CHAPTER FORTY-NINE

Waking Nightmare


~Kakashi~


The sun was beginning to crawl up from behind the expanse of golden rice fields as Kakashi and Erisu crossed a gently arched footbridge barely wide enough for a wagon to cross. It was a rickety thing, wooden, splintered, and unpainted and yet there was a sort of lonely beauty to it as it spanned the slow moving creek of plantation runoff.

Erisu was a few steps ahead, her kimono bound tight on her supple frame that was almost lost in the grey hue of predawn. Kakashi was savouring the time he had alone with her while forcibly resisting touching her... The others would be along soon and even though Kakashi was impatient to be getting on with the mission there was still a part of him that wished he could've just wasted his hours with Erisu back at the inn.

"Oh, by the sun and stars!" She exclaimed at that moment.

She dashed ahead to the opposite bank where there appeared to be a cemetery. As Kakashi neared he realized they weren't tombstones but stone statues of a monk bearing a staff and prayer beads. Scattered amidst the numerous rows of knee high men were wilted flowers, their petals scattered across the overgrown grass. There were dolls with tattered dresses and wooden building blocks whose paint had been chipped away from all the years they'd been here, and here and there a monk was wearing infant clothing...a red bonnet or a faded bib. It was tragic.

Erisu was kneeling before the nearest of the statues. "Look at you, Ojizō-sama," she murmured as she stroked his featureless face, eroded by time. "You've been neglected as of late, haven't you?"

She pressed her hands together and bowed her head, praying for all the stillborn babies and miscarriages perhaps? When she looked up again her eyes were quite clear.

"There're no monks to maintain the shrine," she commented as she stood. "Not even an awning to protect them from the elements."

"No, but people have been here recently," he said. "Look." There were several sacks of rice piled at the far end of the statues alongside crates of fresh produce and a couple barrels of sake.

Without waiting for her to respond, Kakashi drew blood and summoned Pakkun. The pug peered up at him through the dark looking as if he'd just woken up.

"What up?" He asked gruffly as he took in the rows of statues. "Bit of a creepy place, isn't it?"

"I want you to investigate the surrounding area for signs of campers or anything of the sort. Someone has been coming to this location regularly to collect supplies but this offering-" he nodded towards the crates and sacks "-hasn't been received yet. The vegetables are still fresh so it must've been delivered recently, meaning whoever it's meant for should be on their way to pick it up."

Pakkun's ears twitched as he padded through the deteriorating monks to reach the rations. As he set to work discerning scents Kakashi turned back to Erisu who was quietly clearing dead leaves away from the effigies.

"Are you alright?" He said softly, "you seem a bit off..."

"I'm fine," she responded as she straightened again. "It's only..." She seemed unable to finish.

"Only what?"

Erisu turned her eerie lamp-like eyes on him and he was taken aback by the profound sorrow they contained.

"Do you ever plan on having children..?"

The question seemed random at first but he realized it was because of where they were, who-or rather what-they were with: the bodhisattva of hell-beings, Ojizō-sama. The Guardian of children and the patron deity of deceased children and aborted fetuses who ferried their souls to the afterlife was all orotund them, dilapidated though he may be.

"I've thought about it," he said delicately, "everyone does at one point or another. We all have a genetical predisposition to want to continue our legacy... Have you thought about it?"

Her eyes misted over and it was blatantly clear that she had. "Only since I realized I'll likely never get the chance...considering."

"You might," he said as he tilted his head to peer at her through the lowlight. "This curse isn't going to be the end of your life, Risu-chan."

"You keep saying that, but I'm afraid that I don't actually believe it." She turned back to the disciples of Buddha and he saw resignation written in every line of her body. "I'm growing more and more certain that this mission will claim my life."

"I won't let that happen," Kakashi told her sharply, "I won't allow my comrade to die."

"Are you this sentimental about everyone or am I just a peculiar case?" She glanced back up and she was smiling, but her lips were curved with sorrow. "If things were different, if I hadn't happened upon you in the woods, hadn't turned out to have such an unusual illness...would you still?"

"Risu..." He began uncertainly. She seemed strange, and more than her usual airy peculiarities. "What's going on with you?"

