SUBMIT

24

        "It's bad manners to not introduce yourself when meeting someone for the first time."

"We have known each other for a long time, Tengen."

The pioneer of Jujutsu Sorcerers hummed as he turned around, coming in contact with a young, floating woman. Her black hair was sleek and long, her eyes a shining silver that seemed to pool around her pupil, and a glittering headpiece. Of course, that face, eternally youthful, was one that he could never forget as time passed.

"You're brave to come here alone," He paused as if in thought, although both of them knew that his awareness of the land he owned had long given him foresight to her arrival. Menreiki crossed her arms, letting exasperation grace her face, "You let me get this close to you on your own volition. Tell me what you want from me? Are you going to try to seal me away?"

Tengen nodded his head, "You also came to me, knowing that I could control this space, didn't you? We both took a risk that needed us to put our lives on the line."

As he started to walk to his right, Menreiki chose to keep the distance between them, floating to her right to stay away. When he stopped, so did she as she looked over Tengen's appearance. She hummed, tilting her head to the side, "You look less . . . human."

"I am less human than when you last saw me, yes, old friend," Tengen replied with a slight chuckle. He had long gotten over the fact that he could not retain his human features and appearances, becoming more of a curse than the one before him. He found it quite funny that she was a curse with a human appearance and he used to be a human with now cursed features. In fact, Tengen seemed to have noticed a minute change within her person.

What it was, he didn't have a clue, but there was something off about her besides the absence of her masks.

Menreiki twisted a lock of her hair on her index finger, "So, does that make me more human than you . . . old friend?"

Tengen hummed in thought before opting not to answer, only gesturing with his hands to the side as if presenting a new topic, "To see the Great Menreiki . . . it's truly an honor again. I've always wanted to speak to you in more civil manners. About things that have seemed a bit confusing to me."

"The wise Tengen would never want to speak to a curse like Menreiki," She said, her eyelids lifting to stare upon him with a suspicious look glazing her eyes. "There is nothing that I can tell you that can alleviate your confusion."

"No? When it is you that is causing me to feel that way, I was hoping that you would have some answers for me."

"Even if I did have any, I wouldn't speak of it to you."

"Not even for whatever it is that you're looking for?"

Menreiki's lips twitched upwards, tight and unmoving as she comprehended his words. Her facial features were oddly polite with the small simper on her face and her hands tucked into her lap as she floated in place. Her eyelashes fluttered up and down as she blinked, as if trying to fully comprehend his words. But it only served to showcase disharmony in how she presented herself and her mind; one that wished not to give into Tengen, and how she simply wished for the simple object she came for.

But her desire eventually came to overpower her own disliking to the Master of all Sorcerers, and she gingerly scratched her cheek with her index finger, "You have it? The book?"

"The book made by Kunitake?" Tengen nodded his head. "Of course I have it. I'm willing to give it to you for a price."

Menreiki searched the man's unmoving face before turning away.