Heart of the Infiltrators
(Senran Kagura x Male Reader)
Chapter 37: Craving Acceptance (Murakumo)
While Oda was letting out a long groan mixed with confusion and exasperation, Katsuragi huffed a breath of hot air out of her nose before loudly asking, "Would one of you two mind telling the rest of us what happened here?"
"Something spectacular…" mumbled the young man with narrowed eyes and a dull look on his face. While still rubbing the side of Murakumo's head, which was comfortably laid atop his lap, he continued in a low voice, "Even by your guys' standards, something spectacular…"
With Sato securely being held onto Oda's shoulder, all of the still transformed shinobi who gave pursuit returned into the alley to find Miki pinning down Takatsukasa. Keeping an armed wrapped around the significantly bigger student's neck and twisting an arm behind his back, the brunette looked up and stammered, "I didn't start it! I swear on my life!"
Trying to take in a breath to push himself back up, Takatsukasa grumbled, "What're you… two going on about now…?" before collapsing back to the ground as Miki's grip tightened.
Letting her jaw drop as her eyes took on a dazed look, as though she'd been struck on the back of the head, Homura slowly pointed a finger down to the interlocked boys and asked, "Would either of you… please… care to explain what happened there?"
"It wasn't my mouth!" cried Miki before he nodded his head over to the young man, "He's the one who was heard!"
"Some friend you are," grumbled the young man, "throwing me under the bus…"
"Who's here…?" called Takatsukasa as he tried to lift himself again, causing the arm around his throat to tighten, "I need help… I'm being attacked…!"
Homura flattened her hand before clapping it against her thigh while giving her other foot a small stomp, "What happened!?"
The young man sighed before stating, "We were talking, the situation with Murakumo came up, I mentioned shinobi and my nearly dying," and then proceeded to wave his hand to Takatsukasa, "then this guy decided to take a stroll down the wrong alleyway… or something. I don't know what brought him here." Giving his shoulders a bit of a shrug, the young man finished, "Either way, he overheard us, started asking questions, and then said he'd call one-one-nine for Murakumo with no intention to listen to us. Miki did something spectacular and… here we are."
"Who's here!?" yelled Takatsukasa as he struggled to move with the smaller boy resting on his back.
Oda recalled the fact that it was the young man's chattering, with the girls' mixed in, that gave him away as an infiltrator in the past. But, pushing off the thought of educating everyone on how to check their environments before speaking, he was about to set down Sato to deal with the restrained civilian. Yet, just as Oda recalled something, Hibari strutted forward and innocently kneeled beside Takatsukasa to murmur, "Sorry… I really don't want to do this at all…" before she promptly walloped him in the side of the head with the intention to render him unconscious.
Much to her surprise, he was still very awake and let out a yell before twisting his head up, "MIKI, YOU DICK!"
The brunette flinched, "Wha-," before crying out, "What'd I do!?"
Angrily rocking his body back and forth, Takatsukasa growled, "You know what you did…!" before resigning himself back to the ground, "dickhead…"
"That's what everyone calls me," remarked the young man under his breath, feeling a strange connection of camaraderie with Miki over the word.
"Hibari," called Oda, which prompted the girl to turn around, "you're still transformed."
"Ah, right," came her remark before she was about to transform down.
"NO!" called nearly every other shinobi before the girl could go through with it, fearing it'd complicate the situation with Takatsukasa.
Hibari jumped from the sudden explosion of noise and looked a bit teary-eyed in response to the rebuke. While Yagyū came over and guided her off to the side, Oda looked to everyone else and mumbled, "Look, you guys handle the situation with Sato and Murakumo. Taking care of witnesses is part of the reason I get paid."
"You're not going to hurt him, are you?" asked Asuka, looking over to Takatsukasa with a mix of alarm and concern.
Oda smirked as he set down the dignitary on his shoulder against the wall, "If I did that for every case of a civilian finding a shinobi, Japan would be missing about a… tenth of its population-, no, that's way too generous…" He eventually resolved his train of thought by stating, "I can get you an accurate number later. Either way, this guy's safe-," but was cut off.
"GOD ALIVE!" cried Takatsukasa as he glanced over to where Sato was set down, "WHERE'D YOU COME FROM!?"
In response, the girl rubbed at some of the blood trickling down the back of her head and pulled up her legs in silence, avoiding the young man's scrutinizing eye. Oda looked down to the boy while Takatsukasa continued to yell obscenities in the background. Once the infiltrator looked up to him, his eyes narrowed and full of judgment, the large shinobi could only say, "I'm sorry for allowing this to happen after what I promised."
"I'd hope so, jackass," whispered the young man in a low voice before he sucked in a breath to cool himself. Once he was calmed down enough to not swear, he continued, "Would you mind telling me where you were when everything went down?"
"Down the street," replied Oda, not at all surprised that the young man was angry, "keeping an eye on Miki."
Clenching his eyes closed for a moment, the young man raised a finger into the air and asked, "I thought you said you'd be watching Sato… or did I, by chance, give you the wrong name?"
"Sayuri told-, sorry. Jasmine told me about how Miki revealed himself. I was…" Oda averted his gaze, "over-paranoid…" before fixing himself back onto the young man, willing to face one of the people he'd wronged, "I thought I could watch for Sato at the same time but I didn't expect her to be so loud about her arrival."
Looking to the spectacled girl, who continued to look away from him, the young man sucked in a breath of air before gesturing to the shinobi lying against his lap, "Then you'd better be ready to apologize to her once she's up." After turning his harsh eyes up to Oda, he stated with no uncertainty, "She's the ultimate victim in this."
