Chapter 1, Part 2 / Intertwining Fates Sealed Within Interchangeable Motions
|-|/ 4 \|-|
After Murasame got into his casual clothes consisting of a white t-shirt and shorts, he slumped himself against his couch and took out his phone. His manor was extremely large, expected from a family as wealthy as his own, so there were maids and butlers everywhere to make sure everything was spotless. Dinner was about to be served soon, so before one of their staff would come to call for him, he thought he could have time to himself.
Would someone like Murasame Houou contact his friends and talk about the weird encounter he had? Surely, that was impossible, since Murasame Houou did not have any friends.
Such a surprise.
He claimed that it was because he was merely a lone wolf, needing not the spare friendship of others to survive in this world. All that was needed were acquaintances and business partners, leaving everything else as frivolous.
All Murasame did was open up a mobile game in order to do his daily missions for the day. Since he was rich, he could easily pull all the gacha characters he needed for the game, but what was really required from it was time. He probably spent little money and placed countless hours into the grind in developing his strong characters, making most of the quests in the game trivial for a player such as himself.
Well, it wasn't as if he was spending his personal savings elsewhere.
He didn't have many hobbies outside of outperforming his sister, so his wallet was usually wasted on impulsive decisions that attempted to extend those horizons.
For example, there was a guitar in his room he hadn't touched since the month he bought the damn thing, only because he heard Ikaruga was playing a song for her high school's cultural festival with a few friends.
He wasn't particularly good at it, even having Ikaruga help him a little bit, but through his efforts he became pretty proficient on the instrument, believing himself to already be better than her. Ikaruga reluctantly agreed to that and once that was done, he didn't have a reason to go back ever again.
"Lord Murasame? Dinner is ready."
"Alright, I'll be there quickly."
After grinding out the dailies for the day, he placed his phone onto his desk and headed to change into better clothes. He was always comfortable in his usual white coat and pants attire, so he picked them up. An experienced professional should know to keep multiple copies of the same outfit for when one is out of commission temporarily.
He rolled his neck a bit and headed down the hall. He noticed that his adoptive sister was coming out of her room at the same time.
"It looks like I got out first, Sister."
"I felt a little sluggish after my day, so I spent a little more time in my shower."
"Ha! That's good to hear! Always being uptight is such a bothersome thing!"
Ikaruga giggled at what she perceived as a joke.
Despite not being blood-related, people are quick to assume otherwise. Murasame's mother and father were careful in selecting a new child into the family in such a way that outsiders would not expect that Ikaruga was adopted. That is to say that their appearances suggested that they were real siblings.
Her lustrous hair extended downwards in its beautiful raven shade, reaching down to her knees and being allowed to flow freely and straight. Her hair was still a bit wet, clinging slightly to her back, while she wore her own comfortable clothing, still looking very refined. A buttoned-up dress shirt with a skirt to compliment the white color with thin black pants underneath.
Murasame was briefly concerned that her shirt was getting a bit small for her, stealing a glance at her large breasts. As a brother, he didn't feel any sexual attraction, leaving his narrowing eyes to be sensed as judging.
"Murasame? Where are you looking?" she genuinely asked, staring back at her brother with similar colored dark blue eyes.
"My dear sister. Have you grown a little more?"
"Uhm, I am worried about that as well since—wait, what am I saying to you?" Pushing her arm up slightly against her breast, Ikaruga had a slight fluster, but quickly recomposed herself to her usual demeanor. "That shouldn't be of importance to you."
"Hey, don't be embarrassed. I ask out of concern for your back. It would be bad if you caused a failure during one of your missions because you were sloppy. You can't bring shame to Mother, Father, and most importantly, me! How should I be able to look other shinobi investors in the eyes if my dear sister can't do her job properly!?"
Ikaruga started smiling and let out a small laugh.
"I'll take your word and be careful then."
"Now then, we shouldn't be keeping Mother and Father waiting. It's their last day here until they have to leave for that business trip. And after that, they'll be gone for a few weeks."
Murasame walked with Ikaruga down the hallway. Their rooms were on the third floor and the dining hall was on the first, so it would still take a little time to get there at a leisure pace. Although Murasame suggested they should hasten, the siblings didn't feel rushed to do so.
