YOU KNOW WHAT KIND OF TROUBLE YOU ARE SEEKING?"
No answering reply, just whimpers.
"HOW COULD YOU EVEN THINK OF IT?" The geriatrician roared despairingly. "WHAT MADE YOU WANT TO LEAVE THE VILLAGE, WHAT MADE YOU WANT TO ABANDON US, WHAT MADE YOU WANT TO ABANDON ME?"
"Halmeoni! I don't want to leave the village, I don't want to abandon everybody and above all, I don't want to abandon you!" Suseri cried, her voice increasingly unstable, "but-"
"THEN WHAT? YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND, YOU STUPID GIRL!" Tears, for the first time in a decade, spilled from the elder medic's eyes, unable to fathom life without her precious granddaughter, made worse when she knew about the crooked ways of the city. "YOU ABSOLUTELY CANNOT GO TO THE PALACE! I WON'T LET YOU!"
"Halmeoni-!"
"Eomeonim! Suseri! Stop this unsightly behaviour!" A third voice and body interrupted the fray as Mai wedged herself between her mother-in-law and daughter, wrenching apart the grip the former had on the latter. She cordoned the youngest Asato from the eldest, then shot a glance of awareness towards the marginalised human spectator on the other end of the kitchen yard. "How ugly it is for our family to bicker in front of a guest, let alone an alien at that!"
A frown settled onto Takasugi's brow as he received a wave of hostility from the newcomer much more intense than he had previous times. Putting that aside, he was almost amused, entertained by the dispute that unfolded, although he had no idea what they were saying. He loved drama and strife, even from a family as insignificant and unimportant as this, and he was glad to witness so much in a day since the morning.
However, there was an annoying tinge of guilt and reluctance in taking delight from the show.
"MAI! Do you know what your daughter plans to do?" Ignoring the sense of shame that she was reminded of, Halmeoni maintained her volume and heatedly addressed the middle-aged woman. "Tell her, tell her about the kind of atrocities that happen in the Palace! TELL HER! GO ON!"
When she was met with a remorseful aversion of eyes, realization struck her addled mind and she allowed her wrinkled hands to fall limply to her sides.
"You knew... You are in this with her..." her eerily faint voice incited worried frowns from the younger females, "I should have realised, ever since you came back... Things have been very different..."
"Eomeonim... It's not what you think," the black-haired woman said unconvincingly, putting her palms to her chest, "it's not-"
"Something happened to Dan in the Palace, isn't it?" Pieces of the puzzle arranged themselves in her mind, but her heart prohibited its completion. "What?"
Once again, she was confronted with silence and a biting cold engulfed her entire being.
...
"Halmeoni, you are the one who doesn't understand." Suseri said in the universal language after a minute heavy with thought, as if she wanted the purple-haired man to listen too. "I absolutely must go to the Palace."
The elderly woman frowned and slackened her jaw as a different form of fear crept up within her, imposed by the cold conviction drenching the words of her granddaughter. She subconsciously took a step back as the blonde girl took one forwards, and the latter faced her with an expression so apologetic and so wrought with anguish that it override her own grievances.
"But I promise that you will come to understand everything," the girl's lips forced a pained, hopeful smile, "when I return."
Suseri was unable, -no, unwilling to believe what she had just heard.
"Eomma, what are you saying?" She gave a mirthless laugh, waiting for her mother to spring an uncharacteristic "punk'd!" on her. "There's no way that can be true!"
The pristine light of the moon seeped through the gaps and cracks of the old abandoned hut, dissipating shadows but not the darkness that was brought forth with the confessions made by the crying, kneeling dark-haired woman. With unrestrained waterfalls flooding her tear ducts, the elder female willingly broke proprieties of familial relations by slamming her forehead onto the wooden ground in front of her daughter's legs.
"Suseri! I'm a failure of a wife, a failure of a mother!" Undiluted sorrow and grief wrecked her every word and muscle. "But there isn't anybody else I can turn to for help! There isn't anybody else I can trust anymore! You're the only person whom I know can do it! You're the only person left, so please, I beg you...! P-Please go to the Palace and save your father!"