"I'll do so."
The young man let out a satisfied grunt, "Good."
Moving over to Takatsukasa, Oda was about to push aside Miki before a different thought occurred to him. He turned back to the young man and asked, "You're sure you can help Murakumo? I've never heard of a case about reversing a dignitary correction."
"Well, I suppose that means you should meet my grandfather sometime," replied the young man as he turned his eyes back down to Murakumo, "because he's always been full of these sorts of tales."
Of course, the young man didn't mention the fact that his grandfather had strongly warned against the particular process of tethering minds together. But, not willing to give details that weren't critical to the immediate crisis, he just rubbed Murakumo's head and resolved himself to silence. During that, Oda let a small huff of defiant air out of his nose, as though he was going to press the matter. But, knowing that there was no alternative, he gave Miki a small push, "Move," and proceeded to transform back into his suit.
Once Miki was off to the side, Takatsukasa proceeded to try and push his large body up before he was caught by the even more massive Oda. Initially, the student's reaction was one of relief as he began to say, "Thank God you came-," before the shinobi's hands covered his mouth and face, bringing out a load of muffled protests.
"I'll figure out how much he knows and will proceed accordingly," stated Oda before he reached his other hand to grab both of the student's legs, in a similar way to grabbing a fish by its tail, and leaped up the walls and fire escapes to the roof to go about his interrogation.
Pushing her mind away from the issue with Takatsukasa, Yumi strutted over to the young man and kneeled in front of him with a face that reflected little emotion. The only things that told the boy just how distraught she was were her two icy blue orbs staring at him without any sign of blinking. After casting one long glance down to Murakumo, Yumi asked him, "You'll be able to do this?" In response, the young man let out an affirmative grunt and nodded. During their brief exchange, Sato began to glance over to the two but shied her eyes away when Yumi whipped her head toward her.
Turning to face the dignitary, the young man spoke in a level but unfriendly voice, "Sato," and waited for some kind of acknowledgement. After a few seconds of silence, he continued, "Have you ever tethered minds together before?" Again, Sato continued to remain silent.
Yumi wouldn't have it at all. She reached her arms over, grabbed the girl by the back of her hair and shoulder, and forcefully twisted her body around. While Sato let out a whimper and tried to bite down the resulting pain, Yumi growled, "Listen and respond…"
"I don't want to be here…" whispered Sato with a crack in her voice.
Giving a harsh and condescending snort, the young man barked, "Neither did any of us but, because of you, we can't leave until she," and gave a gentle pat to Murakumo's head, "is fully corrected."
"I don't… want to be here," groaned Sato again, raising her voice with a bit of defiance.
After checking himself and making sure that his next movement wouldn't adjust Murakumo's relaxed posture, the young man leaned his head to the dignitary and growled in a low voice, "Well, let me lay it out for you then…" before raising up a single finger, "You help me now and then Murakumo gets to judge your fate," and raised a second finger, "or your life is left in the hands of everyone else here, which would probably mean that you're not leaving this fucking alley alive!" Practically yelling by the end of his ultimatum, the young man bellowed, "So make your choice! There's no avoiding it!"
Sato was going to say something, "Please, I didn't-," but was promptly cut off.
"You have until I count to zero to make a choice," stated the young man, "Otherwise, we'll use a different means to help Murakumo and we'll cut you open here and now! No room for negotiation." Sato barely had time to process what he said before the quick countdown began, "Ten, nine, eight…"
"Wait, wait!" cried Sato as she tried to pull away to no avail, earning a look of ire from Yumi and other girls throughout the alley.
"…seven, five, three, one…"
Sputtering over herself as the pressure started to hammer down, Sato started to rapidly shake her head back and forth, "No, no, no-," before declaring, "I'll do it! I'll do my best! Please, just-, I don't want to die! Please!"
"It's greatly appreciated," stated the young man in a cold voice as he turned his head over to Yumi, appreciative of her strong-arming through the encounter. However, while looking at her, the young man also caught the expressions of some of the other girls in the back. While there were those nodding in approval, between the girls of Gessen, Hebijo, and a few renegades, there were also a few who were looking a fair bit more uncomfortable with the way he handled things. Most notably, Asuka, Hibari, and even Yomi were all turning their gazes away. They fully understood the need to be so severe but were still a bit uncomfortable since Sato was so defenseless. Regardless, the young man regretted nothing and refocused his mind onto the matter at hand.
"What do I need to do…?" moaned Sato as she practically hung her body in Yumi's grip.
The young man lifted Murakumo from his lap and leaned her back against the wall. After a moment of going over the process in his head, he stated, "If your… take on a correction is similar to mine… you'll only need to extend your consciousness into her. Leave your mind open for me to latch onto and ride into Murakumo's head." Doing his best to ignore every point where something could go wrong, the young man blinked and growled frustratedly, "From there, fuck off into some depth of her subconscious while I fix what you did."
Sato shuddered a bit but slowly bobbed her head. Once Yumi received a nod from the young man, the dignitary was released and immediately began to crawl toward Murakumo. She paused to turn her head around to silently plead for some kind of advocate from the girls on the other end of the alley. But when she only received harsh looks and averted gazes in return, Sato took a breath and pressed her hands onto Murakumo's forehead. Her eyes closed and all of the dignitary's consciousness began to slip into the girl.
"It's a different way to do it," remarked the young man under his breath before he gestured to Sato, "She doesn't need to connect her forehead to Murakumo's at all…" and sighed under his breath, "Here's hoping that doesn't bite any of us later."
