Chapter 13: Visit
After school, Sayaka Inoue met her parents at her house and, as agreed earlier, the family went off to visit Akiha. Eventually, they arrived at the Tohno Mansion. Once they were in front of the entrance gate, Haruki rang the bell. Akiha opened the door of the mansion and revealed herself.
"Oh, Haruki-san! Hisui! I wasn't expecting you to come..." she said, with a calm smile.
"Good afternoon, Akiha-sama!" Hisui said, with a slight bow, while her husband just smiled back.
"Good afternoon, Akiha-san!" her daughter followed.
"You've brought your daughter, I see..." Akiha mused, She then turned to someone who couldn't be seen by the ones standing behind the gate, but whose name they knew.
"Kohaku. We have visitors. Please, open the entrance gate." she said. Hearing that name, both Sayaka and Hisui's faces lit up with smiles. Sayaka's smile, in particular, was beaming.
A few seconds passed, then the entrance gate opened.
"Come on in." Akiha said, with a calm smile, signaling the family to enter the mansion, and so they did. As soon as they stepped in the building, they saw Kohaku.
"Onee-chan!" Hisui exclaimed in joy as she saw her sister.
"Auntie Kohaku!" her daughter followed. As she heard them, a beaming smile lit her face up.
"Ane! Sayaka-chan!" she joyfully replied as her sister and her niece approached her. She hugged them both. "I'm so happy to see you!"
"Onee-chan… Onee-chan..." Hisui looked like she was on the verge of tears from joy.
"How are you, auntie?" Sayaka asked as she and her mother were released from Kohaku's embrace.
"I'm fine, thanks." she replied "And what about you, sweetheart? How is school going?" She patted her niece on the head.
"I'm fine, thank you!" the girl answered "As for school, that's going well, too!"
"You're growing to be a fine young lady." Akiha remarked "I'm pleased to see that, Sayaka."
"Oh, thank you, Akiha-san!" the girl replied with a small respectful bow.
The heiress' eyes moved to Hisui "I'm glad to see that you're living happily with Haruki-san, Hisui. Your hopes were not in vain."
"M-many thanks, Akiha-sama!" the red-haired woman bowed as well. Her sister looked at her with almost glazed eyes, filled with pride.
The family stayed there, chatting a bit with Akiha and Kohaku, experiencing the simple joy of being together.
"So, Sayaka-chan..." Kohaku asked her niece, with a smirk on her face "What do you tell me about boys?" Her question made the girl blush. It also made her father uneasy.
"Kohaku-san, isn't it a little too soon to talk about that?" he asked, nervously.
"Umm..." Sayaka attempted an answer "There's still nothing noteworthy going on..."
"It's such a shame, for such a beautiful girl like you..." the woman replied, not losing her cheerful mood. "You seriously should get yourself a boy! And a good one at that!" her remarks made her blush all the more intense and made her father feel all the more uneasy. It was then that her sister intervened.
"Onee-chan, please. Such things need their time…"
"Ehehe..." she chuckled, in response "Sorry, I couldn't help it. You can't deny I'm telling the truth, though!"
"I agree." Akiha added. In front of their remarks, Haruki couldn't help but gulp.
"And how is your life going now, Onee-chan?" Hisui asked. After all, one of the reasons behind her visit was her concern about her sister…
"Don't worry about me, Ane." Kohaku reassured "So far, so good." Her smile seemed sincere enough to put her sister's doubts at ease.
"Thank goodness..." she breathed, peacefully. Some concern still was in her, but she was still relieved that her beloved sister's life was going overall well, despite still being under Akiha's yoke.
After the chat, the family decided to take their leave.
"Ah, Sayaka." the heiress called the girl before she exited the door.
"Yes, Akiha-san?"
"Please send my love to Aokage-kun and Kuro, should you ever see them." she requested. She nodded in response, with a slight sadness behind her smile.
"Kazuki-kun..." she thought. Next time she would have met him, she would have most definitely said him hello on her behalf, but, most importantly, she knew she had to make sure that her voice could reach him.
With those thoughts, she left the Tohno Mansion with her family, waving goodbye to both Akiha and Kohaku, who saw them off with smiles.
Then, the heiress and her servant went back into the mansion.
