One of the bigger things to take away from higher education is the fact that midterms are nothing short of agonizing, but I digress, this story is hardly about me. This next prompt from the original requester is a little on the short side, but it was still on the list so I figured we'd spice it up and cover it. Please note it hinges on a headcanon (I've a feeling you'll support it though). In addition, I'll make note of some of the remaining prompts by the end.
Thanks for reading, and please review, your thoughts go a long way.
Word Count: 2496 words.
.04 - Shigure and Styles
"Hey, big brother! Why do you wear shoes when me, mama, and papa don't?"
"They're required of a Sky Knight."
"Why are you a Sky Knight?"
"I feel it offers one a closer connection to nature. I take solace in that. The breeze in the air can be nice."
"How come you can't turn into a dragon like me and papa?"
"I can, I simply choose not to."
"Woah! Really!? Are you a cool dragon?!"
"Hm. I couldn't tell you. I've only tried it once.
"What's the bestest piece of art you've ever, ever seen?"
"Taste is subjective. I believe that beauty is in the eye of the beholder."
"What does that mean?"
"It means that taste is subjective."
"What does sub... subject.. what-you-said mean?"
"Relevance to the subject in question."
"Who's the prettiest girl in the camp?"
They had been walking together for a while. Shigure was returning from a trip to the lottery house on the rather ill-advised suggestion of their father (the results of which were less than fortunate). Kana on the other hand had been skittering around aimlessly like an imp, imagining herself as an all-mighty half-human half-dragon princess leading a valiant army, a vanquisher of malevolent evils both visible and not. She was swatting her practice sword at thin air, interlocked in a grandiose battle of fictitious proportions with a Faceless ogre when she caught sight of him.
In an instant, she had put all thoughts of her make-believe aside and scrambled to catch up to him, clumsily tripping twice on the way there (a new record by her account).
A cold shiver was sent up Shigure's spine as he construed the full meaning of what he was just asked. He came to a complete stop, eyes wide open, rear clenched, practically speechless. Stupefied, his thoughts were led astray and drifted to a particular young woman who fit the description, only to be flushed out by a clean shake of the head and a clear regaining of conscious.
"Oof!"
Unaware that he stopped pacing, Kana bumped right into him and brought herself to the ground (record broken). "Hey! Big brother! You made Kana fall!"
Shigure turned to her, face slightly heated. "You've been asking a lot of questions lately," he mentioned. "Not that I mind, but Kana.. What is your aim, exactly?"
To say that was an understatement (though as a man of rationale, Shigure knew better than to exaggerate), the girl had been quizzing him on everything from his favorite animal to the basics of singing to what he ate for breakfast that morning—despite the fact that they ate together—all for the better half of their stroll. Kana fired them point blank, one after the other, never missing a single opportunity to ask him for his likes, dislikes, beliefs and motivations, why he did this—why he didn't do that—and made sure to follow each of his responses with further merciless questions about them.
It was odd pastime for his muse, he thought, but nevertheless Shigure reacted to each of her inquiries as truthfully as he could, entertaining them while keeping a steady pace. That is, until their rising levels of intimacy brought need to question her ambitions (prior experience would say she was quite sneaky in that regard).
Still on the ground, Kana beamed at him with a cheeky smile, hands clutching at her curled toes. "Heehee! No reason, I just wanna know more about my big brother!"
"So you say.." Shigure mumbled, sensing a double motive in her gestures (had she not been so endearing, he likely would have stopped the charade). "I can't imagine what would pique your curiosity," he admitted, rubbing the back of his neck. Kana caught the modest motion and found herself focusing on his head. "I may be your sibling, but I'm afraid there isn't much to me that you'll find intrigui—"
"Your hair!"
"E-Eh—Huh!?"
She shouted so suddenly that it almost didn't register with him at first. When it did, he moved to gently brush his fingertips against his seemingly endless cyan bangs, the ones responsible for masking half of his face. "My.. My hair?"
Coincidentally, that actually was a matter of interest.
"Yup! Big brother's hair! Heehee!" Kana cheered with a giggle. "I was looking at big brother's face, thinking that I had asked everything I could think of, and then I remembered your hair! So tell me! Tell Kana why you wear your hair like that! I have to know!"