"Are there any risks?" asked Yumi who turned her head toward the young man, her eyes still the only thing reflecting all of the concern that was bouncing around within her. Before the young man could answer, she turned her gaze away and murmured, "I know what you said to Oda but… that wasn't much of a direct answer."
A grunt came from the boy's throat, "Indeed, it wasn't."
"So, what can go wrong?" interjected Asuka, who came down the alley and kneeled beside Yumi. Completely contrasting the ice queen, the brunette's face completely reflected all of her emotions. While her jaw was tense and moved only when she spoke, Asuka's lips were tightened and her nostrils were flared in alarm. Her breath was sporadic with long sighs and short chokes and, most visibly, her eyes were completely wide whenever she looked to Murakumo or the young man. In the face of the boy's silence as he observed her, Asuka asked, "Please, tell us if this is going to hurt either you or Murakumo."
Sucking in a slow breath and going over all of his grandfather's warnings, the young man was tempted to open up then and there. But, as he moved to speak, a small bit of fear and uncertainty came over him. While there wasn't anything life-threatening involved, he and Sato could potentially come out with their heads a bit more cracked due to the force of the process. Even keeping in mind his lack of concern for the dignitary, he didn't want to lose any part of himself because of a botched situation that was beyond his control.
Passing a glance down to Murakumo, whose eyes continue to dribble down tears while her face remained completely blank, he considered the prospect of kowtowing and begging to be released from everything. But then he remembered how she'd saved him twice. If he wanted to be funny, he could also include the time that she had unintentionally allowed him to escape off a train when the shinobi were still after him. Could he dare be so ungrateful for the opportune times she'd stepped in to risk her own neck for him?
"No," replied the young man, swallowing back his fear rather than giving it any acknowledgement. Thinking that voicing his concerns would inflate his silent terror to an unbearable degree, he just shook his head, "Murakumo will be fine. If nothing else, she's as broken now as she'll ever get…" He slowly blinked, "As for myself and Sato," and tried to think of a few words that made the potential consequences sound as light as possible, "well… a little headache never killed anyone."
"What's going to happen?" growled Yumi as she wrenched her hand forward and clutched the young man's forearm, "Be honest and do not try to deceive any of us."
The boy could only just stare at her for a moment, hoping to somehow convey the fact that he couldn't talk about the issue without being overcome by his inner cowardice. Then, unwilling to outright lie, the young man tightened his lips into a long frown before muttering, "I'm going to save your sister… who's saved me twice and a half…"
"What's going to happen!?" came several loud cries. Between Yumi, Asuka, and several girls in the back, their overwhelming concern almost threw the young man onto his back.
Yet, being the stubborn boy that he was, he bared his teeth and barked back, "A headache!" before craning his head away, "If you're so concerned about such a mere thing, get some painkillers while I correct Murakumo!" Huffing for a moment as his eyes turned more intense, the young man finished by crying, "Otherwise, unless someone else here has a professional solution to the matter…" and took a few more breaths in order to bellow, "shut it!"
There were a few pangs of hurt, between some like Ikaruga clenching their eyes closed while others like Minori lowered their heads with a mix of shame. Recoiling a bit from his own blowup, the young man was going to take a moment to observe himself. He would've taken more time to consider whether or not the fear eating away at him inside was keeping him out of the right mind to help. But, after taking another glance to Murakumo, he decided that too much time had passed already. Thus, after taking in a few quiet nods of understanding, the young man craned his head into Sato's and felt his consciousness get twisted from out of his body.
Strangely enough, the process to get into Murakumo's mind was quicker than he would have thought. It helped that Sato had kept her outstretched hand onto the girl's head without the need for assistance. Wondering whether or not any of the girls would remember to keep his head connected to the dignitary, the young man took to feeling around Murakumo's mental state and determined that the girl, indeed, had no trust for Sato and allowed for easy passage through an aligned consciousness and subconsciousness.
After finding a place of comfort within Murakumo's memories, a burning city began to morph all around the young man. At first, he was a bit dazed and wondered if he'd made some kind of mistake. Yet, while sifting through Murakumo's memories, he could only find excited emotions for the place around him. Double-checking and triple-checking as his sanity began to question itself, the young man's newly materialized body just shrugged. In the end, he decided to just roll with it and see what happened since he was running out of time to spare.
He then began the process of trying to repair Murakumo's mind, which was left in a disheartening state. While it was convenient that her memories were still together, the rest of her mind was like a hundred-thousand-piece jigsaw puzzle from Hell. But, having known what he was getting into, the young man immediately set out to work by sewing up the fragments. Fortunately, unlike said puzzles, the mind was essentially the result of blending together personality, memories, teachings, impulses, and several other major and miniscule things. All he really had to do was bring the aspects together and they'd just mix into the largening mass.
It was going smoothly until the young man found the portion of Murakumo's mind that needed correction in the first place. As it turned out, Sato's correction did nothing for the problem at all. Rather than starve the distortion by severing it from the mind entirely, the personality was separated but still maintained a link to the Murakumo's mind so that the corruption could still feed off of it. The reason for Sato's extreme swiftness was, in fact, more because of an amateur mistake than expertise. After closer observation, the young man grimly realized that the element of the affected personality was damaged beyond repair. While it wasn't the worst-case scenario, since a bit of mental growth over time could offer some patchwork, it definitely meant that there could be a change in Murakumo's behavior for the time being.
While offering a prayer of thanks since the distortion was still so underdeveloped, the young man cut away the affected personality and allowed it to be released for a brief moment. Thus, after it was separated, the corruption died away and all that had to be done was have Murakumo accept it back. As the destroyed city around him continued to burn, the young man began to materialize her consciousness.