"Akiha-sama..." Kohaku said "You seem quite concerned about Aokage-kun… To my eyes, at least."
"Your eyes don't deceive you." Akiha replied, with a serious expression. "He might not seem like it, but he is a very fragile boy..." Kohaku looked at her with wide eyes. It was hard to believe that her mistress had become so considerate of others, since then…
When Hisui decided to get out of the Mansion and make her own life outside of it, Akiha had shown no objection. It made Kohaku very happy to see that her beloved sister was allowed to live in the outside world and choose her own path, but still, she couldn't help but wonder why she had allowed that.
"Kohaku." Akiha remarked "You haven't asked your niece anything about Aokage-kun. Your sister had told you about how close they are, right?"
"Oh?" Her mistress' question knocked Kohaku out of her thoughts "Yes, she did tell me, Akiha-sama."
"You see, Kohaku..." Akiha said, with a grave expression "Yesterday I had come across a case of possession, and the young man helped me solve it…" She slightly hung her head, moving her gaze downwards. "We shared some words, which reminded me of how much he tends to make a fatal mistake: trying to keep himself away away others..." Kohaku listened carefully.
"Away from others…?" Kohaku stood in reflection for some time, her eyes lowering in thought before wandering back to her mistress. The heiress observed her servant's facial movements and was quick to read her thoughts.
"It seems you're thinking the same thing I am." she commented, with a faint smile. Kohaku was caught by surprise by her words. She wasn't supposed to be in such confidence with her mistress, given what she and her family had done to her…
But, she couldn't deny that many things had changed… They had begun changing about 17 years prior…
"Kohaku." Akiha said. "Would you mind terribly helping me out with dinner, later on?"
"N-Not at all, Akiha-sama." her servant replied. "What will you do now?"
"I will have a bath. Would you care to join me?" she asked cordially.
Kohaku nodded in response. Traces of slight disbelief could still be seen in her eyes, but her mistress ignored them.
"Wait right there. I'll ready the bath." Akiha said, before heading to the bathroom. While she made the preparations, her servant's thoughts wandered back to the day in which she could see her beloved sister escape from the clutches of the Tohno Family.
Akiha had called her servant Hisui in the hall. She had been acting strange, recently, and Akiha had decided to talk about the reasons of her unusual behavior. Unbeknownst to her, her sister Kohaku was in a nearby corridor, concealed by the shadows, silently listening to their conversation.
"Hisui." she began, with a serious expression on her face "What is the meaning of this? Lately, you've been out of the mansion for a lot of time, leaving your duties unattended more than once. What has gotten in your mind?" The young woman was listening at her mistress, with a stoic expression that hardly betrayed any emotion, but Akiha could swear that she could see a glint of fury in her teal eyes.
"Also..." she continued on "Lately, you've been acting strange around me… Is something bothering you? Does it have to do with that man, by any chance?" Her words spurred no immediate sensible reaction, but the heiress knew something was wrong.
"Inoue Haruki. That's his name, right?"
At those words, the emotions in Hisui's eyes seemed to grow more fierce, just as Akiha predicted. Out of curiosity, she made another question.
"Shall I take he has already… Touched you?"
Those words, along with the tone in which they were pronounced by the heiress, proved to be unsettling for her servant. She started to tremble. It was slight, but Akiha could notice it. In the corridor, her sister's hands clenched in fists, in rage.
"What are you intending to do, Akiha-sama?" she said, her emotion was betrayed by the slight waver of her voice. To that, her mistress reacted with a calm smile.
"Nothing, Hisui." she replied "Absolutely nothing. I demand an explanation from you. Nothing more." She kept looking at her, urging her to continue speaking. Hisui looked down, her emotion starting to break through.
"You're cruel, Akiha-sama..." she said, meekly.
"Excuse me?" she inquired, as calmly as ever. Her voice hardly contained any sign of resentment.
"Why do you wish to keep me here?" she continued on.
"I don't recall ever saying such a thing." Akiha replied, calmly. "Besides, I'm the one asking questions here, and my question for you is: what has sparked in you the wish of leaving? Is it just because of Haruki, or there's something else I don't know about?"
Hisui's hands, lying on her lap, gripped each other tightly.
