Yo- sorry for the late update, I've been down off and on with a fever and some other stuff. I just wanted to pop in for those who have been reading to say thanks for the patience, and hopefully this chap will answer more questions about Mizuki and her past.
However as vague as I try to be- there may be triggers in here so if you run across something that turns your stomach I apologize in advance and ask that you please bear with me.
I usually write the dark stuff before I begin to lighten things since I like happy endings.
Dinner with Mizuki was...well, at first it was just uncomfortably silent. Mainly on his end. Though she didn't seem to contribute anything either at first. He sat at her dinning room table not far from where the kitchen was, watching her cook. And had to say that from the smell of the food, she was a surprisingly good cook.
So far he had seen her cook half a pound each of some large and small shrimp, some small scallops with a little homemade lemon butter sauce, cooked mussels in some weird sauce, she made a nice seafood salad- whatever the hell that was- some- what was 'loaded'- baked potato's, miso soup and was now cooking up some onion rings to go with everything.
All in all he was rather impressed with how quickly she had adjusted to her new home.
Despite the fact that dinner spelled...fantastic and that seeing her naked earlier, now that she was dressed, was probably a taboo that would get him tossed out of her home on his ass- he had questions and figured that nothing broke uncomfortable silences like questions.
Or the sounds of a woman's unyielding rage.
Whichever came first.
Once Mizuki finished making the tartar sauce and grabbing some of the other stuff, she headed to the dinning room where she set everything down and then went back for the rest before he could ask her if she needed help.
Which she didn't from the way that she seemed to be able to balance everything and walk across the room, apparently.
Once she had everything laid out on the table and had grabbed them some tea, she then sat down and noted that he wasn't fixing his own plate. Instead he was just staring at everything when she finally asked, "Are you oaky? Or is it just my food that is making you cautious?"
"Ah- no, it's nothing like that. Everything looks wonderful. I was just thinking, and I hope that you will indulge me. But it's okay if you don't."
"Fix your plate then. I get the feeling that whatever it is you want to know is going to make this a much longer meal than normal."
Toshinori gave her a small smile and quickly did as she bade him to, piling his plate high with some shell fish, shrimp, scallops, onion rings, a loaded baked potato, some miso, and seafood salad. And began eating a little bit of everything to taste test it. Starting off with small bites at first.
Everything was cooked to perfection. The flavors of the sauces, spices used, hell even the stuff in the seafood salad and on the baked potato tasted so good that he could have wept with joy. He couldn't recall the last time that he'd had a home cooked meal this good.
"Alright..." Mizuki's voice broke his train of thought as he watched her sit back in her seat and wait expectantly for him to ask his questions.
"I wanted to ask you again about your abilities... However after-" He gulped slightly and quickly decided to plow on regardless of whether she slapped him silly or not. "Earlier... I also want to ask you about the scars on your body. But again, if you don't want to tell me then I completely understand."
"My ability is called Jagan. Most people when they hear the word Jagan, think of the one rooted in supernatural occurrences. However there is a less known of ability also referred to as Jagan. It's a natural ability to draw on the strength and power of the environment and store it away within the body. Enhancing it to the point where I can easily become an unmovable and incredibly strong superhuman."
"So far my abilities are rely a good deal on how I choose to use them. And I won't lie, my master has had me murder people before on the threat that I myself would die if I didn't. Some of the scars on my back were gained through torturous tests. My master wanted to know what kind of pretty little doll he had bought from my childhood home. And because I was still fairly young and not completely able to wield my Jagan, he took advantage of my vulnerability to mark me up. The other scars were punishments for either defying him or letting people he wanted dead, go."
Toshinori listened to everything that she told him with a sinking feeling in his stomach as he mulled over the information that she had just given him. So she wasn't an augmented human in the typical sense. She had a special, natural ability to augment herself by storing energy and power from the environment. How peculiar.
Yet at the same time, he was relieved to know that she wasn't an experiment of some kind. And at the same time...he couldn't help but wonder why no one had saved her. Shouldn't someone have known of her being held against her will by someone? Her family? A friend?