"…and thus, standing over the remnants of the great foes' army, the lone surviving heroine made a vow to herself…"
The young man could feel all of the gears in his mind come to a stop as he processed what he'd just heard from the deep voice that undeniably belonged to Murakumo. He peered his head around and immediately felt himself go blank in confusion.
Standing atop a pedestal made of rubble with the Japanese flag waving behind her, Murakumo was slowly taking off her mask to gaze upon the burning city while she quietly monologued to herself, "But the job was far from over. Rather, even with the destruction of the Organization's armada, she knew it was all just getting started. Even setting aside her natural enemy found within man, there were beasts of all different sorts that would give anything to take her head…"
"Murakumo," called the young man, who was still unsure on how to react.
"With the failed activation of the great weapon that they regarded to be as an angel's halo, the Organization would continue to pursue its one enemy across the galaxy! For she, who was worth ten thousand elite warriors, would never bend down to them! Never would she offer her blood, which they wanted for reasons unknown… No… Her fight had only just begun…"
"Murakumo!" cried the young man, forgetting about all of his anxieties and fears in favor of the bemusing scene before him.
Finally craning her head back and turning to look down at the young man, coming off like an unbelievably awesome superhero of a different sort, Murakumo reequipped her mask and pointed her blade down to him, "Don't interrupt!" while raising up her spear to enthusiastically clench her fist, "This is the scene where it gets awesome…"
"I shouldn't indulge this…" muttered the young man before he leaned his chin onto a hand, "Yet, I'm so tempted-," only to smack himself in the face to stammer, "No. Different time, different place." After quietly shaming himself a bit more, the young man called up, "Do you realize we're… in your head right now?"
Murakumo tilted her head and lowered her spear for a moment. Then, just as the young man thought shock was coursing through her, she only shrugged her shoulders and mumbled, "That makes sense. This felt a bit more real than usual," and proceeded to wave her fingers for the boy to come closer, "Well, come on. You can take part as the fanservice."
The young man blinked and quietly echoed, "Fanservice? I'm can't-, I'm not-, follow…" before proceeding to lay his face into his hands in confused frustration.
"Get up here already," called Murakumo, "I really want to get to the next part of the chapter where we end on a big cliffhanger before the next volume."
Raising his head and narrowing his eyes on her, the young man let his hands slump down, "Okay, I'm lost. Where are we and what's this talk of chapters, volumes, and cliffhangers?"
"Look around you!" cried Murakumo as she threw her arms into the air, "We're on the planet Eramia, home of the mystically unnamed Organization in the system Kalzicor!" She enthusiastically gestured to herself and danced her body around as she explained, "Just now, I've destroyed their super-secret weapon along with their armada of spaceships! Now, as the Last Eclipse event hangs over the planet's nearing destruction, it is up to me… and you, if you're interested-"
"I'm getting there."
"-to save the planets' alien inhabitants from slavery before the surface begins to crumble, bringing forth demons of a different dimension!" Having finished her synopsis of the surrounding scene, Murakumo just stared at the young man before awkwardly taking off her mask to give him a straightforward expression, "It's my comic. Quit ruining the mood."
"That~," called the young man, "explains a fair bit," before he clapped his hands together, "Well, I'll probably sit this one out but don't let me hold you back-"
"Believe me, I wouldn't let you in the first place."
"-but, before I leave you to your devices, could I just complete the correction?"
Pursing her lips and resting the mask down to her side, Murakumo thought to herself for a moment before giving a shrug, "How to fit this in… how to fit this in…" and then clicked her fingers, "Right!" Donning the mask again and extending a hand to the young man, she boomed, "Come forth and restore me to my truest self!"
"That's a way to put it."
"Though I've taken on our foe thus far and have bested them today, there is no telling what is to come tomorrow! In truth, I do not like the odds of me fighting the coming reinforcements from the neighboring systems. But, if I am restored to maximum power, then we-, no… all of the people on this planet may stand a chance! Come then."
While Murakumo extended a hand forward to pull the young man onto the rubble, the boy mumbled to himself, "I am burning this into memory… Never will I tell this tale but I will remember it…" and reached forward to grasp onto her. Much to his surprise, the shinobi took hold of his forearm and yanked him toward her. With an extremely theatric spin and a yelp, "WAIT…!" the young man landed into her other arm and nervously curled his hands up to stammer, "What're you doing?"
Taking off her mask, Murakumo replied with a cool and showy expression on her face, "Revive my inner spirit again."
"Why're we doing it this way?"
After asking that question, Murakumo's face was immediately filled with irritation, "Shut it," and poked a finger into the young man's nose, "This is a non-satirical action novel for girls and you're the fanservice. No objections to showy behavior allowed."
Unwilling to put up with the antics that he was getting pulled into, the boy immediately just extended his hand into the shinobi's forehead and stated, "Oh, mighty-warrior… protagonist-person lady… whatever your character's name is supposed to be."
"Call me… Murakumo," said the girl with sparkle in her teeth. Before the young man could even make a quiet remark, she interjected by throwing her finger up, "The character's name isn't actually Murakumo, for the record. She's just a self-insert for me so I'll be using her name once it comes to drawing all this."
The young man, not really sure what to say other than, "Right…" continued, "Oh, mighty Murakumo… won't you please accept this part of your inner-self so that you might be whole again…? Why did that actually feel cool to say?"
"You could have been a bit more theatric and emotional," grumbled Murakumo before she shrugged, "but you've got good word choice. I'll happily accept this part of me! For the sake of the planet, I'll gain the power-," and was promptly cut off by the young man thrusting his hand forward to take hers. After a moment of the two sitting there like that, Murakumo eventually made the comment, "I don't know which part of me you're trying to get me to accept, but it's making me uncomfortable. Can I have a different one?"