"I… I can't stay here for all of my life..." she explained, in a low voice. "I've felt the wish to know how was the world outside of the mansion since a long time ago. At that time, I did use to think that the mansion was an immense world of itself, but curiosity never ceased to come biting at me, from time to time. The question in my mind was: Were there worlds other than this? Was there something else lying outside of that gate?"
"Please, do continue." Akiha spurred her servant to go on with her explanation.
"Back when I was little..." she continued. "I used to play with Shiki-sama, as I'm sure you remember. Whenever I was near him, whenever I played with him, I felt that he wasn't really from that environment… It was like…" she paused for a moment, in reminiscence, then continued. "It was like he carried echoes from a different world, beyond everything I knew. I could almost smell on him the scent of that world… Sometimes, we ended up gazing at that gate together, from a distance, wondering what was lying beyond it… He also tried to make you open up to the world, when you were the most enclosed among us, Akiha-sama..."
Hearing those words, Akiha's eyes moved downwards and her lip slightly quivered as memories struck her. Hisui was startled by her mistress' reaction. However, she managed to recompose herself fast enough.
"It's nothing, Hisui..." she reassured "Don't mind it, just go on." Hisui obliged, moving her eyes downwards as an expression of melancholy found its way on her features.
"I did let go of my dreams and drop my childhood fantasies, accepting to live here as a maid for the sake of Onee-chan..." Akiha found herself nodding. She didn't like the subject that was being touched in that instant, but no noticeable sign of it was to be seen on her. She was keeping her emotions in check.
"And then?" she spurred her servant to keep talking. Hisui, instead, found herself lingering on that memory… The dreadful moment when she learnt of her sister's torment at the hands of Makihisa Tohno…
"Back then..." Hisui kept lingering. Her insistence risked to hinder her mistress' composure, so she called her attention.
"I believe I told you to continue!" she tartly said. "Please, refrain from unnecessary reminiscence. We both know what happened back then, you may skip to our main focus." Hisui obliged.
"You never knew, and neither did I, but those fantasies and those dreams from my childhood never truly faded. In fact, Haruki awakened them once again..."
"He disclosed his knowledge of the outside world to you, correct?" Akiha asked. "I wouldn't expect nothing less from an avid reader such as him..."
"Yes…" Hisui slightly hung her head and a blush made its way on her face as she replied "That's it..."
"Hisui, I won't ask you anything about your relationship with Inoue Haruki." the heiress calmly said as she rose from her chair and walked to the window, gazing at the mansion's gardens. In fact, her servant's suitor had visited the mansion many times before that conversation and Akiha had taken her time in analyzing the man.
"Instead, what I will ask you is: do you have faith that you will find happiness after you step out of this mansion?"
Hisui slightly lowered her eyes and put her hands on her lap, before rising her gaze back to her mistress. Her mind was made up. Finally, she gave her reply.
"Maybe, if I had never met Haruki, it would never have come to this point..." she said "But now, I can clearly see a future for myself, and I have no intention of forsaking it. I want to give such a future to my sister as well..." Kohaku felt conflicted in hearing those words, the emotion threatening of being shown by her amber eyes in the form of tears. Akiha smiled a smile of melancholy while gazing at the gardens through the window.
"I'm glad you could talk to me like that, Hisui." she said, turning to her former servant. "If you really wish to build a life for yourself, I won't stop you. In fact, I encourage you to talk with your sister about it and bring her with you, if you can..."
Hisui's teal eyes widened in stupor and disbelief, and so did Kohaku's amber eyes, concealed by the shadows and the walls of the mansion. The heiress simply nodded, making it clear that she meant the words she had spoken. While Kohaku began walking away, her eyes still wide open, Hisui slowly got up from the chair she was sit on, a beautiful smile slowly blooming on her face like it never did for so many years. She bowed respectfully to her former mistress and began walking to her quarters, her pace gradually increasing.
Akiha's eyes went back to the gardens, a forlorn expression on her face. Kohaku, who had walked in one of the other rooms of the mansion, still had an expression of bewilderment and astonishment on her face because of what she had heard, yet she could feel sadness welling up in her.
"Kohaku!" Akiha's voice called from the bathroom, pulling the amber-eyed woman from her thoughts "Come, the water's ready."
"I'm coming!" she readily replied, heading to the bathroom. A smile made its way on her lips at the thought of how fate had been kind with her beloved sister, in the end.