Chapter 2, Part 2 / Taking Things, One Step at a Time
|-|/ 4 \|-|
As Isayuki followed Murasame out of the car, he felt a little out of place. The first time he came around to this house, he couldn't get through the front door, presumingly because it was locked. He had to climb into an open window from the sides and figure out where Murasame had been, not even mentioning the problems he had triggering almost every single trap he could have come across on the way there. It might have been absolutely dumb luck that he found Murasame's room.
No, actually, it was indeed incredibly dumb luck that allowed Isayuki to find Murasame's room. There were already security guards trying to look for him the moment they realize the traps were being triggered, so Isayuki had panicked and dumped himself into rooms, one by one, until he mistakenly crashed into Murasame's room. Of course, Isayuki wasn't going to mention any of that.
Isayuki was recently ordered to act like this is the first time he's coming here, so it was an act he would try to do. He cleared his throat, practicing behind Murasame.
"Wow! This place is very big! The walls are in such a size that I've… never seen before! Yep, this is definitely the first time I'm seeing this door too! That's a door, alright!"
"New plan. Don't. Talk. At. All."
"Y-yes, Master Murasame…"
Murasame sighed. Apparently, lying hadn't been one of Isayuki's strong suits.
The maids and butlers of the manor welcomed Murasame back into the house, prompting Isayuki to quietly follow him. Some of the staff were evidently surprised by the companion, leaving one of the butlers to stop Murasame about the matter.
"Lord Murasame? Who might this be?"
Murasame flicked his hair, adding a prideful smirk. "From this day on, you should remember his face. He's going to be my personal assistant and a student of mine. He's got nowhere else to go, so I'm giving him the grace of staying here while we get all of that sorted out."
The butler glanced over to Isayuki who sent a smiling wave. Feeling obligated to return such an innocent gesture, the butler returned back to the matter at hand.
"A personal assistant, you say? Have you talked to your father about this?"
"I'll talk to him tonight. I was supposed to already be talking to him about the state of our partnership with the Tengu Foundation, but I guess the topic has changed due to what they tried to pull. He already has the basics of what happened, right?"
"Of course. Lady Ikaruga has already contacted him with the details on the night of the incident. Although, she had only provided the brief outline and the current state of your condition at the moment."
"My sister is always on top of things, huh?" Murasame groaned, but he still held a smile. "Speaking of which, is Ikaruga home yet?"
"No, she's still..." The butler casted a quick glance at Isayuki. "She's… out right now, but it won't take too long for her to be back. I expect that she should be home within an hour or two."
"Good to hear. The chefs should get started on preparing dinner. Make sure you have the chefs add in an additional portion to the table. My assistant will be eating with us."
Murasame gestured with his hand waving to his student, causing Isayuki to trot up behind him. The white-haired boy was already pretty distracted by looking around the main lobby for how big and fancy it was. He didn't see the building to this extent, due to the lights being off last time.
"It'll be a good opportunity to introduce him to Ikaruga."
"They were just about to start, so I shall inform them immediately."
"And while you're at it, prepare a guest room for the kid."
"Of course. Anything else, Lord Murasame?"
"Nah, that's it for now. I'll be bringing my assistant along for a brief tour of the place, so that he doesn't get himself lost if he finds himself wandering on his lonesome."
The staff bowed and dismissed themselves as Murasame brought Isayuki around the manor.
The hallways were just as expansive as the main lobby, having some decoration in the form of paintings and statues stationed at intervals. Although it may look a little vain, especially for someone like his mother and father, some of them actually served to be a cover for triggers for traps around the building. Right now, they were turned off, but during the night, as Isayuki discovered, they would be activated in order to protect the family.
After all, it's no secret as to where the Houou Family lived and considering their powerful influence in the financial world and the shinobi world, it would not be difficult to assume that they would have enemies that opposed them. Well, not that Murasame didn't think he couldn't handle them if there were to be a confrontation.
… Even despite him getting his ass kicked during the Tengu Foundation Incident.
"I still can't believe you live in such a big place."
