03

calm, she thinks, as she folds into a bow, naked and shivering. she keeps her eyes on the ground, even as she hears his footsteps descend from the dais, even when she feels his rough, callused hand scrape across her shoulders, feels his soul probe her own. her breathing is even, but inside her clenched fists, blood wells from the places where the nails pierce the skin.

"She'll do," he says, and it's all she can do not to scream.

01

his breathing is ragged. she's glad it's dark, because she doesn't have to see the tears slipping from his raw red eyes.

"Tsubaki," he begins, and he has to stop because his voice is swallowed by a sob.

"Tsubaki," he repeats, and now his voice is steadier. "Be strong."

"Yes," she says, and then they're hugging each other tightly and through her own tears she's whispering it'll be okay it'll be okay it'll be okay and she wants so desperately to believe it, to pretend that Masamune isn't going to become the instrument of one of the most despicable men the world has known.

They hold each other for a long time, until the sun filters through the slats in their wooden cage and they come to take him away.

04

it's impossible. She can't just kill her brother. She can't just feel his lifeblood, hot and wet and sticky, coat her blades, can't just hear his awful gurgling screams and stay in weapon form and do nothing. Her body shakes but she doesn't cry, because she can feel his hot ragged breath in her ear, whispering be strong be strong be strong.

Do as we say, her new meister replies to that, and we won't kill your father.

She curls into an even tighter ball and ponders this impossible dilemma.

06

They've finished training for the day and they're sitting by the water trough. Black*Star's hair is sopping wet to match his shirt.

"Your brother killed an entire village, did you know that?"

It's the first time he's spoken to her in a normal voice. Tsubaki doesn't look at him, but the news is like a punch to the gut.

"We have to kill him, for their sake if not ours."

She chances a glance at him. The loud, arrogant, self-centered Black*Star, thinking about the safety of others?

He sits back and laces his fingers together behind his head. "Your choice."

Tsubaki swallows. There's no sound but the birds twittering in the trees, but inside her swords crash and clang against each other, threatening to drive her mad.

he's a monster now

he'll always be a monster, an eater of human souls

he killed innocents

he consumes their souls

monster

monster

monster

Somehow, Tsubaki doesn't cry when she looks Black*Star full in the face.

"I'll do it," she says.

He smiles.

02

she

can't

stop

crying.

it's like

she's going

to fall

apart, because she

cannot believe

(except that she can, she can, she could hear it in his voice hear the fury hear the hate hear the madness bubbling just beneath the surface. her brother always had a temper, a strong sense of justice)

that he would break free and

kill innocents

(and leave her behind to die)

the door of her lonely stone cell clangs open and a figure is there, silhouetted in the torchlight. a guard. Without a word he comes forward and grabs her arm, lifting her to her feet. Involuntarily, she cries out, because his gauntleted grip is harsh and she can feel her skin break and twist. "You're coming with me," he says, and she's still crying when they leave the cell.

08

he swallows the soul and smacks his lips. Tsubaki shudders.

"You should stop doing that," she tells her meister. "It's wrong."

"Why would it be wrong?" He sounds genuinely curious. "The strong eat the weak. That's the way it works."

"But they're people! With lives and dreams and fears, just like you!"

"The mighty Black*Star fears nothing," he says dismissively. "Weak humans do, though. That's why we've got to eat them. They'll be happier as a part of this."

Tsubaki lets her disgust show on her face.

"You act like you're so high and mighty," Black*Star says scornfully. "I know what the Nakatsukasa Clan does. Selling yourselves to whoever happens to have enough money, now that's downright shameful. But human souls pave the way to might and glory."

"Power doesn't necessarily equal might or glory," Tsubaki says.

"Oh, really? What do you know that we don't?"

"Compassion, for one."

He mulls it over. "Compassion is for fools," he says.

"Compassion is for humans."

"So you're saying I'm not human?"

"Yes!"

He grins, revealing sharp shark's teeth, star-pupiled eyes crinkling. "You're right, Nakatsukasa. I'm not human at all!"

05

his touch is wrong.

She has to swallow down her revulsion and concentrate on matching her wavelength to his, even though its very feel makes her want to vomit. To distract herself she thinks about her home in the mountains, thinks about her father, thinks about her brother, who

burst into a school and killed the children, all the children

always asked her what she wanted to play, but (and she regrets it now) she would always stick with something that she knew he liked to do.

His arm moves, quicker than a normal human's she can't help but think, and her blade slams against the opponent's sword.

At first, he couldn't hold her, because every time he tried to pick her up she would burn his fingers, even when wearing gloves. This irritated him greatly and so of course he had her whipped for her insolence. Two days later, back oozing and burning, she'd transformed and with all her might tried to match her wavelength to his. When he picked her up his hands held on, and his manical cackles had filled the air.

Now they practice like this every day, with each of her five incarnations. She no longer gives him any trouble (or says anything at all) because the whip and worse things keep her in line.

07

"I was going to have a brother," Black*Star tells her. "But he died when he was born."

