"How did you meet Kouha and Kougyoku?" Aaltja said. "Oh and Koumei too."
Kayami paused in her cleaning to look over at Aaltja who was sitting on the bench at the end of her bed.
"What about Kouen?" Kayami asked lifting an eyebrow.
"The man himself told me how you met on our way back here though he never said your name which was odd..." Aaltja said with a frown.
Kayami sighed heavily and said, "That sounds like something he'd do actually so I'm not surprised." She put the sword cleaning kit away. "You sure? It's nothing special..."
"Yeah...I want to know how they were like as kids," Aaltja said. "Though I have a feeling that Kouha would be the same..."
"He might." Kayami said with a shrug and a mysterious smile.
She cleared her throat and started her story...
Kayami was walking through the Palace the next day, Kaisei was talking to the Emperor and had told her to explore the Palace so that she could get used to it (aka not get lost and he'd be forced to go looking for her whenever she wasn't with him). She wore a plain Ki robe and woven sandals, her black hair was pulled back into a bun by a plain thin red rope.
As she walked by a corridor, she heard voices and looked over to see a group of Kou nobles talking amongst themselves and looking towards the back area of the corridor in front of the them. Kayami followed their gaze and saw a small figure patting the head of a woman who was acting odd, her brown eyes narrowed as she took in the scene before her. It was obvious that the nobles were talking about the woman and child so she turned towards them and headed in the direction, she could see the child getting ready to attack them (if the look on the child's face was anything to go by). The child is the first to notice Kayami and narrowed their pink eyes at her, obviously waiting to see if she'd join the cruel adults instead the Ki girl moved to block the nobles view of the child and woman.
"Leave." Kayami said as she spread her arms wide, fixing a level stare at the nobles.
"Leave'?! A political hostage ordering around her captors?! How amusing!" One of the nobles said before he laughed.
Kayami narrowed her brown eyes at him and said, "You're no one to me so I do not have to be respectful to you." Their eyes widen, clearly not used to a child talking to them in such a manner. She doesn't talk like a child her age, her stare wasn't normal for a child either. "The only people I will obey is the royal family not some cowards who are only brave when they are bullying a child and woman."
The nobles gritted their teeth at her words before they turned and stormed off with the parting words of 'The Emperor will hear of this!', Kayami stared at them until they turned the corner before she lowered her arms and turned to face the child and woman.
"Are you okay?" Kayami asked.
The child stared up at her in shock while the woman next to him acted like a baby would, Kayami glanced at the woman before she moved towards her. Her path was immediately blocked by the child and now that Kayami had a closer look of the child it was obvious that it was a boy and a year younger than she was. And that he was very protective of his mother as well.
So Kayami simply smiled at him and said, "I'm Kayami Kishii, a Ki Princess." She slipped her hands into her wide sleeves and bowed respectfully.
The boy blinked before he looked at his mother and said, "...I'm Kouha's mother and this is Kouha." He patted the woman's hair as she cooed at him, Kayami doesn't react to it instead she kept her friendly smile. There were women like this back at her Clan's home so she was used to this sort of behavior.
"It's too cold for Kouha to be out here, I'll help you bring him inside." Kayami said with a smile as she moved forward once more, slowly and nonthreatening so Kouha could see that she meant neither him or his mother any harm.
"Thank you! You're such a sweet girl!"
So Kouha and Kayami somehow brought his mother back inside (she didn't know how since they were both shorties) and had gotten her on the bed. Kouha and Kayami were both sitting on either side of her, treating her like a baby. Kayami remembered a song that her mother used to sing to her so she started to sing it for Kouha's mother.
~Father once said to me. Many moons ago. A warrior's hand will defend.~ Kayami sang. ~Mother said one day. There is more that you must know. A maiden's hand will sustain.~ She felt the woman start to relax against her. ~Two hands together. Incomplete alone. Balance and union. And the gate will open~ Kayami ran her fingers through the woman's hair. ~Go my children go. Go to crimson flames. To save our children. The lights of memory remain.~ She trailed off on a low note, looking down at the woman and saw that she had fallen asleep.
"That was a lovely song." Kouha said with a smile.
"Thank you." Kayami smiled at him. "My mother used to sing it to me." She crawled off the bed before she turned around and patted Kouha's head, smiling. "I have to go but I promise to visit you and Kouha everyday."
Kouha beamed up at her, "Okay."
She smiled and waved before walking out of the room, and out of their part of the Palace. Kayami had wanted to talk to him as Kouha, not as 'his mother' but she didn't know him well enough to do that. She smiled at the thought of getting to know both boy and his mother better...
"...he sounds cute." Aaltja said as if surprised that she even thought a young Kouha would be cute.
Kayami laughed uproariously at that and said, "Yeah, hard to believe eh? But he was cute as a child...and more girlish looking too." She smiles at the memory. "Koumei was also pretty cute...gloomy but cute...oh and lazy too." Kayami giggles at a memory of how he acted when he first met Hakuren and Hakuyuu, it was pretty amusing to see Hakuren get into Koumei's 'sickness' and 'death'.
Aaltja snorted at that, agreeing with her though to the blonde he looked girlish even now.
"And now on to how I met Gyoku..."