The desperation in her voice, the unspoken message behind her plea, the mere knowledge of the expected consequences in carrying out her request; it was made agonisingly, excruciating clear to Suseri. She could not even cry, she could not even tell her to get up. She could do nothing but stare blankly in shock at the crouching woman before her.
"I'm so, so, so sorry, Suseri! I truly have failed as a mother," Mai continued to wail and beg, chest and head still pressed onto the rough floor and eyes still spouting tears, "I know what it means to go to the Palace, I know what it means to get involved into its politics, I know the fates of those who fall out of its favour... I would never wish for you to ever experience that Hell of a place, but there is no other way that Dan could possibly be saved! Please forgive me for asking this of you, my beloved, precious daughter! Please understand where I am coming from!"
Only sobs and whimpers filled the empty room as Suseri processed all that she had heard, her mind and heart dangerously close to reaching a breakdown.
"Y-Your beloved daughter..." She began almost ethereally, floatingly. "You would send your beloved, precious daughter to an almost certain death to carry out an almost certain failure of a mission to rescue your husband."
Her silent response spoke a thousand words.
She should have known it. She should have known it from whatever vague memories she had when they were once an undivided family. From the asymmetrical quantity and quality of food, care and affection Mai had served and shown towards the man and the girl, Suseri should have known that no matter how much she loved her daughter, the dark-haired woman would never love her as much, as equally as she did her husband. Or rather, she should not have chosen to remain blind to that truth. She has always thought of it as acceptable (despite an ache of jealousy), since she guessed that there were different forms of love and her mother did love her nonetheless after all, but for the woman to openly admit to ranking her husband's life over her daughter's, it dealt a blow on an entirely different level. It was disgusting to fathom, it was torturous to realise, but the maxim that Mai banked her beseech on will not change.
She could always have another daughter, but she could never have the same husband.
Was this how one made amends for years of absence?
Was she so dispensable that her mother would not think twice about sacrificing her own daughter to save her man despite fully knowing the possibility of losing both at once?
Was that what her father had wanted as well?
But even so, even through the tormenting rejection that crumbled her will to live, even through the desire to hate her mother for the confession she'd made, Suseri understood her reasons and shared her unlimited love for the man. It was this love and sense of piety that forced her to make her possibly fatal decision.
"I sympathise, Mai-ssi."
An address more damaging than frostbite. The older Asato dared to lift her head, and deliberately raised her mismatched, anguished eyes to meet the blonde's with trepidation and shame.
The girl closed her lids, succumbing to and leaving everything into Fate's hands.
"I will need more information. I am going to the Palace, after all."
And she was not even started on the devastating worry she had for her father.
"Earthling-ssi, are you free?"
A blonde head peeked into the quiet, uneventful hut, blinking as an idle gaze was sent her way. The one-eyed man sat listlessly atop the window sill of the room, right hand holding a smoking pipe and body held by a posture that could not be any lazier. Seeing that she has interrupted nothing aside from his admiration of the outside greenery, she smiled and answered for him. "Of course you are."
"Why," Takasugi returned to watching a squirrel scuttle up a tree and missed the girl stepping up to his side, "do you have something interesting enough to make me not free?"
"Hmm, yes, I suppose," she placed a finger to her chin in mock consideration, "well, by my standards it is interesting in-"
"Then I'll pass."
Unfettered and not discouraged by his blunt refusal, her smile grew into a grin and she started for the door. "Then I guess I'll have to ask Seoki to entertain you."
Two soft thumps on the hollow ground was all she needed to hear.
Still grinning, she turned to the standing man and took childish triumph in seeing his irritated, bested expression. Then, holding up three fingers, she laid out her requisitions. "Okay, I'll need you to promise me on several things, you got that?"
The Kiheitai leader deepened his scowl. Who was she to instruct him around? Even the toughest of space thugs did not dare to coerce him so one-sidedly when signing illegal deals and trades. He was two words away from telling her to get lost when an image of incessant giggling and adolescent fawning conjured itself in his mind and persuaded him to choose the lesser of two evils, and thus signalled his highly reluctant consent through a low grunt.
"Firstly, you must not complain about the long hike."
...It sounded troublesome already.