"What's there not to believe? My family is rich."
"Oh, so like, you have a lot of money and stuff?"
"... That's typically what being rich emcompasses, yes."
Murasame moved on, continuing with the topic. If Isayuki is to be his assistant, he should at least know about what it is that he does for a living, or what type of corporation he's been enlisted in.
"The company that my father runs is called the Phoenix Conglomerate, if you didn't already know. Although our main focus is financing, we have our hands in multiple industries in the country. Construction, marketing, research… Financing simply helps out in overlooking and controlling the flow of our money, whether we're making investments or partnering up with other companies that wish to work under our brand."
"So what do you do on those computers and papers?"
"Crunch numbers for accounting, maintain spreadsheets of the majority of our data, make sure our goals on the related industries are on track and if not, figure out a way to readjust and bring us back to the expected levels. I'm usually the one setting up the shareholder meetings too, preparing numerous reports and running each other multiple times for accuracy, and dealing with the taxes that come with every single transaction that our company makes."
"You do all of that by yourself?"
"Obviously not, because I wouldn't have a personal life if all of that was dropped on my table each and every day, but I'm probably the person that micromanages the most out of everyone in the company. I'm able to deal with matters more quickly than others as well, so in terms of efficiency, I'm probably the best employee my father has working for him."
Murasame shrugged and pointed to himself, smirking.
"Aren't I impressive, kid?"
"Very impressive, Master Murasame! I couldn't even begin to think as to how I would be able to deal with that amount of work everyday. And you do it without breaking a sweat!"
"Why would I, Murasame Houou, break a sweat on those trivial things? After a while, it gets tedious, but someone has to do the work and if I can get it done quickly, why shouldn't I be the one to wrap it up? It's a simple matter, nothing more and nothing less."
"And your father is the one that leads the company, right? That means the company's in good hands when he hands it off to you!"
Murasame's smile persisted, but the corners of his mouth flinched. His hand slowly lowered down as he turned away from Isayuki, trying to make a laugh of some sort.
"Nah. The person who will be inheriting my father's position will be my sister."
Isayuki curled his lips. "Your sister? Why? Is your sister as amazing as you?"
Murasame scoffed, taking a few seconds of silence.
"... In a way, I suppose. Whatever the reasons, it doesn't stop me from doing what I can for my father's company. Even if my sister is the one to inherit the company, I'll be the one in the background, doing a lot of the work to make her rise up and flourish."
"Shouldn't she be doing work too though?"
"Of course, but it wouldn't be an entire lie to say that she's there for tradition. When you have things like that against you, there's nothing you can really do to fight back. You can only come to terms with your position and make the best of what you've got."
"That seems… really unfair."
"Does it sound unfair?"
Murasame closed his eyes, sighing to himself.
"In the end, I guess it doesn't matter to me. Not anymore. I've come to terms with my future already. Besides, I think my sister would be a better leader, for appearance's sake, than me. She is my sister, after all. If there's anything that she has that could match me, it's her tenacity and willpower."
"Well, I think you're a great leader, Master Murasame!"
"And a good leader knows when to resign."
"But—"
"Enough of that. I don't want to talk about it anymore."
He always thought the unhinged distance between Ikaruga and himself had been closed throughout the year, and while that had been correct, the lingering resilience of his hatred clawed at his heart. It wasn't an easy thing to let go of a despair that consumed him for his entire adolescent and teenage years. He claimed to himself that he didn't have friends because he was a lone wolf, but it was really because Murasame was too distracted by his spite for Ikaruga, he never cared about any other aspect of his life. He never thought of it as a lonely path until his rage was finally eased.
His mind had already accepted Ikaruga as his sister, but his heart was still coming to terms with it, even after a year of treating her as such. It was all complicated matters he didn't want to look at, and it was probably best for everyone involved to trudge onwards and ignore it.
"I was supposed to show you around the manor, so that when you need to go somewhere, you won't have to resort to dragging me along with you. You should be paying attention to your new surroundings. You'll be living here until further notice."
