Scene VII

Solar Year 195

Tokyo Empire, Asakusa

The Shobu Family Residence, Streetside

Third District of the Residential Wards, Second Block

Kaede sighed inwardly at the old memory. The two had come a long way since then, even if the current round of arguing didn't exactly reflect it. Nonetheless, she knew the fight was only a distraction; a way to put off the inevitable. The fact was they had spent the last seven years developing a unique and close friendship where they were always available to one another. Of course they weren't attached to the hip and certainly didn't need to spend copious amounts of time with each other to be happy. Yet, they were there. When the need arose, one of them would go to the other and offer a shoulder or an ear (and, on some occasions, a rare fist). It was the idea of them which offered a safety net; like a tanto you never had to use, but was always by ones side. Now, with Tsubaki leaving Asakusa for the Imperial Army, their bond was being put under a new strain. Kaede could only hope the two of them would not break under the weight of her sister's choice.

She reached out and tapped Konro's arm, drawing his attention. "Let's check on my father. Give them space, yeah?"

"Yeah," he agreed solemnly with a nod. "alright."

After all, there wasn't much either of them could do. Not anymore. Benimaru and Tsubaki were at the ages were they no longer needed Konro and Keade's constant intervention or interference. They weren't the children they once were and thus, had steadily grown up learning to deal with life in their own ways. As well as each other. All Keade and Konro could do was silently support them both from afar, no matter the outcome.

"They'll be fine," she heard him say, voice gentle. When she didn't reply, then, as if to further reassure her, Konro wrapped a long arm around her shoulders. "They might not patch things over right away but-" he hesitated and Keade wondered if maybe he was as unsure of the situation as she was. "Give it time. They'll figure it out."

She nodded absently, emotions weighting somewhere between hopefulness and grim reality. "Let's go."

At the very least, her father was a situation she had experience with; mending broken pride and setting bruises to right with a bit of ice was something she could fix. Preventing a long term friendship from possibly shattering into a thousand pieces, however? Not so much. Especially one built by two of the most prickly, stubborn, but absolutely most precious people she knew. So much blood, sweat, and tears had been poured over and over into their bond that one might be forgiven to think anything could break it. Like anything else in life, all it took was the right amount of pressure in the wrong place and everything fell apart.

No, this was not a fight Kaede could win for them; even though she most certainly wanted to.

In the end, whether they weathered this storm or not, it rested solely on the shoulders of Shinmon Benimaru and Shobu Tusbaki.

Tsubaki was glad her stuff hadn't burned to ashes after all.

Beni had managed a decent enough job at keeping the bag from being caught in the crossfire, though it was covered in dust and soot as a result. She was brushing crap off the thing (and chewing him out for it in the process) when she noticed how the whole argument was devolving into a stupid excuse to not talk about the real issue. As much as she really didn't want to have to admit it, she knew there wasn't any point to it. Ignoring it would only make everything worse. Plus, Beni wasn't stupid; the guy could smell bullshit from a kilometer away.

Tsubaki sighed to herself, apprehension worrying away at her insides, but pushed through and asked the question she knew was needed to set things right. "Take a walk with me?"

He paused mid-rant, mouth slanting downward in one of his typical, strange, half-frowns. Typically, it was an expression which gave him the appearance of being annoyed (though, in this case, it was probably genuine) when he really meant a different emotion altogether. He huffed, raking long fingers through his mop of hair and ruffling the strands almost comically. If the tension wasn't so thick, she would have laughed at how ridiculous he looked with his hair pulled back. Well, maybe not so ridiculous; it certainly wasn't a style he should make as a permanent change, though. The local girls probably wouldn't leave him alone if he did. Not that he paid an ounce of attention to what anyone thought of him (let alone women).

" . . . Alright," Beni relented grudgingly, obviously fighting the urge to argue with her. "But ya can carry that."

He jabbed a thumb at her military bag with an expression of intense distain, clearly wanting as little to do with it as possible.

"fair 'nough," Tsubaki merely offered a shrug of non-concomitance and slung the thing over her shoulder. "Kaminarimon far enough for ya?"