"I can imagine that the country-wide conference is going to be difficult for them," Ikaruga continued from where they were leading. "This is the first time I've heard of such things, but I suppose scheduling would be difficult between wealthy countries. Not only that, but that is also the time when the heads of the shinobi clans meet up as well. Two birds with one stone."
"Ha! I already knew about the upcoming conference, even before Father spoke to us about it."
This time, Murasame was technically telling the truth. As he was frequently working in the business, he caught wind of the conference a few days before it was made official to the children of Houou.
"It won't be anything special for them. It's simply going to be a review of the current system, propositions about potential changes, and updates to past decisions from previous years."
Murasame rolled his neck.
"Not sure why it takes so long though."
"And that goes for both sides of the conference, correct?"
"It's nothing that they haven't done before. I remember that they've been going on these types of business trips once every other year, so I guess this is the time that they decided to reveal to us what they were doing. I wonder what's with the change of heart?"
"We're going to succeed them soon. It's only a matter of time. For me, I'll be continuing the shinobi legacy and for you, you'll be entrusted in empowering the financial business. Both of which are important sides of the same coin that is the Houou Family."
"Don't kid yourself. Same coin, if it's weighted, that is." Murasame scratched the back of his head, letting some weakness show. "We both know who's going to be more important here."
Ikaruga grimaced. "Please, Murasame. Mother and Father are trusting you deeply with your upcoming role. Although it won't be done in a proper public announcement, we both know who will be taking on the most important role here, even if it's from the shadows."
Murasame scoffed.
"... Huh. You're really starting to sound like Mother, aren't you?"
Ikaruga softly smiled. "Perhaps so. I am her daughter, after all."
"Obviously," Murasame smirked. "Who else would you be? There's only one way to be my dear sister."
Even though it has been a year since they made up with one another and cleared all bad blood between them, Ikaruga couldn't calm down everytime Murasame acknowledged her as a true part of the family. Her heart fluttered with happiness. It was basically a dream come true that plagued her thoughts when she was still in Hanzo Academy.
They approached the dining room doors and allowed the butlers to open the way for them. They stepped in with confidence as they met with their parents, sitting at the end of a long table. After greeting their parents with a bow, Murasame walked to the left while Ikaruga took the right, allowing them to take the seats across from one another right next to their parents.
The meals were subsequently brought out from the kitchen on a trolley, as the chefs first placed down the appetizers of a fancy seared foie gras. After giving thanks, they started eating.
"How has your day been so far, you two?" their father asked.
Murasame waited for Ikaruga to answer first, giving her the attention.
"Classes have been slightly difficult, but it's nothing that I can't handle. Once I'm able to understand the central material, I find that everything else falls into place in my mind. However, for me to immediately move into a shinobi mission, it certainly wore me out for today."
"If you require some additional time, I can formally make a request to the university to accommodate. They won't be asking questions if I'm the one they're speaking to."
"No, that won't be necessary, Father. I do appreciate the thought, but I perceive this juggle of lifestyles as a part of my training. Tiredness and fatigue do come with reality, so I need to be able to withstand this pressure."
"Didn't I tell you to loosen up a little?" Murasame interjected. "Sure, it's a good thing that you're learning about life's hardships, but I don't want my sister to overwork herself when she's got no reason to do so. If I beat you at something while you're in that state, I can't say that it was fair. I'll still gloat about it though, but the fact of the matter remains."
"This suggestion is coming from someone who constantly overworks himself at Father's main branch. Ever since you've received your bachelor's diploma, I hear that productivity was single-handedly raised when you joined full-time."
"Overwork? Hah!" Murasame snickered at Ikaruga's reversal. "You must be joking, my dear sister! I haven't felt like I've been working for the better part of the year! It's all too simply easy in my perspective, almost like I'm playing chess against a monkey!"
"Just as you're concerned for me, I'll be concerned for you."
"And you'll see that your concern is misplaced! You should put more of that concern back into yourself, so that I can reduce my own woes of concern for you."
Their mother giggled at the light-hearted banter between the two siblings, something that would never have happened if this were to be a few years ago.
"In any case, my grades have been acceptable, but not to the ideal that I desire them to be. I'll be sure to improve them in the future."
"Don't feel too stressed out, Ikaruga," their mother responded. "We trust in your decisions, so if there's something that you need, please don't hesitate to ask. You have that charity event you're partaking in the slums, correct? The one that you were able to organize with the help of your friend?"