Her eyes had shifted back to the statues and the look on her face was indescribable. "For the first time really...I'm actually wondering what I'll do next if I survive the family reunion."

"Well..." He narrowed his eyes as he tried to gauge her emotions. "That's a good thing isn't it?"

"I suppose." She turned to face him suddenly and there was a different look in her eyes as she seemed to size him up. "But perhaps I'm meant to die, marked for it. I doubt the shinigami would be too happy with us from taking a soul from them."

Something definitely was up with her. "The sun is nearly up," he said instead of responding to her weird suggestion. "You must be tired."

"I slept more than you, what with my obnoxious fainting. But to be honest, it's hard to tell sleepiness from fatigue these days. I'm always tired but always restless. How insomnia tends to roll, is it not?"

"Yusha mentioned nightmares," Kakashi began carefully, "nightmares where you'd awaken saying 'burn'..."

"I regularly relived the night of the house fire," Erisu answered, avoiding eye contact.

"But that night..." He moved into her line of sight and urged her to meet his gaze. "Inoichi said you were laughing, and saying-"

"'Burn'. Yes. That's correct." Her expression was calm and open about it, so much so that he wondered why he'd ever felt wary about bringing the subject up. "Some people respond to shock differently. My mother reacted with anger, Emi with silence, Rūka with fear and so on. I personally processed my shock with laughter, as did Yusha. The loss of our home and personal effects didn't sink in until the following morning."

Kakashi tilted his head. "So, it was just shock? Nothing... else?"

Erisu's demeanour altered. Her stance grew defensive and her lips pressed into a line. "Do you actually want to know the answer as to why I was so happy that my childhood home was in flames? Or are you asking out of professional curiosity"

He considered her for a long moment. It seemed like a rather complex topic, especially during such a tense and time pressed situation, but was also likely to be his last moment alone with her for the rest of the mission. He needed to know now, however long the answer.

"The truth," he answered with certainty, "the entire truth this time. Don't leave anything out. I want to know about the fire, the dreams, your uncharacteristically jaded attitude-everything."

She nodded slowly and tousled her unruly mop of white-blonde hair. "Alright," she said at last, meeting his eyes, "everything. Where should I begin?"

"Start with the fire," he advised, "why were you really laughing?"

"The fire was liberating," she answered simply, "it destroyed the house that I'd been abused in and so, in the tunnel vision of shock, I saw it as the end to the pain. I was still too traumatized to comprehend that the real source of the abuse was more complex, but that's not unusual in such situations."

"I...understand." And he meant it.

"I convinced myself that everything was going to change after that," she went on, "convinced myself that my mother might reconsider her fanatical beliefs since her god must've willed the destruction of our home. I convinced myself that the bizarre moment of joy that Yusha and I shared had brought us closer, made him care about me the way elder brothers generally do. And I even convinced myself that the near death experience posed by the fire and the renewed attention from the authorities might've scared Rokurou enough to keep him from acting on his desires..." She paused to take a deep breath and blinked rapidly. "But I was deluding myself."

Kakashi started to speak but she was faster.

"People say to 'be optimistic', or 'hope for the best', but I took that too far." She shook her head and her voice hardened with anger towards herself. "I didn't just find the good in people, I invented it. People don't just change overnight, most people barely change in their entire lives, besides becoming more selfish and cold as they age."

Kakashi tried to speak again but Erisu's voice was rising as tears started to form, catching the starlight and making her eyes look like pools of liquid chalcedony.

"I should've gone to the authorities right after Rokorou grabbed me in the market," she told him, hands trembling with distress. "I should've seen the red flag when he chose to touch me in a populated area, should've recognized it for what it was! He wasn't scared, the opposite was true! He learned that day that he could assault me in public and get away with it!"

"He won't get away with it," Kakashi said fiercely.

"He already did!" She shouted, as everything she'd seemed to want to say for ages started tumbling out, "and he's probably getting away with it with Emi right now!" She choked on a sob before adding in a voice that was begging him to understand, "It's more that just a frightening ordeal, it damages a person for life! Because of..." She swallowed. "Because of what he did to me I became so afraid of men that I didn't dare get close to anyone! I kicked a doctor in the face for doing a routine check up! I'd get severe anxiety over a mere compliment! I was so closed off to the opposite sex that I thought I was either lesbian or asexual before I met you!"

