Author Note: As has started to punish authors for replying to reviews in chapters, I have chosen to move my review replies to my author profile. I'll change it every chapter, just like normal. :D
Sorry for the longer wait for this new chappie, but I hope that the length may appease several of you. XP
Disclaimer: I do not own Samurai Deeper Kyo. Nyo. ;P
Chapter 5: New Places
Where am I? Where are all the other girls? I'm not in the cage... so where... Oh. I've been bought... I remember... Demon Eyes Kyo... Kyoshiro Mibu bought me for him... Damn, what happened to me! I've got a huge migraine, which is not helping my mood or my memory.
"Yuya-san! Good morning!" And this isn't going to help either. "I am sooo sorry about Kyo, he can be such a jerk, can't he? I admit that sometimes I wish he would just die..." Does this man ever shut up? How does his wife, Sakuya-san, was it? deal with him? Does she have earplugs or just amazing patience? "Anyway, Muramasa-sama wants to meet you."
I looked up at this. Someone new? Maybe someone a little quieter? I quirked an eyebrow, waiting for him to continue.
"Hm? Oh, you'll meet him at lunch. It's almost eleven thirty, you know. You've been asleep for a while now. Kyo was far too rough. I should-"
"Where am I now?" I stopped him from ranting more. He blinked and looked at me. Then he smiled and answered.
"You're in your room. You'll stay here for as long as Kyo stays here." I rolled my eyes.
"Great." I was stopped from looking at expression by a soft knock at the door.
"Come in! She's awake." Kyoshiro called out. The shoji door opened and a young woman with thick, wavy black hair stepped into the room. She was wearing a dark violet kimono with a lavender obi. She kneeled by my futon and nodded at me. Kyoshiro took this as an order to introduce us. "Ah! Yuya-san, this is Mahiro-san, Mayumi-sama's sister. Mahiro-san, this is
Shiina Yuya-san, Kyo's... erm... girl." I gave a soft snort, and Mahiro-san looked at me, somewhat... amused, I think.
She tipped her head at him. "Leave. She needs to get dressed." Kyoshiro nodded enthusiastically and waved to me as he went out the door, saying something about seeing me at lunch. She turned her dark eyed gaze in my direction. "So, you're Kyo's new girl, aren't you." It was much more a statement than a question. She looked me up and down and nodded slightly. "Well, Onii-sama said that you should get dressed for lunch. So, get up, please."
I nodded and stretched slightly as she went into a small closet that I hadn't seen before. I was in a fairly plain room, painted a soft cream color with large windows on one wall that let light in. Somehow,
I have ended up in a plain white sleeping yukata. 'If one of those damned men changed me I'm gonna kill them!'
"Shiina-san?" Mahiro-san was back, holding a light pink kimono. It was covered in lavender sakura designs, with a blue obi and a lighter blue under-kimono. She also handed me a silver hairbrush and a white hair ribbon. She politely turned around while I changed, and then she stood and walked behind me to brush my hair properly and tie it back modestly into a low ponytail.
She motioned for me to stand and I followed the instruction. She stood shortly afterwards and she looked me up and down, inspecting me. She nodded slightly and started walking towards the door and she opened it. I heeded her silent command and followed her out of my little room and down the meticulously polished hallway into an open air room with a low table in the center. The shoji doors that would have been a wall to outside were open and a cool breeze filtered through the area.
Mahiro-san sat down a seat down from the head of the table and gestured for me to sit a seat down from her. After a few minutes and quite a bit of fidgeting from me, she turned her fair face towards me and calmly stated "My brother, Muramasa, will be here shortly. Be patient." I nodded and closed my eyes, trying to calm myself. I almost fell asleep when the door slid open.
A slim woman with long, straight black hair and a serene smile stepped into the room, leading a tall person with a very fair complexion and short blonde hair. Mahiro-san greeted them both as Mayumi, her sister, and Muramasa, her brother. They seated themselves, Muramasa-san being at the head of the table and Mayumi-san at his right. Kyo and Kyoshiro walked in a minute later, and each nodded politely (even if Kyo's was quite rushed and barely noticeable) to Muramasa-san.
Kyoshiro seated himself on Mayumi-san's other side, and Kyo sat between Mahiro-san and myself, obviously displeased with something. He wasn't even glaring at me... 'I'm being ignored!' Mayumi-san nodded to Mahiro-san and they both walked out of the room, returning moments later with trays of food. I had tried to go with them, but Mayumi-san gestured that I should remain seated. A large plate piled high with food was placed in front of me, as with everyone else.
Was this some sort of trick? Were they trying to lull me into some sort of false sense of security? I glanced around again, studying every person's face. Anything malicious here would not slip by me, no sir! Not today, and not this Yuya Shiina! Kyoshiro was stuffing his face, so I guessed that he hasn't plotted anything... Actually, I highly doubt that he'd ever be
able to plot anything.
