CHAPTER 3
THE JOURNAL (Misao's POV)
Asakura Kazuki.
Five months after my first meet with her.
The foreboding about her in my heart almost vanished. Maybe it was just my unreasonable feeling. She was friendly. In a short time, she could adapt with the daily life and people in Aoiya. And the most important was she always accomplished her every works and missions very well. She seemed to understand Aoshi-sama, what was in his mind, and she could adjust to his wants. Truly speaking, even though it was for works, it made me envy her.
But I would try my best to be her friend, for she had tried first.
Still, she seemed mysterious for me. She told less anything about her background and her life in Shanghai. Maybe I needed a little more time.
AOIYA, present
"Kazuki-san," called Misao as she knocked the door of Kazuki's room.
No answer.
"Kazuki-san, may I come in?" she asked and knocked the door again.
Still no answer.
Misao slid opened the door of Kazuki's room after she knocked it three times and there was still no answer.
"Excuse me, I..."
Misao did not continue her words as the smell of incense from Kazuki's room filled her nostrils. She saw Kazuki dressed in white, standing in front of a small table. She never wore a white dress before, but she looked elegant and sensual in that colour.
"Kazuki-san," Misao called her softly.
Kazuki turned around.
"Oh, it's you, Misao-san."
"Excuse me."
"It's OK. I'm through."
Misao observed the stuffs on that table. A wooden plate with three Chinese characters sculpted on it was put on the centre of that table. A burnt joss stick and some other ornaments were around that name plate. It should be an ancestral altar.
"Is that for someone?" asked Misao, referring to the ancestral altar.
"Yes, for my mother. She died when I was seven years old."
"Sou ka," Misao mumbled.
For mother....
Misao sighed. Kazuki was luckier than her. She did not even remember her mother's face.
"Sorry for interrupting, girls," suddenly a deep male voice interrupted. Aoshi had been standing on the threshold of Kazuki's room.
"What's up, Aoshi-san?" asked Kazuki.
"A job for you," Aoshi gave some papers to her.
Kazuki read those papers for a while.
"What should I do to him?" she asked.
"Get him. Don't kill him if it's not necessary, he may have some information we need," he explained.
"OK, I get it."
"Good," said Aoshi. "By the way, Kazuki, what's up with you? I never saw you dress in white before."
"So, why then?" Kazuki smiled. "I think white is a sensual colour."
Aoshi gazed at her for a while.
"At least it's true for you, as I notice that," he said.
"Stop teasing me, OK?"
Aoshi gave a meaningful light smile as a reply to her before he went away.
A smile?
Misao was startled in disbelief. This time that sight was real. It happened right in front of her eyes. How could it be? She tried to make him smile for years, but still could not work. And now? What the hell had actually happened between them that she never knew?
"Misao-san, is there something wrong?" asked Kazuki.
"No. Nothing," Misao took a deep breath, trying to act normally.
She decided to become a friend for Kazuki, so she tried to get rid of all unproved negative possibilities from her thought.
"OK then, I must go before night come," said Kazuki.
"Be careful." It was all that Misao could say.
"Aoshi-sama, is it OK to let Kazuki-san go and handle this case alone?" asked Misao after Kazuki went quite a long time. "It seems dangerous. She never takes time this much before."
"Sure it's OK." replied Aoshi calmly. "I know who Asakura Kazuki is very well. And you'd better trust her too."
"I'll look for her," said Misao as she went away.
"Misao, don't!" he yelled, but Misao had gone already.
He had no choice but came after her.
When Misao reached the place, she found that all guards of that place had been beaten. So, she could enter that place easily. She stepped carefully in order not to make any sound. She found Kazuki in the garden with her opponent had fallen to the ground. Kazuki pointed a sword to him, so he could not make any movement. She stopped and watched from a distance. Kazuki was speaking to him, but it was too far to hear their conversation.
"Yu...Yue Ling?" that man stuttered as the moon light her face so he could see her more clearly.
"Right," said Kazuki. "Five years ago you successfully avoided me, but not now. You still must pay the cost of betrayal, even it takes a hundred years. You can't run away forever, because the angel of death has now come to take you to the hell."
"You're a heartless angel!" he yelled at her.
She stabbed him right at his throat, so he could not even scream anymore. The blood burst out from his stabbed throat as she pulled back her rapier.
Aoshi came a second after that. He could only watch Kazuki clean the blood from the rapier as the man fell down lifeless on the ground.