"Fine." But his face said otherwise, or what she could make out anyway; he was doing that thing he did when he didn't want people looking at him too closely. He was turned away from her at an odd angle so that his curtain of shaggy hair hid whatever expression he was currently wearing and all that was visible to make out was his mouth and jawline. Which, as it happened, was drawn into a tight scowl and his jaw was clenched to the point Tsubaki could see the muscle twitch.

It obviously wasn't fine.

"Right, then." She said slowly, trying hard to leave it be.

After all, she was supposed to be making an effort to ease the whole 'going away' thing. She couldn't do that if she kept picking fights with him over stupid shit like his hair or attitude. Not that she could blame him for either one of those anyway (well, okay, maybe the attitude he could change but that was beside the point). Instead, she took a good, long look at her house and tried to commit every board and tile to memory; it would be a while before she saw it again. She did, however, make a point to not glance over at her father still kneeling in the street. Kaede and Konro were already by his side, probably going over the damage and seeing if he needed a doctor. A secret part of her hoped he did while the other fought over the idea she might actually have injured him seriously enough for that to be the case. She wasn't sure which part she preferred.

"We goin' or are ya sight seein'?" Beni asked gruffly from behind, startling her.

Tsubaki turned, uneasy as he gazed at her with burning crimson irises and mismatched pupils which delivered a very displeased expression.

Stop wasting my time. They seemed to say and she felt a wave of guilt for drawing out the moment longer than it needed to be.

"Sorry," she offered contritely and she meant far more than just holding him up and dragging things out.

It was for everything really.

For not telling him weeks before hand when she had all the time in the world about how bad things had gotten between her and her father. For not being honest in the first place that the relationship had soured (mostly on her end, as her announcement caused her father such an expression of shock like none she had ever seen before). For hiding her plans entirely from him because she was frightened of his reaction. Well, she sure stepped in it this time because it couldn't have been worse than this. This sudden cold, callous, and restrained version barely held a candle to his normal personality. She wished he would go back to cursing her out and shouting insults because that was better than this. Fearing her mouth would run away with her before she had all her thoughts together properly, Tsubaki heaved her bag higher on her shoulder and began walking.

"It's not forever, Beni." She admitted carefully, wary about her phrasing. "Three years there and I'll be back again. S'not like I want a career out of it or anything."

Even to her own ears it sounded fake; she was piss poor at reassurance, that was a given. He scoffed, and, by the sound of it, wasn't buying the bridge she was trying to sell him. Yeah, she should have known he wouldn't.

"That's yer excuse?" Beni asked accusingly, anger permeating every word. There was resentment and bitterness loaded in his tone and Tsubaki felt an another wave of immense guilt hit her in the heart. "You were jus' gonna go off and leave without tellin' me jack shit?"

Tsubaki shook her head, "No, I was gonna go tell you myself. Then, you showed up for tea."

"So after ya had it out with yer old man and started a fight?" He spat coldly, eyes narrowing; his self-control was clearly teetering on the bladed edge of a tanto. "Some sayonara, huh?"

Yeah, it would be an understatement to say Beni was beyond pissed with her.

Don't get defensive. Don't get defensive. Tsubaki repeated to herself, trying to not let her temper take over. He was angry because she lied. By omission, sure. But, it was still a lie.

"Alright, yeah." She confessed nervously, running a hand through the ends of her hair. "Not the best way to start off the whole 'going away for a bit' thing."

"A bit?" Beni growled, lips thinning dangerously. He stopped walking, thrusting his arms into his sleeves in the effort to hide his clenching hands. He shook his head, hair flying chaotically about his face. "Three years in the goddamn Imperial Army is jus' a bit ta ya?!"

Tsubaki paused too and turned so she could face him head on. Damn it, was he going to pick apart every word she said?

"This looks bad, I know." She gritted her teeth, rubbing at her temple with the heel of her hand. "It is bad. I should have told you before and I didn't. I was a coward, okay?"

This, of all things, seemed to have a calming effect on him. His body deflated, shoulders sagging, and his long bangs fell back into his face per it's usual behavior. He looked away, staring off down the road back the way they had come. The hikeshi were tiny figures in the background, still sweeping up glass and clearing other debris left over from the fight. Neither one of them said a word for some time, choosing to let any lingering anger fade away. Finally, unable to stand the silence for much longer (or Beni's lack of acknowledgment), Tsubaki tried once more.