"Yes, I'll make sure to get a good night's rest for tomorrow." Ikaruga brushed her hair over her ear. "It's a slow process to help improve the lives of those of unfortunate circumstances, but it's something I'd like to work on as much as I can. As I said before, I don't think there should be anyone that should suffer while others around them have what is considered to be basic essentials, and then some."
"That really is a wonderful outlook you've adopted," their mother giggled. "I find it highly particular that you never had such a perspective in highschool, but now that you're growing up, you're becoming far more mature in the idea of kindness."
"You've been helping some of the kids there as well, I recall," their father nodded. "I've heard from the doctors from our invested hospitals that you've been bringing in ill children that can't afford to come in, only to make arrangements for payment to come from your pockets."
Ikaruga smiled. "I do what I can. My friend wouldn't appreciate it if I looked the other way, not that I could to begin with. The children in the slums have their future robbed from circumstances, so I'm merely trying to give it back to them. I'm happy to see that there were enough volunteers out there that thought the same for tomorrow."
"And what of you, Murasame?" their father asked. "How is the progress within the Phoenix Conglomerate? I hear that you're heading out tomorrow to meet up with one of our newly-acquired financial partners. Or I suppose, a potential one."
"It's been the same as always, nothing less than perfection from Murasame Houou. Although, I'd say that these new guys, the Tengu Foundation, look rather scruffed. All their paperwork looks messy and badly piled together, as if they want to throw everything against the wall and hope that it worked. Do they even know who they're presenting their papers to!? It's the eldest son of the Houou Family! They should know better!"
"Murasame, you're the only son of the Houou Family," Ikaruga pointed out.
"That's besides the point!" Murasame scoffed. "It sounded far better if I introduced myself as such! It gives me far more power in my title, doesn't it?"
"I suppose it does," Ikaruga chuckled.
"I did hear that they've encountered a few problems lately," their father nodded, ignoring the outburst's volume, "but none of my sources provided definitive proof. Did they ask you to come to their building for further discussion?"
Calming down, Murasame returned to the topic. "They've asked for me to come to them in order to show me what we could be investing into. It's something regarding an experiment they've been doing for a while, though they were vague on those details as well."
Murasame leaned on the table, pressing his palm into his cheek as he gently split the food apart with his fork. "Normally, I don't think it would be even worth time for a direct meeting with you if they want to be dancing out the details, leaving all except the insistence that it would benefit humanity."
"And that's why I have a right to be suspicious," his father nodded. "You don't need to go through with this if you feel the same way, Murasame. If they choose not to reveal details, we have our right to not go through with their meeting."
"No, it's fine," Murasame scoffed. "With a small business like this one, it\s a good place to start practicing for my place in the company. Once I see if they're worthy or not, I'll make the executive decision for their investments. I'll give you a follow-up once I'm done, Father."
"I would appreciate that. I'll leave my Sunday morning available for your call."
"Then I'll send you the portfolio on Saturday night for a pre-call review."
His father was glad to be already placing Murasame on large tasks like these ones.
While his attitude could use some work, there was no doubt that his talent for the field has been, as he mentioned, nothing short of perfection. It was almost as if Murasame could run numbers, predict mental simulations of finances, and properly gauge others accurately, all within his mind in a short amount of time. For the Phoenix Conglomerate, he was powerful, but for those that tried to oppose or deceive him, he might have been their worst enemy to face.
His father was glad that Murasame inherited that part of his personality of being fierce to opponents, but caring to his allies. If only the number of people he considered as allies grew larger than what was naturally needed for the role.
After some more small talk, the rest of the dinner was served. The main course had been filet mignon with a side of roasted asparagus, seasonally perfectly to each family member's preferences. With herbal green tea to drink, they ended their course with a soft mousse cake.
Their mother and father were set to leave during the night, so their bags were already packed up in their limousine and after settling themselves down for a bit, Murasame and Ikaruga bid farewell to their parents as they left the manor. They watched as the vehicle moved out from their spacious front with the gate closing behind.
"I'll be hitting the hay now, so if you need anything, just call for me."
"Have sweet dreams, Murasame."
"You too, Ikaruga."
They moved up back into their rooms and Murasame changed back into their casual sleepwear. He picked up his phone to check for any email notifications, but without anything else to do, he turned off the lights and had the staff turn on the full security back on in the building.