Pulling his hand back, the young man stated, "Mighty Murakumo, what I wish to-, damn this kind of speech. I'm trying to give you back your impulse to conform."
Murakumo tilted her head, "My what?"
Waving one of his hands around in an attempt to find the right words, the young man eventually explained, "Your… urge to uphold the surrounding social standards?"
Without any hesitation, Murakumo proceeded to spike the young man down the rubble hill. The boy bounced headfirst into the ground and, if he weren't in the girl's cognition, he would have most certainly had most of the bones throughout his body broken. Once he painlessly stood up and gazed at Murakumo in confusion, she threw a flattened hand off into the air and declared, "I'll not accept any weaknesses back into myself…!" before lowering her head and raising a concerned finger, "But, before that, are you okay? I threw you pretty hard just now."
"Nope. I'm quadriplegic," stated the young man matter-of-factly while shifting around on his legs. After a moment, he raised up his hands and began to rapidly fiddle fingers back and forth.
Not taking the sarcasm lightly, Murakumo muttered, "A shame it didn't kill you…" before shaking her head, "Regardless, at least your fine," and then grasped her hand into a fist, "AN-Y-WAYS-!" but was cut off.
"This is the part where I actually correct you, right?" asked the young man.
"No."
The boy blinked, "This is… the part where I try to convince you to let me correct you?"
Thumping a fist against her chest, Murakumo declared, "While I am steadfast in my current desire to remain without weakness," before pointing to the young man, "I am a believer in hearing the words of peaceful negotiation-, Would you quit laughing!?"
Throwing his hands up in protest without any evident humor on his face, the infiltrator protested, "I'm not laughing at all," before crossing his arms, "Though, if I were to laugh at something, it would certainly be your behavior. Could you take this seriously and speak normally?"
With a confused gaze, Murakumo stared blankly for a moment and scratched the side of her head, "Weird… I thought I heard laughing…"
Snorting a lighthearted bit of breath, the young man turned his head away, "I'd say that's crazy but… well, looking at the act that you're putting on…"
Hearing his snide words, Murakumo growled down to him, "Are you picking a fight?" and then gestured to the world around her, "This is my imagination and I will not be mocked for living it-, QUIT LAUGHING!"
Without even a bouncing shoulder, the young man whipped his head back to her, "I'm not laughing!"
"Well," Murakumo spun around a bit in place to check her surrounding, "someone is! And I know you, mister magic-mind-man. You're probably messing with me right now by manipulating my brain to make me think I'm hearing laughter!"
"Hey, as interesting and tempting an idea that is," cried the young man, "I haven't done anything beyond appearing to you here-," before a new thought clicked into him and he whipped his head around, "SATO! SHUP UP! I'M TRYING TO WORK HERE!"
Straightening up in alarm as her ears twitched, Murakumo paused for a moment and asked, "Did you… hear her just now?"
Turning back to her, the young man shook his head, "I honestly can't hear a thing."
"Well… that's troubling" mumbled Murakumo with a shiver. After a moment, she scratched the back of her head and shifted her weight back and forth as silence took over the two. Then, without warning, the shinobi jumped with a small yelp and slashed her sword into open air. After a moment of her breathing heavily, she barked, "Buzz off!" and sliced her sword again.
"What the hell are you doing?" asked the young man.
"It's-," stumbled Murakumo before she tripped over and fell off the mound of rubble. Knowing that she wouldn't feel any pain, the young man casually walked over to her and watched silently as she scrambled to pick herself back up, "Sato, you coward…! You-, mock me as you will, I'll make sure-," before facing the infiltrator, "What is she doing here!?"
Not even seeing a hint that Sato was in the surrounding environment, the young man just turned to the mound that she was supposedly standing upon and stated, "SATO! WHAT'D I SAY OUT THERE!? FUCK OFF!"
"You heard him!" stated Murakumo as she combatively raised her blade. Then, after a few seconds of silence, the girl innocently turned back to the young man to say, "Oh… Apparently, she can't hear you either…"
The boy proceeded to pinch the bridge of his nose as he grumbled, "What're-, you're kidding me-, Oh, by the word of whatever god or goddess that reigns above…" before he raised his head, "Is she talking? Can you ignore her while I talk to you?"
Murakumo began by saying, "I don't know, she's trying to make conversation-," but then suddenly raised a palm up to the rubble, "No, I was talking to-, you're the she I was referring to! What other she could I-, Are there other people in my head too!?"
Holding his head with evident frustration, the young man tried to think of a way to simplify the current matter. He reviewed his objective, that being to get Murakumo to accept back her impulses to conform, and tried to plot out a way to hold her attention. As he did his thinking, the shinobi continued her conversation with Sato.