It was a simple question at heart, one with dozens of disposable responses he could have given her. 'I just prefer the style', 'No reason in particular', 'I never thought to change it', 'It's my favorite hairdo' (that one wasn't too far from the truth). None of them however could truly convey how he felt. What was merely a matter of preference to other children was the root of an ordeal to him, one that clung to the back of his mind, never to be forgotten.
For a moment he debated what to say to her, deliberating his options while fiddling his locks. Few people knew the story, and he wasn't certain if he wanted Kana to be one of them.
In the end, honesty prevailed, and he recounted the events of that era.
Shigure approached her, getting on one knee and dropping his tone. Kana's smile faded slightly as she looked to him, she recognized that expression. "It wasn't always like this, actually.." he began.
"Really?" she asked, leaning in with wide eyes.
"Really. Do you recall the Deeprealms?"
"Uh-huh! I didn't like it though, those servants were so boring.."
"Oh?" Shigure cocked a brow, that was news to him (though granted, she never did like the thought of being too far away from father). "I'm sorry to hear that. My caretakers were a little more admirable in that respect. They were the ones responsible for this hairstyle."
"How come? What was big brother's hair like before?"
A distinct, yet fond set of memories came to mind from that inquiry. For a second, Shigure saw a reflection of his younger self within Kana, and with it, a humble wave of nostalgia. "Would you believe me if I told you it was short?"
"Hmm.." at his unspoken request, Kana craned her head and tried picturing him with a more trimmed appearance, but her attempts at visualizing ended up looking more ridiculous than realistic. Fortunately, none of them came close to the actual style.
"It's kinda hard to imagine.."
A small grin snuck up on him. "I can see why you would think that. I've had it this way for so long and never once considered altering it, it's hard to believe it was once different. But it was. And to tell you the truth, I once preferred it that way."
"Wha?!" Kana gasped. "No way!"
"Yes way," he mimicked. "Short, cut, neat and tidy, I loved the feeling of it. Sadly, it wasn't one to last.." Shigure closed his eyes as he began to reminisce. "I was told one day that it had become a distraction. That the style of my hair was involuntarily attracting unwanted attention. I was still young at the time, around your age, so for my own safety, I was instructed to let it grow."
"And that's how it.."
"Became like this, yes," he nodded. "Frankly, I didn't like it very much. I still had a longing for short hair and my bangs were always in the way, at times I couldn't even see where I was going, I.. er.. walked into more things than I care to remember."
Shigure made an effort to ignore his sister's giggling.
"I objected to it at first, but my caretakers told me they loved it, that it suited me and that it would only be for a while. I was rather stubborn, but over time, I became convinced and adjusted to the look. I even grew to favor it, but I would never forget its origin."
"Wow! So that's how big brother became a cyclops!"
"Kana."
"Aah! S-Sorry!"
With that rebuke, he continued. "As I grew older and learned to defend myself, I was no longer required to keep my hair this way. Though I still loved the look, it had lost its main purpose, and I was also becoming sentimental to the idea of having short hair again. Thus, we decided to trim it so I could relive a feeling or two from my youth."
"Huh?" Kana cocked a brow. She found a fault in his words, something that didn't add up, something that couldn't be ignored. "But big brother, I don't get it.. If they were going to cut your hair, why is it still long..?"
Shigure kept silent, grave and stoic.
"B-Big...brother?"
That was the one question that couldn't evoke a response from him. Kana was left to connect the dots for herself, and when she did, he only confirmed her fears.
"That was the day mother and father came for me, the day I joined their cause."
"The day my Deeprealm was attacked."
Silence followed for a brief moment as the impact settled in. Shigure remained calm, having made peace with his loss some time ago. Kana however was on the verge of tears. Despite being in an army, she was still young, and the concept of death and loneliness genuinely frightened her. She couldn't bear the idea of losing anyone she knew, and just hearing about it happening to someone else—especially someone so close to her—left her with an unrivaled sorrow.
With misty eyes, she barreled into him and cried as loud as she could. "B-Big brother! I'm sorry! Again! I-I made you think a-about—about th-that—t-that... Waaah! I-I didn't mean to! I just wanted to ask a-about your—Waaah! I-I didn't know! I asked t-too much! I-I'm sorry, really! This is my fault! Pl-Please—Please forgive me!"
Shigure, far from prepared for a mood shift, nearly toppled over from her stampede. "A-Aah! K-Kana! Th-This—this is a bit much!" he exclaimed, flinching from her fists pounding on his chest. "Pl-Please, it isn't your fault. Honest!"