"You...what?"

"And I'm so fucked up that I murdered the one person I did love!" The tears escaped her eyes at last as she covered her mouth as if to hide her words from him.

"He's not going to get away with it," Kakashi tried to tell her again but she didn't even hear him.

"Do you know what's even worse than being molested as a child..?"

He closed his eyes, unable to bear her tortured expression, and shook his head.

"Not being believed. A child, terrified and confused, manages to build up enough courage to tell their mother only to be accused of lying... To be punished..." Kakashi dared to look at her again to find her with her face buried in her hands, shoulders jerking with silent sobs.

"How any mother could do that..." Kakashi struggled to keep his voice steady. "It's incomprehensible."

"Yeah..." Erisu wiped her eyes rather violently. "Aya was never the most maternal sort. And speaking of my mother... Well, the fire didn't give rise to any skepticism on her part." She laughed humourlessly. "Oh no! It only reinforced her obsession. Drove her over the edge and compelled her to uproot us all from Konoha without so much as leaving a note. Upon settling in The Iron Lands Rokurou's illicit activities returned in full force and Aya responded by shaming me and telling me that I was asking for it by smiling too much and being too friendly." She scoffed but her eyes were brimming with tears. "Imagine: a fourteen year old girl being accused of flirting with her fifty-something stepfather. The man married to her own mother."

"Where was Yusha?" Kakashi asked as gently as he could.

"Yusha..." She echoed and her voice broke. With another soundless sob, Erisu slumped against the shrine for support. After steadying herself with a few more trembling gasps she continued in a voice shaking with emotion. "You've met him, seen his expressions of brotherly love first hand. He did and is still doing the same thing that I did: deliberately deluding himself because lies are easier to stomach than the truth."

"Risu..." Kakashi began but had no words to comfort her. What could he possibly say?

"The sickest part is I know that Yusha still cares." Her voice was shattered and weak, the words barely managing to form through her throat that was constricted with emotion. "He stood by, refusing to take action, lied about it to anyone who asked, and then took off when money got tight. And yet, in his own, strange way, he somehow still cares about me. Somewhere beneath all the layers of false bravado, religious fanaticism, sense of entitlement, and a mild Oedipus Complex..." She closed her eyes and took another deep bracing breath. "And I lied," she said with a miserable nod, "back at Asuma-sensei's funeral when you asked about whether I'd had any contact with Yusha... I lied."

Kakashi exhaled slowly and took a moment to scan the brightening horizon before responding. "Why?"

She managed a quivering smile as fresh tears rolled down her ashen cheeks and shrugged helplessly. "I don't even know why," she told him, "and that's what scares me. I looked you directly in the eye and lied, and I had no reason to. I hadn't done anything wrong but I still lied." She hiccoughed and slid down the shrine wall to sit on the ground, pulling her knees up like a wall.

"What exactly was the lie?"

"I said I hadn't spoken to him in five years and although that was technically true, I'd sent him a telegram while I was living at the Fire Temple..."

"And?" He prompted, careful not to sound to harsh.

"I asked if he would meet me," she said tearily, "he answered, but only to politely decline. Citing that he 'didn't want to associate with someone who'd abandoned our mother and broken her heart'."

Kakashi was about to express his anger towards her brother but stopped himself as he regarded her with a new uncertainty. "And that was the last time you had contact with him before he was taken into Konoha custody?"

"Yes," Erisu answered, "I never wrote him back after that. It just didn't seem relevant to bring up in the cemetery since nothing came from it."

Kakashi clenched his jaw. "Really?"

"I didn't know you were already looking for him," she said desperately, "I just saw it as more reason for you to hate my family and thought it would do more harm than good."

"Then why are you telling me now?"

"You asked for the entire truth," she murmured, "so I'm giving it to you."

He paced away as he digested everything she'd told him thus far and then swept back again and hooked his thumb in his pocket. He was relieved to know he believed her. If he stopped trusting her now all would be lost.

"And the nightmares?"

