All day Bankotsu and Masami worked in the blazing sun, fixing the shrine that they had damaged during their battle the previous night.
Bankotsu jumped off the roof that he had been fixing. Masami was cleaning out the courtyard of all the debris.
"Hey, Masami, how about we go out and get some wood from the forest? That would make things a lot faster, because we wouldn't have to keep fixing everything. We could just start new," he stated.
Her beautiful silver moon-eyes widened. "Ah, why don't we just use everything we have here? So we don't waste the wood," her voice shook.
Bankotsu knew something was up. He stared at her, then said nonchalantly, "Well, alright, if you say so. It is your shrine."
She nodded and quickly walked to another corner of the courtyard and proceeded in sweeping.
What's going on with her? What's she hiding?
He sighed. Besides the having to figure out what she's hiding, he still has to convince her to join him.
Bankotsu glanced at her. Her long dark blue hair glistened in the daylight. She really is beautiful . . .
He brought his gaze to her face; to his astonishment Masami looked deeply sad. His heart nearly broke to see the face of such exquisiteness be drawn down in lines of sorrow.
He unwillingly looked away from her and jumped back on the roof to continue hammering nails into the roof tiles.
The hot sun burned Bankotsu's skin. He was sweating and exhausted, it was about time to break it in.
"Bankotsu, I have dinner ready if you want to come in," Masami called from the ground. Right on queue.
"Yeah, I'll be right down," he shouted back. Bankotsu wiped the sweat off his face and slid off the roof.
Standing near where he landed, Masami waited patiently for Bankotsu to follow her inside.
The mouthwatering scent of cooked foods lofted from inside the shrine. "Damn, what are you cooking in there, Masami, that smells so good?"
She smiled coyly, "Cooked, past tense, Bankotsu. I made you some salmon and some other assorted foods."
He walked inside to find the meal set and ready to eat. Bakotsu sat down eagerly and started digging in.
A loud laughing echoed through the shrine.
Bankotsu looked up with food still on his face and in his mouth. Masami was laughing, and it looked as if she had forgotten her grace. Her face showed an emotion, which was rare for her.
She wiped a tear that had formed from her laughing so hard. "I'm sorry, it-it's just so funny. You eating like that, with food flying everywhere . . . and-and, with your face stuffed . . . ," she exploded into another burst of laughter.
Bankotsu smiled. It was good to know that she can let herself free near him . . . and he was glad that Masami looked happy.
His heart lurched at how joyful she looked.
He loved to see her smile and laugh, and right then and there he made a vow. He vowed to make her be happy as much as possible.
xXxXxXx
A week had gone by now, and Bankotsu and Masami had finished fixing up the shrine.
Bankotsu yawned and rolled out of bed. The sun shone through the sliding doors on the courtyard side.
Still in his night robe, he flung open the courtyard doors.
The otherside shone with the beauty of the new spring.
A surge of dark blue hair shimmered on the fountain. Masami sat there, gazing at the sky. Her shimmering moon eyes shifted to Bankotsu, "Good morning. Were your dreams pleasant?"
He ran his fingers through his raven hair. All of the dreams he had had consisted of glistening kimonos and sparkling sliver eyes. "They were very pleasant."
She smiled, "Good." Masami looked Bankotsu up and down.
The night rob he wore had slid over his shoulder just enough to see his muscular collar bone. This man really is something.
Masami realized that Bankotsu hadn't brought up the assassination group all week. Maybe he dropped it, or maybe he had decided to just kill her. The latter she hoped she was wrong the think.
Bankotsu smiled and looked up, "Fine day, isn't it?"
Masami smiled with him, "Yes, it is." No, he wouldn't kill her. If her guess is right Bankotsu is very stubborn and won't give up until he gets his way. So he should keep trying to persuade her—but then why hadn't he brought it up?
Masami hoped with all her heart that he wouldn't ever bring it up again and would leave her on good terms.
No, that's not what she hoped for—She hoped he wouldn't bring it up again and he would stay here with her on good terms. Masami is lonely, after all.
It had been years since anyone other than herself had lived in the shrine. Her mother had lived here with her until Masami turned ten, then she had "gone off to roam other places and to see more sights," or so her mother had said.
Leaving Masami all alone to fend against the demons and humans who came to seek out the shrine selfishly. It was true that even then she was powerful, but it was hard to control her powers.
Her aura flowed freely, reacting to her emotions. If Masami was happy her aura would make everything grow around her and make her float inched above the ground, if she was sad the aura would kill everything in a ten foot radius to her, and if she was mad the aura would explode things around her.
Masami grew tired of the constant cycle, so she slowly got rid of her emotions. The Masami on the surface was formal and calm, the Masami underneath was blank.
Masami stayed empty until she turned sixteen when she was looking through some books in the shrine and stumbled upon an old scroll.
The scroll told a story of how the night and the moon came to be together.
For a very long time the night and the moon argued about who was more important, the night or the moon. The night was needed so creatures could sleep, but the moon was needed to provide light in the time of darkness. They argued and argued, until a compromise was made.
The compromise said that there would be a shrine just for the moon, and in return the night would get extraordinary powers. Except the night would have to send a representative down to earth to get the powers, and that representative would have to protect the shrine. The night would also get amazing beauty.
The only way the moon would agree to let the night have beauty and power was if the night would not be able to leave the shrine and every time a new child is born into the family it will have to take the blessing and curse when they turn ten.
And so the great Treaty of the Camille was made.
The first human night was born inside the moon shrine. She was a girl with explicit beauty. Every movement described her as the night, but the moon wanted her name to be Tsikiko. The night said that that's not right, if she's like the night name her Yoi.
During this whole feud the star had sat there and had to watch his two closest friends fight. Now that the two were fighting over the stupidest things, like the name, he decided to take action.
At the time the child was ten and her powers were flowing around freely. Her powers of the divine were actually her own aura. Being her aura the power reacted to all her emotions, both happy and sadness.
Seeing this problem and the problem of the child being nameless the star put the two together.
One night the star snuck around the night and the moon and whispered into the girl's ear, "Your name is Hoshi." This name meant star, and it also was the activating word to a spell the star had worked the other night.
The spell would lock all her powers in her third eye, making the third eye shift form into a purple four pointed star. The third eye and powers could only be called upon when the owner of third eye concentrated. This seal would be passed down in every generation of the mortal night, so this problem would never arise again.
When the night and the moon heard about it though they got angry. They had wanted to name the mortal night, not the star.
So to get back at the star they broke the seal. The only way star could fix it was if he put the seal back on and made all the children in the night's human family tree discover the seal themselves. They would then have to activate the spell with the keyword, but they would have to find out the keyword on their own.
The night and the moon did not know this or that the mortal night had no control over their powers without the spell. So they left future generations to figure out it themselves.
Masami had been so happy when she found all of this. She had thought that she finally had a way to control her aura. Masami had quickly whispered the word "Hoshi".
She didn't feel any different, but as days went by she noticed nothing reacting to her emotions. It had worked! Except, she couldn't access her powers.
One night Masami concentrated on her third eye, to see if that was how she could access her powers. It worked.
Now Masami had complete control over her powers. She even learned spells to voice so she could direct her powers to do certain things.
It was all great, until she realized she had no one to share it with. No one to share her joy with.
It had been many years since her mother left, and she had been alone all that time. It felt wonderful to finally have company. Masami didn't want Bankotsu to ever leave.