Tsubaki wonders how different her life would be if that had happened to Masamune, but she immediately banishes the thought. "I'm sorry," she says instead, and Black*Star snorts. "I'm not. There's only room for one prince in this family."

She's in ninja sword mode right now. He flashes across the clearing, driving her point into the dry scratchy skin of the straw dummies.

"Do you ever think about the souls you eat?" The words are out of her mouth before she can stop them. She cringes, expecting him to stop, fling her away, make her revert to human form so he can make her hurt, but he does none of those things. He just makes a small noise in the back of his throat as he slashes. "Sometimes," he says.

She plunges on. "Don't you regret it?"

She can feel a bolt of anger flash through his soul, and this terrifies her. Suddenly their wavelengths are out of sync and Black*Star drops her, palm singed by the contact. Before she hits the ground, she's human again, legs tangling in her kimono as she skids in the dirt. She curls into a ball, bracing herself for the kicking she knows is coming.

For endless moments, she waits. Do it! she wants to scream.

When he touches her shoulder, she gasps and flinches. She opens her eyes to see him looking away from her, hand extended as if to help her up.

"Sorry," he tells her. "I shouldn't have gotten angry."

She can't believe what she's seeing. Hesitantly, she takes the offered arm and lets him help her to her feet.

"I just figure," he tells her, the words halting, abrupt, "that if we're going to fight together we might as well be friends."

Friends.

She is thrown off by his proposition, her mind gone blank. For a long time she can only stare at him and then anger begins to cloud her mind, hot and heady. "You had me whipped!" Her nails dig bloody crescents into her palms. "You enslaved my brother! You caused him to go mad, you tore my family apart, you destroyed my home and everything I've ever held dear and you want to be my friend?!" Her voice has risen to a scream and she stares at him, muscles tense, body shaking. "I am the daughter of the Nakatsukasa Clan, a person, not a tool to be abused and discarded at your whim!"

He raises a hand, as if to hit her. Let him, Tsubaki thinks savagely. That will mean I'm right.

His arm hangs quivering in the air for a few long moments, but eventually it lowers. For a long time they stare at each other. Cold fury burns behind his eyes, and Tsubaki has to swallow her fear and meet it blow for blow, until she sucks in a sharp breath and admits defeat, her eyes dropping to the ground. She trembles slightly in dreadful anticipation of the scourging almost certainly in store. But when she looks up, she sees him walking away, back towards the palace instead of shouting for guards to tie her up and show her what it means to anger the great Prince Black*Star.

10

"You what?"

White*Star's voice is calm, but Tsubaki can hear the barely-controlled anger just beneath the surface, see it in the way the veins on his arms and forehead suddenly stand out. She swallows. This was a bad idea, but there was no making Black*Star see reason.

"I said I don't fucking want to be a part of this thing anymore. It's wrong, the way you eat the souls of humans. That's not what power's supposed to be."

White*Star rises fluidly, sword in hand. "And to prove that, you let Sanjuro Nakatsukasa go free?!"

Tsubaki doesn't need Black*Star's whispered command. She's already in his hands, blades sharp and ready.

"It's her, isn't it," says White*Star, a mocking edge creeping into his voice. "The bitch filled your soft, weak head with lies."

"Tsubaki," says Black*Star, his voice ominously low, "is a person, not a bitch." And with a wild yell he launches himself at his father, and for Tsubaki the next few minutes are a furious blur of blood and steel and grunts. It's all she can do to keep up with White*Star's furious, unpredictable attacks, all she can do to fend off his sword, which hurts her (how can it do something like that?) every time they clash. She can sense Black*Star's exhaustion, feel his attacks getting wilder and sloppier. His father is the better warrior, she can see it clearly now, and it's only a matter of time

she's clattering to the ground and White*Star's sword is arcing towards him and she knows what's going to happen so she

transforms and can't help but gasp because

the metal's so cold in her belly.

"TSUBAKI!" he cries and his voice is red and raw. I'm fine, she wants to tell him, but she knows that would be a lie.

"I'LL KILL YOU!" he screams at his father, and so he does, a brutal punch of pure soul wavelength straight to the heart.

09

she supposes that she feels some affection and loyalty towards her wild-haired meister. He's a hard worker and very dedicated and somehow he treats her more gently now. Maybe it's because they've been inside each other's souls and Tsubaki has seen that he's not bad, not yet.

"I'm sorry," she tells him when they're lying on their backs together under the cherry tree.

"For what?"

"My harsh words."

"Nah, don't be. I needed a slap in the face."

"Literal or metaphorical?"

"Both."

"I agree," she says, and they look at each other and smile.

"I'm the one who should be sorry, though," he says, grin fading. He takes her hand. "Can you forgive me?"

She takes a deep breath and swallows and thinks of her brother's heart tearing itself to pieces on her blade. But then she remembers his smiles and awkward kindness and conversation, his impulsiveness and recklessness and the sheer energy that makes him up and she realizes that she'd forgiven him a long time ago, and so she tells him so.