Since they were a family of shinobis, it was possible that enemies might attempt to siege the manor, since it was no real secret as to where they lived, but that was why there were traps activated when night came around. It wouldn't activate on any of the butlers and maids, and it certainly wouldn't activate on any of the Houou Family, but for everyone else, it ranged from annoying to pass to potentially fatal.
It hadn't happened so far.
If anything, people were probably smart enough to not try and enter enemy territory so blindly. Even if Ikaruga… and possibly Murasame were shinobis, the Houou Family had plentiful bodyguards that were well equipped to deal with any possible trespassers.
In fact, the only time that the traps triggered was when Murasame accidentally set them off. It was nothing short of a miracle that he managed to escape without injuries.
Murasame rolled into bed, but before he closed his eyes, he had the realization that he missed out on bragging to his parents, and more importantly Ikaruga, that he managed to save someone today from a river. He thought he was losing his edge a bit if something like that was slipping his mind, but perhaps the reminder of the Tengu Foundation caused him to forget, worrying more about the upcoming meeting.
They were certainly a mystery, coming to him with a potential investment offer.
Confidence was key, something Murasame had tenfold, but there was never a guarantee that things would go the way that is preferable. That was something his father told him once he was first starting out to be more involved in the Phoenix Conglomerate.
"What's the worst that can happen?" Murasame chuckled to himself, sinking deeper into his covers. "This is a meeting led by the man known as Murasame Houou! I see no reason as to why I should be nervous!"
His father didn't emphasize on it during the meeting, probably to remove the pressure a bit, but this was the first closure deal that Murasame was assigned by his father to judge by himself. All his father was doing was wrapping up whatever loose ends came about.
"I need some rest. It's going to be a big day tomorrow."
With a satisfied smile, as if he knew he would have a good dream, Murasame fell asleep.
|-|/ 5 \|-|
"Mister Murasame…! Mister Murasame…!"
"Shut up… I don't want to be called out of bed right now…" Murasame rolled over in his bed, begrudgingly answering with a tired voice. He wasn't keen on dealing with interruptions during his precious sleep. He hadn't even gotten two hours since heading in for the night.
"I don't know how to fix this though…!"
"Go bother someone else. I don't care who, but just leave me—"
Wait. Who was he talking to?
Murasame's eyes opened wide up as he quickly turned around.
Sitting on his floor, the kid from this afternoon had been whimpering. He rubbed his eyes a bit, to make sure he wasn't going crazy, but his senses were working properly. Once more to check his sanity, he turned on some of the lights, enough that the boy's shadow could be realized into a visual snapshot.
His ragged gown had been changed out to simple clothing, something that one might find out of a donation center. The hospital must have provided him with a beige t-shirt and accompanying pants, but he noticed that they were considerably ruined with holes and rips all over the place. There were stains all over the place, but Murasame didn't really care to ask about them.
No matter how much Murasame thought he was hallucinating, he kept coming back to see Isayuki's red eyes staring back at him.
"Wh-what the hell…?" Murasame found the energy to stand up from his bed in a panic. "What the hell are you doing in my house!?"
Isayuki's hair antenna almost shaped itself into a question mark, leaving a dumbfounded expression on his face.
"Eh?"
"Don't 'eh' me! Answer me instead!"
"Well, I mean, it started back when I was at the hospital…" Isayuki glanced away awkwardly, as if slightly embarrassed to tell the story back to Murasame. "They started doing weird things to me."
"What weird things?"
"They told me to put my finger in ink and then press it on a paper, claiming it was for identification purposes. And they started trying to take my blood for a supposed sample. They wrapped something around my arm and it started to pulse. After that, they were asking me odd questions! That's the things that are on my mind at the moment, but I'm sure they did even more than that!"
Isayuki held onto himself as if a right of his was violated.
"I don't even know what they wanted from me!"
"They were doing a damn check-up. You know, what hospitals usually do?"
"It's weird!"
"It's not weird!"
Murasame felt more exasperated as the second passed.
"Besides, that doesn't explain how you're in my room right now!"
"Ah, I ran away."
In other words, Isayuki ended up doing the very thing that Murasame assumed had happened in the first place. Although this could be a moment for Murasame to revel in his possible clairvoyance, all he could do was pinch the bridge of his nose.
