"I'm sorry, Reisi, " she whispered. " But I love him; I've always loved him. "
Those words drove the final nail into the coffin that was the love he'd felt for Miyuki Hizamaru. Without a word, the young man turned on his heel and left the apartment where he'd caught her, and his once close friend, Mitsuo Shokichi together.
The ring that he'd bought for her this morning was still in his pocket, but he knew that he didn't need it anymore; he also knew that it would be a waste if he threw it in the river.
Less than an hour later, he left the shop that he'd sold the ring to, the money that he'd gotten from selling it in his wallet. Although selling the ring that he'd intended to present to Miyuki after proposing marriage to didn't take away the pain of her betrayal with Mitsuo, it felt therapeutic since he knew that the day would come when someone else would purchase it with the same hopes and dreams that he himself had until earlier.
Hopefully, that person would not be betrayed the way he had been.
They had been friends since middle school, and that only made their betrayal of his trust even worse.
Reisi Munakata couldn't help that he was different from other people around him. From the time that he was a child, he had sensed the gap between himself and other children his age, and although it helped him handle those who had tried to bully him for it with relative ease, it had also made him feel isolated; even his own family had considered him strange, the same with several other adults he had interacted with.
He met Miyuki Hizamaru and Mitsuo Shokichi in middle school, and from the moment he'd met the girl with the light brown hair, and gray eyes, he had been smitten with her. He became friends with them after they had been placed in the same group for journalism class, and Miyuki had praised his eloquence in his submitted article, while Mitsuo had handled the designs for the class paper.
They had seemed to accept him despite his odd way of standing out – like a black wolf among domestic puppies, and for the first time, Reisi Munakata had felt that he fit somewhere in this world.
Reisi and Miyuki had started their relationship in their last year of senior high school, and he had thrown himself totally into it, and his studies at the university.
And yet, he hadn't seen what was right in front of him.
He hadn't seen that the two people he loved most alongside his family had stabbed him in the back until it was too late.
On the morning of the discovered betrayal, Reisi had seen the ring that he thought was perfect for Miyuki Hizamaru in the window of a jewelry store that he was passing while taking a shortcut to the university, and had decided to purchase it. He had decided earlier that he would ask her to marry him, and the ring seemed the perfect complement to it.
Reisi had gone through the day with the intended proposal at the back of his mind as he attended his assigned classes, and lectures, the end of the day slow in coming.
There had obviously been a reason for it.
Upon arriving at the apartment that Miyuki Hizamaru was renting, he used the spare key that she had given him to unlock the door.
Giving him the key had been her biggest mistake.
When Reisi Munakata walked in on the sight of Miyuki Hizamaru and Mitsuo Shokichi together on the couch, obviously after a bout of passion, his world collapsed on him, and their betrayal had shown on his face when they realized that he had caught them in the act.
Munakata hadn't said a word, only stared at them with eyes as cold as the sky over the sky over the North Pole during a blizzard.
And yet, damningly enough, they hadn't shown any signs of remorse for their actions; in fact, the woman who had only a few moments ago been the one he wanted to marry obviously thought that her confession that she had loved the man she had stabbed him in the back with justified her actions, filling Reisi Munakata with disgust too intense for words.
When he arrived home following the episode of betrayal, his mother was the first to notice the change in him; where he had once been " apart " but somewhat innocent, he was now aloof and hardened, his heart almost as cold as ice.
None of them asked him what had happened to his intended marriage proposal; it was written all over his face, his explanation of what had happened filled in the gaps, and answering many unanswered questions.
He focused entirely on his studies after that, never attempting to communicate with the traitorous pair, and when he was offered a two year scholarship on a student exchange program to London, England barely three weeks later, he took the offer without blinking.
It hadn't come as a surprise to his parents and his brother that he had taken the offer; in their opinion, time away from everything that had happened would help heal the wounds that had cut deep enough to freeze his heart from within.
When Reisi left for London, his wounds eventually began to heal, although in his letters and emails to his family, he never asked about Miyuki Hizamaru and Mitsuo Shokichi because he had decided from the moment that he'd realized that everything had been a lie that they were no longer a part of his life.
Yes, they had wounded him with their betrayal, but at the same time, but the world did not revolve around them.
He would not allow them to destroy him.
He was on his way back from London when they plane he was aboard was hijacked, and almost crashed.
It was also where he met Seri Awashima.
Taking charge immediately after disarming the hijackers, he'd felt the surge of power from the Dresden Slates that told him that he had been chosen as the new Blue King, the fourth of the Seven Kings, and saw his Sword of Damocles form for the first time; although he had never heard of the Seven Clans until then, the knowledge imparted upon his appointment was enough to give him another reason to hold his head high.
Upon safely landing the plane, he had immediately made his way to the Tokyo Legal Affairs Bureau, Civil Registry Department, Annex 4 , also known as Scepter 4 Headquarters.
The Blue Clan's official base of operations.
While he was away, he had heard of the inevitable fall of the Gold Clan for their atrocities against " special foreigners " on the news, and from his family; headlines had also termed the said crimes as " Crimes Against Humanity ".
His arrival had been anticipated by the people working at the said headquarters after they had seen his Sword of Damocles form earlier, but they had obviously been unnerved by his presence since he had made it clear that he did things according to his own rules, and cared nothing for being anyone's lackey.
The fact that he did not intend to bow down to the Gold Clan, and would not hesitate to bring them down further than they had already sunk after their crimes were exposed also warned them that he was a dangerous opponent.
Reisi Munakata had a lot of work ahead of him when he became the Blue King, and although there were times that the odds seemed against him, he was able to overcome them, and mold Scepter 4 the way it should be. The various people he'd recruited each had a unique individuality was what gave the Blue Clan the strength it needed during times of adversity.
Although some cases were unusual ( like when he had offered Saruhiko Fushimi the chance to join despite being a member of the Red Clan, HOMRA ), and his decisions baffled many of those around him, the Blue King stood firm in what he believed in, never bothering to explain himself.
He watched the clouds gathering in the night sky, preceding the arrival of the storm over the horizon.
His expression never betrayed the thoughts running through his mind, any more than his violet eyes gave them away, and that was lent a lot of mystery to the new Blue King.
Just like the impending storm outside his window, he knew that there was a storm coming.
A storm that involved the survival of two young Strains whose lives were taken from them by the Gold Clan's greed, and their mad doctor's ambition.
Amira Arashikage would fight to the end to protect Anna Kushina from Koshi Mizuchi's crazed, sadistic daughter, and her right to live without having to keep looking over her shoulder, Munakata knew.
Considering what was in her file, he knew that she was more than a match for any killer sent to put her down, but at the same time, he couldn't help but feel somewhat protective of the young Strain, and he knew that it wasn't only because she had saved his life. Yes, her Strain abilities, and surviving the traumatic events that brought her world crashing down where a grown up might have lost his or her mind had also caught his eye, but at the same time, she intrigued him on a much deeper level…
A killer and a healer, intelligent but naïve, an avenging angel and an emotionally scarred child.
Those were the only words he could think of to describe the Strain whom he'd met but twice, but the way she caught his interest was different….