"Every time I thought about telling you, I got scarred stiff." She began softly, carefully. Pride be damned, she had to make this right.

Beni glanced at her out of the corner of one eye, the red and white target simply watching her blankly while half hidden behind a curtain of black hair. He said nothing and it was his way of letting her have her say.

"I was scarred you'd think I was a coward." Here she laughed humorlessly at the irony of that statement. "Like I couldn't face up to my old man. That I was just running away."

Even though her hands were shaking and her nerves were on edge, she met that one eye with everything she was worth.

"I didn't want you to think less of me because of the fact I couldn't cut it. That I hated how much he pushed me to be family head. That I didn't want to be," here she waved a hand, searching for the proper words. "whatever it was he wanted me to be. Dammit, I just want to be me and I can't do it here."

She trailed off, unable to finish; like it mattered anyway.

By doing what she did, by choosing to keep her whole situation under wraps and refusing to let her friend in on the goings on, she had hurt him. She hadn't trusted him when she should have. The one friend she had known since she was a stupid thirteen-year-old who liked to pretend, once, that she was above it all. She had hated him with a passion for a long time until the day he came out and knocked the living crap out of three boys who couldn't beat her in a spar and wanted petty revenge. The boy who she had been forced to get along with despite wanting nothing do with him had, over time, become the friend she relied on the most in her life.

She was latched to the Shobu name by the sheer fact she was a Third Generation pyrokinetic; because her father wanted nothing more than to uphold some stupid family tradition which had existed for seven generations. She was raised to be the next head of the family, the next master of the Shobu Style, the one who was meant to carry the entire weight of the family's expectations and hopes on her shoulders. The one who everyone wanted to rise up and be this version of someone Tsubaki never wanted to be in the first place.

How could Kaede prove her own worth if Tsubaki was constantly there, casting a shadow (however unintentionally) over her?

How could she be worthy of Beni's friendship if all she did was run to him and hide when her father began spouting off that "head of the family" crap?

All she wanted was her own chance to make something of herself. Whether she succeeded or failed, it didn't matter. It would be because of her own choices for once.

Benimaru knew it.

He knew something had been bothering her for months now. Even though she never said the reason why outright, all the signs seemed to point to the fact her father was putting more and more pressure on her. Yet, he never said a word because he didn't want to get involved. Not if she didn't want him to. He respected her space and the fact she was so persistently stubborn in fighting her own battles he learned, the hard way, to let her handle things unless she asked. So, he had waited and waited and waited until he began to wonder if maybe he was wrong. What if her father wasn't the issue which had been bothering her? Maybe something else had happened and she just couldn't say anything (like Konro had suggested).

Yet, the voice in the back of his mind had been right all along and Tsu had simply left him in the dark to fumble around for the wick while trying to light the damn lantern. He was angry with her for that. Angry at the fact she hadn't trusted him, angry that everything had fallen to pieces, and angry she waited until the very last moment to tell him she was leaving for the damn Imperial Army of all things.

Everyone in his life seemed to be goddamned set on leaving.

Deal with it. Benimaru told himself. Because that was life; people lived and died; they were born and they were killed. Nothing ever lasted. So, deal with it, dammit.

How many times had he told himself? When had he forgotten that one, simple fact? His parents had been proof of that; his Master, even further evidence, and now Tsu, of all people, decided she wanted to up and leave and . . .

Stop it. He berated himself. Just stop it.

He was losing her too.

The one who he had run races with down to the river as kids, the one who snuck him into of the guardhouse when he had gotten into a fight, the one who patched him up and covered for him when he screwed up again, and the one who never pushed him for more than he was willing to give. The one who had sat next to him in silence when things had gone to crap with his old man and he hadn't been in the mood to talk about it. Tsu had nearly been through it all with him since the hikeshi adopted him and the old man made him his heir. A new burning hatred for Shobu Kintarou weld up from deep inside Benimaru; a dark hatred he didn't know he could come close to cultivating. Her father had pushed her past the breaking point and so now she could no longer stay in Asakusa and be happy. Tsu was now so completely and utterly broken by the Shobu name, she felt leaving would be the answer to finding her own identity.

Benimaru wanted nothing more than to break Shobu Kintarou's jaw for all the good it would do him in the end.

"Beni?"

