Chapter 61:- Jealousy
Disclaimer:- all the characters form the game belong to moonton and this is not a commercial story but just the work of a diehard fan.
Claimer:- the other characters which are not in game of mentioned are mine
The situation was really awkward right now as both the parties looked at each other with uncertainty.
"We should probably head back to the inn before any further discussion." suggested Hanabi. They all agreed to her.
The walk back to the inn had been silent and tense and once they were there, Hanabi asked Saya to patch up Hayabusa's wounds which the Sai'ore did, abet reluctantly. (She is still mad that he tried to hurt Hanabi)
The tension was thick between the two groups, especially Saya who was looking at them with distrustful eyes. Clearing her throat, Hanabi introduces them, "Okay, Saya-chan, meets my friends back from Iga. Hayabusa and Kagura…" The petite girl gave a small waved with a smile and Hayabusa who was covered in bandages gave a bow. "Guys, this is…" Hanabi was going to introduce her new teacher but Kagura chirps happily, "I know who she is. She is the Savior of Mossenia, Saya Mahira. I never imagined that would actually meet you!" she says happily but her cheer died down when she saw that Saya had been looking at them with a cold daze that instantly made her shut up as a deep sense of fear took hold of her.
The way she look, Saya didn't not seemed happy, this was evident even more so when she spoke stoically, "I didn't knew that the way of greeting friends in Iga was to stalk and attack them?" even if she sounded calm, the anger underneath Saya's words was felt by both Hanabuysa and Kagura, who gulped nervously. They had really pissed off the Sai'ore and it would be wise for them to made amends fast unless they faced her wrath.
"You see, Saya-dono…" speaks Hayabusa carefully, pulling Saya's focus entirely upon the masked shinobi. The Shadow Ninja took a breath and answered, "It was actually a test; a test to see whether Hanabi was ready for the task ahead or not."
His answer created visible confusion among both Saya and Hanabi. The Sai'ore did however was not thrilled by this and wanted to scold the reckless brat for nearly hurting Hanabi and himself, but before any of that can happen, Hanabi quickly asked, "What test? What are you talking about?"
Now it was Kagura's turn to answer, "Well, frankly, what Haya-kun wants to say is…. That we need your help."
Hanabi's eyes widened in total surprise, "Help? Why would you need my help?"
At this, Hayabusa gave a worried glance towards Saya and turned towards Hanabi. He then speaks to her in Japanese, "It's about the Akuma Ninja." This felt like a brick hitting her head as Hanabi remembers the very reason why she had came to the Land of Dawn in the first place.
'How could I forget that!' she had been so busy with her lessons from Saya and the events that followed that she had totally forgotten about him.
The way how Hayabusa spoke to Hanabi in Japanese didn't go unnoticed by Saya. He must've done it to make sure that sensitive info would not be heard by outsiders but it did really feel insulting to the Ancient Sai'ore. But upon seeing Hanabi react so drastically, she couldn't help but ask, "What happen? What did he say?"
The Kunoichi quickly turned towards her and nearly screamed, "How could I have forgotten about the Akuma Ninja!"
Honestly, even Saya had forgotten about that encounter that happened so long ago. Thus she nodded in realization and concludes, "Ah, your original mission."
Finding out that Saya knew about their supposedly secret mission, both Hayabusa and Kagura yelled at Hanabi, "YOU TOLD HER?"
Sweating preposterously, Hanabi says sheepishly, "Well, she is officially my Sensei and you know; no secrets from Sensei. hehehe…."
A bit confused, Kagura tilts her head. But Hayabusa understood it and turned towards Saya in shock, "So you were the one who taught her? No wonder I did not recognised the move she used earlier." He says in awe.
With her chest swelling with pride, Saya says proudly, "Yes. Hanabi has been under my wing for fairly less amount of time, yet she has learned what others would have taken years to achieve."
The Kunoichi beamed happily at Saya's praise but when Hayabusa added, "Indeed. You have grown stronger than ever, Hanabi-san. Congratulations!" Hanabi felt her cheeks turn red as a tomato and her stomach started doing flip-flops. Rarely would the Shadow Ninja compliment her like such and to hear him outright praise her like that made her feel this strange sensation in her belly like it had always did back home.
"B-Baka snot nose shadow…" she mumbles, making both Hayabus and Kagura to laugh merrily, "You have not changed much it seems, Hanabi-san." Hearing his kind words, Hanabi couldn't help but smile as well.
Oblivious to them all, Saya had been watching and she saw didn't settle right with her. She could feel a knot within her, especially seeing the look within Hanabi's eyes.
'No, it cannot be….. Hanabi would not….' Fearing her own answer, Saya quickly changes the topic, "So, what's this about the Akuma Ninja."
The atmosphere of the room changed drastically at the mention of that name. The shadow shinobi took a deep breath and spoke, "As you already know, Hanzo was once a part of our clan, until he betrayed our order and is now on a run. I was sent by the elders to track him down and defeat him."
Saya frowned at this, "If that was the case, why didn't you travel along side Hanabi?"
