Hi everyone! Here is the second chapter and from Riku's POV.
Riku kept his head bowed as Zero lectured him again.
"Why can't you just kill her?!" Zero fumed with a low snarl. Her emerald eyes flashing with hatred and disgust as she sat in the chair in the small hut she had procured for them as their base.
Riku remembered when she hated him because he was a doll. She had regularly slapped him in his earlier years too. Now, by some cruel twist of fate, she was his benefactor. A benefactor that he was slowly questioning.
Only Kirinmaru, his former master, could prevent her from killing him. He stood there emotionless with his cheeks cut from sharp nails and bruises all over his face and chest caused by Zero. Kirinmaru would simply escort him out of the room and bring him to his chambers.
Riku would sit on his master's hardwood floor with his master across from him cleaning each wound meticulously.
Kindness.
Kirinmaru had been kind to him even though he remained quite solemn and quiet while caring for him. Those green emerald eyes staring at him with a mix of emotions that Riku did not understand. He had been so void of emotions back then. But he did know one thing, he enjoyed sitting with his master and creator in those moments.
He was only with Zero because, as he was slowly realizing presently and after close to two centuries, she had manipulated him enough to rely on her. She had been patient in perfecting him as her minion.
How the tables have turned, he often told himself alone in thought about their current situation. Zero had forsaken her brother that fateful day. Now, she only had Riku.
"Kill the mutts! That's all I want!" Zero shouted as she opened a fan and waved it at herself. They were presently experiencing a heatwave in their location.
Riku's mind drifted and he remembered fireflies dancing and a soft confession from a young woman who did not know what love was but that she felt something for him.
"I like you," those three words stuck with him.
Towa, his treasured princess, had treated his wounds with kindness once.
He bitterly thought about the bridge he burned with her as they belonged on opposite sides. She had looked so hurt when she realized who he was associated with, the demoness who ruined her family's lives.
He thought about their time on the moonless night. Her hair was brown like Setsuna's and must've been like their mother's. Her eyes had lost their magenta hue and he thought she looked cute with those soft expressive brown eyes.
It would have been easy to kill her then and taken her silver pearl. Yet, he had tea with her and protected her until the sun rose and his white haired princess returned.
It was a night he would not forget, even the beating he took for her.
He would simply do it again. He would like another date with her Towa.
Would she offer him an apple as bitterly as she did at their last meeting?
"After this I don't want to see you again, doll," she had told him coldly, her magenta eyes hardened with hurt and anger.
"What are you still doing here? It's the moonless night! Go. Kill. That. Mutt!" Zero hissed at him and Riku lifted his head up to meet his lady's gaze.
Internally he was glad for the opportunity to try and speak to Towa again, but another part dreaded that meeting too.
Did she mean those words?
Would her sister and/or cousin allow him near enough to speak to her?
Or did Kirinmaru kill them all after he vanished from the battle?
"Yes, Zero-sama. I will go and try," he told her with a smile and turned from her before taking off in a run. He hoped he didn't seem too eager but he simply wanted another chance to have a proper date with Towa.
He would tell her about how Kirinmaru was kind to him like she was until he was casted away.
Left behind after inciting his master's fury for not preventing Touga's death, his master's oldest friend and the only one capable of fighting him equally.
"You failed me. You will not return to the ship. I cast you out, Riku," those were his master's last words and the reason why he had to kill Kirinmaru.
He loved his master and his master betrayed him, leaving him alone for Zero to prey on his loneliness.
He ran down a mountain's slope, he used the trees as he gained momentum. He lept over fallen trees or shrubs. Twigs snapped under the heel of his foot as he ran them over. Beyond the woods on the mountain, he could smell a river close to the base of the mountain. Any river would do. He would use his powers to see Towa again.
He wouldn't be cast away. Not again.
"Princess, my princess, we are going to have another date!" He shouted out to no one but himself. He grinned as he saw the river ahead as he emerged from the woods at the base of the mountain. He panted softly as he slowed down and stopped on the river's bank. "Another chance, just give me another chance to give you a proper date," he panted out of breath for a moment. He wiped his brow with his sleeve and smiled.
He decided he would surprise her by finding some strawberries in a field he knew that was hidden but close to her village. He could probably find her some flowers too.
And if he was barred from seeing her on the moonless night then he would leave them for her to find.
He flicked the earring and set off on his journey to win himself another date. A date where he spoiled her.
He would tell Zero that he failed miserably again. Any beatings he received would be worth it because he would see his princess again.
I hope you enjoyed the chapter, more tomorrow!