Just...someone.
"Did no one ever search for you in an attempt to free you?" He found himself asking before he could stop himself. Mizuki snorted in an unlady like manner before simply saying.
"Why would they? I've already figured out that this place works much differently from where I grew up," Toshinori looked at her, her words sinking into his brain with all the subtly of a knife, drawing his undivided attention to her face as his interest piqued. "For starters, where I'm from- there are few of what could only be considered 'superhumans' like myself. Not only that, but there is no such thing as heros or law and justice. Equality is bought and sold on a whim. People live in colonies underground where they are bred, born, checked for talents at a young age- and if found to be without them- are sold into various establishments ranging from brothels, to places where people pay to murder someone in a very horrible ways ranging from dissection, to tearing out various none lethal organs and then letting their associates entertain themselves with that person while they slowly bleed out."
Toshinori wasn't sure what shocked him more.
What she was describing or the fact that she had said that there were no such thing as hero's. What did that even mean? There had been hero's and such for as long as there had been people in the world. So what did she mean?
He kept mulling over the question as he silently ate a few more bites of his food before finally realizing that his plate was empty and wondered where the hell all of his food had gone off too. He couldn't have eaten it all already could he? Truth be told after what Mizuki had just said, he didn't have much of an appetite anymore.
Everything that she had just told him, coupled with what else he had just learned today left a heavy lead weight in his gut. Though he supposed that explained some of her peculiar personality traits as well.
Nature vs. nurture.
A place where no one- no hero- came to save you when you were young, and scared- living with the possibility of a horrifically traumatic life and even more horrifically traumatic death at the hands of monsters.
She had likely learned to beat back her emotional responses and conduct herself in a deceptively meek manner so as to serve her master in whatever capacity he needed her to. An assassin or hitman was merely one thing she must have served as. He shuddered to think of the other ways that she had been forced to serve.
Still there was something lacking in her story. If her ability was really that strong, why hadn't she escaped sooner?
She must have known what he was thinking because she merely said. "I didn't bother escaping because escape at that time was impossible..." He looked at her for a moment, wondering why escape had been impossible for her when she finally filled in the last missing piece of information. "Before we come into our abilities- for those of us who have them- we are taken to a facility at our master's behest and have a tiny microchip implanted in our bodies, where ever he/she chooses it to be placed. Usually the chip is merely electric, to punish us. But not to cause severe harm. However for people like me, the microchip was meant to not only to punish, but to kill."
"Mine is located in the back of my neck. Just at the base of my skull. It's the one place that I nor anyone else could reach to try and dig it out... At least not without killing me anyways, ya know."
Toshinori was completely still in his seat, his breath itself seemed to have come to a shuddering stop for several heartbeats upon hearing her explanation before he decided to ask the last possible question that he could think of. "If everything that you say is true, then what role did Shiki play? Why were you allowed to have him?"
Mizuki tilted her head slightly to the side as if considering his question before saying, "My master wasn't a fool. He always feared that I would find a way to break free of his control. Obviously he wasn't wrong or I wouldn't be sitting here. My pregnancy with my son was a more devious way to keep this dog on her leash. If I stepped out of line, Shiki was punished. If I didn't do as my master wanted and refused to service him- Shiki was punished."
"Is that what happened? Shiki was punished because of something that you did?"
Mizuki's expression grew shuttered as he waited for an answer before finally realizing that she wasn't going to say anymore about her past or her son, at which point he sighed softly and scrubbed his face with his hands and said gently.
"I'm sorry, Mizuki... I shouldn't have asked such questions so soon."
Mizuki merely leaned forward a little bit in her seat and reached across the table with one hand and cupped the side of his face, attempting to comfort him since she could see that his heart ached for her and for the terrible things that she had had to endure as she said very softly. "An inquisitive mind is never something to be ashamed of. So don't worry about my feelings. I understand why you need the information and do not hold your need task questions against you."