The Sacred Night, Chapter 11
"That's amazing!" Misao shouted. "How can we do it?"
"Wait, Misao-dono," I requested calmly, "there's a drawback,"
"A drawback?"
"Hai. If I bind you to myself, you will not age normally for a long time,"
"You mean I'll get old faster or something?"
"Actually, you'll age more slowly, like I do. Until I die, you'll be almost immortal," I informed her solemnly.
I was somewhat taken aback when she began laughing loudly, and tried to stifle it after a moment, so as not to wake anyone. "Immortality? That's the terrible side effect? Jeez, you really are out of touch with humanity,"
"It doesn't bother you?"
"Of course not! Every human wants to be immortal! Explorers have looked for the secret to it all over the world,"
"Hai, but that was a secret that could be shared with anyone and used by anyone. This way it has to stay secret,"
"How on Earth am I going to hide it? I'll look nineteen when I'm sixty!"
"That is exactly the drawback. You will have to travel with me so that no one group of people sees you too long, or they will notice your perpetual youth and try to figure out why you have it,"
"I see. I'll have to leave my family..." she looked down, seeming to have an internal struggle. "I can accept that," she announced finally.
"You don't seem to accept it," I observed, leaning closer to examine her expression.
"I will. Just give me time to say goodbye,"
"Misao-dono, you realize you don't have to do this for me, don't you?"
"Hai, I do. If I don't, it's the same as if I murdered you,"
"Iye. I could live by killing you if I chose, but I won't,"
"That would be suicide, then. If I don't do this, one of us will die. It's the only way to preserve both of us," she finished.
"Misao-dono, you told me I should not commit suicide so others could live. You should not have to give up your life as you know it just so one undead thing can exist. I'm not even human," I explained tenderly, trying to help her understand that I wouldn't be hurt if she refused to allow me to bind her to myself.
"If I don't do this, then you will do exactly what I told you not to do because of me. Don't worry; it's not as if I'm dying... I'm old enough to move out now, anyway. I should leave," she told herself more than she told me.
"Take a few days to think about it. If you still want to do this three days from now, come here and we'll do it. Until then, just do everything as usual," I instructed. She nodded silently and left to think.
Three days later, she came to my room as always, but for an entirely different purpose. I had already explained the process to her, and it wasn't too shocking in light of what had transpired already. She was prepared to allow me to bind her so that we could both continue existing, and she came in bearing a bowl and a pitcher of water. She sat in front of me, put the things down between us, and looked at me, waiting.
"We have to bleed in equal amounts, so we'll just start and stop at the same time, ok?" I said, looking for her approval. She nodded and poised her trusty kunai over her wrist. I just used my teeth- my sword would have created too big a wound and Misao would have lost too much blood to even out the amounts. We both held our bleeding arms over the bowl, and my cut began to close almost instantly. The flow of blood got smaller and smaller, while Misao's remained constant. I wondered if that warranted my bleeding more into the bowl to make the amounts even, or if that was too high a risk of changing Misao. When my wound closed, Misao pulled her wrist away from the bowl and wrapped a piece of cloth around it to stop the bleeding. I simply reopened mine and began bleeding again, but Misao looked at me, confused.
"I didn't bleed as much as you did," I explained, and she nodded to show she understood. I bled until my wound closed again, which was only a matter of seconds. I hoped I hadn't put in too much, because if I had, Misao would no longer be human soon. She began to pour the water in and stopped when we could not only see our distorted reflections, but the bottom of the bowl as well. I added another drop, hoping to counteract my extra blood, in the event that it was a bit too much.
Misao didn't question that action, I suppose assuming that I couldn't see the bottom yet as she could. I moved the bowl around a bit to stir the contents, since the liquid was several inches from the rim and there was not much danger of spilling it. I lifted the bowl slightly higher than necessary in a toasting gesture, then down to drink from it. After I had consumed a modest amount of the translucent, red mixture, I handed the bowl to Misao. The taste wasn't bad for me, but Misao apparently enjoyed it more, because she took a long drink. I was afraid she had taken too much, but I had warned her of the risk and it would do no good to scare her now that it was done unless I found out that she had, indeed, changed.
"Good?" I asked jokingly.
"Surprisingly... yes," she answered. I was a little disturbed by that, because blood never tasted so good as when one was first changed. It was fairly good as blood went, though, because mine was mixed in with it, giving it an intoxicating effect. Since I'd fed recently, my blood even contained ki, which was the only part that tasted good. The water should have dampened that, though. I didn't answer, only collected the things and started toward the kitchens, where they could be washed in the morning. I simply lay them in a sink, not bothering to pour out the contents of either. I returned to find Misao waiting at my door, we said goodnight, and went to our separate rooms.
In the morning, I went to the kitchens to help with some chores before I went to sleep, and dishes were what I happened to start first. I noticed that the bowl was completely empty, but not clean. I was nervous about that, but I told myself someone had simply come by earlier and poured it out because they didn't want it to get mildewy, but the water pitcher was still full when I began to wash it. Either someone had poured out the red mixture and not seen the pitcher, or my fears had been realized.
I immediately went to find Misao and make sure, if for no other reason than to quiet my suspicions so I could stop worrying. She was just coming out of her room, and I walked up to her and tilted her face upward with my hand to look at it properly. Omasu gave us an uncomfortable smile, and I suddenly remembered what we had told her about our relationship. Apparently, she had been true to her word and not told anyone, because no one else had ever acted that way. Anyone else passing in the halls now only looked at us strangely.
I examined Misao's ki thoroughly, and lastly checked in her mouth to confirm my conclusion. Two long, white, shining fangs hung from behind her top lip. She looked worried as well, and I released her face to give her a sad look. I nodded, knowing exactly what question she would ask momentarily, and then felt a hand on my shoulder from a third, invisible person.
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yay, you have to wait and find out who knows the secret now! Like the twist?
Laurika: glad the chapter was packed, but as i said, chapters are longer further down the line. Glad this is getting good, and i will update very soon. Yes, he turned his hair black. Glad you like the part with katsura, and i adore hiko as well.
Maeve Riannon: thank you. I'm glad i got katsura right, and the situation with tomoe is very sad. The binding idea came from Amelia Atwater Rhodes' novels, but i modified it. They live hundreds, even thousands of years. Theoretically, they could live until they aged enough to appear about a hundred, which would take different amounts of time depending on how old they were when they changed, but none of them have ever made it that long without getting staked or something.
PraiseDivineMercy: yay, angst! Yes, such a tragedy with tomoe... kaoru eventually will, but not in this time period. Yes, i thought katsura was a good person to choose since he did sort of begin kenshin's life on the path it took... and hiko is a calm person, i think. Besides, he's had 15 years to make his peace with it and realize neither he nor kenshin can do anything about it.
Yuhi-thedoerofevildeeds: yes, binding. You like aoshi? He'll be along soon, before kaoru even.