Both Hayabusa and Kagura laughed at this while Hanabi looked very embarrassed. So to clear Saya's confusion, the shadow shinobi explains, "Actually, we were the ones sent after Hanzo. Hanabi kinda just ran off without telling anyone that she would go after Hanzo. Even we didn't know until her parents sent us a letter."
Kagura giggled at this while Hanabi blushed madly in embarrassment. Saya looked at her with a look that said, 'We will talk later.'
It took a while for them to recover before they could carry on with their story. Hayabusa clears his throat, "As I was saying, we were sent after Hanzo and it took us quite while to track him."
Kagura puffed her cheeks and says grumpily, "The people were very unhelpful and uncooperative. They didn't talk because we were outsiders."
Hayabusa continues, "That's reason why it took us a lot of time, but we finally found him. We thought we could take him, but we were wrong…." Saya had a vague idea where this was going to because the same happened to Hanabi. Kagura shudders and says in a haunted voice, "He was too strong and fast. It was like he was everywhere."
Hayabusa nods, "He had grown more powerful. I have even heard that he basically went on a rampage and killed countless people just to get stronger. He has gone mad."
"He was always yelling, 'I will get you!' or 'You will pay for humiliating me!'. He seemed absolutely nuts. I wonder who pissed him off so much."
At this, Hanabi looked upon Saya and says with a deadpan expression, "I think he is holding a grudge."
"It would seem so." Replied Saya nonchalantly.
The two looked at them in confusion and asked for an explanation. Their confusion turned quickly into shock and disbelief when Hanabi proudly declared, "We had tracked him long ago. And Saya kicked the shit outta him."
"What? No way!" exclaims Kagura with a very very shocked face.
"Well, it was mostly because Hanabi here ran off without me to apprehend The Akuna ninja and I had to save her hide." Corrects Saya.
"Hey, I said I was sorry!"
But Hayabusa posed a rather serious question, "Why didn't you him down when you could have? Several lives could have been saved!"
Saya stood silent at this, knowing what the young man was trying to say. Yet without hesitation, she answers, "It was not my place to slay him. That right belongs to you three and I will not deny Hanabi her destiny." Her words touched Hanabi.
They stayed in silence for a while before Hanabi asks, "So, what do we do now?"
Hayabusa answers, "We must go after the Akuna ninja and end his tyranny!" he says with determination.
"Yeah, and with Hanabi-san and Saya-dono at outside, we can surely win this!" Adds Kagura cheerfully.
The Sai'ore looks upon her human to see what she thought. Hanabi looked towards Saya with a hopeful look, making to crystal clear of what she wanted. Releasing a sigh, Saya declares, "Fine, we move out tomorrow."
Hanabi instantly hugged Saya while saying 'Thank you' over and over.
-X-
Hammers fell upon the tempered metal as the old black smith worked upon what may have been his greatest creation yet. His recent patron had been eager and generous and he himself had been willing to seek the thrill of making a new master piece. Today was the day that he completed the blade that he was tasked to make and he was really excited to show it to his customer. He sent out a messenger to inform her and soon after, Saya arrived back at his humble shop, eyes gleaming with anticipation to see her end product.
"Welp, here it is…" The Black smith says holding a sheathed curved sword, "The curve was quite difficult to make, especially for a blade that thick and the compound cross guard was the trickiest, but here it is." He hands over the sword to Saya.
Inspecting it with judging eyes, Saya removed the scabbard and exposed the blade.
"Akambane…."the ancient Sai'ore mutters as she gazed upon the beautiful blade. The weight and balance was just right, the metal was well tempered and the edge was sharp as hell. It was indeed a very fine blade.
"I hope you like it, Missy, because I freaking stayed up all night for that thing." declares the blacksmith proudly.
Saya smiled and thanked him, "It is a very well made blade. You have my deepest gratitude, Mr. Howden."
"Just doing what I get paid for, Missy. It was nice doing business with you."
With the new weapon in her hand, Saya moved out of the shop. She wrapped the sword with a cloth, then thinks, how should she present the sword to Hanabi.
"'Here is a gift for you, meha Jai. Now you are a warrior!'…No, too dramatic. 'Take this and get ready for your new training!'…Nope, that too direct. Maybe I should hide the sword within her bag as a surprise? ... But that's too cheesy…" the Empress brainstorms to think of a perfect way to give the gift to Hanabi as she returned back to the inn.
They were supposed to leave the town today and initiate their hunt for the Akuma Ninja and had only stayed a while on Saya's request because she needed to pick up Hanabi's gift.
However, her will extinguished when she saw the sight before her. There, before her very eyes, Hanabi was having a very animated conversation with her old friends. Saya could not understand what they were talking about because they were talking in Japanese but whatever they were talking about, Hanabi seemed to be very happy.
Catching up with old friends was not unheard of and Saya really didn't mind that. In fact, seeing her human so happy made her happy. But what didn't settle right with her was the few stolen glances that Hanabi would take of Hayabusa whenever he wasn't looking and honestly, Saya really did not wanted to believe that she recognised that look that Hanabi's eyes held.
