notes:
a snippet of a modern setting & fantasy au fic i'll never finish
"I hold your red thread," Manami murmured, and Karma doesn't see anything until she's spoken it into literal existence; there, tangled around her fingers, rested a luminous red string, one end wrapped around his little finger and the other end twisting, stretching, going beyond who-knows-where. She conjured a scissor next, and to his shock, severed the sloping string with a sharp, decisive snip.
"Hey," he blurted, "are you allowed to do that?"
"Do what?"
"Cut my red string. Isn't that… predetermined or something? Destiny? Soulmates… you know? Isn't that your line of… work?"
"Destiny exists to guide, not control," she eventually answered, voice gentle. "Ultimately, you are responsible for what your stars have written." She paused to look down at his string, at him, through him — and Karma… for the lack of better words Karma is suddenly overwhelmed, the feeling of it simply indescribable; as if she'd sifted through his very existence, leaving him breathless and reeling. Like she'd pulled him out of his skin and he hadn't been put back in quite right. Her expression softened. "You look very far ahead, Karma-kun."
"Oh? You can see my future too?" Karma breathed. "Is it Prime Minister Akabane?"
"If you wish it."
"Well that's not telling me much… but you still haven't answered my first question." Karma cleared his throat as he shook off the lingering discomfort from the harrowing sensation of his soul being prodded, careful though she'd been. "I just really hope you didn't curse me for finding out about your secret, Okuda-san."