"Secondly, you must not tell anybody that I brought you to where I will be bringing you."
...He had a good mind to sit back do- Wait, what?
"Thirdly, and most importantly, you must absolutely promise me not to touch anything at all. Not even a light tap."
His eye slit open in curiosity, focusing on a determined girl still brandishing her fingers at him. Now, her final two requests were interesting, indeed. She had always been so obedient to her grandmother that she alerted her of her whereabouts wherever and whenever she travelled, even if she was merely drawing water from the well. A bemused smirk snaked up his lips and he exhaled a puff of smoke into her face.
"I concede."
"No." Much to his veiled chagrin, the brazen girl was not appeased. Fanning the fumes away with another hand, her outstretched three fingers folded in to extend her last, which she offered to the apprehensive human. "You promise."
"Oi, oi," he drawled with a slight frown and unhesitatingly used what he knew was a touchy subject against her. "How can a girl who was so utterly, embarrassingly reprimanded by her elders in front of a guest still possess the cheek to demand a promise from said guest?"
Her unflinchingly expectant stare proved her careless attitude towards the disgraceful nature of yesterday's events.
"Shameless," he spat.
Still that aggravating gaze.
The purple-haired samurai would have flung the ashes in his pipe into her eyes if he didn't have to worry about her accidentally cutting the wrong sutures on his chest due to her loss of sight. Or maybe 'accidentally', given her gall. Instead, he settled for a very peeved growl and tapped the insulated part of his kiseru onto the crook of her pinkie.
Finally satisfied, she gave one last infuriatingly triumphant smile before setting off for her destination with sprightly steps and a sighing human in tow.
Takasugi almost could not believe his eyes. Or eye, for that matter.
An arduous hike through unclearly defined forest trails, rocky mountain steps, slippery hills and half a day later, they finally found themselves gazing up (the girl in awe and him in disinterest) at an unassuming, unimpressive entrance of a cave which housed... nothing. Or nothing he could see, anyway. Deliberately turning to his side, he nailed a glare so demandingly pressurizing that it would intimidate even a non-sentient abomination into spouting incomprehensively fearful apologies. Unfortunately, being just a simple, Amanto girl, she merely withered under his intense stare and laughed uncomfortably. "N-No, this isn't what I wanted to show you! I gets better when we're inside, I promise."
He asked if it was even safe to enter, and she dismissed his perfunctory unease with a flick of a wrist and confident steps into the ominous-looking cave, armed only with a small lamp and scarce infiltrated sunlight to illuminate their way.
More walking... The samurai cursed vehemently in his mind as he trekked through the moist, slicked rocks of the cavern ground, a little worried for the disintegrating stress it put on his pair of zori, which held up surprisingly well even across the rough terrain he had covered. Meanwhile, Suseri too had some difficulty in manoeuvring the disorientating crooks in the barely-there path, even requiring the sturdy shoulder of an extremely miffed Japanese when she accidentally slipped on a particularly wet and smooth stone. Undaunted, she persevered and finally caught sight of a purple glow after what seemed like half an hour.
She wedged herself through a narrow gap, noting with amusement that her companion was less deft than her in doing so given his bigger size, and turned to marvel and appreciate the utter beauty that nature had to offer.
Violet crystals adorned the entire chamber with its radiant sparkle and lighted the shadows with its piercingly neon, luminous glow. Quite astonished by the sight, Takasugi took a few distracted steps forwards, likening the experience to standing within a three-dimensional hologram of the Milky Way, his senses slightly thrown off-balance by the overwhelmingly dizzying lights that surrounded him. He could not care less about the immense bulk of monetary worth the crystals possessed, being jaded with superficial gains through life; he was more interested in another matter. When marauding with his Kiheitai or simply checking loot from associates, he had stepped into rooms or even chambers full of gold and other treasures, but the glory of those artificial gems dimmed in comparison to these natural ones, their lustre stained by the underhand methods they were attained by. On the other hand, the purple diamonds before him right now were pure in every aspect from their composition to formation. Including their proud, smiling presenter.
So pure, so clean, so unadulterated. Takasugi could not suppress his lust to blot their shine with his touch.
"Ya! What did I say about touching anything?!"
