A Path To Freedom [Oumasai]

The stranger

     I jump at the strangers touch, and without thinking I turn around to look at them. I had been scared of the stranger's intent since I was already on edge, but when I turned around to look at them any suspicions of them being bad ceased from my mind.

I saw a girl with sparkling pink eyes in front of me. She had her pure blonde hair tied back into an elegant bun with pink piano clips holding her hair back from her eyes.

She softly smiled sweetly at me. "Are you looking for him?" She asked me, with a soft voice. My face twists in confusion. "Um, who?" I say confused.

"Oh, my apologies! I didn't even introduce myself!" She exclaims quickly, without answering my question. "My names Kaede Akamatsu." She informed me.

The name rings a bell to me. I believe her parents are part of royalty in a nearby area to where I live.

"Ah, I'm Shuichi Saihara." I say, realizing I haven't introduced myself yet.

She nods at me.

Oh, maybe she already knew that. I guess everyone already knows my name. Still, I don't think it hurt to introduce myself.

"So have you never been here before?" She asks me curiously. "Uh, not too much." I say, unsure of how to respond to her.

"Then allow me to show you around!" She offers. She pauses a few moments before continuing. "Of course I don't live here, but I have visited with my family quite a few times."

Though I'm not very concerned about where she lives, she seemed to make it clear that she didn't live here. I shrug and decide to take up her offer, forgetting about her words.

"Alright!" She thoughtfully looks around. "Hm, where to start..?" She asks herself. I stand there waiting for her to make up her mind.

As I wait I decide to look around to see what there is. We are standing on a stone path that looked old and about to fall apart. There were small cracks in it and moss was running across some of the stones.

Some trees are surrounding us as well. They loom over us, casting a dark shadow upon us. I actually wouldn't mind to stay standing here like this, but since I already took up Kaede's offer it's too late for that.

After a few more minutes Kaede seems to have made up her mind. "Okay, follow me!" She says grabbing my hand and dragging me behind her. Even if I didn't want to follow her, I have no choice since I'm being dragged behind her like an animal on a leash.

Once we get to the area she wished to show me, I stand there in amazement. There's a large flowing river that glistened as the sun shined upon it.

Kaede noticed my expression of awe, and said, "It's nice isn't it?" I just nodded, still watching the peaceful flow of the river.

"So what do you think of it here?" She asks me curiously.

I narrow my eyebrows and think about her question, but I'm not sure about what she's talking about.

"What do you think of The Town?" She clarifies.

"Hm.." I think about her question for a while. The Town in general seems to be a good place for the most part, but whatever the guillotine thing is about, I'm definitely not for that.

"Well, I've never really been here that much, but from what I've seen The Town seems alright.." I awkwardly smile at her. She seems to be somewhat fond of The Town, so I wouldn't want to say anything offensive about it to her anyway.

She seemed satisfied with my answer, and nodded at me. "Yeah, The Town is quite a nice place to spend time at."

My mind goes back to the guillotine, and I realize that now is the perfect time to ask her about what's going on.

"Uhm, hey." I start off, unsure of how to ask her about this.

"Yes?" She eagerly looks up at me, ready to answer. "Uh, what's up with the guillotine thing? I mean, if you know about it that is." I stumbled upon my words a bit. "My mom told me that there'd be a beheading..?" I tell her, slowly realizing how little sense I was making.

If she doesn't know what I'm talking about, then I'll just sound like a straight up crazy person. I start to become embarrassed at my words before, now regretting that I had said them entirely. Maybe I should've worded that differently..

"So it is true!" Kaede said in awe. "Huh?" I ask her confused. "What's true?"

She smirks at me. "You've never been to a beheading!"

"No..?" I say, confirming her suspicions.

Is it normal to attend beheadings? Whys she acting like I'm the odd one for not ever being to one? If it's so normal, then wouldn't my parents have told me about it before?

All of these questions just bubble up in my head while Kaede giggles at my confused expression.

"Haha, you're weird Shuichi."

My face flushes pink with embarrassment. "What? How am I the weird one here?"

"You've seriously never been to a beheading!"

"No?" I say, the same answer I had as before.

"Well why didn't you say so? Let's go get you prepared for it!" She exclaims excitedly, already dragging me away from the river.

I sigh, as I follow her begging to feel overwhelmed by everything that's happened in the span of just a few hours.

She drags me back to where we were before, and guides me over to a small park bench where we both sit down at.

She smooths out the ruffles of her pink dress and signals for me to sit down beside her. I do as told, and watch Kaede's facial expression change. She holds a look of confusion. "Hmm, where shall I begin?"

"So you've really never been to a beheading before.." She remarks to herself. I just nod, having already answered her question before.

"Um, so what happens at a beheading?" I ask, steering her in the correct direction of explaining to me what exactly is happening.

"Oh, right." She takes a second to first respond. "Basically a beheading is where someone is executed for committing some kind of high level crime." She explains.

Some relief rushes through me. At least we weren't murdering innocent people. But what kind of crimes did these people commit? What is exactly considered a high level crime?

My head swirls with questions, but I stay silent as Kaede continues explaining.

"Though I'm not sure why you haven't ever attended a beheading yet. But it is a very special occasion! We have to get you properly dressed for today!"

Though it seems like a bad idea to be embracing whatever this "beheading" is, I can't help but not want to rip the smile off the girls face that's standing in front of me at this moment.

So I just nod once again, and let her lead the way to wherever we're heading next.

YEAH, i did add Kaede into the story what r u gonna do about it 🤨🤨⁉️👺👺

also happy spring break if ur on it mines been absolute shit 👩‍❤️‍💋‍👩