"O-okay…"
Murasame continued his tour of the manor, showing Isayuki the countless rooms that the Houou Family had to themselves. There was the library, the home office, the dining room, the kitchen, the storage, the guest meeting room, the computer room—
"M-Master Murasame. How many rooms are there in this manor?"
"Hmm. I'd say we're halfway done."
"Half—!? I can't remember all of this!"
Isayuki dropped to his knees with sweat and tears dripping out from him. It made for a poor showing, making Murasame hope that there weren't any servants around to see it. He hastily pulled Isayuki back on his feet, groaning a bit.
"Alright, then don't bother remembering all of that." The fact that Isayuki's eyes immediately sparkled in relief had been tiresome for Murasame. "You can always ask the servants around for directions, but if there's anything you might need to use, it's what we have in the basement. Or rather, something that we'll be using together."
Murasame brought Isayuki down to the basement. It was surprisingly expansive, but for the reason why it had been so, it made sense. It was basically its own thing, separated from the main building. Training equipment had been stored here and machines in the shape of dummies were set up in order for convenient use. Isayuki blinked blankly though, not really knowing what he was looking at.
"This is the training facility. We can use this space in order to, well, train ourselves."
Murasame never really used this place nowadays. Although he could order the servants to stay away from the basement while he was here, he never liked being in here. It had probably been too long since he even stepped foot into the area, not even through a mistake.
After all, if Ikaruga had any free time to herself, she would likely be here to be honing her shinobi skills, but that wasn't exactly the entire reason why he never showed his face here.
For Murasame, this training ground was the symbol of his wasted time as a kid. He never really got over how his hopeful aspirations crumbled to the ground, rendering all of his training as a child to be useless to him. It was also the symbol of Ikaruga's influence, or at least one of them, taking over his position in the family, whether she meant it or not. This was the first place where she had replaced him, training where he was supposed to train, so even now, it has left a permanent bad taste in his mouth.
Although, he would say that he was handling his return here far better than he expected. Since he has a student under his wing, he needed to do what he could to make sure his reputation wasn't tarnished in Isayuki's eyes. They were severely limited by what type of training he could do on the riversides.
"Since my sister isn't home yet, let's get some practice in for your new bracers. Dinner probably won't be done in a bit, so let's have you work out for a bit."
"I'm on it! Will you be joining me?"
"Me? Pfft. I don't need to train. Are you kidding me?"
"Wouldn't it be more fun?"
"Training isn't supposed to be fun and besides, I need to, uh, to see where you're at. Head onto the field and wait for my instructions."
As Isayuki excitedly sprinted out to the middle of the softened floor, Murasame walked over to a machine that listed the type of training equipment that he could mechanically activate for him. After reading through the different triggers, he inputted one of the classic ones while activating a shinobi barrier in order to make sure environmental damage was kept to a minimum.
"This one's called a reflex bar dummy."
Out came popping out from the ground, which made Isayuki jump. He instinctively equipped the Caladrius Bracers and held it up in the position he learned during their fight with Haruto. It was a basic pole, but there were multiple horizontal bars with places to attack on its end.
"Master Murasame? Is this part of the training?"
"Yeah, you just kinda hit it."
"That's it?"
"Well, no. You'll have to dodge it once it tries to hit you back. Considering that you didn't even understand the idea of dodging until recently, it's probably where we should start with. It's really easy and you keep rinsing and repeating the actions. It's supposed to improve your prediction and reactions, so we can start off with something light."
Although he showed no aptitude for being a shinobi, Murasame could at least understand the theory behind fighting, even if he couldn't move in the same way. It was equivalent to the manner where a sports commentator might be able to keep track of the plays, but they wouldn't have the mechanical skill to do the same plays themselves. It was likely due to the fact that he gets a little hot-headed and cocky when he's in their place.
"Just punch the end of the bar and let it play out. I think it's easier to see it for yourself."
"Okay, I got it!"