"Also, the nurses were also talking strangely about you. I kept telling them how cool you were in saving me from the river, but they kept dismissing me! It was getting frustrating! I didn't like any of them! They weren't cool like you were, Mister Murasame!"
It was as Murasame thought. Although they took in the story, they didn't exactly buy it on a personal level. From an outsider's perspective, Murasame didn't radiate the same sort of samaritan as his father, thanks to his unique choice in words.
Not that he was looking to fix it.
Those types of commoners can piss off as far as Murasame was aware. He did a good act, so it should have already been good enough. He didn't understand why he had to suddenly play nice.
"So when they weren't looking, I jumped out the window and ran out." As Isayuki continued his story, his hair antenna curved in relaxation. "Ah, I guess that was shorter than I thought. It felt like they were taking ages for whatever weird check-ups they wanted to do."
"Oh, you better not have caused trouble for me, " Murasame grumbled. "I was the one to bring you there, so the first thing they're going to do is ask me about you."
"I tried to leave quietly, so maybe they don't know yet…"
"... I think they'll notice eventually."
An empty bed and an open window wasn't something that a nurse could easily overlook when a patient was supposed to be there. Now that Murasame thought about it, he remembered that the examination rooms were up on the third floor.
Maybe not though. If Isayuki easily got out, he must have remembered wrong. There's no way he would have survived a third story drop without any semblance of a sprain.
"Anyways, get to the point! Why the hell are you here!?"
"I wanted to meet you again, but I didn't know where you went. I don't have any piece of my memories, so I didn't know where else to go. I asked around if anyone knew where Murasame Houou lived and they all pointed in this direction. They all said good luck on meeting him, then laughed at me for some reason when I said I was going to try and meet with him…"
Being rich came with its demerits of being known. Murasame realized this, shaking his head in defeat, but a thought came up slowly.
"Wait, then how did you get into my room?"
"I… opened the door and walked in?"
"No, I didn't mean it like that!" Murasame crossed his arms, unable to figure out if Isayuki was feigning ignorance to the topic. "How did you get through all the traps!?"
"Traps…?"
Isayuki tilted his head and casted his eyes downwards, trying to figure out what Murasame meant.
A lightbulb flickered above him after a few seconds.
"Oh, you mean the things in the hallways!"
"Yes! That!"
"That's what I came to you about! I accidentally triggered them and I don't know what to do! Please do something! Alarms were ringing and I didn't know how to turn them off! I even fell into a hole that suddenly opened up beneath my feet and it hurt when I landed! It was hard to climb out of it too!"
"You… You what!?"
Murasame felt like color was escaping his skin.
Never has he felt like someone was so stupid before in his life. Until now, obviously.
If the room stayed quiet, he was able to hear the alarms from the hallway. He wondered how he was able to sleep through something like that, but those were questions for another day. Right now, there were more pressing matters. He needed to set his priority straight.
"Look, kid. I appreciate you coming here, but the alarms are going off because someone who's not allowed in the building is in the building."
"Who?"
Murasame felt a blood vessel pop.
"You! Don't you know what trespassing is?"
"What? And I trespassed!?"
If it was morally okay for Murasame to pick up the boy and shake him around like a game controller until he passed out, he would have done so by now. Luckily, Murasame took a deep breath and pushed back his hair to regain his composure. Getting all agitated was not the ideal form of the Murasame Houou, because when he gets mad, he tends to do things that even he can regret.
"Usually, I'd be giving you off to the police for the crimes you committed, but because I'm so nice, I'll let you off with a warning. You should thank that amnesia of yours for providing you with this pity I'm bestowing. Now to get you out before someone—"
"Murasame!"
Ikaruga's concerned voice reached out to him from behind the door, accomplices with a rattled knocking against the surface. It was bad enough that he was trying to deal with Isayuki here, but he didn't want to be associated with the person who someone intruded into their home.
With a quick grab of Isayuki's arm, Murasame tossed him underneath the bed and draped his blanket on the side to make it look like he just sprawled out of bed. He bent down, whispered aggressively to Isayuki to stay quiet, and went over to open the door for his sister.
"What is it, my dear sis—Hmm? What's with these alarms?"
While Murasame was incapable of many things, lying and bluffing hadn't been one of them. He knew how to play things off very smoothly and naturally, as he raised his eyebrows confusingly to the ringing noise.
"Murasame! Have you seen anything weird lately?"