Those eerie silver-blue orbs of hers lowered for a moment as she composed herself. She hastily cleared her cheeks of tear tracks and pushed her hair back out of her face. "There are two nightmares that reoccur the most. The first is of my childhood home but it's always distorted, rooms in the wrong places, halls elongated, and doors that open into nothing. Sometimes it's on fire, but more often it's not." She chewed her lip and tried eye contact for a moment before dropping her face again. "The house is gone but the memories never will be."

"And the other dream?"

"It's more abstract," she said in discomfort, "a lake of blood, lightning storms... but most disturbing is the Sharingan moon."

Kakashi, distracted, stepped closer. "Sharingan?" He repeated. "When did you start having this dream."

"After the Uchiha Downfall but it's been happening more often since I became a genin," probably because of resurfacing emotions involving Itachi-senpai and Sasuke-san." He head tilted and she added, "it could also be due, in part at least, to being around you and Haruno-san with all your concern regarding the last remaining Uchiha."

Kakashi ran his fingers through his hair, strangely irked by the images she'd described. What Erisu didn't know was that Sasuke wasn't the only Uchiha... That masked man, Tobi-he forced himself to suppress his misgivings for now. When he turned back to Erisu she was on her feet tightening her obi.

"Erisu," he said a little sharper than he intended, "you still haven't explained your weird behaviour. The shouting, swearing, cynicism... It's just not like you."

"Well..." She eyed him and placidly folded her hands in front of her. "I thought what I already told you might give you some idea as to why I've been stressed out and emotional as of late but if you need me to explain it further..."

"I'm sorry," he said quickly, "you're right."

Erisu merely blinked. "Maybe I should explain it, since I've been doing so much of that already."

"Risu..."

"First of all, I'm terminally ill due to a curse placed upon me by my own mother, which is feeding a shikigami that is seemingly inhabiting my brother. My brother who is a prisoner, by the way, and has just seen me for the first time after I placed him under a torturous genjutsu in order to extract information from his mind against his will. This genjutsu also put my uncle's life in jeopardy and placed both of my earlier mentioned male family members, as well as myself, into a state of psychological torture for an uncertain number of days."

Kakashi back stepped and rubbed his neck. "Alright, Erisu, you've made your point."

"Have I?" There was no anger to her voice, in fact she sounded particularly level headed which made her almost intimidating as she approached him.

"You have," he insisted.

"I'm not certain you fully understand," she said softly, "I was known as The Ninja of Nightmares."

"Yes..." He wasn't sure where she was going with this.

"Eye contact," she said with a sad smile, "that's all I need. I look in one's eyes and I know their hopes, desires, their intentions..." She paused and her gaze shifted past him to nothing in particular. "but above all else, I know their most primal of fears.

"The Ninja of Nightmares weaponizes one's emotions, arms herself with their memories, and dooms them to a prison constructed from their nightmares." Erisu raised her eyes to Kakashi's and they were pink fractals made of fear. "That's what I did," she whispered, disgusted by herself, "my siblings' father, my unrequited love, a complete stranger whose name I still don't know." She closed her right eye and brushed her fingertips over her shadowy lid as if touching a weapon of mass destruction. "Even my own brother..."

"You didn't have a choice in any of those situations," he told her firmly.

"But I knowingly condemned them to their nightmares." Erisu's eyes fogged back to blue and she wrapped her arms around herself. "...only this last time something went wrong."

"You couldn't have known it would backfire-"

"This time... I was the victim, the ninja in the nightmares." Her voice became scarcely audibly and her expression was suddenly so far away she seemed almost transparent. As if she were still trapped in a different world. "I thought I knew what I was in for. Thought it'd be that burning house, those ice cold eyes... But it was far worse. My jutsu created new nightmares. My fondest memory, my secret desire, my most beloved person...it was all distorted, all twisted. My very happiness was turned against me." She was shaking all over and her eyes were reddening with blood but she managed to hold back the tears. "The worst part is I did it to myself." She raised her face to Kakashi's and he suddenly realized how broken she really was. "I am my own worst nightmare."

Lost for words, Kakashi could only gaze at her in solemn silence. Of course the jutsu had disturbed her but what she was describing... He understood then why she'd screamed at his touch in the Hokage's office, why she flinched away from him and evaded anything more than a kiss.

