Burn
The sun sets in a blaze of crimson. The clouds are flames of blue, gray, white—and then splashes of orange, red, bright pink, and finally a velvety twilight only just beginning to twinkle with stars. There is no cooling breeze against the humid heat of the summer night, not even the faintest ruffles through the trees, a ripple in the small fishpond.
Akito watches in silence as the world succumbs to darkness, as the reds of the sunset become more vibrant and alarming just before they dissolve to night. It seems the horizon is aflame. She shifts as she lies there on the ground, her kimono, hot and heavy against her skin, slides across her back, slips from her legs. "Let it burn," she mutters, nearly prostrate on the ground, "Let the whole world burn."
"You don't really mean that," Shigure says softly from the door, but his eyes are dark. He's leaning against the frame, his arms folded within his yukata.
"Yes," she spits it like a curse. "I want it all to burn—everything, everyone—to burn." But Shigure merely smiles to himself, his arms still folded, and takes several steps closer. He kneels, reaches out, but Akito recoils from his touch. She hisses, "You too." He leans back on his feet, his rejected hand balancing him on the wooden floor. "I hate you!" She suddenly screams in his face. "All of you!"
"Except Kureno!" he snaps angrily in return.
She dares him, "Don't try to act jealous," and his eyes are on fire as he stares her down. "You don't care!" She exclaims when she can't hold his eyes in silence anymore. His honeyed words and warm caresses had never been sincere and they never would be, but forever he would play the mistreated lover as if he occasionally shared her bed out of love. "All you've ever wanted," she said quietly, "was to be free from the curse. You want me to free you." She is surprised that when she looks up his head is bowed, as if he is truly hurt by her intimacy and favoritism of the rooster. Her heart nearly goes out to him in compassion, but even as she begins to regret her own harsh words he reaches out his hand to grasp her by the jaw. His eyes look at her, filled with hate, and he shatters her heart with one word.
"Yes."