"Weird? Weird how? The alarms are going off for one, and you're knocking in the middle of the night. Do you mean those things?"
"No, it's not that. It appears that we have a trespasser. The traps were activated, but there weren't any remnants of the person in question, despite it looking as if they properly worked. Even the spike trap looked like it caught someone, but there were no results to show for it."
"Wait, when did we have a spike trap? Are we really running the old classics here?"
"Father installed it two years ago. You wouldn't have known because you were… uhm, preoccupied," Ikaruga answered on the tangent before returning to the main topic. "Continuing on, we saw on the surveillance cameras that the mysterious person was heading into your room. I wanted to make sure that you were safe and sound."
Murasame bit his lips softly, but he wanted to do it hard. Ikaruga would have noticed the strange action though, being as perceptive as she was.
"Of course I'm safe. Anyone who tries to go up against Murasame Houou is up for a world of hurt! That's simply how it is! I'm the strongest shinobi alive!"
"Strange," Ikaruga pondered, but then smiled. She knew if he was still holding onto his bravado, he was still being himself. "If you're still safe, then I'm relieved."
Murasame noticed that his sister was certainly prepared for a fight if needed. The nodachi, Hein, was nesting comfortably in her hands, ready to be drawn at any moment. He wouldn't be surprised if she had her scroll with her as well, if she needed to transform into her shinobi outfit for whatever reason.
"If you see anyone unusual, please contact our security team."
"That goes without saying."
"Just for reference, it would appear that a white-haired girl entered our premises."
"Girl, huh…?"
Murasame supposed that security cameras aren't too good at picking up specific details of a person. Ikaruga must have seen the long hair and automatically assumed Isayuki's gender, but the true culprit never did have any obvious body shapes to emphasize his masculinity.
It was an easy mistake to make, but if only Isayuki's voice was a little higher, he might be able to pretend to be one. Though, perhaps idiots might still think otherwise.
"There's a good chance that she's injured, considering that she landed in almost all of our traps. However, for her to keep moving forwards, it does make me concerned as to how strong she is to shake them off."
"Heh! That person won't even be a challenge for me if I do come across her!" Murasame raised his hand, bidding another good night silently as he gestured to close the door soon. "I'll let you handle it, my dear sister. I don't have any interest in those who are already weakened."
"Alright. I'll probably make one more scout of the area before leaving the rest to the security team. Again, if you see something—"
"—Don't be worrying about me," Murasame scoffed. "I know how to contact you. I've got you on speed dial on my watch." Murasame rolled up his sleeve to show it off to Ikaruga for some reason, despite her owning a similar one already. "A press of a button and I'll already be hearing your voice."
Murasame flicked his hand, as if shooing his sister away.
"Now, move on quickly if you want to make one more glance. I need my sleep and every second you spend here, that criminal might be getting further away."
"Of course. Good night, once again, Murasame."
"Yeah. Night."
Murasame softly closed the door once he saw Ikaruga walk away. With a heavy sigh, he glanced back to see that Isayuki hadn't moved a single inch, taking Murasame's request of not moving almost too seriously. He might be making some stone statues jealous of the stiffness.
"Okay, kid. You, out, now."
"Yeah, that's probably for the best." On command, Isayuki cheerfully moved out from underneath the bed, stretching his body. It was a bit cramped down there for a boy his age, after all. "I have a feeling I did something I wasn't supposed to do."
"Oh, you definitely did something you weren't supposed to do."
"So then, I should come back during the day?"
"No." Murasame growled. "Don't come back at all. This is the affluent and prestigious residence of the Houou Family, and I'll be damned if I'm going to consciously allow someone like you to step into this household."
"R-right…" Isayuki wryly laughed, or at least tried to. "But wait, where else would I go? I don't like it at the hospital."
"I really don't care. Do whatever you want, but leave me out of it."
Murasame groaned and glanced at his door.
"Give it a few seconds for my sister to get far enough away from your exit and once you're out, I highly suggest that you make a run for it. Don't get caught by any of the guards while you're still inside of the—"
Suddenly, he heard the window open up with a subtle breeze blowing right to him. Raising his eyebrow, Murasame slowly looked back to see Isayuki about to climb out.
"... What are you doing?"
"Huh? I'm leaving, of course, like you told me to do so."
Both sides of the conservation had a dumbfounded expression, each of which for a different reason. A moment of silence allowed Murasame his thoughts to catch up with his eyes.