Misao just watched that scene in surprised. A heartless angel, she heard that man yelled those words at Kazuki.
She wondered in her heart, who was this girl actually. It was not Asakura Kazuki she knew all this time.
"Mission failed. I'm waiting for penalty," said Kazuki as she noticed that Aoshi had been already there.
"You go back to Aoiya first," said Aoshi. "And take Misao with you."
"Fine."
Along the way back to Aoiya, Kazuki did not speak even for a word. Misao stared at her, not knowing what to say either.
"Kazuki-san," at last Misao broke the silence.
"Yes?" replied Kazuki.
"Are you OK?"
"I hope so."
That was all of their conversation until they reached Aoiya. Kazuki went immediately to her room.
"Misao-chan, what's happened?" asked Okon as she saw Kazuki pass her by without saying anything.
"I don't know what the matter is. She looks strange," answered Misao.
Aoshi returned not long after that. But just like Kazuki, he passed by without any words. Misao watched him with anxiety.
"It's OK, Misao-chan," Okon touched her shoulder. "Let they have their time. We can ask them tomorrow after everything turns better."
Misao nodded in agreement.
Kazuki sat on the terrace, playing her flute faintly. When so many things annoyed her, playing flute always could relieve them even a little. She could not play it loud, it had been night late and everyone in Aoiya must have gone to sleep.
She stopped playing as she sensed someone walked closer to her. She did not need to turn around and look at that person to know who it is.
"Aoshi-san," she said. "What's up?"
Aoshi sat back to back with her.
"Why did you kill that man?" asked him.
"Need a reason?" she asked back.
"I just want to know. Even you're a slayer, but you never kill just anyone and without any clear reason, right?"
She sighed and leant against Aoshi's back.
"The reason I killed that man," answered Kazuki. "It's connected to my mission five years ago."
"What?" His voice became a bit higher.
"Yes. I was assigned to kill twelve people," Kazuki started her explanation. "But I had just killed eleven ones when I was called back to Shanghai. Maybe if I was given time a week more, I would have killed him at that time. But I didn't have more time to finish it. So I went back to Shanghai with an unfinished mission. Then, when I read the papers you gave me, I saw his name as my opponent. So, I used this chance to kill him and pay the debt I left five years ago."
"Why did you do that? Don't you tell me that you want to quit being a slayer?"
"Yes, but I won't quit being a slayer without accomplishing all my missions. I will never forget that once I was an angel of death. And I won't regret it either."
"Why?"
"Yue Ling is the figure of a heartless angel of death. I'm Yue Ling, nothing can change that fact even I'm not a slayer anymore." said Kazuki, a bit irritated. "Nothing's to be regret."
"Yue Ling. I miss that name," he said.
"Huh?"
Aoshi moved to her side, so he could face her. He placed his fingers under her chin and lifted her face so he could see her eyes.
"Nothing's to be regret..." he whispered, repeating her words.
Not giving enough time to speak or think, he planted a light kiss on her lips.
"...me either."
"Aoshi-san, please don't..."
Interrupting her protest, once again he kissed her lips, but now with a more lustful long breath-taking kiss. Her mind commanded her to stop this, but her heart could not resist him. Lost in her confused thought, she let her feeling take control and kissed him back. Then he moved his lips down, kissing and nipping her neck as he unfastened the buttons of her Chinese dress, revealing her smooth champagne skin. He brushed his lips through her bare cleavage and her half-covered breasts. At last she surrendered to the passion and let him savour her body. It was too intoxicating to be refused.
Misao walked out from her room. She heard the faint sound of flute, it meant that Kazuki had not slept yet. Maybe she could talk to her and ask what actually had happened. Misao slowed her steps as she noticed that Kazuki was not alone there.
Aoshi-sama?
She stepped closer carefully without making a sound. She peeped to see the situation. Her body suddenly freeze and shudder as she saw Kazuki was half-naked in his embrace. She widened her eyes in disbelief, trying to deny what she was seeing.
They were touching and kissing in a passionate love-making.
She did not want to continue watching at them as her heart suddenly fell to pieces, but her feet felt too weak to walk away.
Misao strengthened herself, turned around, and ran to her room. The tears could not be held anymore. She locked herself in her room and cried.
Why?
It was the only word that filled her mind.
Why it should be the explanation of her curiousity about Asakura Kazuki?
So, his smile and his warm expression were definitely for her, for Kazuki.