Truth be told, deep down, he had hoped if she won her fight then she would find contentment in it. That, perhaps, it would change her mind after the fact. A stupid, stupid hope. One he had no business wishing for. He thought he could cope with the idea of her leaving but, all this mess proved was that he couldn't.

And it scared the living shit out of him.

"Beni?"

Pathetic.

How goddamn pathetic was he that he couldn't even say goodbye to her properly, without insults? Without snide comments and harsh accusations? Of course she hid it from him. Of course she felt trapped. What could he have actually done in the first place? Beat the crap out of her father? Like everything else he attempted to do, he only seemed to tear stuff down. There was nothing about this in his control. Nothing he could do to prevent her from going, however much he wanted her to stay.

"Benimaru!"

Small hands suddenly seized him by the collar, roughly shaking him once, then twice. He blinked; Tsu was peering up at him, bright green eyes filled with deep concern and her upper lip was working away at the bottom in an old childhood habit of worry.

Wonderful. He thought bitterly to himself. Of all things, he was the least she needed to worry about right now. So much for outwardly proving he could handle this, not that he was doing that great of a job anyway.

He reached up and took her wrists in his hands, trying to pry them off him. "I'm fi-"

"I swear, if you say you're 'fine', I'll slug you." Tsu's tone broke no argument. If she said she'd hit you, it was a promise. Not a threat. Then, her expression softened and her hands loosened their iron-clad hold on him; loosened, but not released. "Stupid, you're not okay. I'm not okay. None of this is fucking okay, okay?!"

"Okay," he agreed quietly, fighting the urge to grin (just a bit anyway) despite the heaviness of the moment.

"Shut up." She hiccupped and suddenly he realized she was on the verge of tears.

Shobu Tsubaki. Crying.

Not good. Really not good.

She never cried. Well, not never; more like, rarely. Even when she'd been jumped by three older boys when she was fourteen because she'd beaten them in a spar the day before, she hadn't cried. Tsu got angry. She got pissed. She knuckled down and threw hands sooner than she would sit down and cry. That didn't mean she never did but, it certainly meant you would never see it. She didn't like giving others an opening to exploit her emotionally. That was shit she guarded like her life was on the line. In all seven years of knowing her, he could count on one hand the number of times he'd seen her cry and all of them happened in only the last two years. Because Shobu Tsubaki did not easily trust others with her tears.

Not even him.

"Sorry," he whispered gently to the air between them. He let go of one wrist so he could rest his hand on her shoulder, giving it a small, if somewhat awkward, pat.

This must have been the right answer because she let her forehead drop to his chest and didn't say a word to counter his actions. Which was good because he had nearly no idea how to go about the whole 'comfort-a-crying-Tsubaki' scenario. All he knew were the things not to do. Like a full on hug; that would really get him killed. Or telling her pointless platitudes like 'it'll be fine' or 'don't worry'. She didn't like feeling 'caged in' and she really didn't like being coddled or smoothed talked when she was upset. He was never in this situation often enough to really know the best plan except to let her make the decisions and to give her space and time. So, he waited.

"Damn, that was stupid of me, huh?" She finally asked after several moments, pulling away and wiping her face with the tail of her shirt. "Tears and everything, geez."

She was clearly trying to play it off; as if her crying wasn't some massive event which begged the need of intervention. Nonetheless, he understood. It was something else Tsu couldn't stand; people gawking and making a fuss over her when she was vulnerable.

"Yer not stupid," he countered quickly, making sure to keep his voice calm and even. It was easier this time. Maybe because Tsu was really upset by all this and had been trying not to get worked up, probably for his own sake. "Yer just-"

"Emotionally drained and mentally exhausted?" Tsu finished with a slight air of returning humor. That was a good sign. "'Cause I can guarantee ya that one."

Benimaru didn't really have anything to say to that. Well, nothing which wouldn't earn him a slap. Maybe.

"I still should have told you everything," she continued seriously, refusing to meet his eyes. Her eyes probably weren't dry yet. "Leaving you in the dark like that? It was a shitty move."

"Yeah," he agreed firmly. It stung like hell and he still had no idea how to go about processing the whole thing. "ya bet yer ass it was. I'm not . . . I'm not okay with it."

"After all that, you've got a right ta pound the shit outta me."