"Yes, I have a problem with you being here…! Remember what you did on the street? Between the guns-, what…? No, you started to say something… Go ahead, go ahead…" All the while Murakumo's body language would jump from hostile to curious to friendly to hostile on repeat. Where she was leaning her body forward and reaching for her cleaver one moment, she was crossing her arms and nodding along the next. At one point, she jumped and clenched both of her fists, "Don't bring up the scene… No, there's no shame in it. I just don't like the thought of being judged by you…! Oh, apologize as you wish. As far as I'm concerned, the only reason we're stuck here right now is because of you… Yeah, well, sorry doesn't cut it. One day, I'm free to draw and imagine my comics in peace. Now, I have you and a guy with a stick up his ass mocking me for the private imagery within my own head…"
Still in the middle of his train of thought, the young man casually waved his hand to retort, "You're free to do as you please without my mockery so long as you take serious situations, you know, seriously…"
Murakumo turned to him, "I am taking this seriously-…" before she turned her head back around, "No, that was… Yeah, he's just making some snide remarks… Well, he sounds like a jerk because he can be a jerk… No, he's actually pretty cool. Stiff and dry, sure. But he has his moments of being a bit more lively… I mean lively… As in-, yes… No, seriously. He's gone to karaoke, makes small jokes with some decent timing… Well, no… There aren't many examples to choose from thanks to all the stress we've all been under, no thanks to you, by the way… Again, sorry doesn't cut it… Well, feel free to work on that…"
Unable to focus anymore, the young man narrowed his eyes on Murakumo as she set her weapons to the ground and asked, "Are you making friendly with Sato? The same girl who literally blew apart your mind? Are you serious?"
Murakumo waved a hand over to him as she relaxed her shoulders, "You just do your thing for a bit. I'm listening to what Sato has to say for herself," before turning back to where she'd been facing, "Yeah, he's pretty ticked with you… What all else happened out there…? Okay. Now, what kind of trouble did you cause…? Could you be a bit more specific…?" From there, Murakumo just began to nod along as the apparent story of Sato's chase was recounted to her.
The young man, on the other hand, finally managed to plot his argument against the shinobi's objection to the correction. But just as he raised his hand to get Murakumo's attention, he was waved away while she continued to listen to the story, making all kinds of comments that ranged from, "Jeez, they went all in on you," to, "Well, you certainly suck. I'm amazed they didn't kill you," along with a rare, "Impressive." Through it all, the young man sat idly by while he felt more and more amazed by the fact that Murakumo would rather make casual conversation than be corrected. Certainly, he could understand someone not wanting to address something they didn't like, but one's mental health usually took priority. Then again, perhaps because of the lack of her conformity, Murakumo had no real inclination to behave normally when no subconscious brakes were applied. Heck, with that in mind, he didn't really need to question her uncharacteristically hyperactive behavior. Rather, he just focused on the fact that she hadn't been wearing her mask through a great portion of the conversation.
Eventually, once Sato's tale was finished, Murakumo gave a solid nod and said, "You'd make a crappy final villain, let me tell you," with a single clap of her hands. After a moment, the shinobi defensively crossed her arms and stated, "You ran… Final bosses don't do that… Well then those are some pretty crappy games you've been playing then… Want me to describe it? Fine. A final boss is supposed to be the grandest confrontation in the entire work. It comes to a slow start and steadily builds with intensity. It's supposed to be a physical and mental battle between the hero and main or secondary antagonist, though the latter can only be provided when the main antagonist is a weak coward. Either way, the point is that there needs to be a grand confrontation…"
"Murakumo," called the young man with a glower, steadily losing his patience while the girl chatted with Sato like they were actually friends.
"Hold on," called the shinobi without making eye contact, "we're talking about the critical elements of storytelling right now…"
Raising up his hands into the air in a mix of anger and desperation, the young man slowly asked, "Is that seriously more important than fixing up your head…?"
"In this case? Yes."
The boy slumped to the ground in defeat and prepared himself to sit for an eternity in a terribly monotonous Hell. Gazing out to the burning city within Murakumo's imagination, the only thing he could mumble was, "Run, sweet citizens… your savior has abandoned both you and I…"
"You're sure…?" asked the shinobi after a few seconds of silence, still maintaining her conversation with Sato, "To be frank, I don't see myself going through with it… Yeah, really. I haven't felt this good since… Well, I don't rightly know. But, for the first time since my mom and dad have passed, I don't really care about how I come off… It's not really hard to describe. Without that conformation-thing that he mentioned, I don't feel the need to hide my hideous face… Yes, I said hideous…" Murakumo let out a sarcastic snort, "There's no need to be nice since we're still enemies. I'm hideous…"
Raising up his head a bit, the young man turned around to ask, "Wait, I didn't mishear that?"
Murakumo faced him with pursed lips, "What?"
"You said you were hideous?"
"Yes."
"And you were being serious?"
"Yes."
Waving his hand dismissively, the young man snarked, "Jeez… With beauty-standards like yours, are the rest of us repugnant to you?"
Without any bit of deceit, Murakumo shook her head, "Not at all. I know that my sisters were certainly blessed with great looks, especially with the elegance that Yozakura and Yumi carry with their step. Then there's Ikaruga and Yomi, of course, who're two opposites when it comes to what makes them attractive but are still otherworldly. Though, overall, I'd say that everyone's got a great bit of beauty to them."
The young man narrowed his eyes, "Yet, you call yourself ugly?"
"I'm hideous."
"Shut your face," called the young man.
Murakumo briefly turned to her side, where Sato was apparently standing, "Hey, I've already got him on my case. I don't need you doubling down either…" before facing the boy, "I'm only speaking the truth."
Boldly standing himself up straight and strutting to the girl, the young man looked up into Murakumo's eyes and brazenly asked, "Alright, I'll indulge your thought process for a bit. Point out which part of you is ugly."
The shinobi blinked, "My face."
"Which part?"
"All of it."
"Be specific."
Murakumo gave her cheeks a small puff as she narrowed her eyes down onto the young man and grunted something incoherent. Then, after letting out a defiant breath, she pointed above eyes, "My hairline shows too much forehead."
"And what a lovely forehead it is. Point rejected. Next."