It was no secret that Kana was something of a crybaby at heart, and though her fits were so common that they could almost be considered ritual, it still moved Shigure to see her driven to tears. He disliked seeing her in such a disheartening state.
"R-Really..?" Kana sniffled with relief, the last of her tears dampening his long-wet clothes. "I-It.. It's not my fault?"
"Of course not," he reassured her as she shuffled off him. "It happened before you were even recruited. There was no way you could have possibly known beforehand. You were simply curious, and as siblings, I felt you had a right to know."
"Bu-But.. big brother's not sad..?" she whimpered.
"Don't let this face deceive you," he solemnly said. "I may have.. come to terms with what happened that day, but even so.. I'm always thinking about them. In fact, I believe this hairdo envelops those feelings, in a way. A living memento of my caretakers—the style they gave me, the style they loved, and the style I've stuck with since then."
Kana nodded, regaining a little bit of her smile. For the sake of her composure, he continued. "I'm rather glad we had this talk, actually. And I feel grateful to know that you care this much about the circumstances of my past, and well, myself in general."
Then, he cleared his throat and lowered his voice.
"It.. means a lot to me."
"Hey.. big brother?"
"Yes?"
"... Your face looks really silly right now."
"Kana."
"Aah! I'm just kidding!"
"You know, there's another reason for this hairstyle."
They were back to walking when Shigure chose to break the ice. "Really? I-Is it another sad one?"
"Not at all. It's actually more of a coincidence, really. See, mother has long hair just as I do. Ergo, this way we match. I admit it's a small thing to note, but it's the little things that help me feel closer to her. I'm certain you're more than accustomed with the same feeling."
"Yup!" Kana agreed with a chirpy beam, up until her mind had actually processed his subtlety. "Hey! What's that supposed to mean?!"
Shigure spoke no words. Instead, he took a hold of her ridiculous hair bun, and in one swift motion, removed the sole ribbon keeping the wildly unstable ensemble together. "H-Hey! W-Wait, no, don't!"
Kana squirmed and wriggled but to no avail. The moment the ribbon slipped away, her bun came apart in a burst of voluminous hair that obscured her face and pooled around her on the ground, hair styled similarly to their mother's—on a bad hair day.
"Waaah! Bully!" she yelped. "You did that on purpose! Now Kana can't see!"
"Hehe, I suppose I'm guilty." Shigure chuckled. "The opportunity looked ripe for it, my apologies." he got down to her level and did his best to at least clear her face for her.
"I must confess that I'm no Forrest when it comes to coiffuring. I'm likely not even at mother's level, but let's see if I can fix this."
"Big brother?" Kana called, her bun more loose and erratic than ever before. "There's still something I don't get.."
"Mm? And what could this be?" Shigure asked, his eyes kept forward so he wouldn't have to cringe at his handiwork.
"Well.. um..." Kana fidgeted with her hands, unsure if she was intruding on some kind of border. "Um... those nice servants... You said.. um.. You said they thought big brother's short hair was a distraction..?"
"Yes, indeed I did. I grew it out as a way to circumvent that. What of it?"
"Well.. ah... How come?"
Shigure shook his head. "I was never given an official reason, but now that I look back upon it, I think the cause is quite plain to see. That invisible infantry.. You might say they were interested in me long before they ever attacked. Do you know why?"
Kana pondered heavily about it, but could think of no logical answer. "No, not really.."
"They were riding on a hunch. A notion that I held a special link to someone very dear to us, and they aimed to exploit it. In hindsight, their conjectures were true, more so than anyone could have known."
"But.. But how did they guess that?"
Shigure bent over, eye to eye with his sibling. "Kana. If you could, please—pull away my bangs for a moment and tell me. What do you see?"
And so she did. Lock by lock, Kana gathered handfuls of Shigure's bangs and swept them aside, slowly uncovering a rarely-seen side to her brother's face. By the time she was done, there was but one thing for her to look at.
A beautiful, piercing red eye staring right back at her.
Part of Sophie's supports with Shigure contributes to the lore of this week's installment (plus some outside-of-the-box thinking to tie it all together with a neat bow on top), I'll leave you to read those on your own time.
Some upcoming ventures to note of will revolve around third parties such as local underage herb dealer Midori and Shigure's grandpa-stuck-in-a-boy's-body best friend, Hisame. And Kana will also try her disastrous hand at painting somewhere in-between.