Isayuki clenched one of his fists and hurled his arm accordingly. He punched the bar pretty hard, enough that Murasame was worried that it might break, but the more worrying part had been the momentum generated by Isayuki's punch. The dummy was not meant to be spinning that quickly.
"H-hey, kid! Watch out—!"
However, it was too late.
The horizontal bar rapidly spun right around the pole and returned to nail Isayuki in the back of his head. Murasame winced.
Isayuki fell onto the ground. Like a corpse, he hadn't been moving and once the bar stopped spinning around, he could see blood on the horizontal bar where it collided with Isayuki's skull. Murasame gulped.
Maybe he should have said to go easy on the dummy.
Knowing of Isayuki's regeneration ability or not, seeing someone get clocked in the head and get heavily injured wasn't something he was used to seeing yet. Though, something told Murasame that if Isayuki was going to be hanging around him, he might need to get used to it soon.
"Aaaaaahh…"
Not after long, Isayuki's crying started to emerge as he held the back of his head. His consciousness must have returned after the dented wound healed up. It wasn't bleeding anymore, but Murasame didn't doubt that the lingering pain had an overstayed welcome.
"My head hurts, Master Murasame…"
It hadn't been a single full minute since Isayuki stepped into the training ground. With the power and speed that Isayuki previously showed, was it entirely possible that he simply didn't know how to use it properly? Those were questions for another time, but for now…
"... Yeah, let's take a minute."
|-|/ 5 \|-|
"Welcome home, Lady Ikaruga."
"Thank you. It's good to be home."
"We're already drawing the bath for you. You must be tired after your day."
"I'm not too tired, but I will accept the bath. I can never deny an opportunity."
Pushing her hair off from her ear, Ikaruga returned back to the manor after a finished mission. It hadn't been anything too complicated, merely data collecting for an approved client, so she was able to get home earlier than expected. Two servants of the household came to take Ikaruga's jacket from bag from her, as she thanked them for their help.
"I'm assuming that my brother has returned already?"
"Indeed, but here's the surprising thing." The butler came closer to the young woman, almost as if it were gossip. "It would appear that Lord Murasame has gone down to the basement. We noticed that his shinobi barrier went up down there and while most shinobi barriers would have been largely undetected by the staff above, you know that your brother's is of a different case due to his current capabilities."
"To the basement? Did I hear you correctly?" Ikaruga widened her eyes. "I feel like I should go down and see for myself, since that's difficult for me to believe, but if he truly is using the training grounds properly, I think my appearance there might not evoke the best of moods from my brother."
Through her surprise, she still found herself smiling.
"So he finally came around to using it. I don't think I've ever seen him take a single step in there, but that does bring up the wariness of leaving him by himself. Am I wrong to assume as well that the household's staff has left him alone?
"You're correct in thinking that we've left him to his own devices, but you are wrong in saying that he is alone. Apparently, there is another person that is accompanying Lord Murasame today. He is someone he deems to be his assistant and student."
"Really? This is news to me."
"It certainly came as a surprise for the rest of the staff. Even now, I expect there are still some who are fervently talking about it. This is the first time in a while that Lord Murasame has brought someone over of his own free will, whether it would be a friend or not."
"An assistant and a student though…"
While Ikaruga wanted to be optimistic, hearing that Murasame having a student while taking up the training grounds hadn't… proposed a favorable outcome. It might have been a good idea to quickly check the basement while staying out of her brother's sight, but if there were to be any severe problems, the household staff might have already caught onto it.
"I'll believe in Murasame for now. I would really like that bath."
"Of course, Lady Ikaruga. Right this way."
On the other hand, she was still very curious as to who this student of Murasame had looked like. She hoped that this student would be joining them for dinner, at the very least.
|-|/ 6 \|-|
"Incredible."
Murasame said that sarcastically.
"How have you died five times already? I've been telling you to hold back your power! It's literally getting bounced back right to you if you're not dodging or blocking!"
"I didn't die five times! I lost consciousness five times!"
"From this angle, it's the same goddamn thing!"