His outstretched hand paused mid-way as he regarded the approaching girl, highly irritated by her interruption. Suseri grabbed the offending appendage and pushed it to the human's chest where she held it, shooting a reproachful look up into this frowning face, mentally lamenting that he had no idea of what she risked by bringing him here.
"This cave is a treasure that my village will never reveal to anybody," she informed gravely while casting a sweeping glance around, "you should know why."
Of course, he thought understandingly, empathetically. It truly was a treasure worth keeping a secret to the grave.
"As you can see, we have left it pretty much untouched," he felt her hand leaving his as she padded to a perfect column of glittering violet ice, "because we see no need and have no desire in exploiting Mother Nature's priceless gift just so we can live a luxurious life. We can't say the same for other people, though."
With some effort, he slinked his arms into his robes, thus assuring her of his adherence to his promise. "Why me?"
"Because I trust you," came her simple, genuine reply, "and I want to show you the wonders of Nature. To boast a little, if you will."
Trust me...? He mused in context of the word, a demented smile tugging at his lips. It had been so, so long since he heard somebody saying those two words sincerely that he almost wondered if he was born with any ounce of trustworthiness in his soul to begin with. Every dealing, every contract, every promise he dealt and made, he constructed them with a catch, a loophole he could take advantage of. Even if he didn't, betrayal and backstabbing was all that he needed to do. Takasugi Shinsuke definitely wasn't internationally and universally renowned as one of the most notoriously treacherous entities for nothing. It was a reputation built on shed blood and manipulated bonds. The only trust he was capable of giving was to lead his subordinates to a world of destruction.
How blissful it must be to be so unaware, so ignorant, he stepped towards her crouched figure, burning an increasingly deranged smile into her back.
So blind.
He was almost jealous of her innocence. Almost.
It was when he reached a feet within her shuffling body that he saw what she was doing, and the sight spawned deep ire within him.
"I thought you said not to touch anything?" He reiterated scathingly as she felt around a crystalline solid the size of a football, even examining its quality with an ancient-looking monocle perched on her blue right eye. Satisfied with its conditions and shape, she proceeded to further antagonize his spite by carefully prying the chunk of mineral off the ground and holding it up high, expressing her disgruntlement for the crack lines she inflicted with a tut.
Oh well, it would have to do. The sculptor would be able to work his way around its flaws. She took out a bulky box from her cloth-bag and tenderly placed the crystal into its cushioned inside. Once it was snugly and securely strapped to her back, she turned around to finally answer the waiting human. "That rule was for you, not me."
This girl...! Takasugi scowled so acidulously that it dimmed the radiance of his breath-taking surroundings. "No desire to exploit? Say that to me one more time."
"I'm not exploiting! I'm not going to sell this off or anything," she whipped around with a defensive pout, explaining, "the only times when we will come up to this cave are during the years when the King's Concubine will be sent off. Even the finest and most beautiful of silk will be plain if there aren't jewellery to compliment them. This is our closest hope to having gems in and on our hair and body."
"Forget it," the purple-haired man deadpanned bluntly with crossed arms, still upset about her moment of hypocrisy (not that he was one to talk). "Even the most radiant of gold won't help your dull hair."
"Hmph," she stuck her tongue out immaturely, "wait and see."
It was not until Suseri scooted over to a young, budding crystal that Takasugi realised his provocation was appeased by their short conversation. Now that he thought about it, compared to his interaction with the Kiheitai and the other three idiots from the Joui war, he was much easier to satisfy during his time in the village. Although the villagers couldn't maintain his good mood as well as Bansai (the most agreeable follower who got along with him best) and Matako (his most loyal henchwoman whose sole desire in life is to please him) did, they were able to pacify his bouts of unhappiness better than anybody else did. Especially that silly medic girl. He simply owed it to the tranquil environment and paid no attention to it.
"Earthling-ssi, come look at this."
He blinked down disinterestedly, padding over to her position just for the want of moving muscles, and saw a pale, scrawny crystal in her gaze.
"How interesting."
He saw her eyebrow twitch at his drawl. "Tsk."
"Do you know," Suseri waited for a few moments before starting again, restraining a sigh of relief when the man made no sarcastic remarks this time, "that people are just like crystals?"