"Risu-chan," he said at last, "I'm sorry."

She blinked up at him in confusion. "For what?"

"Everything." He dared approach but stayed just out of reach. "I'm sorry that your mother neglected and betrayed you. I'm sorry that Rokurou abused you. You were cheated out of the family-the life-you deserved." He risked another step forward. "You fell through the cracks of the law and, on my honour as a shinobi, I'll do everything within my power to prevent those things from happening to any other child. Starting with Emi and Rūka. We're going to find them, save them, and make the ones responsible for all of this sorry."

"Kakashi." She shook her head with something bordering on wonder. "I don't want apologies, I never really did. Justice isn't even my end goal in regards to Aya and her husband. I just want honesty."

"Honesty?" He echoed, not following.

"Aya and Rokurou did terrible things," she said, "Yusha, although not actively involved in those things, didn't do anything to prevent them which is almost as bad. But I've done terrible things to, so have you, so has everyone. I don't need to make them suffer, that wouldn't solve anything. I need them to admit it. They don't need to even feel bad about it, I just want them to confess.

The sun was bleeding through the sky and throwing the shrine into a contrast of deep shadows and gleaming stone behind her as she spoke with that unwavering calm.

"Lies are the real villain here. Every trial and twist on our path was due to someone withholding the truth. My stepfather lied to my mother so she would trust and obey him. My mother lied to everyone to conceal her husband's perversion. My brother lied to protect her and I lied about the curse in hopes of protecting Emi and Rūka."

"But telling the truth doesn't change what they did," Kakashi pointed out, "they still committed crimes."

"You lied." She looked him in the eyes and he found no blame there, only honesty. "You lie all the time. About why you're always late, about what's really going on with Uzamaki-san and the Akatsuki. You lied about detaining Yusha and lied to him too. You're bound to lie about our relationship if your Team ever asks."

"Now, Erisu, I'm not..." but she dismissed him with a smile.

"Even infants lie." She sounded almost serene as her gaze swept over the grotesque, crumbling statues and the trinkets of dead children. "They cry, feigning distress, to deceive people in order to draw them in. It's a natural defence mechanism of humans, and other species as well. That doesn't make it right, but it doesn't make it wrong."

Her voice lowered and her smile faded. "But when people start believing their own lies everyone suffers. When truth loses its meaning how can you tell reality from fabrication? Who's to know that we're not all living in a massive lie? A dream...a nightmare?"

She traced her finger along the spiral carved in her forehead protector.

"I need to know that the house did burn, that Aya did know and still chose to do nothing," she said with a voice as smooth as Demon Lake. "I need to know that this curse will claim my life. I need to know that this is *real*, that I'm awake and not still trapped inside my nightmares."

Kakashi swept forward on instinct and pulled her into his chest. She stiffened against him as he shrouded her in his arms.

"Look at me," Kakashi said firmly, "do you think that I'm a nightmare?"

Erisu searched his eyes for an achingly long while. "You're not a nightmare," she said at last, "but you could be a dream...you were gentle and kind at first in the Mental Nightmare as well."

"Risu-chan." He gripped her shoulders tightly as he tried to figure out how to prove his credibility. "I can only imagine what happened while you were in a coma but you have to know that I-the real me- would never hurt you." He gently brushed a stray lock of hair from her face and, with a bracing breath, added, "daisuki da yo."

Erisu's eyes rounded further still and she reached up tentatively and pulled down his mask.

"Say that again," she whispered, as she swept her pink gaze over his lips.

"D-daisuki da yo...Risu-chan," he repeated, suddenly unable to recall the last time he'd said that to someone.

Erisu's face split into a wistful smile as her Himitsugan trailed over every line of his face, and he could tell that she knew he meant it. She skimmed her lips across his ever so gently before pulling free from his arms. She looked deep into his eye and he felt as though she could see his very soul.

"Kakashi," she said as she folded her hands in front of her formally, "kimi wa aishiteru."


~Erisu~


Erisu watched as Kakashi's swirling mercury eye widened in disbelief and she felt her heart start to race at her proclamation.