Murasame will have to ask somebody to clean off the training dummy from Isayuki's blood. Though, he might forget due to the headache he was developing here. He knew he said that he would accept Isayuki as his disciple, but since Isayuki appeared to be strong already, Murasame assumed that it was going to be easy lifting for himself.
That was not the case. Isayuki, evidently, was not a bright person.
Isayuki had been able to dodge a few swings, mainly thanks to Murasame's commands, but he would always end up forgetting about the follow-up swings. And the ones after that. As it spun in a continuous circle, it wasn't going to stop until a high amount of cycles or it hit something.
For Isayuki, it was always the latter.
"Alright. One more time and I'm done," Murasame groaned. "Take up your stance and hit the reflex dummy, but once you hit it, keep a mindful eye on it. It's not difficult. I mean, it shouldn't be difficult, but you're exceeding my expectations and then some."
"Thanks, Master Murasame!"
"That wasn't a compli—Never mind. Not wasting anymore of my brain cells here."
He felt like a man dying of thirst while watching another man drowning.
This type of power didn't come by everyone, so to see it being mishandled while he, admittedly, could use a bit more skill in his arsenal, it was slightly frustrating. Though, everytime he thought about giving up this entire farce with Isayuki, that whole shtick of Isayuki looking up to Murasame like the greatest thing ever came to remind him why he was dealing with this in the first place.
Isayuki nervously walked up to the dummy again. Despite being attacked five times already, he never got used to the blunt trauma. Murasame could see that his arms were shaking a bit, but after a few seconds, Isayuki launched another punch and the dummy started to spin once more.
"Weave out!"
Isayuki barely avoided the first rotation.
"Block it!"
Isayuki raised his hand, bouncing the dummy's arm counterclockwise.
"Dodge it again!"
Isayuki ducked underneath the arm.
His hair antenna got caught, but it still passed right through.
"And now block it once—!"
However, Isayuki never stood back up to continue the practice.
"Hey, kid? Something wrong?"
"Master Murasame! I found an exploit!" Isayuki glanced back at his teacher with sparkling eyes. "If I keep myself here, then I'll never be hit by that spinning bar!"
Murasame bit down on his lips, holding much contempt.
"... Okay, we'll call it done for today. Dinner is probably going to be prepared soon and you should probably wash yourself up, so that you're not smelly at the table."
He was not in the mood to argue against Isayuki defeating the purpose of training. Even for Murasame, he hadn't been finding weird work-arounds to be better than a training exercise.
As Isayuki was getting back from the field, Murasame left the training dummy as is and departed alongside Isayuki. The personal bathhouse was right near the basement stairs, a perfect place to go right after training. However, Murasame told Isayuki to go ahead first.
Once Isayuki left him, Murasame made sure that Isayuki wasn't nearby and he took out a scroll. He hadn't opened it to take out his personal weapon though, merely holding it in his hand as he sighed. His eyes leered over to some of the equipment, noticing the bamboo blades in the shape of a nodachi. It was actually the first thing he looked at when he returned to this room.
Putting his scroll aside, he walked over to the bamboo nodachis and picked one up.
"... How long has it been since I held this?"
Murasame swung it to the side, narrowing his eyes on its curvature. He must have stood there for a few minutes, wallowing in silence before he decided to walk onto the field to face the training dummy. With both hands on the grip, he swung forwards onto the bar, being ready to intercept the retaliation.
However, his inept ability kicked in and just as Isayuki was knocked in the back of the head, he too was knocked in the back in the head. He had the luck that he didn't swing hard, nor could he swing hard in the first place, so it didn't hurt as much as it could have. It still probably left a red bump though.
"Harder than I remember…"
Through this pain, he recalled that as a kid that he would constantly end up with bruises by the end of his training, trying to fight as hard as he could for the entrance exam.
As such, Murasame's first weapon was obviously not the kusarigama.
Since he imagined himself using Hien one day, he tried his damndest in order to perfect a fighting style that involved a nodachi. While he couldn't grasp any of it, his persistence kept him going and his parents were sure that he would find something before he would take the entrance exam, but that day never came. It would be one thing for him to simply fail it, but it was another for the examiners to outright say that he didn't have what it took to be a shinobi no matter what he did.