Mayumi-san seemed to be a rather fair lady, and Mahiro, though a bit tense and quiet, appeared to act similarly. Kyo was still ignoring me, so I glared at him some more. As I turned my gaze to the last person in the room, I felt every angry feeling leave my mind. Muramasa-san wasn't eating, nor was he talking... he was looking right back at me. Smiling like a saint, he completely disarmed my temper. His short blonde hair framed his fair face and accented his soft blue eyes. It seemed so hard to be angry at anyone around him.
Smile never faltering, he addressed me. "Shiina Yuya-san, isn't it?" I nodded politely. "It's a pleasure to meet you!" He exclaimed. "I'm sure that you've already been told this, but my name is Sengo Muramasa. I do hope that we can be friends."
I smiled back at him. "Of course, Muramasa-san." 'Really, who on earth couldn't be friends with this man!' I was slightly shocked when his smile became a little less happy and a bit sad.
"It's very kind of you to think so, Yuya-san, but I assure you that I have my fair share of enemies." I stared. Did I say that out loud? He answered that unspoken question as well. "Oh, I'm sorry, Yuya-san, for not telling you, but... in a way, I can 'read minds', I suppose. It's called 'satori'. It's quite useful for talking to animals you know."
"Yes," Mayumi-san said. "And that is why my house is overrun with dogs, cats, birds, and other strange creatures." Murumasa-san smiled apologetically at her, before daintily picking up a piece of pork with his chopsticks and eating it. I then decided that this man wouldn't poison anyone, and I also began to eat.
I was more full than I ever have been. Almost borderline sick, I padded through the hallways back to my room, where Mahiro-san promised that a hot bath would be waiting for me. I couldn't wait in the slightest. Sadly, my impatience to return to my room has once again sparked my streak of bad luck.
'Which corridor am I supposed to turn into next? Left? Right? Hm... Left. Oh... wait... or was it right? Left? Right. Right it was. Wait. No! This hall is a dead end! Okay... I'll just go back. Did I turn right or left back here? Oh! I'm supposed to go straight. That's right. Straight. Straight into a door. Damn it. Well, maybe my luck will look up for just one second and let someone be in there.' I knocked softly, three times, then, hearing nothing in reply, I slowly slid the door open.
Only to see Kyo holding a large jug of sake. Damn! I closed the door as quickly and quietly as I could. I swiftly turned right around and half-ran to where I hoped that I had come from. And, once again, my good luck proving to be as faithful to me as a cheating husband. I had absolutely no idea where I was. Every hallway and every door looked exactly the same as the twenty before it! I fell to my knees, feeling absolutely dumbfounded by my situation.
'Oh Kami! Ten years from now they'll find me, only bones and dust, lost in a never-used, never-wandered hallway!' I was stopped from lamenting further by someone delivering a swift, hard kick to my backside, sending me sprawling on the polished wood floors. I quickly scrambled away to a fairly safe distance and faced my attacker, who was none other than Demon Eyes Kyo, the most revolting bastard in the house.
"Idiot." He stated, as if addressing me by such a name. "What are you doing." I glared at him as harshly as I could manage. "Trying to find my room, you bastard." He stared down at me, and raised one onyx colored eyebrow.
"No one ever lives after talking to me in such a manner, wench." He returned. I stared at him. 'He wouldn't dare...' "But, as it is, Muramasa has requested that I not kill you in his house. So you'd better watch yourself, dog face, when we leave, you don't have his protection." He turned away from me and started walking down another hallway. 'How dare he! He wants to murder me? What the hell!' Lost in my tirade, I didn't notice when Kyo turned around and threw a sake cup in my direction.
"Woman!" He called, when the cup hit me square in the chest. "Hurry up." He turned back again and continued his walk away from me. I supposed that he must at least know where he's going, this being his master's house and all, so I got up, grabbed the sake cup, and followed the black-clad man. Twisting and turning through endless hallways, we finally ended up outside a pale shoji door, which Kyo yanked open before shoving me inside. I barely had time to recognize it as my room when he spoke.
"Dog face, you'd better have learned your lesson. Don't run around if you're too stupid to know where you came from." And, with that last humiliating comment, he slammed the door shut and left me to sit in my room, furious with the bastard.
'I can't believe he said that to me! This is the first time I've been in a house like this, much less this house! How am I supposed to know my way around! ARGH! ... well... he did... bring me back... didn't he? Even if Muramasa-san told him not to kill me... I just don't know what to think of him! He's so difficult!'
"Shiina-san?" My rant was once again interrupted, but this time by Mahiro-san. "Your bath is getting cold." I moved faster than I ever thought that I could.