"Risu," he managed as he started towards her again, "do you really..?"

She opened her mouth to reply but at that moment they both detected newcomers. Kakashi turned his head sharply as he caught their scent and Erisu followed his gaze, curious about the intense irritation she felt.

The rest of the team was coming up the overgrown road. As they neared the bridge the noise of them carried over the river. It seemed that interpersonal relations between the members weren't going so smoothly.

Kiyomi was the first to reach them as she stormed up the path with her hair billowing behind her like a cape.

"Your brother," she said accusingly, "will not stop singing."

"Oh." Erisu glanced over at Yusha who was beat boxing loudly at Yamato. The jōnin looked ready to liquidate him. "He does do that sometimes..."

Kiyomi's eyes were like embers as she bore down on Erisu. "Make him stop or I'll set him on fire."

Erisu raised her hands placatingly and retreated a couple steps. "Do you really think I can control him?"

"He's pretty good, actually," Sota said amiably as he skipped over. "And it's kinda catchy."

Kiyomi gave him a look that would make a Ibiki cower.

"Boss!" Pakkun leapt out of the grass to land at Kakashi's side. Burrs were clinging to his glossy fur and his paws were caked in dust. "There's a group of rogue shinobi set up in the woods just a couple leagues north of here. Judging by their smell, they're the ones collecting the food."

Kakashi dipped his head curtly and looked over at Yamato who'd just reached them alongside Yusha and Yuma.

"My hounds found the extorters," he told his colleague. "They're on our path."

"Should we go around?" Yamato asked.

"That'd take us too far off course and we've been delayed enough already," Kakashi cast an eye towards Yusha and added, "we should take the most direct route to make up for any decrease in travelling speed."

"I can keep up," Yusha pitched in. "I'm the same rank as Erisu, remember? Plus I'm in very good health." He scratched the bridge of his bruised nose. "...mostly."

"You were unconscious only a few hours ago," Yuma drawled scornfully. "It's a surprise you made the trek here from the village without vomiting."

"I don't vomit," Yusha stated, "vomiting is nasty, and boring, so I don't do it." He flashed a charming grin at the Hyūga who wore an expression of absolute disdain.

"Anyways," Yamato said with a look of warning to Erisu's brother, "we buried what was left of the corpses in a mass grave outside of the village. Downhill, of course, so as to not contaminate the crops."

"Good." It was impressive how easily Kakashi had locked down his emotions already. "Yusha," he turned to her brother and fixed him with a hard stare, "can we trust you?"

Yusha was taken aback. "Uh, I don't know, I mean..." He glanced warily around at the group. "At least half of you were involved in my torture."

"Oh woman up," Kiyomi snapped at him. "They were just doing their jobs. Drop the pity fest and take some responsibility. Are you with us or against us?"

"Let me say this slowly so you'll understand:" His voice was ice. "you are trying to murder my mother and dismantle my faith."

"This is a rescue mission," Erisu told him sharply. "To save our little brother and sister."

Yusha turned his green, lamp-like eyes on her. "Save them from what exactly? A loving family and structured life?" He took a step towards her and Erisu felt Kakashi tense beside her. "Rūka and Emi are fine, Erisu. They're safe, fed, loved, and serving our lord god Izanagi."

"That's not what Emi seems to think," Yuma spoke up.

"Oh really?" Yusha rounded on him. "You've talked to my baby sister, have you?"

"No, but Erisu-chan has."

She left the weight of everyone's faze falling onto her and struggled to keep her back straight and head high.

"You failed to mention that you're pen pals with Emi." Yusha was steaming with resentment over being kept out of the loop. "Last I heard you took off on a selfish whim without even saying goodbye. That's kind of your thing though isn't it? Abandoning people who love you."

"Leave her alone," Yuma growled but her brother ignored him.

"When did you and Emi get so chummy?"

Erisu tightened her lips and glowered at him stubbornly. She wouldn't say anything about her sister's abilities to someone who might betray them. Yuma, however, had different plans.

"She didn't send her letters you idiot!" His features were tight with contempt.

"Yuma-" Yamato began warningly but the Hyūga didn't heed him.