Kayami was wandering around an area of the palace that didn't seem to get many traffic through it, which suited her just fine because she didn't want to deal with the nobles of the Kou Empire sneering at her and looking down at her...the latter wasn't really hard to do since she was small to begin with.
She ended up in front of a door and pushed it open, she blinked at the sight before her. There were handmade dolls and other scraps of fabric strewn all over the floor in the room. Kayami looked to her left when she saw movement from the corner of her eye and had seen a small, pink figure darting into the back room. She picked up one of the dolls and walked over there, making sure to make so that she doesn't surprise whoever it was that lived her.
"I'm sorry for entering without permission, I didn't know that there was someone here," Kayami said as she entered the back room and crouched down to peek under a table that was next to the doorway. Smiling when she saw that it was a young girl, with very messy red hair, that she had seen, she appeared to be a year younger than she was...and very shy too. She looked ready to run away so Kayami backed away a bit to give her some room, she didn't want to make her feel trapped.
"I'm Kayami Kishii, what's your name?" Kayami asked.
No response for a few, silent minutes then a soft whisper came from the girl, "...Kougyoku Ren..."
Tilting her head to the side, Kayami placed the doll that she had picked up next to her, happy that she got a response from her. "That's a well crafted doll...did you make it?" She wasn't going to ask questions that required a verbal response from the girl, she didn't want to make her even more nervous her then she already was.
Kougyoku nodded her head, she no longer looked like that she wanted to run away but Kayami stayed where she was.
"It's really pretty...you're really good at making dolls."
"...Thank you..." The young girl finally looked at Kayami and smiled at her.
"KAYAMI!"
Kougyoku jolted at the loud voice and darted under her bed, quivering in fear.
Kayami let's out a loud sigh and said, "Thanks a lot, Kaisei...I was just making progress with her." She stands up and straightens her clothing. "Sorry, Gyoku...Kaisei may be loud but he isn't scary." Kayami waits for a few minutes to see if she'll respond or get out from under the bed but nothing happened with she shrugged with a small smile. "Okay then I got to go but I'll try to visit you later, Gyoku! Bye!"
She turns to leave but stops when she feels a tug on her sleeve, "Hm?" Kayami looks over her shoulder and sees Kougyoku standing there, holding the doll that Kayami had first picked up with the hand that wasn't holding her sleeve.
"Hm? Are you giving that to me?"
A nod.
"Are you sure?"
Another nod.
"Thanks!"
Kayami takes it with a smile and pats Kougyoku's head in an affectionate manner, which surprised the girl who jerked away from her.
"Whoops, sorry..." Kayami laughs while rubbing the back of her head.
"...No, it's okay...I didn't mind..."
She blinks in surprise before she smiles widely and does it again, "Good! Well, I have to go now but I'll make sure to visit you later! Bye, Gyoku!" Kayami turns and run out of the room, leaving Kougyoku alone in her room.
The young girl looks around her room for a few minutes before finding what she had been looking for: unused fabrics...she will make two new dolls now! One will look like that unexpected visitor, that girl, while the other one would look like Kougyoku...
"Do you have the dolls?"
Kayami stood up and walked over to a chest where she unlocked it and opened it, she reached in and pulled out said dolls. One looked just like her when she was younger but both dolls looked well-taken care of.
She walked over to Aaltja and showed it to her, "Here...my two greatest treasures. I keep it hidden." Kayami smiled fondly at them before she offered them to Aaltja to take.
"It's well made..." Aaltja said impressed as she looks it over.
"Yes...she was always alone so she learned how to make dolls." Kayami said softly.
Aaltja noticed a change in her tone and looked up to see that the older girl had a serious look on her face. She didn't understand but it was obvious that the reason was Kougyoku left alone was something that Kayami didn't like.
The blonde handed the dolls back and said, "You have such a history with them and had formed a level of trust with them...but how can you trust me who you have just met? You know nothing about me."
Kayami took the dolls and put them on her bed as she looked at Aaltja and said, "Do I need to know you well-enough to trust you? We had already opened to each other yesterday but I didn't do it because I trusted you...I did it because I have this feeling that you and I will be great friends." She smiled gently at Aaltja who just stared at her in surprise.
This girl was weird...she wasn't like any other girls that the blonde knew, not even the ones here in the Kou Empire that she had meet in passing. Kayami was the only one who never once looked at Aaltja like she was a dirty savage or curled her lip at the clothes she wore, in fact she never once said anything about her clothing.
"You got the same look on your face as Koumei when he thinks I am acting weird..." Kayami said in a thoughtful manner as she looked at Aaltja.
"!" Aaltja jerked in surprise. "Heh, you get that a lot I take it?"
"You'll be surprised on how often he gives me that look...Kouen gives me the same look too actually." Kayami said with a smirk.
Aaltja tried to picture Kouen giving Kayami such a look but she just couldn't picture it, he just looked too weird and funny. Kayami noticed that she was trying hard not to laugh but she didn't comment on it instead she started to talk to her about random things, like everyday Kou life.
"Oh, I know that I told you to make something up if you should ever met the Empress's Magicians but what I really meant was to smash them with that hammer of yours." Kayami said out of the blue during a silence in their conversation.
Aaltja just stared at her silently for a few minutes before she nodded her head in agreement and said, "...okay." She thought about what she had said about the two of them being great friends and Aaltja couldn't help but agree though she didn't say it out-loud after all she was planning on leaving.