"This is the third floor."
"It's not that bad. This is about the height I jumped from back at the hospital."
"So the examination rooms were on the third floor there! I wasn't going crazy!"
Murasame's outburst was quickly replaced with a cough to recollect himself.
"Your method of departure isn't my problem. However, if I were you, I wouldn't show myself to the great Murasame Houou again. What happened for your rescue was something of stars being aligned, but I really don't have any free time to be wasting on strangers like you. Don't think you can latch onto me for everything, just because you've lost your memories."
"I… I see." Isayuki held a solemn smile. "I guess it was kinda selfish of me to come see you like this. Don't worry, Mister Murasame. I'll make sure I won't show myself to you again, as you request. That's the least I can do for you who saved my life."
Isayuki glanced out the window, placing his foot on the frame.
"I probably should have asked first if there was anything I could do to thank you instead of just thinking that you could help me out even more."
"I, Murasame Houou, don't need help from a stranger. You're better off using that energy of yours to someone who really needs it."
"... Right. That's right."
As if he was given those final blessings, he smiled before jumping right out from the window. It left Murasame to stare quietly at where Isayuki once stood, but not for any emotional reasoning or lingering regret of what he said.
"Wow, the kid actually jumped. What the hell?"
This was Murasame Houou. He was a person who didn't think he needed to spare any condolences on those lower than him. And also a person who wanted his sleep, so he crashed back into his bed to get some rest for the next day.
|-|/ 6 \|-|
Isayuki had thought Murasame would be able to help him out on his missing memories, but never once did he think he was intruding on the man. He thought Murasame would be nicer, but considering the trouble that he apparently caused, it wasn't surprising that he refused to help out, especially considering that Murasame was already an important person. One samaritan act was already a blessing for Isayuki.
Murasame didn't have the time to spare for someone like him. His life was probably busy enough as it was, especially if he had a house like that. It was easily the biggest one he saw so far, as much as his current memories were concerned. Because big houses mean rich people and rich people do lots of work to uphold their money.
At least, that was Isayuki's thought process behind it.
Isayuki managed to easily escape the manor without being detected. After landing on the ground, he darted around the expansive property, avoiding the guards as Murasame suggested. He thought it might have been luck on his side that he didn't come across many of them, but most of them were probably inside the manor already, looking for him. When the course was clear, he leapt over the wall and made his way down the streets.
And thus, underneath the streetlights which illuminated the pathway within the shadow-filled night, Isayuki wandered aimlessly. It might have been a few hours after meeting with Murasame again that he still found himself walking around.
He didn't have any plans for what to do.
At least, the breeze was refreshing on his face. It felt like forever since he experienced such an alluring gale, passing through his long hair. He glanced up into the skies, seeing the full moon reveal its circular shape as if an answer could be found there.
As if it was that easy.
"I don't want to go back to the hospital, but I don't think I have a choice. Mister Murasame must have left me there for a reason, so despite what they do or what their weird intentions might be, staying there might help me regain my memories."
There was only a single problem left for Isayuki.
"Now then, where did I come from?"
He was completely lost.
Nevertheless, Isayuki skipped along the streets, moving around at his own brisk pace. Such a fact didn't spoil his mood, but while he knew he could cover a lot of ground rather quickly, it didn't amount to much in comparison to the size of the city. He probably moved around for hours without making any progress, but it was exceedingly more difficult than he expected.
Every single road and every single building looked similar in Isayuki's eyes.
Apparently, he had a bad sense of direction as well.
As the sun was starting to rise, Isayuki found himself nowhere near a hospital.
He couldn't even make his way back to Murasame's manor if he wanted to, considering how much distance he covered. However, he was finally able to come across a different part of the city that contrasted with the usual visualization.
Not that it would have done him as good, but he noticed that the buildings were more run down in these streets. Something about them felt oddly nolgastic, pulling him over as if there was an aroma. It didn't exactly smell all too good in these streets though, but Isayuki didn't really mind it.
He climbed up onto one of the rooftops to get a better vantage view of where he should go next. No matter how much he looked around, he was no closer to figuring out what his next steps were.
However, he noticed two men walking down the ruined streets. They contrasted their surroundings greatly, wearing something akin to a uniform, but one of them was holding a brown bag over their shoulder. It was fairly large and there were slight movements coming from within, but it honestly could have been anything.