"Emi reached out to her telepathically while she was in the Mental Nightmare and warned her of your parents' plan." Kiyomi elbowed him in the ribs but the damage was already done.

"Emi did what..?" Yusha turned back to Erisu with newfound interest. "That's some ability, reaching across such distance..."

"She's a Hakuchō," Erisu said with uncontainable pride, "and a Yamanaka. But more than that, she's herself." Now that the secret was out, she couldn't help defending her sister's ability. "Emi-chan has always been positively brilliant."

Yusha disregarded everything she'd said, his thoughts elsewhere. "It's good to know your jutsu rebounded, karma I'd say." He strode a few more paces towards her and Erisu could feel Kakashi crackling with electric agitation.

"Well," Yusha's eyes glittered and his voice had grown cold. "What did she say?"

"Pardon..?"

"Emi," he said, "in your dream, what'd she say? What was her warning?"

Yuma opened his mouth but Erisu beat him to it. "I'm not telling you one word of her message." His eyes narrowed as he weighed her scrupulously. "You clearly have your own agenda, I can taste your conflicting intentions from here, so I'm not saying anything to you that might endanger Emi and Rūka any further."

"Endanger them?" He echoed and his face started to redden with anger. "They're my siblings too. Do you think I don't care about them at all?"

"I think you have a history of putting your sibling's safety aside when it interferes with mother's desires."

"Oh is that what you think?" The tendons in his neck sharpened as he stepped closer still. "You think I didn't care about you? You think I wanted him to do that to you?"

"You sure seemed content in pretending it didn't happen," she shot back. "You were quick to suck up to him once he was back in the picture. You were so happy to have a father that you let him..." She swallowed her words like bile. "He broke our family."

"What he did was wrong, Erisu!" Yusha was red with fury now. "I'd be the first to admit it! But you shouldn't keep blaming him for a mistake he made! He repented, he's changed! You're the one tearing the family apart by not forgiving him!"

Erisu closed her eyes and took a deep breath to collect herself. Now wasn't the time to be airing their dirty laundry, especially in front of the others.

"Just answer me this," Yusha said, his voice a trembling attempt at calm, "say Rokurou was hanging from a cliff. Would you help him up, kick him down, or leave him there?"

Erisu raised her eyes to her brother's and felt the remainder of her compassion sizzle out. "How high is the cliff?"

"What?" His lips had gone white.

"In order to die on impact someone his size and weight would need to fall from no less than fifteen metres, preferably twenty or more for a higher death percentage. That's at least eight storeys, if you're measuring by buildings."

"It's a metaphor for whether you'd save him given the chance," Yusha said dangerously, "don't apply physics to it! Would you or would you not save his life?"

Erisu held his gaze. "I'd probably leave him," she said with cutting honesty, "although I might push him off, it depends on what he says to me I suppose."

The shock on her brother's face was evident and Erisu could feel it ripple through the bystanders as well. Apparently they'd all thought she'd save him, all except for...

"Of course she'd let him die," Kiyomi spoke up loudly. "Because she's smart enough to know that everyone would be better off without another lying, piece of shit pedophile roaming around unchecked! Her siblings would be safe, her mother would be free, and any other potential victims of his would no longer be at risk."

Yusha faced her with eyes like fire. "You're talking about murder! Killing a good man, a husband and a father! Could you really do that?!"

Kiyomi scoffed. "Are you new? Listen honey, the world would be better off without a scumbag like your stepdad, only an idiot can't see that."

"You don't even know him! He's sorry for what he did, he's trying to get better."

"I'm sorry." Kiyomi raised a hand to stop him talking. "You're telling me that molesting children is okay but eliminating a known pedo isn't? Are we surrounded by some sort of magnetic field cause your moral compass is way off." She leaned in close to his face. "The fucker deserves to die. And if we get to your charming little village to find out he's been fondling your 'baby sister' I'll kill him myself."



Author's Notes


Salutations and happy belated Valentine's Day!

I just wanted to let you know that I recently made a DeviantART account and have posted some drawings for this story (as well as other pieces). Sota, Kakashi, and chibi Erisu have been uploaded so far. Check it out! there'll be more to come!

gallery/ (copy and paste into your browser)

~All my love, Elle