'It's nothing. It's nothing really.'
They must've spotted her, that's why Hayabusa turned towards her and greeted, "Saya-dono, I hope that you have finished all your businesses?"
"W-well, yes actually. It's just… I thought you all were quite busy with your conversation." She shuttered involuntarily, something that didn't go unnoticed by Hanabi.
"Oh, it's nothing really, me and Hanabi were just catching up after a long time. The adventures that she speaks of is extraordinary, I salute your bravery." The ninja girl flushed at this and rubbed her head in embarrassment, while Saya internally rolled her eyes, 'A smooth talker.'
"Hey, Saya-chan. What is that?" asked Hanabi seeing the cloth wrapped article that Saya held. The older woman contemplated whether she should give it to her right now or not. She had no idea why, but this didn't feel like the right time to give it to her.
"It's nothing. We should move on."
Hanabi frowned at this, smelling Saya's distress a mile away, but didn't say anything for now. They just carried on with their journey to hunt the Akuma ninja.
All day, Saya saw the signs. Those star-eyed-gazes, those hearty laughs and those few accidental touched that would leave either of them equally frustrated. Saya wanted to ignore it. She really wanted to believe that there was nothing outta ordinary, but the more she saw, the more testaments she got and it was twisting her heart.
The whole day they travelled till they reach their destination. A small ruin where, according to Hayabusa was where the Akuma ninja dwells. They set up a camp for the night and decided to continue their search tomorrow.
As usual, it was Saya who cooked food and now, we find them having dinner near the bonfire.
Hanabi was yet again reciting one of their stories; this one was about how she had infiltrated the tournament as Sir. Thonius and how she won. Hayabusa listened with rapt attention, looking upon Hanabi with awe and admiration and it was making her mouth sour.
"I never had such adventures till now, you really are fortunate, Hanabi-san."
"Hehe, I guess I am." Both smile warmly at each other…. While Saya watched with an aching heart.
"You know, they have been always like this…" whispers Kagura to her, oblivious of Saya's distress. Frowning at the little short girl's words, she enquired further, "What do you mean?"
Making sure that Hanabi and Hayabusa were not listening to her, Kagura grinned and says giddily, "They both were rivals since they were kids. But they also have had crush on each other ever since…Kyaah, it's so cute!" the girl nearly screamed outta excitement. "I mean, they both like each other but are extremely dense, Hanabi-san is too shy and tries to hide it with her tsundere act and Hayabusa-kun is just too dumb, I wish they would just stop and kiss already….", and so the white haired girl kept one babbling, not even realizing that she had just destroyed Saya's mind.
Her heart seemed to have been broken into so many pieces. Seeing Hanabi, her human, her love, looking upon someone else with eyes filled with love. Saya couldn't do this. She needed to get outta here.
"E-excuse me…." She chocks out and stands up. Without a word, Saya walks away towards the forest, leaving behind the rest of the three very confused.
"What was that about?" Kagura mutters, however Hanabi frowns. She had noticed that Saya had been kinda distressed lately but with her being occupied with her friends. She was kinda too busy to check up on her. But that didn't mean Hanabi would not go after her teacher, thus she stood up and followed after Saya.
"Saya-chan, wait up!"
Saya's strides were long and hurried and Hanabi had to sprint after her teacher just to catch up with her, "Saya-chan this isn't funny!" says Hanabi catching her by her hand and turned Saya to face her. What even scolding Hanabi had to say to Saya died down when she say tears falling down the gorgeous Sai'ore's eyes, making the ninja girl panic.
"Saya, what's wrong? What happened?"
However, all Saya could say was some incoherent mutterings in Sai'oren tongue that Hanabi could hardly understand.
"Saya, please let me help you. What's wrong?" pleads Hanabi holding Saya's hand. This made Saya weep even more. It was then she uttered something that Hanabi could understand, "How could you do this to me?"
No amount of words could express how shocked Hanabi was right now.
Was this because of her?
Was she the reason why there were tears flowing down Saya's eyes?
Hanabi didn't know. She doesn't even know how she was at fault. Saya kept saying that and it was eating her out. The human holds Saya's hand firmly, she asks, "Please tell me, Saya-chan. What is wrong? Tell me how to fix this?"
"You could have told me. I would have withdrawn. You could have just told me." Says Saya with a broken voice, further stabbing Hanabi with guilt. She cups Saya's face and asks, "Then please tell me. Tell me, what I did wrong? How can I fix this, please..."
The Sai'ore looks upon her human, her deep blue eyes filled with worry. She feels her soft hands upon her cheeks; they felt so warm and inviting. Then Saya remembers the truth. And the truth was….Her human was never hers.
It tore her heart into so many mays. Saya could not face it, she was not strong enough to face it. Suddenly she let go of Hanabi's hands and bolted away into the forest, leaving Hanabi alone, confused and broken. "Saya-chan!" she screams.
But alas, the pain of betrayal left Saya's senses dull. She kept repeating, "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."…..