Murakumo raised her finger with a bit of a falter, "My… hair is too thick and it isn't a nice shade of brown…" before she recalled the other shinobi brunettes and stammered, "for me, anyways."
The young man raised a hand and hovered it up the girl's head, "If I may?" and awaited permission to pat her.
"You may not," stated Murakumo with narrowed eyes, determined to hold the high ground of the conversation.
"Very well," said the boy without much concern before he added, "While I can't speak for how thick your hair is, both the color and the texture of it are lovely," and gestured to the red ribbon holding Murakumo's mane in a ponytail, "and that complements it… Plus, there's nothing wrong with thick hair. Point rejected. Next."
"Oh~… I know what you're doing," stated Murakumo as she lowered her arms and clenched her fists, "You're just trying to butter me up so that you can turn the conversation into an argument for me to accept the correction. Don't lie."
"I'll be honest," said the young man as he calmly raised his hands in surrender, "my goal is to steer the conversation in that direction," before pointing up a finger, "though, I do still consider the prospect of you being hideous to be completely bull."
"You're lying," said Murakumo with a hint of aggression.
"And you're lying about me lying because you know I'm being truthful," retorted the young man.
Recoiling a bit from the exchange, the shinobi slumped herself over for a moment. After a few seconds, she raised a palm to the unseen Sato, "No, I'm fine… He's just being frustrating…"
"Frustratingly truthful?"
"Shut up, you ass," hissed Murakumo before she proceeded to rub her temples. Regaining her composure, she pointed a finger to the boy, "Listen, we could go over how hideous I am from the nose to the mouth or my cheeks-," but was cut off.
"All of those are lovely, I'll quickly add."
Tired of feeling like her point was being ignored, she pointed to him, "Shut up," and continued, "Regardless of all that, I still feel wonderful without that impulse to conform or whatever you called it. What good will it do me to take it back?"
"You'll be you again," stated the young man as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"Well, what if I told you I didn't like who I was!?" growled Murakumo. She took an aggressive step against the young man as he continued to hold his ground and said, "I want no part of who I was before. All of that hiding behind a mask, all of that fear of saying the wrong thing at the wrong time… it's gone now and it's so liberating! Now, I just don't care about the approval of others. I can say what I want to say when I want to say it!" After wracking her mind for a moment, she gestured to the boy, "Do you think I could say all the things I said earlier, when I was reenacting a scene from my comics? All of those things that would make me look like a middle schooler in real life? Or, better yet, do you think I'd be able to argue against you in the way I am now? Without my mask?" and then to her face, "Have you even seen without it before?"
"No. I haven't seen your face before," replied the young man before adding, "Also, no. I don't think you would have said any of those things that you said earlier and, from what I can guess, you wouldn't be able to argue without your mask."
"Well, if my face is so pretty to you," groaned Murakumo, "then you'll be sad to see it go once I have to accept back my conformity or whatever it is," before a new thought occurred to her and she sneered, "Or am I just too unbearable or annoying with how I am now? I imagine that my hideous face probably isn't worth all of the babbling I'd be doing."
"Certainly, you're a bit forward and even a bit obnoxious the way you are now," said the young man with a nod before stating, "but I wouldn't go changing someone into a certain way just for my own benefit."
"Quit lying!" cried Murakumo as she extended her hand and shoved the boy back a bit, "Do you think I've forgotten why you're here in the first place? Correcting me and everyone else isn't a charity that you're running out of the goodness of your heart. You just want to complete your deal with Hanzō and Jasmine, finish working with us, and then you'll make for the highway!" Before the young man could interject, Murakumo approached him again and shot a finger into his face, "You said it before! You called yourself a selfish piece of shit!"
"I have!" hissed the young man as he jutted his face into the girl's finger, getting poked in the eye in the process of doing so, "I am a selfish piece of shit and I haven't forgotten my goal while I've been here this whole time. It's the whole reason I've been enduring as much as I have in the first place."
While he took a moment to cool down, Murakumo took the opportunity to jab at him, "Then quit acting like some kind of wise and generous saint. You want to guide me to being the entire me that I am, with all of my weaknesses and shortcomings, when I could a live a free life that you, yourself, strive for? Don't be a hypocrite."
The young man snorted and pulled his lips into a tight frown, feeling the full force of the insult that the shinobi dished out to him. But, after forcing himself to suck in a breath and letting out a lengthy exhale, he stared at her with hardened eyes and spoke in a quiet voice, "You're not wrong with some of the things you said… I'm not a saint. In fact, I'm probably some overbearing idiot who's offering life advice to a bunch of people who've experienced just as much hardship as he has… if not more." After taking another breath and averting his gaze to the burning city that Murakumo found comfort in, the young man continued, "Perhaps, I'm even a hypocrite at times. But, when I tell you to accept back what you consider a weakness or shortcoming, I'm not doing so just to get the job done… I'm not doing it because it's the easy way. In fact, with all of this, the easy escape would be to just cut off the correction and celebrate how I totally cured you, saying that your new personality is just some side effect or some other lie."
Murakumo snorted and averted her eyes away, "Just do that then… Let's be done with this."
"No," replied the young man in his low voice.
"Why not?" demanded the shinobi before she waved her arm, "We can walk out of here, me without any of my usual weaknesses and with you being a step closer-," but was sharply interrupted.
"I may not seem like it," growled the young man, "but I have some disciplines in me. One of which deeply conflicts with what you're telling me to do."
"And what would that be?" questioned Murakumo as she fixed her eyes back on him.
"Acceptance and love for one's self," stated the young man. Offering a pat to the left of his chest, he annunciated, "Every strength and weakness… every disadvantage and shortcoming I have as a person… from my tendency to be a dickhead all the way to my recent habit of making stupid choices in the heat of a moment when I had time to plan better! All of it, I love and accept it!"