He blinked, slowly, not quite sure he heard her right. "What?"

Tsu' bright, green eyes fixed themselves in a firm stare of resolve, completely devoid of all humor. "I said, you've got a right ta beat the shit outta me for it."

Oh good, so his ears were still working even after all that crap from the fight. At least he wasn't going deaf.

"The hell?" He asked, completed taken aback by her train of thought. Was she serious? "I ain't beating anything outta ya."

"But I really screwed this up-!"

"Ya apologized," he countered sharply, a new kind of fear tugging at him. What in the hell had gotten into her brain for this to be the best solution to the problem? "It's fine."

"No, it isn't!" She retorted angrily, throwing a hand out to stop him from trying to move around her. "C'mon, we fought all the time as kids. Hell, you still get into fights sometimes! What's wrong with giving me a good right hook and calling it even?"

The problem was he sure as hell didn't want to hit her. Her father sure, he was the source of all this bullshit. Tsu, on the other hand . . . well, it's not like she couldn't take a hit. She could and she would dish it right back, on a normal day at least. But, this wasn't a fight were the two were equally pissed at one another and decided fists were the solution. This was Tsu letting him have a shot in and not doing anything to counter it willingly. It felt . . . underhanded. Cowardly. A level he really wasn't keen on sinking to in his personal opinion. He may have taken her up on it when they were kids, but now . . .

"No." He stated firmly, unrelenting, and he reached out, taking hold of her arm so he could move it from blocking his way. "Now, drop it."

"Beni-"

"I said, knock it off!" He spun back around to face her, hands balled into fists, and his fear bleeding into sudden anger. He didn't understand where this was coming from. Sure, he was pissed at her for keeping all this shit from him and then unloading it at the last minute, but did she think he was still a kid who felt the need to take it out on people? Hadn't she been the one to teach him to be better about his damn fights to begin with? So why? Why was she asking for this?

This time she did stop, hand outstretched towards him, and her expression falling into one of disappointment. Actual disappointment.

She really did want him to slug her.

"Why?" He growled, the word barely making it passed clenched teeth. If this was so goddamn important to her then he needed more than a 'I-really-messed-up' on this one.

"Because we're friends." Tsu replied in earnest, her face schooled into one of her classic 'I'm-not-messing-around' expressions. "Last I checked, we were still equals. Even if I can't beat you in firepower anymore. Even if I'm weaker than you physically. You never treated me any different than the other boys growing up. I mouthed off and you let me have it. Why is it different now?"

It was different because he had been a stupid brat. Hell, he was still a stupid brat. Even now he messed up and made mistakes. Tsu was always there picking up his mess (or Konro, or Kaede), treating his bleeding knuckles and wrapping his thick skull when he got way in over his head. She came up with excuses and lies and covers so he could walk it off for a few days before facing the truth . . . and having her dragged in because of it. Sure, when they were kids they didn't know what the hell they were doing. They'd argue over petty shit and fight. They developed their own code and if you broke it, you got canned. That's how it worked. It didn't matter she had been a twig of a girl and he, a stunted brat.

It's how they kept the peace between them up until . . .

. . . until Tsubaki got jumped. Until the day he nearly got her hurt. Really hurt. Until he realized she was his friend. His one, true friend who spat in her attacker's face when he demanded she tell him where Benimaru was; when she refused to give him up and told the bastard to take a long walk off a short cliff, and when the response to that particular insult had been to pick up a rock and strike her in the head.

The average person couldn't really tell because it was easy enough to miss. On the right side of Tsu's face, near the hairline of her temple, was an old childhood scar. It was always hidden by a lock of her bangs, so you couldn't even see it all that well. But, he could. He knew it was there and the damage it could have done would have been catastrophic if it had hit her at a different angle. Tsu had been lucky to get away with what she got. She could have been blinded. She could have been worse. A strike to the temple could kill a grown man; what it could do to a thin, twig of a fourteen-year-old girl . . .

Benimaru shuddered as a terrible chill ran down his spine; there were very few times in his life were real fear gripped him by the heart. Genuine, horrible, uncontrollable terror. But the day Shobu Tsubaki was nearly blinded because of a childhood fight he provoked, certainly made it a lesson he would keep close to his heart for the rest of his life.