Indeed, it could have been anything, and Isayuki wasn't really prone to snoop around other people's business when he can't even finish up his own problems.
It could have been anything, but…
For some reason, Isayuki instinctively knew there was a person inside of the bag and that it was bad news for whoever had been caught like that. He couldn't explain his thought process, but he was already assuming so as fact, and if that was the case, the person inside was in trouble.
"I guess Mister Murasame said I should be using my energy to help someone else that needs it."
With the sun starting to spur shadows onto the streets, Isayuki leapt from the rooftops and landed behind the two men with a gentle step.
"Hey, excuse me? Mind stopping for a bit?"
"What!?"
"Where did—!?"
Being surprised by the sudden appearance, the two men glanced behind them to see the white-haired boy. They backed up a bit from fear, not being able to hear when Isayuki had come up and they whispered to each other, almost scowling.
"I thought you said you confirmed that we wouldn't be seen!"
"That's what I thought too! I don't know where this one came from!"
"What use are evil shinobis as scouts when they let someone through!?"
Isayuki wasn't really happy that they were trying to move away from his request. He ran right past them, thinking that they wouldn't have anywhere to go if he blocked off the direction they were heading to. In the eyes of the two men, they felt a brief wind before realizing that the boy was in the way. Glancing back, they both stiffened as Isayuki spoke.
"Hey, look. I want to ask you something!"
The two men looked at each other, raising their eyebrows. "What would that be?"
"That bag you have over your shoulder. There's a person inside there, right? Don't you know it's not nice to be putting people into bags like that?"
"Oh? And what are you going to do about it?"
"... Huh. I mean, I was thinking that you guys should let them go."
Isayuki pondered for a bit. Honestly, he didn't think he would get this far, but as he was lost in thought, the man with free hands pulled out a baton from his belt and immediately struck Isayuki with a heavy thrust. Direct contact was made and given the thin fabric of his hospital clothing, the man switched on the baton's taser properties and Isayuki felt the electricity surging through his body.
"Grah! H-hey, th-that hurts!"
He stumbled backwards, but didn't fall off his stance. Instead, the man took his other hand to grab Isayuki by his long hair, which he quickly found to be very uncomfortable. The man was taller than him, so Isayuki was barely on his toes, trying not to be hanging off the ground.
"She's got quite a pretty face."
"Don't let her looks deceive you. If she's that fast, she has to be a shinobi, right?"
"Look at her clothes. See how dirty and ripped they are? No shinobi would have an attire like they just came out of the slums. She must have been a resident here who noticed our movements."
"Or a disguise to lower our scouts' vision. People are already onto us like the head of the Houou Family, after all. We've been playing along with their own shinobis keeping an eye on us, but to think that when we're so close to our little meeting to get some money, somebody finally slips through."
"H-hey, could you, erhm, let go for a bit!?"
Isayuki was struggling over the hair, so he wasn't really listening to how wrong their assumptions were, nor could he pay attention to what type of plan they were being a part of.
"Get one of the evil shinobis to pacify her and we'll bring her along."
"I mean, I can do that right now. Shinobi or not, she seems weak."
With a tightened fist, the man punched Isayuki in the gut. The boy felt the force dig right into his body, as if it could come right out on the other side, leaving his nerves to be loosened. Once he stopped resisting, the man straightened his hand and chopped Isayuki's shoulder nerves to render him unconscious. He fell down to the ground, still breathing heavily.
"So I get that we have to bring her along, so that she doesn't leave with the information that she has on us, regardless if she's shinobi or not. Though, what do we do with her once we get back?"
"Lord Dōgen did try to sacrifice evil shinobis from Hebijo to resurrect Orichi and with the experiment that's happening at the facility, it's rather close to the phenomenon. I don't think Lady Kasuga will mind if we have an extra sacrifice for that weapon. In fact, I think she'll appreciate it."
"Not sure about that one. It's hard to read Lady Kasuga's mood."
"Hey. I'm merely hoping, but you can't deny that an extra sacrifice will help things go smoothly."
"Eh, I guess…?"
Bringing up the unconscious Isayuki onto their shoulders, they moved away to their exit vehicle and left the area. Later in the afternoon, their plans would be put into motion, not knowing that the turmoil of taking in this random person would change up their strategy significantly.