I woke up the next morning quite refreshed and hungry. My stomach rumbled in an unladylike manner (As if I was ever ladylike), and I debated leaving my room in search of food. However, I did not, under any circumstances, want Kyo to help me. Ever. Again. So I got dressed in a light purple kimono that Mahiro had left out for me last night, and I peeked out the shoji door. I was in the process of deciding whether or not to venture out again, when I was interrupted by a familiar voice.
"Yuya-san!" Kyoshiro was walking down the hall towards me, waving his hand. I nodded at him. "Kyoshiro."
"Good morning, Yuya-san! Are you going to breakfast?"
"Yeah, I was just about to... Shall we walk together?"
He beamed at me. "Of course, Yuya-san!" It wasn't like I was going to tell him that I would get lost.
I followed him as he winded his way down the endless hallways, and into the same dining room as last night. Muramasa-san was already seated at the table and slowly eating some French toast. He smiled and waved at me, fork in hand. I gave a small wave back to him and smiled as well. I sat down and helped myself to some of the toast that was piled on a plate in the center of the table. I placed my two slices on a small cream colored plate and sprinkled powdered sugar on it.
Kyoshiro, on the other hand, took about six slices of the toast and poured powdered sugar on them. We all, well, except Kyoshiro, ate quietly, until Kyo entered the room. I glared at him, he glared at me,
Muramasa-san greeted him quietly, Kyo nodded back, and Kyoshiro kept eating at an alarming rate, stopping only every once in a while to choke on a bit of toast and let his face turn blue.
Kyo sat down and pulled out a bottle of sake (really, where does he keep that?), and began sipping at it. I felt much less inclined to eat with him around, even though he was sitting at the opposite end of the table... but I guessed that I'd have to eat around him sooner or later, as I'll be living and traveling with him... I shudder at the very thought... 'I might as well start now...'
Kyoshiro eventually finished his mound of breakfast without dying, and he turned to Muramasa-san. "I believe that I need to leave rather soon,
Muramasa-shishou. Sakuya is waiting for my return." Muramasa-san nodded sagely.
"Of course, Kyoshiro. Have a safe journey home. Give my regards to Sakuya-san."
"Yes, shishou. Goodbye, Yuya-san! I hope to see you again soon! Oh, and Kyo, you'd better be good to her. I want to see her in a good condition whenever I decide to visit." Kyo snorted quietly at him.
"That'll be never. Never tell me what to do, dumbass." Kyoshiro snickered and bowed to Muramasa-san and nodded at myself and then left. 'Oh God... how am I going to get back to my room now!'
"Kyo." Muramasa-san said. "You were going to leave soon also, were you not? ... Oh, all right. Were you going to go to your own house? ... No? Oh, all right. Another wandering phase." 'What on earth is going on... Kyo's not answering or making any motion at all! Oh, that's right... Satori. That must make Kyo much easier to read...'
"Whose house were you planning on invading first? ... You don't know? Hm... well, Okuni-san would always be pleased to see you, whether she's married or not... Oh, that's right. You don't like Okuni-san. But Yukimura-san did say that he wanted to meet Yuya-san again, did he not?" Yukimura-san? The happy drunk guy from the interview? "Well, you could do that, Kyo... But I don't think that you should try that... You know how Akari-san is... well, whatever you want to do is fine, Kyo... Just remember, you're
responsible for two people now, Kyo, not just yourself." Kyo snorted here and stood, walking solemnly out of the room.
"Don't worry about Kyo, Yuya-san." Muramasa-san smiled. "You'll be leaving this afternoon, so I'll escort you to your room so you can get ready, all right?" I nodded quietly and followed the blonde man.
"Excuse me, Muramasa-san?" "Hm?" "Where am I going, exactly?"
"Oh, I don't quite know. Kyo can be a bit finicky about where he goes and such. He doesn't like people giving him advice. That's why I keep quiet about his sake addiction. He'd just drink more if I argued with him about it. He has promised that you'll be taken care of though." We stopped at my door, and he opened it for me. I stepped inside and waited for him to slide the door shut. I didn't hear the distinct click and saw him watching me softly.
"Remember, Yuya-san. You don't have to do everything or anything he tells you to. Kyo is not like the masters they tell you about in the Academies. He's very little like most men. He enjoys his share of women, that's for sure... but he won't kill you for speaking your mind. What Kyo hates the most is timid women who can't think for themselves. If you don't like something, tell him. If you don't want to do something, scream at him. If you think he deserves it, feel free to hit him. It would be no fun at all if you were nothing but an empty shell of a woman." I nodded slowly. No one had ever said anything like this to me. Not since my brother...
He continued. "Don't worry about it, Yuya-san. Kyo will protect you." He began to close the door. "I'll be there to see you off." He said, and the door clicked shut.
Demon Eyes Kyo... what am I supposed to do with you?
To be continued...