In holding this wooden nodachi, he could remember those words perfectly, ringing in his ears, and how it shattered his dreams and his heart.
Falling back to the kusarigama had been a way to protect himself, something else he made by his own hands. He wouldn't be able to handle the pressure if he had continued using the bamboo nodachi in his training. While he was a little better at it, it wasn't by much, but it was literally all he had at the time.
"What the hell am I even doing?"
Murasame sighed. He was wasting his time thinking about this.
While he was at it, he should probably get in a soak as well. He immediately went from work to watching Isayuki train, so he wanted some of that relaxation, so after throwing the nodachi haphazardly aside, Murasame climbed up the stairs.
The bathhouse door was unlocked and when he walked in, he already saw the black suit set off to the side that Isayuki must have taken off. Murasame started taking off his white suit, grabbing a towel to wrap around his manhood and walked into the shower room. It was hotter than he expected and at the end of the room, he noticed that a warm bath was drawn up, likely by the household staff.
"Huh. They must have already expected us to come here."
Inbetween, he noticed Isayuki washing his long hair with soap. It must have been taking some time to get everything cleaned up, as he brought his hair over his shoulder to get a better look at it while attending it. For someone as energetic as Isayuki, Murasame didn't expect him to look so careful with his hair. He offered to get it cut when they got the black suit, but Isayuki refused it.
Well, as long as it doesn't get in the way.
"Oh, Master Murasame? Do you want me to wash your back?"
"Washing my back?" Murasame thought about it and nodded. "Yeah, that sounds pretty nice. Wash my back for me, kid."
"I'm on it!"
"Hey, rinse your hair with water first though. I don't want any of that hair dangling over to help in washing my back, so tie it back once you're done."
Isayuki nodded as Murasame walked by to take his seat across the room. He never really went to bathhouses with another person before, not even his own father, so this was clearly a new experience. He wasn't sure if this was something to be embarrassed about, but Isayuki kept giving off feminine vibes with his demeanor, despite obviously being male.
At least Murasame has no doubt about it now.
"Give me a second, kid. You still got blood on the back of your head."
"No way! I thought I got it all!"
"Clearly not."
Taking a showerhead, Murasame sprayed Isayuki's hair, but he traced his fingers along where the injury should have been. He narrowed his eyes, as Isayuki glanced over his shoulder.
"Is there something wrong?"
"Yeah. Your face."
"Huh—? Blaghhh!"
He turned to spray Isayuki's face with high pressure on. Although Isayuki panicked through his babbling, he didn't move away and caught the showerhead when Murasame tossed it back to him.
While Isayuki recovered, Murasame briefly showered himself with warm water and soap. He contemplated stepping into the filled bath, but the more he thought about it, the more he realized that it might have been intended for his sister instead. It wasn't as if he needed to take a soak, so he left it as is.
Isayuki finished attending to his hair and came over to Murasame. He grabbed a sponge on the side and started scrubbing Murasame's back. He was prepared for Isayuki to end up messing up a simple task, but the moment the young man pressed down, Murasame didn't actually find faults.
It actually felt pretty good, having someone wash his back. Of course, if he demanded it from any of the butlers, they would likely do so, but it was because it was their job to take care of the Houou Family. There was a different feeling coming from the fact it was being done by someone who wanted to do so and not before long, Murasame found himself smirking within that silence until—
"Master Murasame? Do you think I'll be able to get back my memories?"
It was a sudden question that came out of nowhere. He couldn't imagine the type of face Isayuki was making behind him as he spoke, but Murasame kept quiet as he continued.
"I wonder what kind of person I was before you found me that day, drowning in a river. If this regeneration of mine isn't natural, something must be happening with me. I'm clearly not a normal person, but I'm not sure what it could all mean."
Isayuki's scrubbing slowed down a bit while the pressure got lighter.