Murakumo sneered, "And I suppose that, because Narcissus here loves himself so much, the rest of us should follow suit?"
"Perhaps and perhaps not," retorted the young man before he stated, "Sure, I deem myself acceptable but others will disagree. But," and emphasized the last word, "I do know one thing because of my personal impulses for conformation. I'm fit and healthy to be with the rest of society. I won't have a bunch of people point at me while commenting about what a lunatic I am. Therefore, I see nothing wrong with myself." Taking a brief moment to think, he continued, "From there, I can work to overcome my weaknesses with my own strength! I have no need to subvert or try and act like my weaknesses don't exist because I've already acknowledged them and can work around them!" Shaking his head, the young man gestured to Murakumo, "Yet, you'd rather throw away a part of yourself to ignore those weaknesses. Then what? You think you'll be without weaknesses from here on?"
"Why wouldn't I be!?" questioned Murakumo, feeling herself crane back as the infiltrator began to push himself closer, "If there's no weaknesses, there's only strengths!"
"Two words," said the young man as he raised a couple of fingers. "Yin and yang. You'll get rid of the dark now but it'll show up in a different form right after. Then, once that weakness or shortcoming makes itself known, you can have fun trying to work around it. Meanwhile, you can bet that everyone else will be leaving you on your own."
"You're saying that everyone will turn their backs on me?" questioned Murakumo with narrowed eyes, halting her retreat as someone dared to suggest that she would be abandoned, "You think my sisters would leave me just because I've changed a bit?"
"With how tightly knit the lot of you are? No," answered the young man before his frown tightened even more, "but it won't be the same thing you have now." He took another step toward her and growled, "Whether you like it or not, they know you as the Murakumo who liked to hide and talk tough behind a mask. Sure, they may love and accept this new you once you're out, they're your sisters after all… but, with how drastic this change is, it'll be like meeting a new person for them. From there, you can enjoy the coming years of trying reintegrate yourself as their sister… because whenever they recall your name and consider who you are as a person… they'll recall who you were before you decided to take the easy route… before you decided to jump into supposed strength while actively avoiding whatever growth they could witness out of you…"
Murakumo was about to strike the young man but, as though an invisible force grabbed her shoulder, was spun around to where Sato was apparently standing. She swore at first and raised her fist again, "Not now!" Then her head cracked to the side and a red mark appeared on Murakumo's face. She stood there silently for nearly a minute, not feeling any pain as she slowly turned her head back to Sato. Twitching in response to the harsh words they were taking in, her ears understood all of the words that the young man couldn't hear. He was going to interject to try and grab Murakumo's attention before he noticed that she was beginning to tear up. Instead, the young man opted to stay back. On the other hand, the shinobi's face only continued to tighten up. She sucked in her lips and pulled them into a defiant frown as she tried to muster words of rebuttal. But Sato kept talking, whether to shame Murakumo for setting aside a part of herself or to share her own experiences from one dysfunctional loner to another. At the end of it all, the shinobi reluctantly turned to the young man and murmured, "Do it then… Go ahead and… do-, just do it…"
Letting out a heavy breath mixed between sympathy and relief, the young man did not tarry. He approached Murakumo again and extended his hand forward, to which she reciprocated by hesitantly extending forth her own. From there, he pushed the impulses of conformity back into her and made her whole again. At the very moment that they came apart, Murakumo whipped her mask onto her face and looked down to the ground. Feeling a bit of guilt wash over him at the sight of her lowered head, the young man asked, "You're alright?"
"I don't want to be here anymore," came Murakumo's gruff voice.
He began to ask, "Do you want to talk-," but was cut off.
"Just get us out of here."
Though he saw the anger coming once the two began to argue, the young man was still a bit hurt by the aggressive attitude that Murakumo was taking. But he knew that it was her right and, so long as she was whole again, he wouldn't argue against it. Thus, he nodded his head with a hint of determined finality, "Alright."
Just as he was about to release himself and Murakumo from her cognition, the girl suddenly ordered, "You aren't to tell anyone what happened in here… Not without me present," as her voice began to distance itself without warning, "Under-, understand… what's happening?" Suddenly, the world all around them burned white and everything broke away.
The young man couldn't respond at all. His mind was getting sucked back into his body as the connection between all of their minds gave out. While Murakumo remained behind, he and Sato were thrown back into their respective bodies. The young man couldn't hear the dignitary but he believed that he could feel a confused and terrified presence alongside him. Not long after, it was gone as the two passed through Sato's mind. Quickly after that, he was thrust back into his body.
Even as alarmed voices around him inquired after him… even as the gentle hands which kept him pressed up against Sato's forehead were caressing him with assurance… even as he could make every voice out as clear as day… the young man could only register the agony of a headache to surpass any worldly migraine. Even worse, he remembered from his grandfather's warnings that his was only suffering the beginning. Clenching his hands up to the side of his head, the young man started a groan which turned into a strained yell.
A mind at peace and a heart's yearning beginning to bud…
With the correction of conformational impulses, you have saved a young woman from a life in which she'd be lost in the pleasures of her own self-indulgent madness, who would act without care or regard for those whom she still loved…
Ah…
Despite this, she looks to you and sees the young man who has cursed her again with a weakness which she desperately wished to set aside. From this, contempt is born. And from this contempt, the flames of hate will burn until circumstance extinguishes them…
You've done your ultimate… It is only that the world yearns for your end that this should be your reward… Really and truly, life is too cruel…