Takasugi remained silent, accepting the slight curiosity he had in her random statement.
"Only after enduring long months, years, even decades under the harshest temperatures and unbearable pressure do they grow," the blonde girl mused as she gently traced a finger over the irregular spikes of the young mineral, "and it will take even longer and more brutal conditions for them to bloom into strong, beautiful bodies. Of course, additional cutting and shaping will be required to refine them into perfect forms for everybody else to admire."
She straightened her legs and back, mismatched eyes reflected off the little polygons of the little crystal.
"Just like people, every single crystal is different in their formations, contributed by the kind of conditions that they were under during their growth. Utterly unique, differently beautiful with their own polish. Collectively, the differing types of course possess their own high calibres of radiance. From the many tales and stories I've heard," she turned to regard the listening man beside, looking up into his eye meaningfully, "the humans have the brightest shine of all."
Not blind, he corrected himself inwardly and Takasugi held her gaze, an inexplicable, unexplainable excitement rising in his chest, not blind at all.
But still ignorant.
"Your assessment does hold truth, I'll give you that," he began, a dangerous tone in his voice raising alarms in Suseri's head, "but you missed out on one thing..."
Without warning, he lifted a leg and crushed the growing mineral in a swift, brutal stamp of his foot. He took sick pleasure in seeing the affronted shock in her wide eyes, although she said nothing.
"Just like crystals, people are also ever so fragile." He slowly made his way towards the only opening of the chamber, completely guiltless and unrepentant for his action. "With sufficient force, even the hardest will break, crack, fracture and disintegrate. What use is that beauty you speak of if it will eventually end up being destroyed?"
The girl remained silent, accepting the logic in his harsh statement although she did not stand by it.
"In fact, the more beautiful it is," he halted to turn behind, the maniacal grin he had partially hidden by the darkness he was headed, "the more I would like to crush it."
Suseri could not deny being taken aback by the viciousness and malice in his words, but it did not shock her enough into being frightened, considering that she was already familiarised with the morbid side of the enigma she had brought to her village, and it seemed to pose no threat to her or her people so far. Despite her confidence that he would not harm her, -not yet, at least-, she still kept many secret doubts and insecurities about his will and perseverance to stay this docile, as she had already realised that he was not any ordinary being. However, they did not stop her from forming the unexpectedly deep attachment she had towards him, and neither did they deter the unexplainable trust she had in him.
From day one she had already taken chances, and she decided that she would continue doing so.
"Earthling-ssi."
Takasugi heard her call out, the sickly sweet tone eliciting a mild chill on the back of his neck. He casually turned backwards to face her twitching smile.
"...You'll pay for breaking the promise."
Author's Note: Omg now this is quite a loaded chapter to write... I hope that my attempt at angst isn't too cheesy... If it is, I hope that the short fluff made up for it... If the fluff is cheesy too, I hope that the rest of the chapter will make up for it... If everything was cheesy, um, here are some nachos? ^^;
Nah just kidding. Actually, no, seriously. I really need your feedback and opinions on my writing! I have big plans for this story heading towards the drama side, so I really want to be able to pull if off. Out of all my works, The Human Heart is my favourite (BIASED ME!) and so I really wish to be able to write it to the best I can or even more!
I made Takasugi a lil psycho here... Is he still in character, I hope?
And I've probably brought up a few issues here which I will expand on in later chapters (did my attempt at being mysterious work?)! I hope I managed to capture the appropriate emotions!
If not, please do give me constructive notes on how to improve it! (No flames though)!
A HUUUUUGE thank you to Avalon, Ms. Anna Banana, franks-not-dead and luvJesusinHeavn for the reviews! I always smile like :) when I read them! :) :) :) And of course, thank you to those who favourited, followed and read!
I can't say for sure when the next chapt will be up... BUT I hope it will be soon! Alright, seeyaz~
P/S: I apparently love changing the summary for this fic and I won't stop changing it until I find one catchy enough. OTL *shot in the head*
P/P/S: The new Gintama arc with the Joui Reunion has changed so many perceptions of Takasugi... A part of me hopes that it is true after all and another doesn't... LOL