"Of course you're not normal," Murasame scoffed. "No normal person would be allowed to be my student, but you shouldn't have something like a lack of memories get to you. Some of us want to pretend that we don't even have a past, so you might be one of the lucky ones that can't remember."
Murasame's hand unintentionally clenched into a trembling fist. When he realized, he immediately let go of that feeling.
"So if you can't remember anything, you'll have to make new memories to replace them. It's not a complicated process, you know. If you really want to get your memories back though, we can try to figure some things out. You're talking to Murasame Houou, after all. Nothing is impossible for a man like me, so if we want to get back your memories, it's already as good as done!"
"Master Murasame…"
Isayuki's hand stopped for a moment.
"Hey, I didn't tell you to—ugh, never mind. I guess that's enough for now."
Murasame gestured his hand to Isayuki, shooing him away.
"You can wrap up and dry yourself. We shouldn't be in here for much longer. My sister should be returning home soon and I don't want us to be taking up her time in the bath."
"G-got it!"
"Blow-dryers are in the second drawer of the cabinets three left over from the entrance."
"Thanks, Master Murasame!"
Leaving the sponge down, Murasame finished up his shower. Even though he spoke big to Isayuki, he wasn't even sure as to how he should approach having Isayuki's memories come back. He would probably have to do some research to see what type of triggers he could bring that might be able to help him out, but added on top of his current lifestyle, that leaves very little time to himself.
"I'll leave that to do whenever I feel like it…"
Just as he was about to turn off the showerhead, the air started shaking after a loud crashing noise came from outside the bathhouse. Murasame frowned, not knowing what was going on, so he hastily cranked the knob down and grabbed a hold of his towel tightly. He didn't bother changing back into his clothes and launched the bathhouse door wide open to see what was going on.
He heard Ikaruga's voice, growling with poison. She had already sent out a warning slash, in the shape of a slash hitting the ground behind Isayuki.
"So you've decided to return."
"I, uh… I don't know what you're talking about!"
"Do not feign ignorance! You trespassed within our manor about a few days ago! I remember that white hair of yours! Now, you'll answer me regarding the reasons why you were here!"
Ikaruga's memory was certainly better than Murasame had desired. Since he had been the only one attending to Isayuki, while Ikaruga focused her efforts on the kidnapped child, she never had a good opportunity to get a good look at Isayuki, even as the one who launched him backwards. And now she did, while her mind wasn't running on worries for her brother in danger, recognition was simple for her.
"Uhm, ahhhh…!"
"So you're still playing this childish game? Very well. I won't be holding back."
Ikaruga already had her nodachi out, already to draw it at any given moment. It forced Isayuki to stumble backwards, desperately trying to grab his bracers to ready himself, but before any of them could take the first move, Murasame slid into the hallways, blocking the way.
"Okay, time out!"
"Brother?"
"Master Murasame! Please help me! She's a demon! She's actually too scary!"
"Look! We've got a misunderstanding here! I'll explain everything!"
Ikaruga glanced between Murasame and Isayuki. She then lowered her guard and took her hand off Hien's handle. With a deep sigh emerging from Ikaruga, Murasame found himself doing the same.
"I assume that this person will be joining us for dinner? If so, we can have our conservation there. For now, I'd…" For Murasame's sake, she turned away. "I'd like for you to get dressed, so I can use the bathhouse."
"R-right…"
He dodged a bullet, but he fell right into the shark tank.
It looked like Murasame was going to have to explain everything anyways. How troublesome. So much for the plan they had, coming into the manor…
[Author's Note]
I wanted to get a bit of a slight dive into Murasame's current mentality when it comes to the circumstances of his past with Hien, Ikaruga, and the family inheritance. Obviously, I don't want to portray him as being too mature, but I wanted him to hold a level of rationality when it comes to such things. So far, in canon, we've only seen him playing himself up in front of Ikaruga, but when he stops to think about it for himself, and only himself, how does Murasame Houou react? My personal answer is somewhat shown in this chapter, and I hope that it's an answer that's good enough.
